Through the years I have learned so much about turkeys it would be impossible to condense it down into a single column. Turkeys are incredibly intelligent animals seeming almost psychic at times. They more often than not seem to zig when you zag. Because of their uncanny ability to avoid capture, turkey hunters need to learn a lot more about a turkey’s language and habits to be regularly successful at harvesting mature birds in comparison to mature deer. I have found that the ability to locate gobblers/male turkeys seems to be the biggest nick in a hunter’s armor. Locating a gobbler is the first thing I do on a hunt, so that’s where I will start.
I began spring turkey hunting when I was 13 years old with my father. We struggled for years trying to figure out how to harvest a bird. We started – as most did back then – as turkey hunters, but turkey spooking is what we actually did. This was before the time of hunting videos and tutorials, so if you weren’t lucky enough to have an educated old timer around, most would just bumble until they got lucky or gave up.
I became infatuated with the sound of a gobble, and made it a personal goal of mine to see the animal that made such a a hair-raising call up close. I spent years studying and listening to the calls being made until I was able to understand what was being said. It took me five years to call in and actually make the shot on my first bird. For the past 18 years, I have called in at least one gobbler that eventually took a ride in the back of my truck - although most were taken by other hunters.
The one common link in these successful hunts was the use of calls. Of all the spring turkey hunts I have been involved in, I can only think of one that didn’t include calls of some type. The secret is that around 30 percent of birds I harvest did not hear a turkey call from me. I have learned to locate birds on the roost or ground, and set up in their expected path of travel in hopes of intercepting them on their way to a strut zone or food source.
When spooked or alarmed, a turkey gobbler will sound off in what is typically called a shock gobble. Simply put, it’s like a person screaming, gasping or swearing upon being startled. I do this by using natural sounds that startle or cause some form of territorial response in the birds. Seasoned turkey hunters tend to give an owl hoot at the break of dawn to evoke this reaction. Crow, hawk, and pileated woodpecker calls work equally as well, but most find them to work best after sunrise.
For the educated caller, the non caller or the seasoned pro giving a hoot should start your day. Using a turkey call to locate birds is a double no-no in that the bird may arrive before you are able to set up, or worse, you can be shot!
Locator calls cause the bird to give up his location, and can give you time to set up before starting a conversation. They also prevent bumping birds from the roost by enabling you to set up one 150 to 200 yards away from them as not to be seen.

Youth Turkey Hunt
The youth turkey hunt took place this past Saturday and Sunday, April 20-21, although it should have been called the old pro turkey hunt because that's the kind of hunter it takes to harvest birds on such inclement days. The weather conditions were less than favorable, we had wet birds on Saturday and frozen birds on Sunday. These are the kind of hunting conditions that separate the boys from the men in the turkey woods.
Wet and cold birds tend to talk less and are likely to ignore your calls until they warm up and/or dry off. I realized the typical hunting strategy wasn't going to be effective, so we opted to allow the birds to dry off and warm up before pursuing them. We were hoping to find a gobbler not accompanied by hoards of hens in a field or open area. We got lucky around 10 a.m. on Saturday when we found a lone gobbler feeding in a green field that was bordered by land we were allowed to hunt.
We unloaded our gear, headed out, and circled behind the bird in the hardwoods as to avoid his detection. After hearing the bird gobble a few times before we set up, I was pretty confident he was going to play. By setting up 60 to 100 yards behind the youths to call, I was able to basically put the bird in their laps. I expected the bird to use a logging trail bordered by thick brush, which he did. Youth hunter Dylan Angle was able to harvest the bird less than 15 minutes from the time we set up. The bird approached the young hunter’s father and grandfather to within 20 yards before the shot was taken. The bird went down instantly and all shared the hoots and hollers of their success!
It was a perfect shot in that Dylan didn’t allow the bird to get too close. Most inexperienced turkey hunters tend to think a 10-yard shot will be more effective than a 20-yard one. The fact is, a 10-yard shot is typically as ineffective as a 60-yard shot. While shooting at 10 yards, the shot pattern is too tight and at 60 yards it is becoming too loose, both of which typically end up in a missed bird.
Because a shotgun’s pattern is the size of a golf or tennis ball at 10 yards, I ask hunters to take a 20-yard shot if at all possible, that way the pattern is able to open to the size of a basketball, while still holding a dense enough pattern to get the job done nearly every time. The extra spread of the pattern also helps prevent misses by allowing a little more room for user error.
Congratulations to Dylan on the harvest of his bird, and don’t forget, his friend Hannah Wright is up to bat on the next hunt. Although the youth hunting with ECOs (Environmental Conservation Officers) didn’t harvest a bird, I hope they enjoyed the experience, better luck next year.
Don’t forget, turkey hunting season opens Wednesday, May 1. Good luck, and happy hunting.