When to Ambush Turkeys and Climb Trees

EDITOR'S NOTE: My good friend and one of my favorite turkey-hunting buddies, Bo Pitman, the manager of White Oak Plantation near Tuskegee, Alabama, ranks as one of the most tenacious turkey hunters ever.

To bag toms, you must attempt to take the birds when they're on the move before they get to where they're going. Bo Pitman utilizes an appointment schedule for taking gobblers and ranks them according to priority, with the easiest place to bag a turkey being first and the most difficult site or time at the bottom of the list.

"The easiest time to bag a gobbler is in the morning when he flies down off the roost," Pitman emphasized. "The next easiest time is before he gets to his feed, but your chances are less after the tom has fed.

"If you can catch the turkey coming for his food to his loafing area, you may have an opportunity to bag him. However, more than likely you're not going to take him in his loafing area. Bagging that bird when he's returning to the spot where he wants to feed from his loafing is almost impossible. But you still have a small chance of taking a turkey if he walks from his feeding site, often a field, into the woods before he flies up to his roost.

"One of the reasons turkeys are so tough to take in their loafing regions is because you can't see them in the woods as well as you can in the fields. Also they don't gobble as much in their loafing areas as they do in the fields. Many times you may walk into a flock of turkeys and spook them if you're trying to hunt them when they're loafing."

Since Pitman hunts around many agricultural fields, he may climb a tree 30 to 40 yards off the side of a field to be able to spot gobblers.

"If you're planning to climb a tree to watch turkeys, make sure you climb on the back side of the tree where the turkeys can't see you," Pitman instructed. "Also don't go up the tree if a tom's not more than 150 yards from you. As long as you move slowly and don't climb any higher than you have to be able to see the birds, you can go up a tree and get a much better view of the turkeys and the lay of the land and more accurately make your stalk plans."

Unlike most hunters, Pitman doesn't let turkeys intimidate him. Just as Pitman once believed he could ride any bull he climbed on (See Day 1), he now thinks he can hide from any turkey he can see, whether he's climbing a tree or lying flat in the ground belly crawling.

"I've had birds 5 or 6 feet from me that never have seen me when I've been on the ground," Pitman said.

Bob Hickey of CVA told me when he hunted with Pitman that Pitman crawled up on the edge of a field and then raised up on his knees to glass some turkeys 200 to 300 yards way.

"As Bo raised up right beside a fence post, I was on the ground 50 yards behind him," Hickey remembered. "Then I heard the beating wings of a gobbler that was very late flying down from the roost. The tom flew right over Bo and landed not more than 50 yards from where Bo was frozen against the fence post.

"When the turkey hit the ground, the bird began to feed. Although the bird stared at Bo, Bo never moved, flinched or blinked. That longbeard looked Bo over good. I don't think the turkey could separate the man from the post since Bo was so tight to the post. Bo held his position for 20 or 30 minutes until the gobbler finally started to feed away from him. Then Bo crouched down and crawled away from the fence post without spooking the gobbler."

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: Be Resourceful When All Else Fails