I was hunting on public land Sat morning, had a gobbler on roost about 150 yds., when he flew down he hooked up with a hen and circled behind me going to the next field over, after working some jakes and hens in my field hoping to drag big gobbler over they went to him, so I snuck up to field checked out the situation and decided to try and get in front of them, i circled about a 1/4 mile thru woods around field and crawled into position 20 ft back in woods only about 80 yds from birds. they were working towards me so I didnt call just waited, had one hen go thru the others were slowly working my way, just a matter of time now, when the jakes were abput 60 yds, all of the sudden one of the jakes gobbled they all stuck their heads up looking to the south and ran off to the north, I'm thinkin. what just happened? then some guy coumes walking down field from the south, no camo on, so I went out to greet him! he said "hows it goin?" I said "not worth a F#@*! you just F@#*^ up my hunt!" he didn't want to stay around and chat guess I didn't give him that warm fuzzy feeling! I still had to get decoys out of another field and wanted to catch up with him to see what he was doing. I did catch up to him later and after convincing him I wasnt going to hit him and he didnt have to call the cops, I found out he was doing a bird survey for the Illinois Historical Society, they do it the same day every year, during turkey season on public land! I htold him what I thought about that and he appoligized over and over..here's some pics I took before the moron came thru and ruined my hunt.

http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g125/huntrz_2006/5-5-072.jpg

http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g125/huntrz_2006/5-5-071.jpg

Sunday, the gobbler sounded off one time in the woods after flydown and disappeared!!! always next year, I wonder if that guy will be back next year?

man that sucks. well at least you got to see the birds. we've hunted 2nd season and now 5th, nothing. Sat and Sun had one lock up across the property line and today we set up on one 70 yards away, he flew down at us. two hens came about ten yard, some what thick stuff, they almost got shot. one hen went in the field behind us and the tom and the other hen went away from us and did that disappearing act. two more day until the fat lady sings and im hunting both of them.

I can't believe these birds are henned-up so bad this late! Sunday morning I had a big tom out in a field on a private farm in full strut but he had 2 hens with him. I couldn't get them to work my way for nothing. I decided to be be patient and stayed put with my decoys hoping he'd lose his hens by late morning. Finally, around 10:00 I decided to move. Caught up with the gobbler out in another field and he was still with hens out in the middle of a field. Played with them until quitting time. They never would leave that field and there was no sneaking on them w/o bumping them. Went back yesterday and it was like there was never a bird on that farm...NOTHING! It was nice to see that bird though. He was so pretty. Frustrating that I didn't get him.

Huntrz- I shared your frustration a couple years ago on public land in KY. The same exact thing happened to myself and a buddy of mine. We had 3 lonesome midday toms, running together in a field and working our way...we thought sure we were gonna get a double. Then this friggin' bafoon in no camouflage (a bird watcher/photographer) walks out into the field and bumps the gobblers. We let him know that he mucked us up but he stressed that he was on public land and had just as much right to be there as we did. That's the breaks of hunting public land.

Joe H.

Everybody's tax dollars at work. He does have the right to be there, and I don't want to be the guy to take it away. We have enough to deal with with antis. I'd rather meet a bird watcher who's interested in being out there, than someone intentionally trying to screw up a hunt.

That "moron" looking for birds might be the guy at the local tavern later telling you right where he saw a bunch of turkeys the previous day.

I can't deride a guy for wanting to be in the woods. Sorta like a kid that wants to skip rocks in the pond you wanna fish. Sometimes skippin rocks is just as fun.

Bob I have to agree the key words in huntrz 's story is PUBLIC LAND .

Heck even on private. If a farmer lets you hunt his property, you set up, and he decides to plant that morning, is he a moron?

Turkey season is better than deer season by far on public land and who else is out there. Squirrel hunters, quail hunters, rabbit, duck, goose... all those guys are out during the whole archery season. I've felt the frustration too, but hey, thems the breaks.

Only way around this dilemma is own your own hunk of land.

Man, I need to win the lottery. LOL

having your own land isnt that great sometimes. we own a pretty good chunk of land on the little mud creek outside St. Libory and my uncle owns some right next to us. now he doesnt know that much abot turkey hunting and 4 different times this year i would be set up on a group of 4 gobblers and while calling them to me he would fallow behind them and set up too close and i think they would shut up and just move on. tough luck i guess you call it

Sorry about hearing that your hunt was messed up.
Here is what I would do to stop this from happening to you or another turkey hunter again.
1 contact the Illinois Historical Society. Ask them very nicely if they would push this back a week or 2 to make sure all turkey hunting seasons are over state wide. This is for safety reasons also.
2 If they are not willing to change the date, then ask then to not start till after 1:00pm.
3 Ask your DNR people in charge of your area to set a policy of not letting then in there till after 1:00, like they do for mushroom hunters.
This is for safety reasons too.
4 If you are a NWTF member, ask your regional director to talk to the Illinois Historical Society. See if they may have better luck talking them into changing thing to keep the two sides from interfering with each other.
If not, they may want to talk to the DNR about changes.
5 If you are not a NWTF member, JOIN !!!
That is what groups like them are there for. :)

I am sure your are not the first turkey hunter to get messed up by this activity & you will not be the last, if some chages are not made.

Good luck

NOW there's a good solution! I agree with the others that, yes this is a public use area, but it is dangerous to be wondering around during peak hours of turkey season on PUBLIC LAND. if the same thing happened to you, would you be upset? especially knowing, you just snuck into position without the turkey knowing that you were even close to them and that they would likely pass within shooting range of your position within the next 10 minutes.
I think I handled the situation appropriately, was I pissed? YEP! I didn't pussyfoot around how I felt with this guy, hopefully my interaction with this MORON will make him think twice or at least check the hunting season dates and times before going out on public land and possibly messing up one of your hunts in the future. I do have plans to contact the Illinois Historical Society, and I'm sure he passed along his side of the story.
Am I a NWTF member, (I'm an idiot for swearing)(I'm an idiot for swearing)(I'm an idiot for swearing)(I'm an idiot for swearing) RIGHT! I have been a committee member since 1998, which by the way is the year I killed my first turkey with a gun I won at my first NWTF Banquet, although I have had to back off a bit in the last 1 1/2 years due to my job commitments. I do own my own ground, but am always looking for more opportunities, and this is not the first time I've had a hunt messed up by someone on public ground, mostly by inexperienced hunters learning the lessons to be learned by trial and error, did I ever confront them? No, I'm sure I've messed up others hunts that I didn't realize at the time. Would I knowingly wonder around during hunting hours in a public use area after seeing three trucks parked in a hunting parking area? NO WAY!
I'm not that disappointed, I have had a few good hunts this year, just knowing that I did sneak into position without them knowing is half the fun, it's not always the kill but the hunt that makes it interesting. I could go on & on about this... but kinda tired.