Thought this was interesting about baiting

[Hammer]

here's an excerpt of an article about Texas turkey hunting from this link http://gameandfish.about.com/library/weekly/aa115201a.htm Note this is from the part 2 link.

I was hunting over a feeder one fall when the timer went off, and in just seconds it became a crowd-control problem. Four adult hogs showed up trailed by some 20 small pigs, doves came in, and two turkey hens were close by; in the brush were a couple of does. I can't remember what I was hoping to shoot that day, but with all the snorting and squealing going on, I just watched the action. I changed to another stand the next day.

If you're hunting over a feeder and turkeys move in, be patient and pick your shot; you want to make your first one count. Don't force things. If you can't get a good, clean shot, let the birds go. If undisturbed, they'll probably come back later in the day, or maybe the next day. You'll get another chance.... Find out where they roost at night, find out in which direction they usually head out in the morning to start feeding. (Make sure you're a good distance from the roost. Remember: It's illegal to hunt a roost. Even worse - because this affects other hunters, too - you could mess up the site's gobbler hunting for years.) Birds start coming off their roost and are on their way before the sun clears the horizon. So you need to be in place, hidden and ready for action before the sun peeks above the horizon. Do it right, and your Thanksgiving dinner will feature your own wild turkey.



I guess this means it's legal to hunt turkeys over bait in Texas??

[schuyler olt]

Hammer,
Baiting in Texas is legal spring and fall. Tim Herald and I had the turkey trip from hell in Texas several years ago with a guy that absolutely insisted you hunt right at his feeders in these crappy blinds made with two sheets of plywood. Needless to say, we ignored him. The first morning he put me on a feeder that didn't have a roost tree within miles, and I do mean miles. That night I had to call my wife on my cellphone to call him and tell him to pick me up (I didn't have his number). He did the same thing the next night to another guy in our party. To top it all off, that morning he drove in to pick me up for lunch. As I hear him drive up, I've got a gobbler about 75 yards out, coming in in full strut, gobbling his head off. The guy stops his truck in full view of the bird and me, and gets out! After watching the magnificent flight of that gobbler, he complimented my calling and was amazed how I had the bird "on a string." If that wasn't bad enough, he remarked how he'd be sure to remember that for the next party that was coming in after we left! Ahhh Texas!

[raktrakr]

what a bunch of morons.needless to say you guys wont be back

raktrakr
>>----->

[.300Savage]

That guy has obvoisly never done any "real" turkey hunting. I can't stand people who just thing because they are wearing a camo hat with their shorts and t-shirt, while they sit behind the plywood waiting for a bird to wallk up to the feeder, that they are hunters. They are just shooters to me.


Rocco

[schuyler olt]

Yeah, we won't be back. We had even checked the guy out thoroughly be for we booked the hunt. Once we got back, we went to great lengths to blackball him, including getting his paid ad pulled from NWTF publications. Tim has a chapter in his book about it. The good news was that we had a bunch of great guys on the trip, so we had fun in spite of the guy. You can imagine the first morning--dropped off in the dark in the middle of nowhere, and as it gets light, you see this feeder in front of you. As it gets lighter, you realize that the only "trees" in sight from horizon to horizon are mesquite trees. Of course, they had not told us where property lines were, not that I was too deterred to move off. I was darned glad I'd brought my GPS so I could find my way back to the feeder to be picked up for lunch!
I don't see the attraction of hunting around feeders. The whole point and fun of turkey hunting is locating the birds and calling them up, and then let them teach you a lesson[:I]Feeders take all of that out of play. That bird I had coming in, I intercepted him on his way to the feeder and got him fired up. Lord only knows how far he'd walked that morning! By the time I could sneak around and get between him and the feeder, I was probably back within one hundred yards of the d@#$ thing. Some tactics!

[Ky Headhunter]

Have read some horror stories about outfitters, but that one might take the cake! Honorable mention at least.