Its amazing how turkey hunting can hook you. I grew up in Tallahatchie County, Mississippi on the northeastern edge of the delta where I honed my hunting skills on squirrels, whitetail deer, and ducks. My grandfather owned about 600 acres that was a mixture of spring creeks, pasture, deep hardwood filled hollows, and delta bottom land. In the early 1970’s as a young teenager, I spent every available opportunity in the woods learning to hunt. In those days, the wild turkey population was a fraction of today. I can count on my fingers the number of times I was fortunate enough to see a flock slipping through the woods. They truly seemed like ghosts. While I was interested in hunting everything, I never seriously tried to hunt turkeys. As I grew older, left home, went to college, got a job, got married, started a family, and started a business, I still passionately pursued deer and duck hunting every chance I could. My grandfather’s land is now mine and I cherish every moment I am able to slip away from Nashville TN with my 3 sons to return to that treasured sanctuary.

About 10 years ago, I learned that more and more of my deer hunting buddies chased turkey’s in the spring. These conversations usually included statements like: “Don’t ever go turkey hunting once because you’ll be hooked for life.” or “Turkey hunting is the hobby that will send your wife over the edge.”. The second statement had a profound impact on me as I love my wife and I also like to deer hunt, duck hunt, fly fish for trout, saltwater fish for speckled trout and redfish, and play an occasional round of golf. Cathy has been teetering on the brink for years and is a true saint. So I went on my first turkey hunt and found out that the first statement was absolutely true. To protect myself from the second statement, I have given up golf, fly fishing, and duck hunting for the most part. Trade offs are a part of marriage.

Let me tell you about my first turkey. My boys and I had made our traditional annual spring break week trip to our farm. Typically, this week falls on or around the opening of Mississippi’s spring turkey season. I had decided that I was going to see what turkey hunting was about. I dressed up in some of my cooler deer hunting camoflauge clothes, grabbed the pocket turkey yelper call I had purchased at Walmart along with my crow call. I eased into the woods quietly on the back of my ATV and began turkey hunting. After 10 minutes of crow calling, I was surrounded by about 50 really curious crows who for the life of them could not figure out what I was. I actually did get a gobbler to respond to my pocket yelper but never saw him. The more he gobbled, the more I called. This went on until I suspect both of us were exhausted. After 3 days, I had walked about 25 miles, gotten lost on parts of my own land I did not know existed, and had been bitten by countless invisible critters without ever seeing a bird. I had also made 4 more trips to Walmart to buy 4 more calls and none of seemed to work. I was convinced the turkeys were non-existent. Turkey hunting was for the birds! On the evening of the 3rd day, one of my local friends, Chad Gray, had stopped by our cabin to say hello. Chad is a jack of all trades that includes farmer, road supervisor, part-time land speculator, and most importantly, local turkey hunting professional. Chad listened intently as I explained my experiences of the past 3 days. I invited him to join me in the morning and we agreed he would be at the cabin at 4:30 a.m. sharp and I was to be ready.

At 4:30 the next morning, Chad arrived. We went outside and headed to the ATV shed. Chad immediately informed me that we would be walking. “ATV’s make too much noise.” My education had begun. We walked up into the hills behind the cabin. Once the sky began to gray in the east and the birds began to chirp, Chad whispered too me, “lets stop and I’ll owl hoot from the ridge top”. On his first owl hoot, 7 different gobblers sounded off in the woods around us. So much for no birds being on my land! Chad quickly but quietly moved us off of the ridge into position between several of the birds. We set up off of the trail about 5 yards and Chad had me sit down beneath a small pine tree. In front of me, he placed a small ground blind. “This will allow you to move your gun up into shooting position and also keep that Tom from seeing us.”, he whispered. Between the overhanging pine tree and the ground blind, we were nearly invisible. Once we were set, Chad threw out a few soft yelps on his mouth call and scratched the ground with his right hand. All hell broke loose. 4 gobblers around us hammered in return to his yelps. They then began to gobble at each other. I whispered to Chad, “When are you going to call again? He chuckled under his breath, “I’m not! They’re doing all the work for us.” I could almost imagine the gobblers yelling, “ That’s my woman!”. About that time one of the gobblers behind let loose with a particularly throaty roar. The other 3 gobbler all went silent. Chad whispered, “ That’s the one we want. That’s the daddy Tom”. In the distance, we heard the flap of wings as flew off of his roost. Out of the corner of my eye, I caught the movement of him landing on the trail in front of us. I sucked in my breath as Chad breathed in my ear, “easy, easy”. The Tom immediately went into full strut, drumming and spitting as he showed off for that nubile hen he could not see but was looking for. In 25 years of hunting, I have never experienced anything like my first view of a mature gobbler in full strut. I was stunned. Chad whispered into my ear, “When he turns his back, bring your gun up. Aim at the base of his neck. When he raises his head, squeeze the trigger eassssyyyy….” After what seemed like an eternity, the tom turned around and I was able to aim my shotgun. After what seemed like another eternity, he raised his head. I aimed and squeezed the trigger.

When we walked over to the still flopping turkey, I was speechless. The iridescence of his feathers glowed in the early morning light. Chad looked at the bird and said, “Lou, I have been hunting turkeys for 25 years and this is one of the biggest birds I have ever seen”. Once back at the cabin, the bird weighed in at 24.5 lbs. He had an 11 inch beard and 1 & ¼ inch spurs. I was hooked and have been ever since.

I have never forgotten the lessons about turkey hunting that Chad taught me that day. Lessons about being quiet, where to position your blind, how much( or how little!) to call…. I have learned many more lessons since that day and many of them by the mistakes I made and that is why I decided to write this blog. This blog will not teach you everything about turkey hunting but hopefully it will help teach you the basic tactics that will you make you successful sooner and avoid the common mistakes that frustrate beginners. You’ll learn strategies that will work time and time again. You’ll also get to read and learn through my hunts.

10 years later, I have harvested many more birds but I’ll never forget my first Tom. He is still the biggest bird I have ever taken and I suspect he always will be. However, size is not important in turkey hunting to me. It’s the excitement of listening to the birds gobble on the roost, the strategy of positioning yourself in the right spot to fool that Tom, the unbelievable show that a strutting Tom provides you, the beauty of the woods in the spring, and the time spent with friends. These are the reasons I turkey hunt. Hopefully, this blog will help you experience those thrills also.

Opening day was good to Lou this year! We gathered the evening before opening day at our hunting lease. The usual cast of characters(Dan, Brad, and me) were joined by another usual suspect and friend, Steve, and a work associate of Brad’s, Jason. Our lease is a mixture of rolling pasture, cornfields, and wood plots that cover about 300 acres and it is covered in turkeys. We were really looking forward to this evening as the lease has a really nice cabin and a fishing lake stocked with bass and bream. Brad was bringing a smoked Boston Butt pork roast that he swore was the best thing he had ever eaten. This is where things started to unravel just a little bit. First, somewhere had left the door open on the cabin and the local barn cat had decided that it was a far more comfortable place to sleep than the barn. He had also sprayed it extensively in case any other barn cat or hunter showed up to claim it. It absolutely reeked of cat pee. We spent most of the early evening trying to air the cabin out. After catching a few fish, we went into dine on the Boston butt roast that Brad had warming in the oven. When he opened the tin foil to remove the roast, he found 4 previously frozen uncooked venison backstraps covered in plastic wrap. This was not a good omen. Dan came to the rescue with hotdogs and chili washed down with cold adult beverages.

The morning rose warm and quiet but weather was on the way and we knew it would be windy before long. The previous night, we had decided that Jason would hunt with Brad and Dan, Steve, and I would team up. Brad and Jason were going to set up on a corn field where they had seen birds scouting the week before while the three of us would do what Dan calls, “Rambo!”. Outside the cabin, we listened on the freshening breeze for the sound of gobblers and quickly heard 2 in the distance. We started across the fields towards the sound of those gobblers. Every 50 yards or so, we would stop and get our bearings. These birds were a good distance away but we still used the cover of the woods lining the fields to approach. We eventually crept to within about 200 yards of the birds when we realized that the field we were approaching and where the birds were likely to pitch down was bordered by hog wire. Hog wire is one of the barriers that turkeys have a hard time getting through. We followed the edge of the field until we reached the next corner and than moved up and decided to set up. Steve and Dan faced the field and I moved on up about 20 yards to face the woods parallel to the fence line. Hunting with 3 people is tough unless you have good communication and our walkie talkies mentioned in my previous posts again provide that key element. After sitting their in the brightening morning, we realized that there was another field facing me about 75 yards in front. The gobblers still seemed farther away so Dan and I agreed that I would creep up and see if the woods were fenced in front of me. I slowly crept up closer to the edge and yes the woods were fenced; BUT, their was a big hole in the fence bordering the main field and a smaller one in front of me. Remember previous posts! Holes in fences are natural crossing points. Dan and Steve quickly repositioned up to the cross fence with Dan sitting nearest the big field, me in the middle, and Steve on the end. Steve had a video camera attached to his shotgun and he was going to try to film the hunt.

Almost immediately, 2 gobblers cut loose in the large field about 125 yards away. Dan had the best visual on the bird’s location. He whispered at me to call so I immediately hit my Roberts Bros. pot call with some soft yelps, purrs, and cuts. I was immediately answered. Just than, a real hen passed in front of us and moved away around us yelping as she walked. We absolutely froze. She walked about 5 yards from Steve and never saw him. Her yelping did a good job of getting daddy fired up as she moved away. Dan kept whispering, “They’re just gobbling and strutting back and forth”. About that time, a nearby bovine bellowed non stop for about 30 seconds.. The birds bellowed right back until it almost seemed like they were hoarse. After they were stopped, I hit them with one more cut and Dan whispered, “Here they come and they’re running. “ As we had hoped, the first tom came right through the hole in the hog wire and walked in front of me looking for that hen. Dan had held off on the first bird thinking the second one would follow but he never showed and we never figured out where he went. The first one moved out in front of me from left to right about 20 yards away. I really wanted the Tom to get in front of Steve as I already harvested my Mississippi bird but the sun rising hit my glasses and I suspect the tom saw it. He began that back forth alarmed putting that let me know that the shot was now or never. My gun was up on its tripod and sighted right at the base of his neck. When I pulled the trigger, he folded immediately. Another gobbler looking for love in the wrong places! He was a nice 3 year old bird with an 8 inch beard, 1 inch spurs. He weighed about 20 lbs.

When we got back to the cabin, we found out that Jason and Brad had both harvested jakes(legal ). The next morning, Dan took another Jake after having several close calls with Toms. Despite cat pee and Boston butt disguised as frozen venison, it was a successful opening day. It’s a shame there is not a season on cats.

Tips to learn from this hunt:

1. You have to pay attention to fences especially those with hog or chicken wire. Finding the holes in them can put you on natural entry and exit points.
2. Have your gun ready when the tom is near. I was able to harvest that Tom when he became alarmed because I was ready.

Until next time, GOBBLE AND STRUT!

You know you’re getting older when your kids would rather go to Destin with their friends than to the farm with their dad. For the last few years, I have cherished the annual spring break trip to Mississippi with my 3 boys. We have a great time and there is a lot of male bonding. Besides, they sleep in every day which gives me many opportunities to turkey hunt. Oh well, time moves on. Since they were not going, I used their absence as an opportunity to invite one of my close friends and business associates, Jim Dyer, and his son Wes to join me for their first turkey hunt.

Jim and Wes are residents of McMinnville, TN where Jim is the president of Metal Products Company. They are avid gun enthusiasts and excellent marksmen but fairly new hunters. Both of them took their first deer this past fall with Jim taking his on my farm. As first time turkey hunters, we spent the evening before the first hunt watching videos of turkey hunts and talking about what to expect. We also spent a great deal of time sorting through their new turkey hunting gear as Jim lamented the significant investment he had just made in Bass Pro Shops.

5:00 a.m. rolled around early with a perfect cool windless morning before us. We hiked up to the listening post behind the cabin to start trying to locate where the gobblers were roosted. I knew from the previous week’s hunt that we probably had 4 or 5 gobblers roosted on the farm and I had a pretty good idea where they were. It was a good thing as we heard not one gobble that morning….nada. Quiet mornings can be caused by a number of reasons: weather, time of season, etc….. The weather was perfect and it was the right time so who knows. After patiently listening for about 30 minutes, shooting light was rapidly approaching. I moved us down a logging road to where I knew a lot of turkey travel takes place. This road is located about 200 yards from the Turkey Ridges; an area where I suspected several gobblers would be roosted. I set Jim and Wes side by side under a bushy tree with a turkey blind in front of them. I was positioned on another tree immediately behind them. Our decoy was set up about 20 yards in front of us on the other side of the road partially hidden by a bush. The setup was perfect. All we needed was a bird. As I often do at first light, I started calling with soft tree yelps on my two-sided Roberts Bros. pot call. The back side has a small slate that is perfect for the soft yelps of a hen about to fly down. I than used my Primos turkey wing to simulate a fly down followed by several cuts and purrs. I finished this sequence by scratching the ground as a hen would searching for food. About 15 minutes after we had set up I was about to call for the first time, when I heard something moving towards us from the Turkey Ridges. I whispered to Jim and Wes, “Be ready, that’s either a deer or a turkey. It’s too big to be anything else.” Rather than calling, I again scratched the ground as if I was a hungry hen. Soon, I detected motion coming over the ridge in front of our set up about 100 yards up. It was a tom and he was making a beeline for our decoy and the sound of my scratching. I whispered, “here he comes, get ready”. I really like the use of a turkey net with new hunters. It made it easy for Jim and Wes to move their guns into position. The gobbler marched right in to about 30 yards, saw the decoy and stopped. I whispered to Jim, “take him…take him…” Nothing happened. I whispered to Jim again, “take him….take him…” Again nothing happened. Typically having a gobbler in gun range is a matter of seconds and not minutes and this time was no different. The gobbler detecting that something was not right and began to ease back through the woods away from our setup. . Every time he stopped, I would whisper, “take him… take him…”. If I would have been carrying a gun, I would have shot him. If I would have had a stick, I would have hit Jim in the back of the head and yelled, “TAKE HIM! TAKE HIM!”. After he was gone, I crawled down besides Wes and Jim and said, “What happened?” The paralysis of analysis can happen to anyone and especially to a new turkey hunter. Jim said, “There were some little bushes in the way and I wasn’t sure how far he was. Does this mean I screwed up?” Wes answered as only a 14 year old know it all can, “Yes Dad!”. Jim thought and said, “You know, I think I’ve been watching too many turkey videos where the bird is always in a field, fanned out, and he seems about 10 yards away. I guess I just froze.” So much for the first days hunt.

Tips to learn from this hunt:

1. There will be days when the birds just don’t gobble at first light. It doesn’t always mean there not there, there just not gobbling. Knowing where to set up in these circumstances can be the difference between failure and success. My knowledge of the farm allowed us to move to a place where I knew we could call to locations where gobblers typically roost but without spooking the birds. Scouting the places you hunt whether its public or private land will help you bring home more birds.
2. When you set up, know the range of your gun and visualize where you’re shots will be. Be sure you can move your gun into those positions quickly and quietly. For example, I am confident with my shotgun out to 40 yards. After I set up, I quickly use a rangefinder to find different 40 yard markers so I know how far I can shoot.

The second day again was clear, cool with little wind and this morning we actually heard some gobblers! In our walking of the day before, we had identified several areas of heavy scratching so we began our hunting there. About 7:00, a gobbler became very active announcing his presence about 500 yards away on a ridge above one of our hill ponds. We slowly moved in that direction. This particular pond had food plots on all of the banks and a large one below the levee. The area is very exposed. The gobbler was positioned on a logging road about 150 yards above the pond. All of my pines have been thinned so moving though them is difficult. Gobblers can see a long way and I was wary of us walking across the food plot without being seen. We set up below the levee on the edge of the food plot. Since both Jim and I wear glasses, we moved off of the plot under two trees that were shade covered. I set a single hen decoy to the right of us on the edge of the field slightly hidden behind a tree. I sat with Wes and Jim sat next to us about 8 feet away. The gobbler would make his presence known every few minutes and it was obvious he was strutting back and forth over about a 40 yard section. I suspected he had hens with him but had no way of knowing. I would occasionally purr and putt never directly calling to the gobbler also scratching the ground. Wes was itching to move up that hill but we just couldn’t move. Sometimes you just have to wait that gobbler out. About 45 minutes later, I noticed a bright red head peering into the food plot. “Here he comes Wes!” I whispered. The gobbler slowly ambled across the food plot headed straight for the decoy. Wes had his gun up and tracked that gobbler all the way across. The gobbler stopped about 20 yards away and Wes took his shot. There is nothing more exciting than watching a 14 year old dance with joy around his first bird. Father Jim was pretty excited also.

Tips to learn from this hunt:

1. A gobbler’s greatest defense mechanisms are his hearing and his eyesight. More hunts are ruined by hunters moving in too close to the bird. Always ere on the side of caution when trying to determine how close to set up on a gobbling bird.
2. Patience is not a virtue in turkey hunting. It’s a must. Sometimes you just have to wait a bird out. This bird finally could not wait for that hen below him any longer. Remember my previous post about naps!
3. Gobblers are hard wired to have hens come to them. That’s why they gobble. I try to not call directly to a gobbling tom. I’m just reinforcing that hard wiring when I do.
4. The shady side of a tree makes for good cover especially if you wear glasses.

until next time, GOBBLE AND STRUT!

Sometimes, I feel like the luckiest person in the world. Especially when the Mississippi turkey season starts almost 3 weeks earlier than Tennessee and I have land and birds! Of course, I take great pride in rubbing it in to my turkey hunting buddies, Brad Dickens and Dan Hammond. Its a lot of fun watching them snivel and grovel for an invitation. This year, I again took pity and invited them down for the opener. Brad’s dad, Phil(a more mature and responsible version of Brad) joined us from Meridian Mississipi along with Brad’s 7 year old son, Hunter.

I had high hopes for this year. Mississippi had been unseasonably warm during February and March and I had already heard reports from my adjoining land owners of gobblers broken off from the hens and lots of morning gobbling from the roost. Many times, the early season in North Mississippi finds the hens and gobblers still grouped together. It can make for difficult hunting.Thursday morning, March 15th, found us up and ready to go at 5:00 a.m. One of the nice things about the earlier daylight savings time is you don’t have to get up quite as early! I felt like I had slept in. The previous night, we had agreed that Dan and I would hunt together while Granddaddy Phil would babysit Brad and Hunter.Dan Hammond is an interesting character. He’s a successfull businessman, Camel smoking adventure racer(He claims it really psyches his opponents out), and practical joker. I’ve grown fond of finding flourescent bulleyes on the back of my turkey vest(I now instinctively check the back of my vest multiple times when i’m hunting with Dan), feathers in my socks, and cow chips in the visor of my car. He’s also one hell of a turkey hunter. Dan and I love to turkey hunt as a team. If you ever watch videos of turkey hunts on television or dvd, the high fives and dead turkey dances are heart felt. Everybody feels like a part of the action.

We started this morning as we have many at the first ridge behind the cabin listening for the sound of gobblers as the sky became lighter and the birds began to chip. Cars on a distant highway could be heard as commuters drove to work. Owls hooted in the distance. What did we hear? Nothing. We waited for almost 40 minutes before hearing one distant gobble. With first light rapidly approaching, we decided to set up on a logging road where we have killed birds and seen lots of sign in previous years. We each found a tree and set up facing in opposite directions. We took turns quietly calling every 10 minutes or so. (Tip: Dan and I wear walkie talkies with headsets and push buttons so we can quitely communicate whats going on. Our headsets allow the mouthpiece to be molded to actually fit in your mouth so you can whisper and be heard clearly. Communication when hunting as a team is key!) Dan and I sat in this particular spot for about an hour never hearing the gobbler we had heard earlier.

We started searching the pastures and wooded ridges of my neighbor’s property(yes, we had permission) crow calling and yelping as we tried to pinpoint a gobbler. After about 3 up and down miles, 1 small nap, 1 bottle of water, 6 Camels(his), and an energy bar(mine), we still had not seen or heard a turkey. We decided to set up on a part of my land we call the Turkey Ridges. These ridges are covered in 17 year old thinned pines with logging roads on the ridge tops. They are sunlit, breezy, and a great place for gobblers to strut. They’re also a great place for a nap. After setting up, my morning meditation was summarily interrupted by Dan whispering over the walkie talkie, “you’re snoring”. In my opinion, napping is perfectly acceptable behavior while turkey hunting. For one thing, it keeps you from calling too much. Also, nothing is more funny and confusing than to be woken up by the roar of a really close gobbler! Again, we sat for about an hour quitely yelping about every 10 minutes and hearing nothing. By now its about 11:00 and both of us were starting to think with our stomachs. The call of bacon, eggs, and a cold beverage was overcoming our urge to hunt. We decided to go in for a quick brunch before heading back out for the afternoon. As we quietly walked down the ridge top, Dan stepped on a dry pine branch and it broke with a crack. On the next ridge, a gobbler immediately sounded off. We looked at each other in surprise but quickly set up on the other side of the ridge for cover. Dan softly yelped on his titanium pot call. Each yelp brought a closer gobble. Just when I was convinced we would see this bird, he did what many Eastern’s do all the time: he hung up. He was about 100 yards out spitting and drumming moving back and forth over a 40 yard area. Dan whispered too me, “You shoot – I’m moving back”. We’ve used this tactic before and its a killer. Dan quckly crawled back about 25 yards, scratched and yelped. The gobbler responded immediately. He crawled back another 20 yards, scratched and yelped. This time, the gobbler went berserk and here he came. I could hear him drumming as he strutted his way in. We had set up so quickly that the only cover advantage I really had was that I was below the lip of the ridge. I had my gun up and waiting. When that gobbler looked over the ridge top, I let him have it. Time for the dead turkey dance and the high fives! When all things are going bad, along comes a 2 year old gobbler looking for love in all of the wrong places!

The walk back to the cabin was now heavier but much more satisfying as I carried our bird. Brunch tasted better and was followed by a fabulous fresh fried crappie dinner supplied by Phil Dickens.

Tips to remember from this hunt:

1. When hunting as a pair, walkie talkies with headsets make for really effective silent communication.
2. When setting up in open areas that have ridges. Set up below the ridgetop so that you be able to see and shoot that Tom before he sees you.
3. When hunting as a team and a gobbler hangs up, having one hunter drop back 20 to 25 yards and call. We have used this trick time and time again and its deadly. Gobblers are hard wired that hens will come to them. It really fires them up when their women blow them off and leave.
4. I don’t think Dan and I yelped loudly more than once or twice all morning. All of our communications were with purrs, cutts, and quiet yelps. Most beginning turkey hunters overcall.
5. Don’t give up because the morning is late. I have killed many birds after 10:00. Many times the Toms that are henned up in the early morning find themselves lonely later as the hens move onto their nests. 10:00 to 2:00 can be deadly.
6. I have had many Toms gobble to the sound of a scratching hen or a beating wing. I’ve called birds in by just scratching the ground softly never using any other type of turkey call. Add this to your repertoire.

Until next time, GOBBLE & STRUT!