Hunters Ed

[mushmouth]

Just finished sitting through 12 hours of classes, but now I can get my license to hunt these guys next month

[L8APX]

what state? Gobblers are great.

[lemon boy]

ha!

Nice.

Be super, super super consientious about other hunters in the turkey woods. There are few things quite as sketch as realizing there are 2 other parties within 75yds of you on a setup.

Went yesterday, got busted oh well. That quite literally is the way it goes. and what state opens next month?

[Grange]

I still remember my first hunter's safety class. Our teacher tried to start class the usual way by calling for our attention. When that didn't work he took a shotgun (filled with a blank) and rammed the butt into the floor the gun went off and needless to say every kid in the room sat quietly facing the teacher until the break.

His reasoning for this was to show us that just because the gun has the safety engaged doesn't mean it can't still fire. Good lesson considering I still clearly remember the message to this day.

[lemon boy]

mine had a whole collection of firearms in various stages of "exploded" to show off and frequently mentioned the "rapid migration of miscellaneous parts"

[mushmouth]

Going up to Rhode Island, not this coming weekend, the next one. Definately will be extra careful.
Class was actually fun, but some people are just insanely stupid...

Teacher: So, what's the difference between a rifle and a shot gun?
Class:
Teacher: Ok...a rifle has rifling in it's bore, and a shot gun barrel is smooth with several option of choke up to the muzzel. Rifling is when (and he goes on for about 5 min on rifling, including passing out a cross section of a rifle barrel)
Class:
Teacher: So...anyone have any questions?
Idiot behind me: yeah...what's rifling?

After the test on the last day the teacher asked us to answer some questions on a sheet about what we thought of the class...anything good, bad, etc. and said he would even look at them until we're gone.
So in the section where it asks what was bad about the class I wrote, "Too many little kids asking random idiotic questions about things not even remotely related to the subject at hand" (this is verbatim). These questions would usually begin with, "My Dad has a gun that..." or "I have a friend who..."
Since I turned in my exam pretty quickly, I was noticably the first to turn in there comment sheet. Then when everyone was waiting for the grades, he picked up the comment sheets and looks at the bottom one (mine) and laughs out loud, then reads to the class what "one person wrote about what was bad about the class".

[lemon boy]

Hunter's ed is literally designed so that 9 year olds can pass the class.

The frightening thing about it is the level of difficulty in mastering the subject matter that many adult participants have.

My personal favorite was the guy who spent 20 mins (before class) trying to convince the guy next to him that the 2nd Amendment was ordained by god and that the supreme court was carrying out the devil's agenda and and you're about to qualify to go out into the woods with a high powered rifle? great.

[mushmouth]

So I was looking at random websites for turkey hunting clothing and I think I found out how "The Fridge" has been paying the bills...

[lemon boy]

I think that dude would be better off wearing some kind of camo designed to look like a giant fucking rock.

mush do you have an idea of what you need and how to do it? I can give you a bit of beta from a fellow relative newbie (3rd season turkey hunting).

[mushmouth]

luckily I'm going with a friend who's pretty experienced. he's able to do the calls and has a box call and has used it quite a bit. i'm sure we'll go through a strategy before we head out.
I am curious what kind of clothing I should be wearing. I've been told that they've got good eye sight and I should be wearing full camo, but I'd also like some balze orange for the walk in and out.
Can you recommend any good clothing websites? I've been on Cabela's for the last hour spacing out.
Ever feel yoiu missed out on some birds because you weren't totally covered up?

[lemon boy]

yeah you do want to be as camo'd as possible but I think you can also cheat in some areas/not get too psycho. I use a mishmash of all kinds of stuff including random no-name longie top my waterfowling coat (adv. wetlands) a vest with some adv. woodlands pattern same for a boonie cap and elmer fudd hats. If it is raining I even wear my no-camo oilskin hat (tan)

The most important thing IMO is to get the bulk of your body covered and your face. I don't have camo pants and feel okay about that b/c I wear either olive drab wools or some brown/brown upland pants or some tan oilskins. I also have a small groundblind that I put out if the cover is sparse it isn't perfect but it at least screens me from getting siloetted.

I don't feel like I've ever been busted for not wearing enough or good camo but I know for a fact I've been busted for moving. Repeatedly. The better/more camo simply eases up the not moving pressure a tiny bit.

NO WHITE
NO RED
NO BLUE
ANYWHERE (these are the colors of a turk's head and dumbass mofos will shoot your shit)

Lots of newer vests have some kind of blaze component that you can deploy. Mine has two big flags that button to the front & back. Some just have a streamer you unfurl. blaze only get's deployed by me while traveling through high traffic areas or with a turkey otherwise I want to just be able to melt away.

A vest is a great thing to have. Get the fattest cushion you can, even then your ass will go to sleep. If I were doing it all over again I might try to get one of the super deluxe ones with stadium seat's built in but they're spendy.

Pretty well can't go wrong with cabelas.

It is muey importante to get a good choke tube (if you're just gonna shoot lead then most any super-full or whatever will work, if HS then you might consider something made for it) and pattern your gun and loads. When you do pattern work 1st see what your point of aim is like using some low brass cheapies that won't kick too bad and then throw some 10,20,30,40yd patterns with your intended load to see if you're getting on target kill shots every time at those distances. Wear a good pad on your shoulder too, even 3" turkey loads are filling rattlers and developing a flinch won't do you any good. 5's are a nice compromise between pellets and downrange energy retention. Ever different load/pellet combo will pattern differently in your gun. I know some guys who're happy getting a good 10+ pellet avg (on a turkey head target) at 40yds (me) and some guys who are still holding together mortars at 40 yds with like 40+ pellets.

I would say camo stuff you need
hat
facemask
vest
bottom layer
outer layer
neutral pants or camo pants

you can fill in and fudge those but that'd do good. Gloves eh, I usually wear leather ones.

[Grange]

Turkeys have excellent eyesight, but their sense of smell is not very good. So you don't go wacko about eliminating your sent like us bowhunters. I have also read some good info. about using decoys.

[mushmouth]

good stuff, thanks. I'll make sure to give some details afterwords...

[ak_powder_monkey]

I'm getting my course done sunday I'll be able to shoot deer next year

[schuss]

I really should take up turkey hunting. Especially considering we have a flock of turkeys that's always blocking my goddamn driveway. I passed hunter safety when I was 13, and I agree about the whole "tons of idjits" thing. Thankfully our teacher was no BS.

[Stu Gotz]

Turkeys have excellent eyesight, but their sense of smell is not very good. So you don't go wacko about eliminating your sent like us bowhunters. I have also read some good info. about using decoys.

Just use one of these suckers. Nothing like dropping lead on a turkey from 3000 yards out. "Eat lead you little f'in gobbler!"

http://www.biggerhammer.net/barrett/barrett_m95.mov

[assgasorgrass]

"I have also read some good info. about using decoys."

Deeks are important. Last Sat. my buddy and set up in an unlikely spot. Put out a Jake decoy and a hen, about ten yards apart, the jake further up hill. first light comes around and here come four toms in single file about 60 yards away angling across from us. Sitting perfectly still I scratch out some very soft purrs on the slate. The are 3 smaller toms, 5 inch or so beards, and one good size Tom whose beard is noticebly larger. they hear the call and see our decoys. All four toms come in fast right to the jake decoy and proceed to beat the living shit out the the jake decoy. One of the smaller toms sees the hen decoy and starts moving towards it, my buddy shoots and rolls the smaller tom, the other toms take off, buddy shoots again, hits the tom again, tom still flapping around, I am like jesus dude what is up? Buddy goes over and finishes him off. Smaller tom done. Jake decoy thrashed, non-usable. Real moral of the story, don't shoot modified with goose loads when turkey hunting.