Thinking On Your Feet For Turkeys

Forget The Rules

Thinking On Your Feet For Turkeys

By Freddie McKnight

Listen for a bird to sound off on roost, then move to about 100 yards from him to set up and call the gobbler to you.

The golden rule of turkey hunting sounds good on paper, but hunt spring gobblers for very long and you will find that it works less with each passing spring.

As turkey hunting continues to grow in popularity, and as more and more hunters are pressed to hunt on smaller chunks of land, the birds quickly become wise to all of the calling and traffic coming through their woods.

It is time for a different approach.

I guess you could call this the “What Do You Do” segment as well. Running into more situations than space permits me to write about here, I will try to offer some suggestions about the most common occurrences that happen to the spring gobbler hunter.

These are not set in stone, just examples I will give you so you may learn and apply them to your hunts. Add your own twists to them, but keep them safe and ethical.

BRING THE HEN TO HIM

How many times have you had a gobbler just absolutely pound out the music of spring, only to catch a case of laryngitis once he hits the ground?

He may answer every note you speak to him, but once those wing sounds reach your ears you either never hear from him again or the next time you do he’s half a mile away from where he started the day.

Having dealt with this situation on numerous occasions, by having the same old gobbler do this same thing two or three mornings in a row, I came up with a simple solution by accident.

One morning, with the cover of rain and fog, I accidentally set up on a bird I could have shot off the roost if I had so chosen. Being so close when he first gobbled I am surprised he did not flush when I jumped at his first sound off of the new day.

Having already placed my decoy out, and having a piece of fishing line attached to it to add movement, I quickly laid out a plan to put my tag on the bird.

Sitting stock still until I sensed the bird was about ready to fly down I gave one soft cluck to gain his attention. Once I saw he was focused in the direction of the call I simply gave a little life to the decoy with a pull of the string.

The bird pitched down within yards of the fake and went into full strut. When he turned his fan and hid his head, the gun came up. The hunt was over in a matter of minutes due to the fact that I had done one thing different than most hunters. I had mimicked nature by bringing the hen to the gobbler.

I have since used this same method, successfully with gun and bow, on other stubborn birds. Using cover and as stealthy approach as terrain will allow, I often make this setup an hour or more before the first hint of light.

As long as noise is kept to a minimum the turkey will not bust off of the roost. It is a productive method when all else fails.

BREAKING UP

ISN’T HARD TO DO

Just getting as close to a gobbler as you can is often the key between a successful hunt and an unfilled tag. The less distance a bird has to travel the higher a chance you are going to get a shot.

With today’s’ shotgun, choke, and shell combinations being deadly to 40 yards or so, I would much rather be 50 yards away from a bird than a hundred when setting up. The reasons are obvious.

Last season’s Pennsylvania hunt was just such an example. It was late in the morning when the bird started sounding off on his own. A couple of setups produced nothing but an occasional response. Knowing the lay of the land well, I eased off the top of the mountain and used a deer trail to go out the steep side towards the bird.

He was just over the lip of a finger ridge, strutting on a flat that is a traditional area for the gobblers to hang out in the spring.

When I turned uphill for the top, I knew the gobbler would be almost on top of me on this setup. I had but a half-hour of legal shooting time left, so I had nothing to lose.

When I was walking the last few feet to a tree I picked to sit against the bird double gobbled just over the lip. Apparently the bird thought I was the hen that had been calling to him.

With just a couple of soft yelps, the gobbler came strutting up the hill just 15 yards away. For nearly two hours I had fooled with him, but it was the closing in part that finally allowed for the shot.

Dealing with a gobbler that has a harem is about the worst situation you can run into. Sure you can mimic the lead hen, but that only works a fraction of the time. Running into this situation more and more each year, I just act like it is fall and bust them up.

WHERE’S MY GIRLS?

Think about it, you are a gobbler with a group of girlfriends that are suddenly parted from you. Aren’t you going to be kind of anxious to get them back?

When employing this method, it often takes a few hours afterwards for the action to start to happen, but eventually it will pay off. Not only do you have a shot at taking the boss bird by calling him back, but without him gobbling, there is also the chance that a nearby subordinate gobbler will come to your calls

If you can get one of the hens fired up you have a live decoy that can pull the bird back to the area as well. It may take a couple of different setups to get in the right spot, but when nothing else is doing you need to take some extreme measures such as this.

A simple, yet often overlooked approach to the spring turkey woods is doing what others are not. This does not take much in the way of reasoning, yet few hunters even give this consideration.

MAKIN’ THE RIGHT MOVES

If you hunt a parcel of ground repeatedly, along with others, you know the approach routes, the paths most will travel, and from which direction the hunters will attempt to call the birds. It’s easy, once they hear a bird, they are going to attempt to call him towards where they came in at. They are not going to circle behind.

It does not take long for the gobblers to realize that all of this turkey chat coming from the same area means trouble. Being spooked once or twice, they will often answer your calls but not move a foot in your direction. It is time for you to make the move.

Look over the terrain and pick an approach which will bring you as close to the bird as possible. Look for the area that most likely has received the least amount of pressure.

When you get to within 50 or 60 yards of where you want to set up on the bird stop and call to see if he will respond. If he does sound off, note the position and head off towards him slowly.

Call occasionally to see if he will continue to answer. Once you have gotten to the spot to set up, use your best judgement as to how much to call to the bird. If he is responsive, often you will need to do little in the way of enticing him. Just your movement will have been enough to convince him to come on in.

These are but a few of the situations I have faced over the years, and I am sure many of you have been in the same predicament. The tactics here have aided me in tagging birds for friends, clients, and myself when all else has failed.

The best advice one can take to the woods in the spring is to have an open mind. Quickly analyze the situation to take advantage of what the turkey has in mind to do, not what you want him to do. Get away from the diehard rules of gobbler hunting and think on your feet.