Understand Where A Turkey Wants To Go And What To do After The Easy Way Fails

EDITOR'S NOTE: Bo Pitman, my good friend who is the manager of White Oak Plantation near Tuskegee, Alabama, ranks as one of the most tenacious turkey hunters ever.

Once a hunter asked Pitman, "When a turkey is in the field, how can you predict where he wants to walk out of the field?"

Pitman answered, "When a turkey gets too hot to stay in the open, he looks for a place to enter the woods that's clean and where he can see for 30 to 100 yards. That gobbler is not going to pick a spot to go into the woods where there's thick cover and a predator that's been watching him in the field has a chance to sneak up on him."

Then once the turkey starts to make his move, so does Pitman. However, unlike many hunters, Pitman doesn't stand up and run after the turkey but rather belly crawls. Although an average crawl for Pitman may be 1/4- to 1/2-mile, he may crawl further to try to get close to a big, boss gobbler.

"When you're lying on the ground, you can take advantage of bushes and small, low, rolling hills as well as fallen trees to hide your movement," Pitman commented. "A turkey is not nearly as likely to see you when you're walking around. Remember, the object of the hunt is to take a turkey. So even though belly crawling may be uncomfortable, that strategy is much more productive than standing up and walking or running, and the turkey's seeing you."

Although some hunters may not consider Pitman's techniques of running, gunning, belly crawling and ambushing a gobbler sporting, as Pitman explained, "To get in a position to shoot a turkey when you can't call him is much more difficult than calling a bird to you. The easy way to bag a tom in the spring is to go into the woods before daylight, hear the love-starved longbeard call demanding a sexy hen, make a few seductive yelps and have the ole bird come charging in with sex on his mind and get lead in his head. Anybody can take a turkey like that.

"The crawling and ambushing tactics are what I'm forced to use when the easy way doesn't work. You never will kill some turkeys if you don't ambush them. Understand that a turkey's eyesight is five to 10 times better than man's. Then you'll realize you're stacking the cards in the gobbler's favor any time you move on him. I'm convinced the outmaneuvering a turkey and bagging him requires much more skill than calling to him. The hunter handicaps himself even more when he has another person with him and tries to let that other person bag the bird."

To learn more about how to turkey hunt, go to www.nighthawkpublications.com to the home page, and click on books. You can order three of John Phillips' four turkey-hunting books by calling (800) 627-4295 or by sending a check or a money order to Night Hawk Publications, 4112 Camp Horner Road, Birmingham, AL 35243.

TOMORROW: When to Ambush Turkeys and Climb Trees