Turkey Hunting with Bo Pitman of White Oak Plantation
Why Your Gun Doesn’t Shoot Straight
Editor’s
Note: Bo Pitman can’t remember when he hasn’t
hunted turkeys. For more than 20 years, he’s guided
and hunted turkeys at White Oak Plantation near Tuskegee,
Alabama, a 30,000-acre-plus hunting lodge that has some
of the best turkey hunting in the nation. From March
14th to the end of April, Pitman’s in the woods
of White Oak hunting turkeys every day. With stands
of hardwood timber, pine plantations and fields dispersed
throughout the property, White Oak’s ideal habitat
for the Eastern wild turkey. Each season, 30 to 50 hunters
bag from 35 to 55 turkeys off this property. I don’t
know any other place in the nation with more gobbling
Eastern turkeys than White Oak. This week, we’ll
ask Pittman what’s required to take a longbeard,
and what we need to know to increase our odds for taking
gobblers this spring.
I have some hunters who take their shotguns out of
the boxes they’ve bought them in and get ready
to go hunting. They think that because they’ve
bought those shotguns brand new, that they will shoot
straight and take turkeys for them. But all shotguns
coming right out of the box don’t necessarily
shoot straight. This is the reason why every guide wants
to go with his hunter and see him pattern his shotgun
on a turkey target. Once the hunter patterns his shotgun
on a turkey-head target, the hunter and the guide both
know how close and/or how far away that hunter can take
a shot at a turkey with a reasonable expectation of
taking that gobbler. Some shotguns will shoot a really-tight
pattern, but that pattern may not be right in the center
of where they’re aiming with the bead on the end
of the shotgun. I prefer that a hunter not bring a brand-new
shotgun on his turkey hunt with me. I’d rather
he bring
a shotgun he’s hunted with for several seasons
that he’s comfortable with, so he knows that when
he pulls the trigger with the shells he normally shoots
for turkey hunting, the gun and those shells will produce
the pattern he needs to take the turkey home with him.
Then he won’t stand there in disgust and watch
the turkey either run or fly off.
Regardless of how many turkeys we hear gobble, how
many turkeys we get to come to us, and how close we’re
able to get to the turkey before the hunter takes the
shot, if that hunter doesn’t have a comfortable
cushion to sit on and a gun he’s comfortable
enough with that he can make an accurate shot, then
everything else we do on the hunt won’t produce
a gobbler for that hunter. Now I’m not saying
that you won’t miss a turkey. I’ve seen
legendary turkey hunters miss turkeys. I’ve seen
and guided some of the greatest turkey hunters in the
nation, and they’ve missed turkeys, not because
of any fault of the hunter or his equipment. They’ve
just missed. Sometimes, even when you do everything
right, you’ll miss a turkey. It happens. But what
I want to do, and what I want my hunter to do is everything
humanly possible to prevent missing a turkey. When you
miss a turkey, the only one that feels good about that
miss is usually the turkey. This is the reason I try
to do an equipment check with my hunters before we go
hunting. I want to do everything in my power to help
that turkey hunter get the turkey he’s come to
White Oak to take.
For more information on hunting at White Oak Plantation,
call (334) 727-9258, or visit www.whiteoakplantation.com,
or email hunt@whiteoakplantation.com
Tomorrow: Stingy Calling
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