With turkey season fast approaching, we at Dillon Outdoors have just one thing on our minds…gobblers.  We hunt mostly in rural areas but all are easily accessible and a large majority of these properties can be hunted by the public.  This means that these hunting grounds get hunted and I mean hunted hard.  The gobblers have heard every kind of call (good and bad) and are very, very wary to human encroachment.  Human activity is not tolerated at all and will be met by the all too familiar alarm putt if you are not extremely cautious. 

If you check out the team’s trophy photo page, you can tell that we have harvested quite a few turkeys.  When I talk about turkey hunting to non-turkey hunters I always here the same mantra, “Turkey hunting has to be easy with all the turkeys in the area”.  To this battle cry of the non-turkey hunter I say “You must not turkey hunt”. 

Sure we have a good supply of turkey.  I would say the turkey population in this area of PA is some of the best in the state.  Does this population make hunting turkeys easier???  How about “NO”!  On the contrary, turkey hunting has become increasingly difficult due to the sheer numbers of hunters in the woods along with the increased number of turkeys.  More hunters obviously means increased competition and more chances to educate the turkeys to bad calling and poor woodsmanship.  That comment may sound negative, but it is just the cold hard facts.  When you make mistakes and bump birds, you have quite the negative effect on the turkey for you or the next hunter.  The turkeys quickly become aware of human calling, strange noises (more bad calling), something that sounds like a sick crow and the sounds of people tromping through the woods.  All these add up to one thing; smart turkeys that avoid turkey hunters.  Add more turkeys to the woods and you have the ultimate in turkey frustration, more hens.  If there is one thing that can frustrate you when turkey hunting, it is having a hen steal away your lovesick gobbler that you have worked for the last half hour.  Also, think of this scenario.  You are in a bar and you have twelve gorgeous women that you have been buying beers for at least two hours.  At this point, you figure that you have pretty much got it made.  In the bar comes another girl that looks, talks and acts the same as the twelve girls you have right now.  She starts calling to you in a sweet seductive manner.  What do you do???  You already have twelve girls, the heck with her.  It is the same in the woods right now.  You better be damn good to compete with the sheer number of hens that are with the gobblers.  You have got to do things that set you apart from the other hunters and the hens.  The question is “What do I do?

Scout early and often

To become successful, start scouting well before the season starts.  In PA, the season starts at the end of April to the first week of May.  We like to start scouting at least two months in advance.  For me, this means that sleep is not an option.  If you want to kill turkeys, you can’t like to sleep (you can but it is not an option).  I forgo sleep on Saturday’s and Sunday’s to scout turkey.  This doesn’t always mean that I get my camo on and head into the woods.  I do some of my best scouting from the seat of my F150.  I don’t get cold, wet, or even busted.  I can cover tons of ground scouting and be completely unobtrusive to the birds.  This is also a great time to take photos, get video footage or take the kids.  You get to see plenty of turkey and this is also a great time to discover new ground to hunt.  You may think that this sounds kind of lazy and your right; but this method of road warrior scouting will pay off in dead turkeys. 

Of course there is no substitute for "in the woods" scouting of the ground that you know you will be hunting birds.  Here is where we emphasize the fact that we DO NOT call to the turkey prior to the season.  When preseason scouting, we only use locator calls such as the crow or owl call and nothing that sounds remotely like a turkey.  I don’t want to educate an already wary bird to the sounds of my calling.  Not that my calling is bad, I just want it to be the first and last thing the gobbler hears when the season opens.  Get to know your roost sites and study the feeding routes the birds are taking off the roost.  You can pattern birds and this has paid off in several gobblers in the past.  Don’t forget to learn the layout and topography of your chosen hunting grounds.  Fences, dips, streambeds, thick cover are all examples of terrain features that can send you home empty handed.  Get to know the land. 

Practice your calling

This goes without saying but I thought I would say it anyways.  Please don’t be that guy that we affectionately call the “Boop Booper”.  This is the guy that is giving it the old college try but really needs to work on the calling.  Instead of a good yelp, his call sounds like “boop, boop, boop”.  If you have been in the woods often enough, you know exactly what I’m talking about.  Work on the calls and I mean all calls.  Get out the mouth call, the frictions and go to town practicing.  Most calls are so good nowadays that a novice can mimic a turkey in mere minutes after picking up the call. 

I have read articles about guides that use a broken slate call that they have carried for twenty years and use it sparingly.  I say to heck with that.  I am buying all the calls that I can or can’t afford to offer me something that might give me the edge: variety.  Variety might be the spice of life and it also might be the death of a hook-spurred longbeard.  If they don’t like my mouth call, they might love my glass pot or my box call or even my pump action yelper.  I am packing a battery of calls into the woods, besides, I just love turkey calls.

Woodsmanship

This is not something that can be taught but must be acquired through years of practice.  Most of the guys that I know that are successful turkey or deer hunters are great woodsman.  They have acquired “woods knowledge” by being a student of the outdoors for many years.  One way to increase your skills is to find a mentor and become a woodsman apprentice.  You can increase your knowledge tenfold by spending time with an experienced and successful turkey hunter.  It is likened to being in an “accelerated” class. 

Keep these tidbits of knowledge in mind and before you know it you will be hanging turkeys from their spurs on a consistent basis.

Good Hunting.