For turkey hunters each hunting trip brings new lessons, and many trips provide that one moment when things can go either way. Here are some options and examples of what to do the next time you hit the turkey hunting crossroads.
One of the most difficult turkeys to harvest is a public-land bird. These educated birds see tremendous hunting pressure. PRADCO Outdoor Brands Account Executive Glenn Seiter harvested a big public land bird two years ago, even when other hunters had been working the same bird that same morning.
"I was set up on a bird at Fort Chaffee (Arkansas) and several other hunters came in and started working it, too. That shut the bird up," he said. "So I took off and walked around looking for other birds. Then about 11 a.m., I reentered the area from the opposite side, after everyone else had left."
Seiter produced a short burst of aggressive cutting from the opposite direction from where everyone else had been calling, and got a response from the bird, which had moved to the next ridge over.
"That's something I like to do on public lands," he said. "Call from a location that is the least convenient to other hunters. Everybody always calls from the road, so I go early and work around to the opposite side of the roosting area and set up there, because the birds are used to people driving up and calling from the truck."
Seiter moved closer to the turkey and called, but didn't get a response, so he began moving up the ridge closer to where he thought the bird was. "He gobbled when he heard me walking in the leaves. I stopped, gave him a couple of soft yelps, and scratched my hand in the leaves to simulate a hen feeding. Then I quickly found a tree to set up on."
Glenn heard the gobbler drumming, then the rustling of leaves as the gobbler approached. He kept quiet, only throwing a few very quiet purrs in the bird's direction, and scratched the leaves again. The tom strutted his last at 27 yards.
It was Seiter's assessment of the situation-a hard-hunted, educated bird-that told him the best way to harvest it. He kept it low-key when everyone else was calling excessively, and pulled in the bird with the rustling of leaves, effectively throwing a curve to a bird that had been getting meat pitches down the middle. And it was Seiter who brought home the meat.
Missouri pro turkey hunter Keith Wahlig likes pairing with another good hunter when hunting today's educated turkeys, but he isn't afraid to go it alone. "When two veteran turkey hunters work together they can really fool the birds," he said. "When you've located a bird, one hunter does some calling-not too much, but some-just enough to keep tabs on it. The other hunter should move in as close as safely possible to the tom and makes three or four very soft yelps. It's got to be a different call than the one the other hunter is using, though."
Wahlig uses another technique when tag-teaming a tom that has stopped approaching or appears to have hung up. The calling hunter should move away from the bird 50 or so yards and call. "If there's no movement of the bird getting closer after that," he said, "move back another 50 yards and call a little more. If that gobbler thinks the hen is moving away from him it drives him crazy."
Wahlig hunted devoted part of the 2005 turkey season to hunting an old trophy longbeard and had to resort to tom-foolery to take the big bird. "I was hunting in central Missouri and it was the third week of the season," Wahlig said. "I was hunting this old gobbler that would answer me early in the morning and come toward me, but never close the distance enough for me to close the deal."
After three days of hunting the old tom, Wahlig knew he had to change the way he was working the bird. "After an hour of working him, he'd just shut up and disappear. The last day I used a loud, raspy diaphragm call for almost an hour, then I shut up and moved about 70 yards closer. I flipped the diaphragm call over in my mouth, which changes the sound of the call from loud and raspy to a quieter and sweeter sound. Fifteen minutes later the big gobbler was standing 30 yards in front of me."
It takes some practice to work a call inserted the wrong way, but with some work most diaphragm callers find this an effective technique. "It's a trick I've never mentioned until now," Wahlig said. "But I've killed more birds doing that than just about anything else."
Changing types of calls is a pretty basic technique but one that certainly works. While hunting with Wahlig at Ozark Mountain Outfitters near Houston, Mo., while filming for the Knight & Hale Ultimate Hunting television show, Wahlig worked five gobblers for 30 minutes without making progress. Frustrated, he put his diaphragm call back into its case and took out a small-sized friction call.
"This is our Mini-Slate," he whispered. "I'm going to try it for a few minutes before we move closer. It's got a different sound than a normal-sized slate call." Sure enough, 15 minutes later the birds stood looking for us at 10 yards.
Champion contest caller Chris Parrish made the decision to move on a bird while filming a segment for the Hunter's Journal television program. Faced with a limited amount of property to hunt, he knew he had to make any opportunity count. After calling two gobblers across a ravine, the pair simply wouldn't commit farther than 75 yards. Then, one of the birds spooked, possibly from camera movement. The remaining bird acted nervous and slowly began moving away.
"I saw a ridge here and made the call," he said. The pair quickly moved down the ridge as the bird was moving diagonally away from them. They caught up to it and Parrish killed the bird with a long-but-safe shot. "It wasn't the prettiest in the world, but taking the bird is what we came out here for."
But, how many times have you looked back on a hunt and thought, "Man, if I'd just stayed put!"
Shaine Nixon, who runs World Slam Outfitters in Texas, gives the same advice time after time. He told me that, too. I'd bounced around from spot to spot all day long, calling and walking, sitting a while in likely looking areas, all to no avail. As we dispersed for the evening hunt, Nixon again gave me sage advice. "Watch this pasture road. They'll come right down it, over that pond dam and to some roost trees a half-mile away."
Indeed, the road showed the wear of many turkey tracks, but after an hour and a half I couldn't stand it any longer and took off walking across the dam to call from the edge of a ravine I'd seen earlier. As evening wore on I decided to walk back to the spot Nixon told me to watch, and as I topped the pond dam five gobblers turned and scurried back into the mesquite. And, of course, they were right where he told me they would be.
It's always great when the gobblers have read the script-when you locate a bird at dawn, set up, make a few calls and drop the gobbler at 20 yards-but it rarely works out that way. Study your situation and make a decision, then hope for the best. "If you're ever truly stumped about what to do," Wahlig said, "go sit at a strut zone where you've seen gobblers before. You might just shoot a bird without even calling."
