 HUNTER’S
SPECIALTIES’ PHD GOBBLERS
Mr. On-the-Move Gobbler, PhD
EDITOR’S NOTE: Any turkey hunter who tells you
he knows everything about taking a turkey will lie to
you about something else. Turkey hunting is a continuing-education
program. Every spring you learn more than you have the
spring before. There are several ways to learn the sport
of turkey hunting, including videos, television shows,
books, magazine articles and newspaper articles. But
the very-best way to learn how to hunt a turkey are
from the turkeys themselves, especially the PhD gobblers
that know as much about the hunters who hunt them, as
the hunters know about the turkeys they are trying to
take. I’ve just completed my fifth turkey-hunting
book, “Hunter’s Specialties’ PhD Gobblers.”
In the book I’ve interviewed some of the greatest
turkey hunters in the nation - the Hunter’s Specialties’
Pros - and each pro tells us about three different gobblers
and what they’ve learned from these PhD gobblers.
For the next few days, you can read excerpts from the
book. You can buy the book from us by calling (205)
967-3830 or emailing us at john7185@bellsouth.net
for $24.95 each plus $4  shipping
and handling. I’ll sign and date the book for
you if you’ll send a check or a money order for
$28.95 each or use PayPal- john7185@bellsouth.net.
Hunter’s Specialties’ Pro Alex Rutledge
of Birchtree, Missouri, a master turkey hunter and one
of the nation’s top turkey callers has over 30
years of turkey-hunting experience. Rutledge knows how
to call turkeys, as proved by the many titles he’s
accumulated competing in turkey-calling contests over
the years, including the National Amateur Turkey Calling
Championship in Yellville, Arkansas, the Missouri State
Turkey Calling Championship, the Grand National Gobbling
Championship, the South-Central Missouri Ozark Calling
Championship twice, the Southeast Missouri Gobbling
Championship and the Southwest Open Turkey Calling Championship.
Growing up on a farm and hunting turkeys and other game
animals all his life, Rutledge has met several tough-to-hunt
turkeys that he considers his professors in the sport
of turkey hunting.
“How many times have you called to a bird, and
after the first call,  he
gobbles back to you?” Rutledge asks. “However,
the next time he gobbles from further away. I call this
type of turkey an on-the-move or pushed gobbler. I call
him a pushed gobbler because the hens he’s with
are pushing him away from you. Even if you try to call
to the hens, no matter whether you’re calling
quietly or aggressively, they’ll always try to
push the gobbler away from you.
“I was hunting a gobbler late in the morning
here in the Ozarks near where I live. Every time I’d
call to this turkey, he would move away from me. I knew
the only way I could take this turkey was to hunt him
as though I was hunting a deer that was moving away
from me. I realized if I continued to call to the turkey,
I’d do nothing but continue to push him away from
me. I went down in a hollow where the turkey couldn’t
see me, got in front of the direction that the turkey
was traveling and sat still and quiet. I never called
at all. In a little while, the hens with the tom scratched
in the leaves, clucking and purring as they fed toward
me. Although the tom never gobbled, he was spitting
and drumming in the distance. So, I just waited, let
the hens come to me and walk by me. I realized that
often the gobbler wouldn’t be right with the hens
but instead would be 75-100 yards behind them. These
turkeys started moving down a ridge. After the hens
 had
gone by the gobbler, I still could hear him coming.
I clucked and purred as softly as I could to make the
ole tom think that one of the hens had stayed behind
the flock. Within 10 minutes, that On-the-Move Gobbler
walked right up to me, and I took him at less than 30
yards. I’d learned that many times the best call
you could use when you were hunting a turkey that was
gobbling, going away from you, was no call at all.
“Remember, we’re learning how to hunt turkeys,
not how to call turkeys. Often, if not almost every
time you hunt a pushed gobbler, the more you call, the
less likely you are to take him.”
TOMORROW: PIKETOWN PHD TOM
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