OUT-OF-POSITION GOBBLERS

The Turkey That Sneaks Up Behind You

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: When the turkey screams out his gobbles 10 yards behind you, what do you do?
ANSWER: When a gobbler screams right behind you at 10 yards, don't do anything at all. You can't see that turkey, but you can feel him breathing down the back of your neck. Sit still, and try not to breathe. Let that turkey walk off; then try to reposition and call him back in again to you. Nine times out of 10, if you attempt to make a move on a turkey that close, you'll just spook him. So, if a turkey is smart enough to come in behind you, let him walk off and call him in a different day.

QUESTION: How much movement can you get away with?
ANSWER: You can't get away with any movement.

QUESTION: What about noise and turkeys?
ANSWER: You can get away with some noise. You don't want to sound like a freight train coming through the woods, but a little rustle of the leaves helps. When a turkey comes in close, I like to take my hand and scratch softly in the leaves right beside me. You can bring in turkeys a little closer by scratching in the leaves. Leaf and twig noises are not bad sounds in the woods. Sometimes they add a little bit of realism to what you want to accomplish.

QUESTION: What about when you have to cough or clear your
throat?
ANSWER: Don't.

QUESTION: Do you cover it with a call?
ANSWER: You can cover a cough if you have a friction call. Try to run the call at the same time you cough, so that hopefully the call you make will mask your cough. But sometimes you still will spook high-pressured gobblers.

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.