Good advise from Brian on NAHC;
You know, every year about this time, I start getting my magazines in and on the cover of EVERY one of them is the attention grabber about one of "The Experts" giving advice on what you HAVE to HAVE to get a turkey in your sites. I look in the article and sure enough they ALL say the same basic thing. YOu HAVE to "GO HERE" with "THIS OUTFITTER", use "THIS GUN, THIS SHELL, THIS DECOY, CAMO, BLIND, CALL, BOOT, KNIFE, TRUCK, ATV, FISHING POLE, BAIT, HOOK...wait, I got carried away BUT you get the idea. Well, here it is, plain and simple. The ONLY things you need to successfully hunt turkeys is a reliable shotgun and shell combination, a dry pair of socks (I hate wet feet), and of course TURKEYS.
Turkey populations are at an ALL TIME high. There are more turkeys in the woods today than there was in the times of the first Thanksgiving. Chances for the "Average Joe" to score are HAVE to be in the right place at the right time. Doesn't matter what you carry with you, how tyou set up, or what you do. IF there are not turkeys in the area then of course your chances for success will suffer. Here's the first free tip for you beginners and a reminder for you "OLD TIMERS"....Deer and Turkey like to call the same areas home. They eat the same types of nuts, berries and other stuff. Turkeys also like to add worms, bugs and even mice to the mix. Just like deer they can be patterned too. They will, until disturbed, follow the same route day to day from roost (bed) to food to water and back to bed. Once disturbed though, they will change that routine in a minute. BUT, there is a bright spot in this too. Turkeys will NOT go nocturnal, unlike deer. They are a dayshift only kinda critter. SO, the trick is to figure out their routine and set up along that route.
Just like a buck in rut, a Tom will through caution to the wind and forget everyuthing except catching a hen when breeding season approaches. THIS is when he becomes "callable". Keep in mind though, he KNOWS his area, he KNOWS where the hens are and he will go to those places. usually by the most direct route he can think of in that pea sized brain of his. The MOST DIRECT route is NOT what YOU think is the most direct route. OK, this is where you GOTTA start being a "bird brain". Have you evr sent a 16 or 17 year old to the QwikyMart a mile up the road to get a gallon of milk? He heads out in the car or truck at 11 am to get the milk. He gets back at 4 pm having put 187 miles on your vehicle (which is out of gas) and doesn't bring back any milk OR the $20.00 bill you gave him to buy it with. Now, this is the HARD part, think back, WAY back for some us, WHERE did that boy go??? He went to where the girls were. He searched them out, chased them down, used YOUR $20.00 for milkshakes and burgers and FORGOT all about the milk, who's car he had and what he was supposed to do. NOW, apply that thinking to Tom turkey. He has ONE thing on his mind in the spring, GIRLS or HENS, however youi want to think. This tip???? THINK LIKE A TURKEY, a HEN turkey. Find the hens, figure out where and when they go. Where they roost, where they feed and when. Set up in the areas they hang out and sooner or later, you'll have a tom come in to your set up. Sounds alot like deer hunting doesn't it? That's because it IS. We spend weeks or even MONTHS preparing food plots, feeders, shooting lanes with just the right amount of cover in the right places. Then we set up on these places, USUALLY attracting does who in turn attract the bucks we are hunting. Ever wonder why we see so many turkeys while hunting deer? Hmmmmm maybe there's something to that?
In our next topic, we'll expand our horizons a bit and discuss things like calls and calling. (Come on now, you KNEW I'd have to get to that sooner or later)
OK, you got yourself geared up. Your ready to start scouting. You have a basic idea of what your looking for. NOW it's time to start scouting. Your FIRST instinct is to grab your turkey calls and head to the woods and see if you can get him to answer. Forgive me, but, your first instinct is WRONG. Well, ALMOST. What your needing to do now is to take your OWL call or CROW call, or even a HAWK or WOODPECKER call and head on out. There is a little trick here. Remeber this, OWLS don't usually call in the daytime. Dusk, dawn and at night? YES. Noon? NO. Turkey hunting is ALL about camoflage, blending in with the environment. That includes the way you look, sound and yes, even smell. More on that later. Just take it from me that it's NOT GOOD to be an Owl hotting at midday. Use your crow call when it gets too light out for owls. BLEND IN with the sounds of the woods at the time you are scouting. You might be wondering, "WHY NOT USE MY TURKEY CALLS??. Simple, turkeys have a pea brain, maybe a bit bigger but still, the brain is not that large. That doesn't mean they are TOTALLY stupid. They get used to and react to the calls folks make in the woods. If you go in, yelping and cutting, acting like a lonely hen, SURE he might very well answer you and may even come in. When he gets there what will he find? No hen, only a preditor, acting like a turkey. OR if your not there when he gets there he finds nothing. That may not be bad to find nothing BUT, how many times does it take for Tom to figure out the hen that sounds JUST LIKE YOU is nothing but a tease and not worth the time to go chase? How long willit take him to figure out that the calls he came to check out are no more than some sort of predator? Using TURKEY CALLS to scout does no more than give the Toms an education of what NOT to go check out. LEAVE your turkey calls at home when you scout in the pre-season. Owl, Crow, Hawk, Woodpecker and I have even seen guys use Duck calls as locator calls. REMEMBER, at this point, your NOT hunting for turkeys, you are hunting for their hangouts. Lining up AREAS where it would be good to set up. Resist the urge to go in and see what he looks like. The more secure the area, the more likely he'll stay there.
OK, lets talk a bit about calls. There are 2 BASIC types of calls. I catagorize them by they way they work. Friction and Mouth. Friction calls work by the friction of 2 peices of material being rubbed together. Pot (a general term for what alot folks refer to as slate) and box calls are examples of 2 of the most popular. Diaphram calls are an example of mouth calls. Here are some pics of box and pot calls.
Box Calls
Pot Call (glass surface with slate on the bottom)
Why bring up turkey calls now? Well, NOW is when you should be practicing with them to get right on the sound, cadence and volume.
Sound as in pitch is important but NOT as exact as some would have you beleive. Somewheres CLOSE to what a turkey sounds like is great. Remember, different birds have different voices. If there are 100 birds out there, ALL with the same voice then how would a Tom know who was ready and who wasn't? The WORST sounding calls I EVER heard came from a REAL LIVE HEN.
Cadence. The cadence of the calling is second in importance only to the volume of the calling. Faster cadence means excitement, too fast means a hunter or at best a mocking bird. Try to get the candence as close to what a real hen sounds like. How do you know??? Well, your out scouting aren't you? OR can use a CD or visit a local turkey farm. YUP, domestic and wild turkeys have the same vocabulary and the same sounds.
VOLUME, probably, in my opinion, the MOST important of all 3. Too loud is a give away that your not a turkey. Most hunters call too loud. Keep in mind that a turkey is on EVERYONES dinner menu. It makes no sense for a hen turkey to call so loud as to attract predators. Tom can hear as good or better than a deer. Any louder than a normal speaking voice is getting towards too loud for a cruising hen. Put yourself in a turkey's shoes. It's quiet in the house, How high would you jump if someone came in and turned loose with one of those airhorn things over your bed? Same effect of loud rowdy calling when the woods are quiet. Start low and work up to a bit louder as you go.
OK, so now we've been scouting, and we're practicing our calling. Man, do we want to get after a bird or 2 and see how we are doing. I know you do, I get that same itch. But FIGHT it. Come opening day you'll know.
Next time we'll talk about Getting out, setting up and calling that Ol'Tom into the gun.
Now get practicing.