Strut&Rut

I think you're slightly confused about the 'turkeys hate to fly' comment.

They will fly to get into the roost and need to fly to pitch out of the roost. With that said, they are typically lazy whenever possible - they will often roost on a hillside because it's physically easier on them - they walk to the top of the hill and fly 'up' into a tree, which in essence is them flying in a straight line for a short distance into a treetop that's at the same height at the hilltop; then in the morning they simply 'pitch down' and basically glide into an opening at the bottom of the hill. Birds living on flat land must exert energy to fly into the tree to roost, but even those birds will typically try to use any terrain features to help them exert as least energy as possible when flying.

Turkeys, due to their large size (compared to almost all other birds), are much better equipped to run than fly, and can only fly for relatively short distances. How short is short is somewhat bird and area specific. I've seen birds in the Catskills of NY and the mountains of WV easily fly 2-3 miles from one ridge to the next - I've seen turkeys in CT and MI fall into a lake after being airborne for less than a 1/2 mile.

In general, I would say adult turkeys can't/won't fly more than 5 miles (and that's probably generous), and most birds are likely stressed once they reach a mile of flight distance. So compared to songbirds and migrating waterfowl, i.e., birds that travel hundreds to thousands of miles in the air, then turkeys fly much shorter distances which is why we say they 'hate flying'.

But they absolutely must fly into and out of the roost and don't think that if you spook them out of the tree or shoot at them and miss that they won't fly. When spooked, it's not uncommon for them to immediately take flight and stay airborne for a few hundred yards - and they can all easily fly that far with no problem - and because they have relatively large wings, they can also glide for relatively long distances. So if they actively beat their wings for 200 yards, they can easily glide for another 50-100 - this is dependent on age and size, and smaller hens will glide further than jakes/gobblers.