“Best Time of the Year”

I have been turkey hunting now for 37 years and every year is an anticipated high for me as the first blossoms start to appear. I make many trips afield to

hear the first gobbles of the morning in early spring as the sun is just starting to rise. For me turkey hunting has become an obsession to get outdoors and chase the infamous long beard around. In the last few years I have even challenged myself to hunt with archery equipment, that’s a whole new ballgame.

When daylight is breaking and the birds start gobbling I make my move to get as close as I dare staying in the shadows and close the wood lines avoiding my silhouette to be seen by a roosting tom.  I set up in relatively open woods to allow the turkeys  feel comfortable. After several minutes I will give a fly down sound to imitate the hen that I am trying to mock and do nothing more than purr and cluck to sound like I am feeding and scratching in the leaves for breakfast. Hunting turkeys is challenge in the sense they can see 90 percent around them without turning their head. not to mention their head is always moving. Start calling softly to get the big guys attention. if he answers, great I still call softly to get him more excited.This makes bow hunting extremely tough when they get close enough to shoot, which for me is inside of thirty yards. Hunting from a portable blind gives a slight edge to drawing my bow when the long beard struts into range.

I’ve found out the hard way that is close to impossible to sneak up on gobblers. Watch the way the birds are constantly moving their heads around, ever alert, and you will understand why stalking a gobbler rarely works.

Turkey hunting has long been among my favorite of the hunting sports because there are few things as thrilling as hearing a big tom gobbling away in the woods on a quiet, sunny morning. Especially if you can tell it is getting closer to you every time it he gobbles.

When a gobbler does start coming in, slow down your calling and make it softer, not louder or even quit calling so they come looking for you. You want to play hard to get for that tom, and sounding like you are too eager sends the wrong message and can get a mature bird too nervous and he will want the impatient hen to come to him.

Big gobblers don’t get to be old birds by being reckless.