bird hunting

The Gobbling Graph: When Turkeys Gobble Most, And How To Hunt Them

Joe_Cermele — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 15:45:30 -0400

Some days, turkeys gobble from dawn to dark. Other days, they don’t gobble at all. Why? The easy explanation is that they’re unpredictable. While that may be true, gobbling does follow a pattern throughout the mating season, with two peaks and a lull in between. The dates in the chart below are based on a landmark survey done in South Carolina, but the pattern is the same everywhere. Depending on where you live, your state’s hunting season may begin after gobbling has started, or end while it is still going on. The onset of spring prompts gobblers to sound off and display. After toms gather harems, gobbling decreases, marking the height of mating season. When fertilized hens leave to sit on nests, gobbling picks up again as toms search for unbred females. Gobbling rises to a second peak, then tapers off. Monitoring gobbling activity can help you determine which tactics to use.

Strutting decoys can make all the difference early in the season.

EARLY TO LATE MARCH - The First Peak
Winter flocks break up. Toms fight with one another and gobble and display to attract hens.

What to Do

Fake a Turkey Fight: Use a push-button box—or two—to provoke a gobbler. Stage a fight using aggressive purrs, just like rattling in a buck. Mix them with wingbeat sounds made by slapping your hat against your leg.

Set Out a Strutter: Full-strut decoys work early in the season, as gobblers are looking to chase any competitors out of their territory. Hunt with a partner, as you may have more than one gobbler come in to confront your strutter

LATE MARCH TO MID-APRIL - The Lull
Most gobblers have hens with them and so have little reason to gobble.

What to Do

Bust a Harem: If you scatter a flock of turkeys, let the birds rest for approximately 30 minutes, then set up in cover and make soft hen calls and yelps in an attempt to lure the gobbler back into range.

Run and Gun: Not all toms have hens. Walk likely territory (wear orange where required), stopping to call every 100 to 150 yards until a subdominant turkey gobbles.

Talk to the Hens: Cluck, yelp, and scratch leaves to play on the hens’ curiosity to see who the new turkey may be. Be nonthreatening, as hens that have gobblers will lead them away from loudmouth females.

MID-APRIL TO MID-MAY - The Second Peak
Hens go to nest; toms seek unbred females.

What to Do

Adjust to Pressure: Hunters in the woods can curb gobbling activity. Early in the second peak, when pressure is high, hunt middays (where legal), after the morning shift of hunters goes home and before the after-work crowd arrives. Run and gun, stopping to yelp every 100 yards to provoke a gobble, or pick a series of spots to call blind for an hour.

Exploit Sunny Days: Sunny, high-pressure mornings make turkeys gobble, like on this bluebird day during the survey marked with the letter A. Conditions are perfect, so take advantage of them. Let vocal birds guide you close to the roost before dawn. Set up within 100 yards if you can. If you know which way a gobbler goes to meet hens when he comes off the roost, be in his way. Otherwise, set up between the roost and the nearest open strutting area. Call with quiet yelps and clucks until the turkey flies down, then turn more aggressive.

During the second peak of the turkey season, be prepared to hunt on rainy days for maximum success.

Pair off Decoys: Use a jake and hen decoy together. Put the hen 25 yards from your position and the jake at 20 yards. When you set up the jake, remember that a gobbler will confront it beak to beak; angle it to put the gobbler right where you want to shoot.

Call Softly: When the season starts to wind down, call softly with a variety of calls until a bird responds. Turn up the volume if nothing answers right away, as gobblers will respond to aggressive calling at this time.

Deal with Rain: Cloudy or rainy days like this one during the survey marked with the letter B depress gobbling. Stake out open areas, where birds can stay out of wet foliage. Use a blind to stay dry. Make very soft clucks and yelps. Be patient.

LATE MAY - The Fade
Breeding slows; birds go quiet

What to Do

Talk Guy Talk: If an early spring has moved up the cycle and you’re still in the field as birds go quiet and winter flocks begin to re-form, toms won’t be as interested in hens as they will be in finding other toms. Gobbler and jake yelps can be effective now.

REGIONAL GUIDE
States at the same latitude as South Carolina should see gobbling activity during our listed dates. For the rest of the country, use this chart to add or subtract weeks from the start date of March 12.

+5 WEEKS Gobbling runs late April into June.

+4 WEEKS Gobbling starts mid April, runs to late May.

+2 WEEKS Gobbling starts early April, goes into May.

SOUTH CAROLINA Gobbling begins early to mid March, runs into May.

–2 WEEKS Activity starts in February, goes into April.

The chart is based on a survey conducted by biologists in South Carolina, where the first gobbling peak is in mid March, with activity continuing well into May (past the end of hunting season). Cold temperatures, rain, sleet, snow, and winds can delay the turkey “rut,” whereas unseasonably warm weather can make it start early.

Guns, Gear, Dogs, and More Finds from Pheasant Fest 2010

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Inside the Benelli Shotgun Factory in Urbino, Italy

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Dog Training Tips from Master Outdoorsman Jerome B. Robinson

fieldandstream-editor — Thu, 27 Jul 2006 11:20:00 -0400

Duck, Goose, and Upland Bird Hunting Tips from Jerome B. Robinson

fieldandstream-editor — Thu, 27 Jul 2006 11:00:00 -0400

Turkey Take Down

fieldandstream-editor — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 04:05:00 -0500

When there's more gobbler season behind you than in front of you, and you have yet to cut a feather, you have two choices: You can continue to hunt the way that you have been since the opener and hope that the birds will somehow change. Or, you can step up and make a change yourself by implementing a whole new turkey hunting strategy.

The three stories on the following pages detail the aggressive tactics employed by three highly successful gobbler hunters. So if you're ready to get out of your rut, read them. Then grab an extra cup of coffee and get out there.

Table of Contents
Strategy 1: Take a Hike
Strategy 2: Keep Talking
Strategy 3: Play Games

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[NEXT "Take A Hike: When time is running out, move in"]

Take A Hike When time is running out, move in.
The Expert: Andy Price

It was a typical late-season turkey hunting quandary. Two hundred yards away a tom and a hen fed along a field edge. Trying to call the tom in would have been difficult at best, and sneaking up on it would have been impossible-or so I thought.

"Want to kill that bird?" asked my host, Andy Price. He didn't wait for an answer. "Follow me. But I hope you don't mind if we get a little wet."

Price led me to a creek that snaked along the field edge. Twenty minutes later, we slipped out of the thigh-deep water and shimmied up the bank beneath a tree he had noted before our stalk. "When we raise up," he whispered, "that bird should be right in front of us." He was right-the tom was 30 yards away. Price had a clear shot, and the bird dropped.

Price has gained the reputation of a late-season savant in his hometown of Abbeville, South Carolina. "My phone usually starts ringing during the last two weeks," he says. "And it's always a friend asking if I can help put him on a bird he's having trouble killing."

To take birds with the clock winding down, Price abandons typical tactics for a more aggressive approach. Here's how to do it:

Be a field general. No matter the weather, says Price, birds will come to fields at some point in the day. Locate a few in your area and bounce from spot to spot. "I'll hunt if I know we're going to have thunderstorms," he says. "During the rain or just after, birds will be in fields preening."

Pattern birds. Turkeys will enter or exit fields from the same points, often along power lines, roads, or downed fencelines. Learn a bird's pattern and you'll know where to intercept him.

Carry few calls. At most, take a locator call and a mouth call, which is easy to carry and waterproof. "I rarely use a call unless I need a tom to lift its head before I shoot," says Price.

Take advantage of terrain. When you're sneaking up on birds, use knolls and ravines, follow creek beds, and keep to the shady side of fields. On private land, don't be afraid to belly crawl.

Know when to move. alking birds is a game of guts, and you have to listen when your gut says go. Make sure the bird has its head down, and move in concert with rustling leaves. "Don't get caught in a spot where you can't slink back to cover," says Price, "or that bird will bust you."

Get prone. "More than likely, you won't have your back against a tree when you shoot," says Price. "Being able to make the shot while lying down is essential to tagging a late-season tom this way." [NEXT "Keep Talking: Late in the season, don't let the conversation lag"]

Keep Talking Late in the season, don't let the conversation lag
The Expert: Ray Eye

"Yelp three times and shut up" is a classic formula for killing a turkey, but it no longer applies. Modern turkeys demand aggressive calling.

Ask Ray Eye, who has made his name bucking conventional turkey hunting wisdom. Eye, 53, of Dittmer, Missouri, began hunting turkeys in the Ozarks at the age of 9 with his father and grandfather. Since then, Eye has traveled the country, hunting turkeys and talking about it on radio and TV and to live audiences. Here's what Eye had to say to Field & Stream about aggressive calling.

F&S: How did you learn your aggressive calling technique?
Eye: One turkey season in the late 1960s, I came upon an article in an outdoor magazine in my grandparents' outhouse that told me what I was doing wrong. It said the only way to call in a gobbler was to yelp three times, wait 10 minutes by the watch, yelp three more times, then get your gun up and let him look for you. The next morning I slipped up to a ridge where I knew a gobbler roosted. At daybreak the tom gobbled. I carefully made three soft yelps. The tom gobbled back. I sat and stared at my borrowed pocket watch. As the tom gobbled again, I heard several yelps down the ridge.

After a long 10 minutes passed, I yelped three more times. The bird gobbled harder, but the yelps and cutts of a real hen turkey were much closer now. The more that hen called, the more the tom gobbled. The more the tom gobbled, the more excited she became. The tom flew from the roost and ran right to the hen. They met out in front of me just under the ridge, and that hen was still yelping as she ran away with my gobbler.

You can guess how much I called the next morning. I carried that big gobbler down the mountain and learned a lesson.

F&S: How do you define aggressive calling, and why does it work?
Eye: Aggressive calling means putting excitement into your calls like real turkeys do. With the success of the restoration programs, hunters have more real hens to compete with than ever. Three soft yelps rarely close the deal. From my experience, the aggressive hen gets the gobbler.

F&S: So how do you go about it?
Eye: I use a fast cadence of yelps, mixed with cutting. You don't have to call louder. Just put enough excitement into the calls to keep the bird focused on you. When a tom responds, I'll answer right back with even more excitement-with faster and higher-pitched cutting. My goal is to drive that gobbler into a frenzy. Once he answers me, I never give him a chance to change his mind. I'll cutt right up until I pull the trigger.

F&S: What kind of caller works the best for your style?
Eye: Box calls are great for aggressive cutting and yelping. I also like a "cutter" style diaphragm call that makes scratchy yelps.

F&S: Are there any situations where you call softly?
Eye: I can't think of any. At the peak of breeding, when gobblers are with hens, calling hunters hear toms gobble going away from them. They'll tell you those birds are call-shy and it's time to tone it down. The opposite is true: What's really happening is that hens are leading toms away from the sound of another hen. Challenge them and they'll come to you, bringing the gobbler along.

F&S: Why don't more hunters call aggressively?
Eye: People think it makes turkeys call-shy. That's ridiculous; turkeys communicate by making turkey noises. If they were afraid of turkey sounds, they would never mate. [NEXT "Play Games: Creative tactics for stubborn birds"]

Play Games Creative tactics for stubborn birds
Expert: Eddie Salter

Eddie Salter of Evergreen, Alabama, cuts a swath through the turkey woods. The prototypical run-and-gun hunter, Salter stays constantly on the move, looking for a bird he can work.

The proliferation of turkeys and turkey hunters is the main reason behind Salter's hurry-hurry approach. "I want to call that turkey in before I lose him to a hen or another hunter," says Salter of his aggressive style. A two-time world champion and four-time Alabama state turkey calling champion, Salter relies heavily on excited cutting to reel turkeys quickly into gun range.

When he does find a willing bird, Salter believes in getting as close as the terrain permits. "I always remember what Ben Rogers Lee--one of the granddaddies of modern turkey hunting--used to say in his seminars: Every step you take toward a turkey is one step he doesn't have to take to get to you."

But even Salter encounters tough turkeys that don't come running to the call. If he can't leave them for another bird, he gets creative. Here are three of Salter's aggressive solutions for problem turkeys:

Circle around. When a bird hangs up, gobbling excitedly but not coming into range, Salter says it may be time for the end run. "If he's answering your calls and cutting them off but not coming, maybe there's a stream or a ditch he doesn't want to cross. If you can't call that bird to you in 20 or 30 minutes, circle behind him."

Make a loop around the bird, keeping a prudent distance--200 yards or so--between you and the turkey. Use a crow call to make the bird gobble and to keep tabs on his location. Set up again, all the way behind the gobbler. "He's already traveled that route once and he's comfortable going back that way," says Salter. "Most of the time, if you can get behind a bird, you can kill him."

Scatter a flock. At some times during the season, a gobbler might spend the entire day with hens, often roosting with them in the evening. Some hunters spend morning after morning with those henned-up birds, patiently trying to pull them away from their harems.

Salter suggests taking the initiative. "Follow them to the roost at dusk, then charge in screaming and yelling to scatter the gobbler and his hens out of the trees. The next morning, when he wakes up, he won't have those hens sitting right there with him." Eager to find his hens, the tough turkey becomes very callable. "He'll act like a completely different bird," says Salter. "Most of the time when y

Play Games Creative tactics for stubborn birds
Expert: Eddie Salter

Eddie Salter of Evergreen, Alabama, cuts a swath through the turkey woods. The prototypical run-and-gun hunter, Salter stays constantly on the move, looking for a bird he can work.

First Shot Wallpaper: Jump Start

fieldandstream-editor — Mon, 06 Mar 2006 04:20:00 -0500

Jump Start: "This is typical pre-hunt behavior," says Gifford Cochran, whose 51/2-year-old Lab, Gertie, couldn't contain her excitement for a pheasant hunt near Belgrade, Montana. "She'll do this at least 15 or 20 times. I'll keep telling her to settle down and save it for the birds."

Click here to check out more of Cameron's photos on his web site, www.cameronlawson.com

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Goodbye, Gun Shy

fieldandstream-editor — Wed, 25 Jan 2006 04:25:00 -0500

When puppies are surprised by loud noises, they may become shy for life. Prevent this by teaching yours that violent sounds mean something good is about to happen. Here's how:

Step 1
Ding the dinner dish This may scare him, but he will immediately overcome his initial fear as he dives into his bowl. Move on to step 2 when he starts wagging his tail at the sound.

Step 2
Make unexpected noises (such as slamming a door) while the pup is eating. The pleasure of food will outweigh his surprise.

Step 3
Pump up the volume From a distance, bang a garbage-can top, then bring the dog his dinner. Get closer each day until you can clang the lid at his kennel door without scaring him.

Step 4
Fire a .22 blank at a range of 50 yards with the muzzle pointed away from the pup, then give him dinner. As the dog learns that the shot means suppertime, gradually shorten the distance until you can pull the trigger within a few yards of him.

Step 5
Shoot a Light 20-gauge when the pup is some distance away chasing a bird or a dummy. Don't shoot over him at close range until he has learned to associate the sound with the pleasure of seeing a dummy being thrown for him to retrieve.