What was your turkey hunting Aha moment?
 

What was that aha moment for you, the info or hunting tactic you discovered that you employ every season to get your gobblers?


One of my aha moments was when I found my first roost on national forest and had the freedom (no other hunters) to pattern them, that allowed me to be very successful in finding other locations that would most likely hold turkeys and be a successful turkey hunter.

When I finally realized that scouting and patterning the birds I was hunting were the most important 2 processes in my turkey hunting and when I started investing more detail into those two things I started killing birds every year without fail.

When I learned that if a hen talks back to you ~ forget about the tom ~ learn to tick that hen off real quick!

How to do that? Match that hen note for note, doing what she does, she yelps, you yelp. She yelps twice so do you. But when she yelps jump on her like when one starts talking while you are talking. You know how irritating that is when one cutts you off in midsentence! When she shuts up so do you. Once she starts again cutt her off in mid sentence each time matching call for call.
Rule of thumb ~ 3 times doing that and she will come looking for you and you all know what else follows? Gun up be ready as you will be pinned!

Also note that if you need to move the gun. She will putt which will bring Tom out of strut with his head up quick for just an instant. Be ready.

JW

When I learned that calling softly and not nearly as often works far better most of the time than calling really aggressively.

My AHA moment is every time I throw one up over my shoulder!!!

It's all about scouting.

In this case "roosting".


You gotta fish..............where the fish are !!!

Still waiting for mine.

The second time I turkey hunted and called two in, killed one. I realized it's not impossible, and you don't have to be a good caller. I've learned a bunch since, but the reason I had not hunted them earlier is I figured it was too difficult. It's not, you just have to be in the right place at the right time. So I guess when I picked up my first dead gobbler, I thought, "AHA, it's not rocket science".

Mine was when I realized my decoys were about 15 yards too far away from my blind. Called in a fine Tom and he never got closer than 50 yrds, but only a few steps from range!:hit:

I'm still having them, lol.......I just apply them to the others each hunt.
The one thing I have learned is not to be full of yourself....to think you've figured them out is just enitrely the wrong way of thinking...each hunt is a learning experience for me.
If I had to chose just one, it would be when I figured out , I have nothing to lose going after that hung up bird...GI Jane, lol.