Vern Evans
When a turkey hunt goes perfectly, it’s so simple that it seems anyone could do it. Yelp at a tom, listen to him gobble, sit next to a tree, spot him strutting toward you and then watch him stand there dumbly for your shot.
But as turkey populations have declined in many places around the country, hunting is getting tougher, and these perfect turkey shoot scenarios are happening less often. When the conditions are suboptimal, and toms get quiet, there are a ton of ways that a turkey hunter can screw up.
In fact, there’s a whole library of web stories and forum threads about turkey hunting mistakes. Most of them have to do with calling too much, or not calling enough, or not patterning your gun. While those are mistakes that can cost you a bird, I think there are actually some deeper issues that prevent many turkey hunters from having success when the going gets tough.
I know, because I’ve made all of these big mistakes myself — several times. I’ve also interviewed a handful of true turkey killers over the years who have given me tips on avoiding these mistakes in the future. Hopefully, reading this story will help you do the same.
You’re Not Scouting Hard Enough
I get it, once the turkey season starts you want to spend every available moment hunting. But take a tip from expert waterfowl hunters who spend more time scouting than they do hunting. They’ll drive hundreds of miles and wait for days or weeks until they find the right scenario, then when they do — they smash ’em.
Last spring I had to do just that. I had killed a couple turkeys early on, but by the last two weeks of the season, it felt like all of my public spots had been worked over. I knew there were turkeys on the properties, or at least around them, but they simply would not cooperate. After several frustrating hunts, I decided to dedicate the next two mornings to scouting only. I drove a couple hundred miles of grid patterns through the area, glassing birds in fields and then trying to lock down permission. I ended up getting permission on a field with multiple toms around it, and watched it for two mornings in a row. On the third morning I shot a gobbler and my buddy got a crack at a second (but missed).
While I realize it’s not possible to successfully door knock in every corner of turkey country, the point remains: Sometimes you have to give up some hunting days for scouting.
You Don’t Understand Flock Dynamics
Thorough scouting will also help you understand how the turkeys you’re hunting are interacting with each other. Hunters who are consistently successful approach each hunt based on the disposition of their target tom.
If a tom is showing dominance, you can go after him more aggressively with decoys and calls than you can when targeting a sub-dominant bird or a bird that’s slinking around just trying to stay alive. Furthermore, it might be futile trying to hunt a boss tom that has a harem of hens (unless you’re planning on reaping him).
In a recent podcast episode, veteran turkey pro Mark Drury gave a detailed breakdown on how he approaches decoys setups based on flock dynamics. Sadly, too many hunters skip these details and approach every morning, and every tom, with the same basic strategy. And they fail more times than not.
You Don’t Really Understand Turkey Vocalizations
There’s a big disconnect between how turkeys behave, and how hunters think they should behave. Take gobbling for example.
How often have you heard your buddy seem perplexed about a scenario where a turkey “gobbled his head off on the limb and then flew down, shut up, and walked off.”
This is actually pretty normal turkey behavior, according to an interview I did last year with Dr. Mike Chamberlain. Toms often gobble to locate other turkeys. They’ll gobble from the safety of their roost to identify where the hens and other gobblers are. Then when they fly down and get together, there’s no need to gobble anymore. Meanwhile the hunter acts indignant because the gobbler didn’t come screaming in.
Hunters also make the mistake of just throwing out random turkey call noises without really thinking about the scenario they’re trying to create for a target tom. So take a little time to really learn how turkeys communicate with each other (listen to them in the woods and read about wild turkey sounds). Then put yourself, as a caller, into each scenario appropriately.
You’re Underestimating the Impact of Hunting Pressure
There’s solid research showing that hunting pressure decreases gobbling activity. Yes, toms go semi-crazy when breeding competition is on, but their priorities will quickly change to simple survival when obvious danger is present. That includes hunters tromping around the woods and fields.
If you can, do everything in your power to avoid hunting pressure. If you must hunt pressured birds (and many of us have no choice) then understand that they’re just not going to gobble as much later in the season. That’s because of us.
You’re Hunting on a Vendetta
The second part of understanding hunting pressure is knowing when to give up on a tom. I get it. You missed him early in the season and now you’ve just got to tag him. I’ve been there, and I’ve eaten tags over it.
I missed an Osceola gobbler that, afterward, kept showing up on trail camera. My young guide really wanted to get this specific bird, which he’d hunted him with other clients, too. So we stayed after him, hunting each day until late afternoon. It didn’t take long for that tom to quit gobbling altogether and we never did see him again. But he’d show up on camera after we left.
In my experience, the more time you spend hunting a specific bird, the less likely you are to kill him. This is especially true when you’ve shot at a tom or spooked him another way. Many times it’s better to admit defeat and just find a different gobbler.
You Suck at Hiding
You need light cover in front of you and heavy cover behind you, and the sun over your shoulder. (Barring that, you at least need to be in the shade.) Without these three elements, a turkey will pick you out if it gets close enough.
Too many hunters prioritize their setups so they can have nice clear shooting lanes, which they never get to use because the tom hangs up when it spots them from 70 yards away.
I’ll take a good hide over a clear lane any day. And this counts double for field hunters. Get back into cover. Do not try to sit right on the edge.
You’re Not Willing to Change
You killed turkeys in previous seasons in the old spots with the regular old tactics. But this season it’s just not working out. Take it from me: Change it up before it’s too late. Try a new tactic. Explore a new spot. Do anything but return to the same blind, just to set the same decoy spread that the tom skirted three days ago.
Sometimes this means going against your preferred style of hunting. For example, I like to run and gun (or more accurately, walk slowly and call). But there are some points during the season and some locations where it’s dang near impossible to strike a tom during the middle of the day. In these cases it makes more sense to post up in an area with a lot of turkey sign — and wait it out.
When the going gets really tough, I’ll move slowly (like, painfully slowly) through woods that seem turkey traffic and call softly as I go. I’ll scratch in the leaves like I’m a hen feeding and I stop with my back to a tree every 10 yards or so. Doing this I’ve gotten in close to unsuspecting toms and ultimately killed them.
The key point is to take what the turkey woods provides and adjust your tactics to the conditions.
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