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WILD TURKEY HUNTING TIPS

By Pat Cardin: Outdoors Writer and Turkey hunter.

            At our last wild turkey seminar our local turkey chapter held in early February, for the first time when we asked for a raise of hands on who was a beginner turkey hunter, we got no response.  Now I’m sure that doesn’t mean that every hunter has been educated in turkey hunting, but it does mean that more and more hunters have discovered the challenging and rewarding sport of turkey hunting.

     When I speak at a wild turkey seminar, I get more questions on what to do in certain situations.  Every situation must be addressed at the moment and after over 25 years of turkey hunting, they are still teaching me new ways to make me feel like a beginner at times.

     When I look back on all the mistakes I have made during those 25, I have to laugh at some of the silly mistakes I made during those first 5 years of what I call my “beginner” years.

     There were a few books out and even fewer records or tapes to help me learn what to do to bag that old longbeard.  Most of my education came through trial and error.

     There now are gobs of videos and books, plus seminars like ours to help you, but maybe I might help with some small tip that might make the difference in success or failure.

     What I would like to do now is share with you some of those errors and give you some tips on what could prove to be the deciding point that helps you put your tag on that gobbler this spring.

1.      This is not only the number one tip but also my number 1 rule when turkey hunting.  I know of several gobblers who have met their end because I stuck strictly to this rule and it paid off. 

Some other hunters may not agree with this rule totally and they can probably site instances where they varied from it, which helped them tag their gobbler, but time after time, this rule will pay off if you always remember it.

      My number one rule is never change calling locations once you have established a calling relationship with a gobbler.  This is one of the biggest mistakes a beginner can make.  There are a couple of reasons why I don’t move when I set up and start calling a gobbler. From time to time the gobbler may hang up in a strutting zone.  If he gobbles and has his back to you, his gobble will sound 50 yards farther away.  It could be his strutting zone is at the crest of a ridge and some of his gobbles might be directed out across a valley and not in your direction.  For whatever reason, you believe he is not coming to your call and is now leaving.  The biggest mistake beginners make is not giving the old tom time enough to come in.  They get impatient and try to outflank the tom or move in closer.  This can work, but more often, you wind up spooking the bird.

      Second is, although you are trying to lure in a gobbler 150 to 200 yards in front of you, don’t forget about all those other gobblers who are silent and coming in from your left or right side, or behind you.  If you have a decoy out and don’t limit your movement, hopefully he will eye the decoy and not see you before you see him. Be patient.  Call that gobbler and don’t move from that tree until you are absolutely, positively certain he has left your area.  Then, still survey the area very slowly to make sure one of those other gobblers has not moved in to your side or behind you and is strutting just 25 yards from you.  STAY PUT!

2.      The second rule is not such of a rule as it is a tip.  After just a couple of minutes of talking with a tom, I can pretty much determine if this is going to be a cake walk, if there is such a thing in turkey hunting, or if this tom and I are gonna duel and it is going to take some time and patience to get this one in.

The late Ben Lee made a statement one time and I have never forgot it and I think of it every time I encounter one of these gobblers.  Old Ben said if you ever have a gobbler cut your call, that is, if before you are finished with your series of yelps, he cuts in and gobbles, there is a 90% chance you’re gonna see this gobbler.  He is hot and he will come in.

Ben has been right and the only thing that can go wrong is another hunter, a hen coming on the scene and the other thousand problems you encounter with everyday turkey hunting.  If left alone, just you and him, he’s probably gonna die.

The next gobbler is the one who responses by answering sometimes immediately and other times he hesitates.  This ol’ boy will be a little harder to entice in and is gonna take some time.  Again be patient and follow some of the tips ahead to help entice this bird in.

The final bird is the gobbler that gobbles on the roost, flies down and takes off out the opposite ridge.  He probably has hens with him and your chances of taking him are very poor right now, but later in the morning might be a different story and will also be one of my later tips.

3.      This next tip deals with a scenario and also deals with how the bird responds to your calls.  This is that same bird that cut your call, double and triple gobbled and just gobbled his head off at every call you made.  He was out there about 250 yards and started closing.  You can tell with each gobble, he is getting closer.  Now at 100 yards, you throw a series of yelps at him and no response.  You try a cluck….no response.  He has gobbled at every call up until now.  Here’s your third tip.  Get your gun up and ready to fire.

I hate these guys.  They are coming in the last 100 yards silent.  They could come in out in front of you, which the majority do, but sometimes they may come in to your left or right.  Not often, but sometimes from behind you.  At any rate, have your gun up and when you see movement, check to see if it is your gobbler and wait until he goes behind a tree to make the move to get on him.  Hopefully you have a decoy out and he decides to come within gun range.

4.      This is something that many turkey hunters don’t do or take for granted.  They think that just because they bought a turkey gun and it is a shotgun, that you don’t need to sight it in.  Wrong. 

I have a Winchester shotgun, which was the first 3 inch magnum I owned at the time.  It shot off to the left bad.  The Remington 870 I now use didn’t hit dead center either.  I equipped both guns with rifle sights that can be mounted on the vent-rib and then sighted the gun in.  Both guns are deadly now.

Get some cardboard and pattern your gun.  Make sure the middle of the pattern is exactly where you aimed.  Sight your gun in using regular field loads and don’t beat yourself up with turkey loads until you have successful sited your gun in with the lighter loads.  There is no need to back off forty yards either.  You can back up 15 to 20 yards and tell where your pattern is centering at.

Many hunters are concerned the patterns they get with with their choke, but don’t forget to make sure that pattern is effect by being on target.  Sight that shotgun in just as you would a rifle by using sand bags and rest.  Make sure that if you do miss a gobbler, it wasn’t the fault of the gun.  That is one problem you can eliminate before hitting the woods.

5.      This next tip might not be for everyone and must be carried out with someone you know and trust and work well together as a team.  The reason I make this statement is the safety aspect of this particular tip.

This involves the buddy system hunt.  This is where one hunter moves back 75 to 100 yards from a gobbler or a group of gobblers and starts calling.  His buddy is out in front of him and hoping to take one of the gobblers that hangs up at that magical 100 yard mark.

What makes this tip important on the safety issue is the fact that hopefully both hunters are going to tag their gobbler, if more than one gobbler is being called in. 

This is a must.  The hunter in front must set down and not move from his position.  The caller must go back 75 to 100 yards.  You don’t want the caller to set up first and have the other hunter move up in front and maybe out of view of the caller.

The caller begins his calls and let’s move forward in fast motion.  The shooter up front shoots and knocks down one of two or more gobblers 20 or 30 yards in front of him.  He does not get up and run to the gobbler.

Most of the time, the other gobbler or gobblers will maybe run off 10 to 15 yards, but settle down and even come back to flog the downed gobbler.

The caller continues to call while the hunter in front remains motionless.  After the flogging has ended, the now dominate gobbler or gobblers will continue to move toward the caller, where he has a hen decoy positioned out in front of him to the left or right where his buddy in front is located.

This is where the safety factor exists.  The caller now must shoot a gobbler, but making sure the line of fire is not in line with his partner up front.  Also, the hunter up front stays in front of his tree and doesn’t turn around to watch the action unfold.  He is using his tree as a barrier from any stray shot.

After the caller has shot and cleared the scene, only then can the front shooter emerge from his position.  Remember, the first shot may not have done the job and may require a second or third, so the front hunter must remain in his position until the caller has given him the “all clear” signal.

My hunting partner and I have used this tactic and it has worked well on a couple of occasions, but we know each other, we trust each other and understand the system and the danger involved.  This tactic isn’t for everyone but it is a proven tip that not only the buddy up front can walk out with a gobbler, but also the caller can benefit from the buddy system.

6.      The next tip is for those hunters who have a grudge match going on with one particular gobbler.  You don’t care about any other gobbler but that one that gobbles every morning in the creek bottom.  Each morning, you try different tactics to try and lure him in on calls.  Nothing works.

You must decide whether you want this gobbler at all costs and you don’t care if you call him in or not, you just want to outsmart him.  Some hunters believe that if you don’t call in your gobbler, you ain’t turkey hunting.

I would rather call my gobbler in, but if I’m down to the last days of the season or I have a grudge match going on with one particular tom, I’ll try and use my hunting skills and woodsmanship to help me tag that gobbler.

Mentally keep track of what you did to screw up each day with the gobbler.  Did he not respond to calls, did he fly down off the roost and go out a certain ridge.  After following him, is there a certain area he always went by each day or passed near.  It could be the edge of a field or a certain ridge he walks out on. 

My hunting buddy once encountered one of these birds in Missouri.  He tried everything to out-fox this old tom.  Each afternoon, we would go over the events of the morning and try and decide what to do different the next day.  Finally, it came the last day we had to hunt.  We retraced everything that had happened and also his travel routes throughout the week.  It seems he always, everyday had wound up crossing this one knoll in the woods.

We decided that for the last day, my buddy would not call any, but rather he would go to this knoll and lay in ambush to try and take the gobbler.  The gobbler gobbled and later in the morning showed up at the knoll.  For whatever reason, my buddy missed the gobbler.  For all we know he is still gobbling and coming by that knoll everyday. 

The plan worked, it was just the shot wasn’t what my buddy wanted, but at least before leaving Missouri, he got to throw some lead at the smart old tom.

Retrace everyday that you work a tom.  Go over the mistakes you made and ask yourself what you could have done different.  Try and figure out any topographical feature where the gobbler has ended up going by 75% of the time, if not 100% of the time.  Use your human intelligence to come up with a plan to try and outsmart him.  Good luck.

7.      This tip is for those hours after the first golden hour of daylight when most of the gobbles are heard.  After that first hour, the woods become silent and this is when beginning turkey hunters are lost and sometimes give up and head back to camp or home.  I was guilty of the same thing when I first started.

Stay in the woods until the last minute to hunt.  If your season closes at noon or 1:00 o’clock, hang in there until that time.  I have taken gobblers late in the morning and even up until the last hour.

Here in Kentucky, we have an all day spring season.  I don’t like it, but I am gonna be out there the majority of the day.  I admit, it is very hard to stay out all day and we do take a lunch break now that the season is all-day long.

After that first hour, find a high location to call from.  You might build a small blind and put out some decoys around you.  Set back and relax and call every 15 minutes or so.  You might get a lonesome tom to be in hearing distance of you and answer back.  Some gobblers roam in mid-morning and late afternoon looking for receptive hens.  Some announce their presents by gobbling and others are quite.  Even those that are quite can be aroused to answer  the call of yelps or a cutting call.

Remember earlier we talked about that gobbler that flew down and left out with hens each morning.  He has now breed them or her and they have moved on.  He is now by himself and his batteries are charged back up and he is “looking for love”.

The bottom line is, you can’t kill at home or back at camp.  Take some snacks with you and hang in there.  If you don’t like setting, try walking ridges and prospecting from time to time by calling, hoping a love-sick gobbler will answer in late morning or early afternoon.

8.      This next tip is a safety concern somewhat and I do it, but you must decide if you want to do add buffer to your shotgun shell.  I use Federal shotgun shells #6 loads.  Now I’m not gonna even get into the debate whether #6’s or #4’s are better.  I use #6 but if #4 works for you…great! 

Federal shot shells are not that bad to open up.  Some other brands are sealed in wax and hard to get open.  What I do is open up the shell and add more buffer to the shell.  It already has buffer in it, but I learned from some fellow turkey hunters, who loaded their own loads, that buffer plays an important part in how your pattern holds together.

I have shot Federal as a regular factory load and they do fine in my gun.  I have altered the shell by adding buffer and I can tell a difference in having a tighter pattern. 

I want the most out of my pattern and I have made some shots that I do believe the difference was how well my gun patterned and the extra buffer could have played a role in downing the gobbler.

Again, this is your preference and I’m just passing along a tip I do.

9.      This tip will help you call that gobbler in when he is in the company of hens.  If you know your gobbler has hens with him and the hens are calling, you need to respond to the hens and call back to them using the same calls they are throwing at you or the gobbler.

I am no master caller by any means but I can imitate somewhat the calls of wild turkey.  If a hens calls out a yelp that is nine yelps long, you need to call back at her with the same 9 yelps.  You also can not call to much during these encounters.  Remember, you are not trying to call in the gobbler, but rather the hens.  If the hens come, so will the gobbler.

      This tip has worked well for me and the use of decoy or decoys is important in this situation.  Most of the time the hen or hens will come in and stay fairly close to the decoy.  You must wait until the gobbler, who is most likely the last turkey to come in, comes within gun range.

10.  Last but by far the most important tip is your safety and the safety of other turkey hunters.  This is not so much a tip as it should be a rule.

Never try to sneak up or stalk turkey.  You should always set up and call the turkey to you.  By stalking, you are an accident waiting to happen.  You could sneak up on a turkey hunter and see movement and shoot before properly identifying your target.  The other possibility is you could become the victim.  You have a hunter calling and looking for movement and he sees you before you see him and he fires at random. 

You could cover all this with positively identify your target, but don’t take chances and become a target or create a target.  Set up and call – don’t stalk.

Along the same line, if you do encounter another hunter in the woods, don’t use motion to identify yourself, use your natural voice.  As soon as the hunter hears a human’s voice, he now goes from a tense, ready to shoot at any movement, to trying to see where the hunter is that has just spoke to him.

Give him directions to where you are located.  If he needs to look more to the right, instruct him to look right more and then tell him you are going to wave at him so he can locate you.

The most important thing is not to come out of the woods with a turkey, but rather to come out period.  Your life is and the life of the other hunter is important and takes priority over that of a turkey.

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Last modified: March 02, 2000 

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