OUT-OF-POSITION GOBBLERS

Avoid Snappy Movements

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: If you have to make a move on a turkey, do you make a quick move or a slow move with the turkey looking at you? Most hunters want to throw the gun up quickly and get off the shot. When your gun is out of position, and you have to move it severely to the right or the left to have a shot at the turkey, what is the best way to make that move?
ANSWER: If you must make that move with the turkey in plain view, I suggest you move slowly and deliberately. While you make that slow and deliberate move, yelp at the same time with a diaphragm call to confuse the bird. He'll often stay confused long enough for you to get off the shot. If you make slow and deliberate movements, the turkey will see that movement, but will not know what he is seeing. You will spook him a little bit, but if you try to snap shoot a turkey in full view of you, you will definitely spook him.

All types of predators attack turkeys. They get chased by coyotes and foxes, which sit in the thicket and pounce on them. So I believe when you make that snappy movement, they expect some type of predator to attack. Often, you can get away with just sighting in the gun on the turkey's head and making a good, clean kill. If the turkey is behind a tree, obviously, you can make that snap move without that turkey seeing you.

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: THE TURKEY THAT SNEAKS UP BEHIND YOU