Matt Morrett Explains His Secrets to Taking More Tom Turkeys
Day 2: Matt Morrett Names the Toughest Turkey Hunting Problem to Solve
Editor’s Note: Matt Morrett of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, a professional hunter and a member of Hunter’s Specialties’ Pro Hunt Team, has won the World Friction Championship five times, the Grand National Championship once and the U.S. Open Turkey Calling Championship seven times. I had the privilege of interviewing Morrett for the first time immediately after he won his first World Championship at the age of 17. He’s constantly learned more about hunting turkeys and hunts them all over the United States.
 One of the most-difficult problems in turkey hunting for many turkey hunters is finding a place to hunt turkeys and getting to areas where other hunters aren’t hunting, to have the opportunity to hunt non-pressured turkeys. To solve this problem, I’ve learned to be really nice to landowners with properties that have turkey-hunting potential that other hunters don’t or can’t hunt. Generally there’s not something for nothing. If a person has a great place to turkey hunt, and he doesn’t let anybody hunt there, perhaps no hunter has asked what he can do to help the landowner. The landowner may have had bad experiences with poachers, hunting-club members or people he’s permitted to turkey-hunt there before in seasons past. So, you have to prove that you can be a good steward of the land and an asset to that landowner, rather than a liability.
I try to find places to hunt turkeys where I know no one but me and the turkey will be there. I think one of the most-difficult problems in turkey hunting today is locating land you can hunt where the game is just between you and the turkeys and not you, the turkeys and four or five other hunters. I get nervous when I’m hunting turkeys in an area where I know there are other turkey hunters. My friend, nationally-known turkey hunter Eddie Salter, was hunting with me a few years ago, when at three-different times, he was calling-in turkeys, and other hunters shot those turkeys.
 Unfortunately, that’s the way many turkey hunters hunt. That’s the bad news. The good news is that because of the re-stocking efforts of local departments of conservation and with the help of the National Wild Turkey Federation (NWTF), the U.S. has exploding turkey populations nationwide. I think we’re really excited now when we can go out and hear five or six different turkeys gobble in one morning. For every one of those toms that’s vocal, we know a large number of hens are going to him. So, another problem that we face today with this exploding turkey population is that in many places, we have to hunt gobblers that already have all the hens they want. You may get a turkey to gobble every time you call, but if he’s got a flock of hens with him, bringing him within gun range will be tough. Here are three basic rules to take a gobbler with a lot of hens.
Try to call the gobbler away from the hens.
 Determine what type of calling works best. For some toms, you can call them away from flocks of hens by calling aggressively. With other gobblers, they may not come until you seldom call them and softly. Most of the time, I’ve found that being aggressive with one of Hunter’s Specialties Ring Zone calls or a Hunter’s Specialties’ diaphragm call works best.
Gobble to that turkey with a Hunter’s Specialties’ Thunder Twister Gobble Call.
When you’re using this tactic, you’re trying to make the gobbler mad and make him believe there’s another gobbler coming-in to his territory to try to take his harem of hens. Besides gobbling at him, you can give some subordinate gobbler calls like you’re a young gobbler. Many times, that ole gobbler will think, “I’m going to go run that young boy off.” But, be careful where you set-up and use this call, because another hunter may think you’re a tom turkey.
Call the hens to you.
 Again, you have to determine if the hens will come to soft calling or aggressive calling. If none of these tactics work, I’ll pull-out what I believe to be one of the deadliest calls of all to call a tom away from a hen. Hunter’s Specialties’ Squealing Hen is a call that Eddie Salter created. I’ve found that this call is extremely deadly on henned-up gobblers, because it’s the call a hen makes when a gobbler’s breeding her. The picture you’re painting in the mind of the tom you’re attempting to call-in is that not only has another gobbler moved into his territory, that other gobbler is actually breeding some of his hens. Then the male ego of the gobbler kicks into full gear. The gobbler thinks, “I’ve got to run-off this intruder, or he’ll breed all my other hens.”
 Learn more about hunting turkeys from some of the top turkey hunters in the country, including Matt Morrett. Get your copy of the Kindle eBook, “PhD Gobblers” by John E. Phillips by clicking here. Amazon Prime members can receive the book free for 5 days.
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