Calling turkeys isn't rocket science and some of the best calls I've ever made where suttle and very short. We call it taking the turkeys temperature. There will be times, you make a serious of yelps, not prefessional yelps as every turkey is different just like you and I. He responds to your yelps by gobbling, you can put the call down and they run it. Other times it doesn't matter what you do to call and with what call, they aint coming. Changing tactics and getting in front of them might just prove successful.

One turkey on my wall I never would have killed had I continued to try calling him. He was a smart bird and well, you could say I know how to call. It didn't matter how sweet I called or what call I used, he would respond as he went the other way. It's natures way for the hen to go to the gobbler and he was smart. He said, comon and of course I couldn't. I missed that bird twice by outsmarting him on his own turf. His demise was continuing to do what he did. I finally set up a couple dekes in the corner of a field and listened for him. When he sounded off I tree yelped and put my calls away. I took a nap, he gobbled in the field and woke me. I smiled as he was 100 yards out and he still needed to make his rounds before returning. I sat and listened to him gobble periodically as he made his rounds.

Okie dokie, here he comes, gobbles getting nearer. I continued to nap until I heard him spit and drum. I open my eyes, I see a tail fan coming, he slowly worked to the dekes....BOOM!

I mounted him flying as he flew away from me twice when I missed him, once when he busted me moving and ran and I missed, the other, well my I underestimated his range.

Here he is forever remember for the smart bird he was.



And where he resides:



I know Jeff used this phrase as it pertained to duck hunting when a friend of his said it but it also pertains to turkeys,

You don't need to be a great caller, you just need to be where the turkeys want to go. Find strut zones and the likes, even watching the shows on TV, they set up where the birds want to be, in most cases, a field the frequent every day, a log road which is their strut zone, a oak flat etc...