OUT-OF-POSITION GOBBLERS

Natural Sounds Help Not Hurt

EDITOR'S NOTE: Often, when a turkey comes in, you have to move to get off a shot. Although you've set up right, the turkey comes in wrong. Chris Kirby, president of Quaker Boy Calls, and I learned that lesson the hard way while hunting right outside of Orchard Park, New York. Instead of coming along the edge of the field like Kirby predicted, the gobbler came in to the middle of the thicket. To help me get off a shot, Kirby had to turn the gobbler around and march him within 10 feet of me. He accomplished that task by using Quaker Boy's new Gobbler Positioning System call (GPS).

QUESTION: What happens if you make a loud noise when repositioning?
ANSWER: Remain as quiet as you possibly can when you move through the woods. But don't think your hunt is over if you make a sound. Just remember you'll often hear that turkey come in to you before you see it. Natural sounds like leaves rustling and sticks breaking occur in the woods all the time. So when you snap a little limb or rustle some leaves, don't think the world ends at that point. That gobbler expects to hear some sort of sound as a hen comes to him, and calling just adds to the realism. If you have to make a move, do so softly, and give some yelps along with it. The gobbler will believe that a hen made that sound as she moved. Then he thinks, "Not only can I hear her calling, but now I can hear her walking toward me in the leaves."

QUESTION: How do you know whether to move to a place where you can shoot or stay put and wait on the bird to dictate what to do?
ANSWER: You have to let the turkey dictate when you move and when you don't move. The terrain also dictates whether you can move or can't move. And to complicate it a little bit more, you have to match the mood of the turkey to the type of terrain you are hunting to know when to take the shot.

Later on in the morning, when you and I found three toms gobbling out in a field, we had to make the decision whether or not to move. We thought that the turkeys were still far enough over the crest of the hill in the field that we could move in close. The first time we set up, you couldn't see the edge of the field, so we thought the turkeys were still far enough out of range that you could move five or six yards to get a better shot. We thought that all I had to do was call the turkeys to the edge of the field so you could take one.

As the birds moved to you, a hawk flew above them. Instead of continuing to come down the edge of the field, all three gobblers dove into the thicket to get away from the hawk. Once the turkeys went into the thicket, I pointed my GPS call in their direction and followed through with the sound to the left to make the turkeys think that the hens were still there. I threw the call and the sound so that the gobblers would walk in front of you. I had initially started throwing it to the right, and as the turkeys moved to the right, I threw it back to the left. I kept in mind that in nature the hens go to the gobblers. So I just played hard to get. When I threw the call in a different direction, the gobblers changed directions to intercept the hen. I tried to throw the call to the other side so that the gobblers would walk in front of you. And when they did, you took a gobbler at less than 10 steps. I really believe that by using a call that you can throw in different directions, you can better manipulate the gobbler as he comes in to you. This friction call allows you to make the hen sound come from any direction you choose and will actually enable you to move the gobbler to the spot you selected.

To learn more productive turkey-hunting tactics, go back to the splash page, and click on books on the left-hand side of the page.

TOMORROW: USING A CALL TO MOVE THE TURKEY