The HuntingPA.com Outdoor Community banner

Stop and Call

6K views 74 replies 28 participants last post by  frank1969 
#1 ·
Although this is not my preferred method of locating birds, I know it is the practice of many to drive mountain/secondary roads and stop periodically to call and listen for a gobbler to answer, a run and gun technique. I learned over the weekend that the PA Game Commission is looking to make this illegal, and was told it was posted online. I cannot find anything on the web to support this. Has anyone else read anything on the topic, and maybe could share a link?
 
#7 ·
Absurd proposal. Turkeys hear turkeys talking 365 days a year.

Doublegobble is correct - if you are not far enough from the vehicle, a warden could consider this particular practice of run/gun in fact hunting from the vehicle. So, looks like we already have a rule in place. Why are we wasting more limited PGC funds for additional non-nonsensical regulations?? Is Harrisburg bored?
 
#11 ·
I have news for you. It is already and has been for a long, long time illegal to ride around, stopping along the road and calling in an attempt to locate a turkey if you are hunt. You are absolutely using a motor vehicle to hunt, which is unlawful, when you do that.

You are correct though that it is hard to enforce and that is why most people tend to get away with doing it. Just because it is hard to enforce doesn’t make it a legal way to hunt though.

But hard to prove or not, I did successfully arrest and prosecute a few hunters for doing it when I was in a position to prove that was how they were hunting.

Dick Bodenhorn
 
#14 ·
I have news for you. It is already and has been for a long, long time illegal to ride around, stopping along the road and calling in an attempt to locate a turkey if you are hunt. You are absolutely using a motor vehicle to hunt, which is unlawful, when you do that.

You are correct though that it is hard to enforce and that is why most people tend to get away with doing it. Just because it is hard to enforce doesn?t make it a legal way to hunt though.

But hard to prove or not, I did successfully arrest and prosecute a few hunters for doing it when I was in a position to prove that was how they were hunting.

Dick Bodenhorn
Is it illegal to use a mountain bicycle to access gated forest roads and run and gun?
 
#15 ·
This was a proposal from a Rep. from Schuylkill County. It was widely slammed on this forum.


Honest question......if I stop and walk away from my vehicle the proper distance, is it still a violation?


At what point are you no longer using your vehicle to hunt, (because it is a long walk to the GL I hunt, and technically I start using my vehicle to hunt when I leave my driveway).
 
#20 ·
Honest question......if I stop and walk away from my vehicle the proper distance, is it still a violation?


At what point are you no longer using your vehicle to hunt, (because it is a long walk to the GL I hunt, and technically I start using my vehicle to hunt when I leave my driveway).
If you are driving from spot to stop, calling then getting back in your vehicle to drive to the next spot and keep doing that until you hear a gobbler then hunt that gobbler you are using a motor vehicle to locate game and/or hunt. It doesn’t matter if you go 25 yards off of the road before you call of not. The fact is, when you plan to get back in your car and drive to the next spot if nothing gobbles that makes it using a motor vehicle to hunt.

The correct and legal way to hunt is to figure out where you are going to hunt. Drive there, park your vehicle, get out and go hunting.

The “twenty-five yards off of the roadway to shoot” is intended for the situation where you are driving to or from hunting, sight legal game while in route, in that case once you have parked and gone twenty-five yards off of the road you are legal to shoot that game you saw while on the road.

Dick Bodenhorn
 
#17 ·
I would not be too quick to condemn the game commission for petty things. I have been hunting Spring Gobbler since I moved to PA in 1972. In those days if I heard a Gobble in two mornings of hunting it was something to celebrate. There were no turkeys of any numbers in my section of S/W PA to my knowledge. To locate places to hunt I purchased a Game Commission Map and selected about 10 different game lands listed to have populations of turkeys. Then I would write to each of the Conservation officers in each of the "Turkey Areas" and to the PA turkey biologist. I would send each a list of questions which I thought might help me get into an area where I might have a chance to hear a gobbler. I left spaces after each question so they could write in an answer. Almost all of them were very helpful. I did this every February for several years. Unfortunately most of the locations were 100+ miles from my home and we did not have the road system we have today to access these areas in a timely matter. So often I would leave home at 2:30 AM to drive to a hopeful turkey location often new areas to me.

Thankfully through the direction of the PA Game Commission, the efforts of NWTF, concerned hunters and many others. Now I only have to go out the back door if I choose to hear several gobblers a morning. For this I am very thankful and I am more than willing to follow any laws they may pass to protect the resources, safety and to support what hunting is about "Fair Chase."
 
#22 ·
For about 8 years I hunted MO State and for six of those years I used a mountain bike. For starters it was about 2 miles to the woods from our camp. I first started with just a bare bike; however, I found I had to do some rigging to handle shotgun, gear, decoys and a gobbler. Worked great on the old log roads. I carried a lockable cable to secure my ride when I set up and went off on a hike. One trip I returned to get my wheels only to find it was surrounded by turkeys.....I guess they had never seen a bike before.
 
#27 ·
Thank you.


Last one, I promise.


Someone on here said they just stand and listen.


Is driving from spot to spot to decide where to hunt still a problem if you don't call?


And to clarify, I am not asking because this is the way I hunt. I just doesn't makes sense to me that if I SEE a gobbler out in a field, I can park, run out and hunt, but I cannot blindly call from a parking area and then hunt.


Also, I am not trying to give anyone a hard time, but the rules are, in my mind at least, vague at best......only seeking clarification. Thanks!
 
#30 ·
Actually anytime you are, using a motor vehicle, driving from spot to spot with the intended purpose of locating game you are violating the law even if you don’t call at the stops. It is the use of the motor vehicle from stop to spot that makes it illegal not the calling.

Dick Bodenhorn
 
#29 ·
Simple solution.

Get out of your vehicle and walk 25 yards before you call. It's usually easier to hear when you are not near your truck anyway because your hot vehicle is always making noise even when you turn the ignition off.
I will stop and call occasionally to get a location on birds, but I certainly don't put total faith in it.

I've had birds gobbling a few times, only to have a truck stop on the road and call. The birds would go silent until about 5 minutes after the truck pulled away.......and then continue gobbling.

One of the killingest turkey hunters I know hunts nearly exclusively by the Stop and Call mentality. I hunted with him one morning as we went "on tour" checking out local flocks by calling from the road. We drove around listening to birds gobble all over the place until he found one that was in just the right spot and "wanted to die."
He killed that bird within minutes of setting up.

That's not my preferred style. I have areas that are guaranteed to hold birds, so I just park the truck and get in the woods. Those tight lipped birds tend to have bigger hooks anyways.

I've got a lot more respect for the Stop and Call hunters than the visual road hunters any day.

I can't hardly believe it's illegal to call from the road, hear a bird in the distance, (move at least 25 yards from your truck), and set up to hunt him.................But, it's perfectly legal to drive around until you spot a gobbler, hop out of your truck, (move at least 25 yards from your truck), and set up to hunt him.
That is completely unreasonable. I would believe any articulate individual would be able to get themselves out of a fine in front of a judge.
If the intent of the law is to discourage use of a motor vehicle to pursue game, I think prosecuting for Stop and Call is really a stretch.

As far as I'm concerned, when you stop and get out you are at your hunting destination and the "pursuit" with a vehicle no longer exists. How long you stay at that particular spot depends on if you determine there is huntable game in the area. Stop the vehicle, get out and let things settle down for 5 minutes, and call to get a response.
There is no law saying you can't call from the road. Walk 25 yards from the truck if it makes you feel better.
 
#31 ·
That method of driving spot to spot you and your friend use is very much an illegal method of using a motor vehicle even if you do go 25 yards off the road to call.

It is hard to get the required amount of evidence for the WCO to prove but believe me when I tell you it can be done. I have arrested and successfully prosecute people for doing what you are doing. Driving from field to field looking for groundhogs used to a very common way for people to hunt groundhogs too. We used to arrest people for doing that and have some very good case law to upholds those convictions when the Officer could establish that the hunter was driving from stop to spot in an attempt to locate then attempt to kill the game they located.

Hunting turkeys by driving stop to stop until they locate one is the exact something but with a different wildlife species.

Dick Bodenhorn
 
#39 ·
So does this boil down to intent and using a motorized vehicle? If you are driving with the intent of locating game, that's against the law. But if you are driving and coincidentally see an animal, get out, walk 25 yards away from truck, load the gun and proceed to hunt, that's legal. Assuming I understand that right, I can see how tough it would be to prove intent and prosecute.
 
#40 ·
That is exactly correct.

It is hard to build a case on it but it certainly can be done. I had people that I knew where doing the ride and call technique until they located a gobbler they wanted to work. With a little thinking and work I was successful at charging and successfully prosecuting a few of them. It isn’t too hard if you know what routes they are likely to take, have a couple different officers staged at strategic locations with coordinated watches to record times. I even used mountain bikes to follow on the back roads behind them a few times so I could testify to not only their habitat but also when and where they were stopping to call. There are a number of other methods but I don’t want to give away too many trade secrets.

Actually I kind of miss those days of figuring out ways to outfox those who didn’t think they could be outfoxed.

Dick Bodenhorn
 
#42 ·
According to this thread, you can drive around all day long looking for turkeys out your truck window and legally hunt them immediately after spotting them.

However, if you drive to more than one location to listen for a gobbler......you are an outlaw.

So I believe I'm interpreting this thread correctly by saying that it would be perfectly legal for you to drive to "farmer Joe's" and glass the fields at multiple vantage points from the comfort of you truck seat........but the minute that you hear a turkey gobble you must fasten your seat belt and head for home because you are on the verge of breaking the law.

Maybe keep the radio turned up or wear ear plugs just to be on the safe side.

Or is the very elementary essence of the law that you cannot use your vehicle to help you locate game?
If this is true, we are all outlaws from the time we leave the driveway in the morning. If that is too far of a stretch, then certainly it's illegal to drive to plan B after an early morning strikeout, right?
Ok, ok.....maybe you are allowed one mulligan, but you are certainly an outlaw if you drive to three locations in one day.........right???
 
#45 ·
Driving around looking for game to harvest is just as illegal as driving spot to spot listening for or calling to game when you have no intention of hunting until you see or hear what you want to harvest. It is still using a motor vehicle to hunt whether you are driving spot to spot to look or to listen.

But, as I already pointed out you can hunt more than one place in day or more than a dozen places in a day for that matter as long as you are not just driving spot to spot to look or listen and then deciding to only hunt the place if you see or hear game. It isn’t changing places that is illegal. It is the changing places just to see if you see or hear game and then hunting that game that makes the act illegal.

There is case law to establish that as the way the court interprets the las as well.

Dick Bodenhorn
 
You have insufficient privileges to reply here.
Top