Getting Ready for Gobblers
by Joe Bucher

It's none too early to break out the turkey calls and start practicing for the hunting season.

While there are lots of important factors in turkey hunting besides calling, it never hurts to be as good as you can be. A hunter with confidence in his calling may be more effective than having absolutely perfect calling kills.

It's preferable to practice outside. Besides not getting on the family's nerves, most turkey calls sound different out in the open. Many, particularly the friction calls, sound different at a distance. Set up a tape recorder 20 or 340 feet away and tape your calling. The same goes for the diaphragm. Since it is inside your mouth, you don't hear it exactly the same way is sounds some distance away.

For basic calling instructions, most major call makers offer tapes and videos. The REALTREE turkey hunting video series also offers plenty of calling tips and techniques. I know because I give some of them.

Change Anything, Change Your Pattern

Shotguns can be picky about loads, shot sizes and choke combinations, shooting some well and others poorly. The highly specialized and tightly choked modem turkey guns share this trait.

If you have acquired a new choke tube, changed brand of shot shell or changed shot size, basically all bets are off on pattern and perhaps point of impact performance. The new combination won't necessarily improve things and may perform more poorly. You need to re-verify that your turkey gun is up to par by a trip to the pattern board.

Use full-size patterning paper large enough to catch all or most of your load. Those small 8 1/2 x 10" "gobbler head" targets may not tell you where your true point of impact is. Our modern
super-full turkey chokes shoot a very small pattern out to 30 yards or so. Many shooters have concluded that a load or choke wasn't performing well when it was merely missing the small target with most of the load.

Turkey Gear Get Together

It's the eve before opening day. Do you know where your decoys are? Hopefully most turkey hunters will have their stuff together long before the night before opening day. I'm talking about the total turkey hunting package, not just the obvious. Sure you have your calls and gun, but what about all the other "essential" gear that can make or break your hunt?

Are the batteries in your flashlight fresh? Do you know where your flashlight is? How about the batteries in your camera? Is your turkey vest packed? Besides your turkey calls, how about locator calls? How about chalk for your box and/or sandpaper for your slate?

The bigger items need to be packed too. How about a rain parka or suit? Then there are those decoys and the blind. Turkey hunting often means a lot of walking. Are your hunting boots well broken in and freshly waterproofed?

There's a lot more to gobbler hunting than just calls and guns, make sure you have it with you. Early Season Turkey Scouting I do much of my pre-deer season scouting in the late winter and early spring at the same time I'm scouting for turkey season. However, turkey season is up first and pre-season scouting and early success go hand in hand.

First, find the turkeys in general. Most hens and many adult gobblers are still in flocks until just before the season. Their group scratchings in the leaves are hard to miss. However, smaller scratching two to three feet in diameter away from the main flock's feeding area is a sign that the gobblers are starting to break up.

Turkeys like to walk in the clear., Look for tracks on logging roads and sand bars. Gobbler tracks are usually about four inches long and gobbler droppings are tight and well-formed, often with a J-hook. Thus by keeping an eye on the logging roads, you will know how much travel they get and what's doing the traveling. Early bird scouting is the best bet for an early bird.

Early Season Gobbler Tactics

Letting there "fustest with the mostest" is a good play on early season gobblers. Sometimes they are still ganged up or only recently have they broken up. They are ready for breeding season but the hens usually aren't quite there. Best of all they are not yet terribly call shy and often come willingly to the call.

If you favor lots of looking and loud and aggressive calling, the early season is your prime time. If you don't find or can't entice a gobbler from his roost, cover lots of ground and do lots of calling. I use cutting, cackling and the fighting purr system to stimulate both the sexual and territorial impulses of early season gobblers.

Matching the early season woods calls for camouflage in gray and brown tones to match tree trunks and leaf litter. Few plants have more than barely started bud break and green leaves are scarce. Save the green camo for later in the season, after green-up.

Woodscraft for Gobblers

Given the choice of good woodsmanship and good calling for turkey hunting, I would have to grit my teeth and say woodsmanship was more important. In fact, really knowing the terrain
and knowing the behavior of the local turkeys can make you look like a great caller.

The simple truth is that it is hard to call a turkey to where he doesn't want to go no matter how good you are. However it often seems easy to get a gobbler to come to an area he knows and
is comfortable with.

Survey your turkey hunting tract carefully. Learn the ridges and the hollows, creeks and fence lines and how best to get around on that piece of land. In the course of this, you should learn the movements of the local birds, where they roost, feed and loaf.

This makes you less dependent on finding that hot, gobbling bird. Even if he doesn't gobble, if you know where he hangs out, you can go hunt him there.

The Set Up

One of the most important and least talked about aspects of gobbler hunting is where and how to set up. An old timer once said, "The easiest way to call a turkey is to get between him and
where he wants to go." Lacking a crystal ball, we just have to make our best guess.

Turkeys can be called downhill, but they seem to prefer to stay on their same level or walk uphill in mountainous terrain. Hunter concealment is critical. Some carry pruning snips to set up a natural blind while others use commercial blinds. Either one is a good idea and decoys can be a great help.

Being ready to shoot also is critical. I want to have my gun up and be prepared. The "90-degree rule" is for right handers to point their left shoulder toward the area where the bird is expected. Some shooters learn to shoot off both shoulders in case the gobbler throws them a curve on his approach.


Hanging with Hens

In the peak of the turkey season, a dominant gobbler is frequently "henned up" with all the hens he wants. The henned-up gobbler will act much like a call-shy bird, but takes different tactics.

Dealing with a harem boss can be difficult. If he and the hens do not roost together, a tip off is when he goes in the same direction every morning to meet them. Give up on the roost; set up in the area he goes to.

Another strategy is trying to call the hens, Usually the hens, not wanting competition will lead the gobbler away from the calls. However, if the hen flock contains a super-dominant hen,
aggressive calling may cause her to come looking for the challenger. The gobbler will be behind this sharp-eyed old hen, so you must be still and well camouflaged.

Finally, you can just give up to the real hens early on and hunt this gobbler later in the morning after the hens have left him.

Read A Gobbler

A gobbler will often "tell" you what he wants to hear. I always try to respond in kind to the turkey. For instance, if he is really roaring, I come back at him just as aggressively. However, if he is less than hot, I subdue my calling in both style and volume.

If he continues to play hard to get, I might throw in some aggressive calling like cutting or the fighting purr to crank him up. If that doesn't do it, I drop back to very conservative calling.

Hens are much the same. To call hens, which is always a good idea in case there is a silent gobbler with them, simply imitate them. If they are calling softly, you do the same using the same calls. If there is a real loud mouth among them, chances are she's a dominant hen. Give her some raucous cutting and cacking to challenge her.

The main thing is to try different calls until you find what works.

Turkey Calls Basic to Advanced

Turkeys have simple brains and their "language" is pretty simple. The "yelp" and the "cluck" are the basic building blocks of most advanced calls, The two-syllable yelp sounds like "Kee-awk" and the cluck is a single note sounding like "pock" or "puck". It often helps to mouth these sounds when learning a diaphragm type call.

The "lost/assembly call" is a fairly long and rhythmic series of yelps given to assemble the flock or by a lonesome adult turkey. The "Kee-Kee" is the lost whistle of a young poult. The dreaded "alarm putt" is just a loud cluck, the actual warning is communicated by the alert posture of the turkey making it.

"Cutting," which indicates excitement, is a series of loud, sharp clucks with a staccato, but irregular rhythm. "Cacking" is a short series of rapid yelps given when the turkey flies. The
"purr" is a low, quavering call that keeps the flock in touch. However, a loud purr is a threat.

The Slate/Glass Call

The slate and glass friction calls are one of the most highly engineered of modern turkey calls. Evolving from a simple piece of slate cupped in the hand and struck with a resonating peg, the modern versions involve acoustical engineering that rivals a fine musical instrument.

For all their sophistication, slate or acrylic glass calls are still easy to use. Start by holding the "pot" (which is also the sound chamber) lightly in one hand. With the other hand, hold the
striker like a pencil, again not too tightly. Place the "back edge" of the striker point on the calling surface by tilting it away from you at about 45 degrees.

To make a yelp, "draw" a loop or an oval. Cluck with a short, straight, aggressive stroke. To purr pull the striker slowly across the surface. With practice you will learn exactly the right angle for the striker and how much pressure to apply. The slate/glass call is easy to use both loud and low.

Box Call Basics

The traditional box-style turkey call has been around since at least the turn of the century. It is so easy to use with reasonable proficiency that many dismiss as a beginner's call. That's a
mistake. The box call is an excellent all-around turkey call and works well for all skill levels.

It is one of the loudest of turkey calls and its sound also carries well. This makes it an excellent "searching" call on windy days or when you want to reach out some distance.

Wooden boxes are vulnerable to moisture. I carry a bread-loaf bag, using my box inside it on damp days. Box calls need to be chalked at regular intervals with chalk containing no wax (no blackboard chalk). Occasionally rough-up the lid with medium grit sandpaper but do not sand the lips of the box.

An accomplished box caller can not only yelp and cluck but also purr, cut and cackle right along with any other type of call.

Late Season Gobblers

Late season gobblers are much like late-season trophy bucks- wise and wary. They've heard it all and they are both tired of and leery of "power calling". Cutting, cackling and of course the
fighting purr have their place, but with an ultra-careful late season tom, you may need to throttle back on the aggressive calling.

Stealthy woodsmanship is very much an asset. Low "confidence" calls, particularly low clucks, and not many of them are the best bet. This is "call a little; wait a lot" hunting.

Other natural sounds also help. I scratch in the leaves to mimic the sound of feeding hens and occasionally slap my cap on my leg to imitate flapping wings. However, you must be careful with that last tactic. Because it involves movement you should be in a good blind or be absolutely certain that the gobbler is not close enough to see you.

Late season gobbler bunting can be very rewarding, with woodscraft and patience being the keys to success.

Locator Calls

A wide variety of noises are used to make gobblers sound off in the morning. Gobblers will "shock gobbler" at loud sounds that have nothing to do with turkey talk. The turkey hunter can use these "locator calls" to pinpoint the gobbler's location without giving away his own.

The "Who cooks for you; Who cooks for youall" eight-note call of the barred owl is a favorite locator call. However, raucous crow calling or the piercing scream of a hawk call are also used.
Coyote howlers work, for while no turkey in its right mind will go to a coyote, gobblers will answer the high-pitched howl. In forest areas, the staccato call of the pileated woodpecker is gaining favor as a locator, particularly in the midmorning. Of course if any of these sounds occur naturally always stop and listen.

Turkey calls, such as the assembly/lost call, cutting and cackling will stir up a gobbler. However, be close to cover or already set up, when you use them.

Laid-Back Gobblers

In areas where it is legal, afternoon turkey hunting can be very productive. However, these tactics also work well in midmorning after the peak of gobbling activity.

In the mornings, it is "run and gun" with the emphasis on hearing a gobbler. You try to pinpoint his location, get to him fast, set up and start calling. Midmorning and afternoon hunting are more laidback. Being still and patient are the critical tactics.

Concentrate on areas of known turkey activity. Set up a blind and set out decoys. Call and wait. If a gobbler happens to be nearby, I don't want to blast his ears with loud calls. I start
with low and conservative calling, basic clucks, yelps and low purrs. After a decent interval, I step up both volume and aggression with cutting, cackling and fighting purrs.

These last calls reach out some distance. Many hunters err by giving out their last, loud calls and giving up before a gobbler has time to come from far away.