 HUNTER’S
SPECIALTIES’ PHD GOBBLERS
Piketown PhD Tom
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.
Matt Morrett of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, began his
outdoor education while accompanying his father to the
woods at the age of six. His love of hunting turkeys
and deer found him sitting in the cold woods, waiting
for rut-swollen November bucks and straining his ears
in the spring, hoping to pick up a gobble ringing across
the ridges of Pennsylvania. Morrett has perfected turkey
calling to a degree that few others have matched. Dedication
to fine tuning his calling techniques has earned Morrett
more than 50 turkey-calling championships, including
five World Friction Turkey Calling titles, six U.S.
Open Turkey Calling victories and the coveted Grand
National Champion title. In 1994, Morrett put his calling
to the test by taking an eastern bird in Missouri, a
Rio Grande in Texas, an Osceola in Florida and a Merriam’s
in South Dakota to complete the Grand Slam of all four
subspecies of the wild turkey.
As a member of Hunter’s Specialties’ Pro
Staff, Morrett travels the country conducting seminars
on turkey and deer hunting. Using his knowledge, he
helps design and field test many of the products manufactured
by Hunter’s Specialties to aid hunters in taking
gobblers with their doctorates in avoiding hunters.
“I lived in Piketown, Pennsylvania, and on this
hunt, I was hunting with my dad,” Morrett recalls.
“Although I grew up hunting with my dad, we had
two very-different types of hunting. When my dad picked
a turkey and decided to call with him, he might stay
with that turkey until lunchtime. Even if the turkey
quit gobbling, Dad wouldn’t leave that bird but
I was a run-and-gun type of turkey hunter. If I couldn’t
get the turkey to come to me quickly, and the bird quit
gobbling, I’d leave that bird and go hunt for
a turkey that was more eager to respond to calling.
“Dad had taken a day off from work so that he
and I could hunt together, which of course would rate
as my favorite hunt of the year. After we’d hunted
all morning long and were walking out of the woods,
I told my dad, ‘Let me make one more stop here,
and throw my calls out in this one area.’ We’d
had a real bad morning and just hadn’t heard very
many turkeys gobble. When I started cutting, immediately
a turkey fired back with a loud gobble. Twenty minutes
later we’d taken that 25-pound tom with an 11-inch
beard and 1-1/4-inch spurs, a huge turkey for our section
of the country.  We
had to quit hunting at noon but didn’t strike
this gobbler until 11:30 a.m. Once we actually reached
the turkey, I looked at my watch, which reported 11:50
a.m., just 10 minutes before quitting time. In the past,
if I’d been out hunting and hadn’t heard
any turkeys gobble all morning long, I would’ve
just kept going to the house and not stopped and tried
one more series of calls. I’d have given up. But
the Piketown PhD Tom taught me to stay after the turkeys
until the last minute that I could legally hunt.”
TOMORROW: THE CROOKED TOE TOM,
PHD
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