HOW TO HUNT PUBLIC-LAND GOBBLERS

Defensive Hunting

EDITOR'S NOTE: Paul Butski of Niagara Falls, New York, hunts public lands in the North in his home state of New York and guides on private lands in the South during the early part of turkey season. According to Butski, public-land hunting for turkeys is altogether different from private-land hunting. This week he will tell us the differences between the two and the skills needed to bag that prize tom on your public land.

Another difference in hunting public lands as opposed to hunting private lands is you have to hunt much more defensively on public lands.

"I won't compete with another hunter for a turkey," Butski says. "But this mistake often is a common one public-land hunters make. No turkey is worth risking the likelihood of my getting shot. If I see another hunter's vehicle or hear another hunter calling to the turkey I'm trying to take, I'll back out of the area and let the other hunter work that bird."

Usually on private lands, you seldom will compete with another hunter. On private lands, often a hunter will move in close to a gobbling turkey that may be just on the other side of a ridge or thick cover. Butski emphasizes that, "On public lands, you never try and sneak up on a turkey. I never get closer than 100 yards on a gobbling turkey on public lands. Accidents can happen on public lands when a turkey stands 100 yards or more away from a hunter and refuses to come to his calling. Then the sportsman may say to himself, 'I'm going to sneak in as close as I can to that gobbler and take a shot.' On public lands, often someone else may be working the same bird you are, which is why the turkey's not coming to you. If you sneak in on that gobbler, that turkey stops gobbling, the other hunter hears you walking or crawling in the leaves and sees what he believes to be a turkey, then you may become involved in a hunting accident."

The reverse scenario also can happen to you. If you have a turkey gobbling to you, the bird quits gobbling, and then you hear footsteps in the leaves that sound like a turkey, you must assume those footsteps are being made by another hunter and not a turkey moving toward you. Not until you can identify clearly the head and the beard of a turkey should you prepare for the shot. The safest way to hunt public lands during turkey is to think everything you hear and see is another hunter until you are proven wrong. Once you spot another hunter, give up the hunt.

TOMORROW: CALL TO TURKEYS, NOT ANOTHER HUNTER