TURKEY-TAKING QUIZ

Fooling Smart Turkeys

EDITOR'S NOTE: The game of turkey hunting is played in the turkey's backyard and on his terms. The strategies required to bag a tom turkey often may make war games look simple. The hunters who have amassed the most techniques, encountered the most turkeys and know what to do when the turkey doesn't do what he is supposed to do, will come home with bronze barons for dinner more often than other hunters.

4. There are some smart turkeys that have been harassed by so many hunters that they will not come to calling. So a sportsman must decide whether he wants to call turkeys or kill turkeys. If the hunter has decided to take this bird, what is the best tactic to use?
a) cluck three times and hush
b) call a couple of times to determine which way a turkey is walking, circle the bird, get in front of him and don't call anymore, in hopes that he will walk in to where you are
c) take a stand in the direction the turkey usually travels and wait on the bird to show up, but don't call at all
Answer: b) call a couple of times to determine which way a turkey is walking, and circle the bird, get in front of him and don't call anymore in hopes that he will walk in to where you are -- Even if the gobbler answers going away from you, you should be able to determine a turkey's route of travel. With this information, you should have a pretty good guess of where to set up an ambush out in front of the gobbler.

5. When you are in an area that has a large number of hens, and the gobbler will not fly off of the limb or come to hen calling until he sees the female, how can you take the bird?
a) use a turkey decoy if the procedure is legal in your state
b) flush the gobbler, walk in the direction he flew off to and then attempt to call him back
c) try and determine in which direction the hens normally feed after they meet the gobbler, don't do any calling and take a stand on the hen's feeding route
d) none of the above
e) all of the above
Answer: e) all of the above -- Any of these tactics will work on toms that have a large supply of lady friends.

6. Some mornings turkeys don't gobble. However there are methods that can be used to make them gobble. What is the best tactic to use?
a) use a crow call
b) call loudly
c) call like a bluejay
d) begin to gobble
Answer: a) use a crow call -- The crow call is one of the most effective calls to use to get a turkey to shock gobble (gobble as a reaction to a stimulus rather than gobbling for mating purposes). There is just something about the high pitch of a crow call that seems to make hush-mouthed gobblers talk.

7. In high-pressure areas where there are many hunters in the woods, when is the best time to bag a gobbler?
a) in the mornings early before the other hunters get out in the woods
b) late in the afternoon just before fly-up time
c) in the middle of the day when no one else is hunting
Answer: c) in the middle of the day when no one else is hunting -- "I hunt in the middle of the day, because I've found that turkeys are less wary and easier to call in regions of high-hunting pressure," explains Harold Knight of Knight and Hale Game Calls in Cadiz, Kentucky. "Turkeys learn outdoorsmen's hunting patterns. After the season begins, most turkeys know that there will be fewer hunters in the woods from 10:30 a.m. until 2:30 p.m. than at any other time of the day. So that's when I hunt the hunter-shy gobblers.

"Middle-of-the-day hunting is slow hunting because 75 percent of the time the turkey won't gobble before he comes in to where the hunter is waiting. I usually go to a place where two or three finger ridges come together into one hollow in an area where I know turkeys are supposed to be. Then I start calling and waiting. Many times I will wait an hour or two before I move. Usually, I never will hear the turkey until I see him. But there is a lot of good hunting in the middle of the day when other sportsmen are not in the woods."

EDITOR'S NOTE: PULLING A GOBBLE AWAY FROM HIS HAREM