TURKEY HUNT FOR BUCKS WITH DON SHIPP

Patience

EDITOR'S NOTE: Don Shipp of Clinton, Arkansas, an accomplished turkey hunter who won the World Turkey Calling Championship in 1997, 1998 and 1999, also enjoys hunting deer. This week Shipp tells us his secrets for using turkey-hunting tactics to hunt big bucks.

QUESTION: What's the second most-important thing to being successful at bagging a deer or taking a turkey?
ANSWER: In any kind of hunting -- deer, turkey or other -- much of your success depends on patience. On many mornings when you go turkey hunting, the weather will be wrong and you won't hear ant gobbling. But you can't just get in your truck and leave. You must have patience. The same is true when you hunt deer. You may climb into your stand and spend several days there without ever spotting a deer. You may not see any movement at all. In these situations, you need to practice patience and persistence. Many hunters give up too quickly and think, "Well, I haven't seen anything at this stand. I'm leaving." But they know it's a good spot to hunt deer or they won't have hung a stand there. You've just got to have the patience to stay with it and believe in the reasons you hung that stand there. Remember, deer don't move every day. Often their movements depend on weather patterns, or maybe the does have changed their routines a little bit. But a buck always will return to check out a region where he's left sign. He put that sign down there for a reason. He may wait two or three days, but he'll be back -- just like an old gobbler that always returns to his roost tree.

QUESTION: On how many consecutive days have you hunted one turkey?
ANSWER: I've been on one gobbler for seven or eight days.

QUESTION: Most hunters won't hunt the same stand for even two weekends in a row.
ANSWER: That's right. But if the sign is there, you know the deer is in the area. He's not going to show his face in the open a lot -- especially if he's an older, bigger deer. But you've got to be in the woods every chance you get. You probably won't shoot a 160-class buck the first day you go out on a hunt. Just be patient, and the opportunity for a good shot will present itself.

TOMORROW: STAND PLACEMENT AND OBSERVATION