First 10 days are crucial
South Carolina’s turkey hunting regulations allow a hunter to tag only one gobbler during the first 10 days of the season. That makes this segment strategically crucial for overall season preparation.
Steve Cobb from Union, S.C., is a premier hunter and an elite turkey talker who hunts a lot more days than he doesn’t. This change has made a profound impact on the way he hunts but not as much on early season strategy.
“Turkey season last year was a unique experience, because I knew I could only shoot one bird the first 10 days. So I hunted backwards,” Cobb said. “I didn’t want to miss being in the woods. So I planned to kill my first bird late in that segment.
“The first several days of the season offer opportunities that don’t exist once gobblers are pressured,” he said. “I actually shot my first bird on the tenth day. But I hunted every day of that segment.”
Cobb, a long-time member of Hunter Specialties’ pro staff, said that during the early segment, he called for other hunters. Or if he was alone, he tried to locate as many turkeys as possible. His plan was to kill a gobbler during this segment, but also to set up the rest of the season with great intel.
Different strategies for the two segments
Cobb’s strategy for hunting the first 10 days is dramatically different than his tactics for the rest of turkey season.
“The best way to describe it is during the first segment of the season (is) I call turkeys to my position,” he said. “The rest of the season I hunt turkeys. After the first segment, the pressure on the gobblers increases to the point where calling is no longer the primary key to success. It’s still crucial. But curtailed calling, setup, movement strategy and decoy use are more relevant.”
Cobb said practicing and honing your calling skills before the season is essential. Get really good with a couple of different calls, with a hands-free mouth call as one good choice. Realism is crucial, and unique calls such as the tube call are excellent.
“When a longbeard gobbles, hens in the area are supposed to go to him,” he said. “That’s typically what happens and is precisely why hunters get ‘henned’ early in the season.”
Cobb said preseason scouting can help significantly in these first 10 days. Knowing where the gobblers are roosted, he’ll set up between the hens and a gobbler. A setup close to a known strut zone enhances his odds by being where the gobbler already wants to go.
First 10 days are good for turkey hunting and scouting
“If you haven’t had the opportunity to scout preseason, you can hunt and scout. And if not successful that day, use the intel on your next trip,” he said.
Setting up in an area where multiple gobblers are roosted is ideal. But he often doesn’t call until the birds begin gobbling, so he can change his setup location if necessary.
“If I do call before gobbling begins, it’s what I refer to as a ‘ground tree call,” essentially a series of three or four soft yelps, but it lets gobblers know my position,” he said. “I don’t make this or any call until it’s light enough for a hen turkey to actually be on the ground. A gobbler knows the call came from the ground.”
Once a turkey gobbles, Cobb’s basic calling strategy is aggressive.
“I’ll throw everything I’ve got at them. And I’m willing to use a variety of different calls, including mouth, box and pot calls,” he said. “I’ll use cutts and aggressive yelps to get a gobbler’s attention before other hens can get to him. If I can get that bird really fired up, he’ll likely approach my location quickly. While it’s not the natural process, fired-up gobblers are curious and will readily approach a hunter making good calls before other hens reach him.”
Call aggressively, but know when to quiet down
Cobb uses aggressive calling to get into a gobbler’s head that the hen is ready to breed. He injects realism into his calling to sell that idea.
“After I hit him hard the first 20 to 30 seconds, I back off,” he said. “Once he’s gobbling every breath and closing the distance quickly, I’m likely done calling. I’m on high alert and get ready for the shot. If he suddenly gets quiet, he’s likely committed to my location.”
Cobb said it’s hard to not call to a gobbling bird. But a point exists in nearly every early season hunt when he must make a sound decision. The bird will likely still gobble if he calls, but over-calling actually reduces the odds of success.
“It’s possible to still screw up a kamikaze bird,” he said. “Continuing to call as he’s rapidly approaching conveys a message that the hen may be approaching him, since that is the natural order of turkey courtship. I’ve got to decide if I want to hear more gobbling or if I really want to kill that bird. If the decision is killing him, I’m done calling.”
This scenario presents a fairly high success rate in terms of seeing the gobbler within range for an open shot.
It’s not foolproof, but it works more often than not
Cobb said it doesn’t always work quite that smoothly. And a common issue during the first 10 days is birds getting henned up. But that doesn’t signal the end of the hunt.
“I rely on calling early in the season. So if hens are with the gobbler and he doesn’t budge, I’ll call to them,” he said. “Hens are quite talkative, and if I can hear hens calling, I’ll call aggressively and replicate those calls. If she clucks three times, I’ll cluck three times. If she yelps hard, I’ll yelp hard with exactly the same pattern and rhythm.
“I don’t know what she’s saying to the hen I’m simulating, but I convey that message right back to her,” Cobb said. “A dominant hen often investigates, with the gobbler and other turkeys in tow.”
The first 10 days is important to what happens the rest of the season
Cobb said this creates another issue, because multiple sets of turkey eyes will be scouring the woods for your location. But it keeps a hunter in the game.
Another benefit of continuing to call to a hen is another gobbler, without hens, may hear the calling.
“If he gobbles far off, say 400 yards, and then a short time later gobbles at 200 yards, he’s now my primary target,” Cobb said. “Often, he’ll work in because the competition factor for breeding is strong during this segment.”
Cobb said to use the first 10 days of the season not only to tag your first gobbler, but to learn the woods you’re hunting and locate multiple gobblers and their patterns. This first segment limits you to taking one gobbler. But it can exponentially enhance your success after the first 10 days.
South Carolina’s unique turkey seasons
South Carolina’s spring wild-turkey season regulations are, at the very least, among the nation’s most interesting.
Seasons are split, with hunting on private land in Game Zones 3 and 4 — the Lowcountry, Grand Strand and Pee Dee regions — allowed March 22-April 30. Hunters can take only one turkey from opening day through March 31. The season in Game Zones 1 and 2 — the Midlands and Upstate — is April 1-May 5, with hunters allowed to take only one turkey from opening day through April 10.
The season on Wildlife Management Areas statewide is from April 1-May 5.
Resident hunters will be limited to three bearded turkeys per season, with only one turkey per day.
Nonresident hunters are limited to two turkeys per season with no more than one per day.
Use unique calls
Good calling is essential to turkey hunting success, and during the early season, using unique calls to mimic different hens is an excellent technique. One of hunter Steve Cobb’s go-to calls is the tube call.
“I use a variety of different calls, so I have a lot of sounds in my calling arsenal,” he said. “I often hunt public land, and changing calls and sounds on pressured land is an excellent tactic. The tube call is ideal. With practice, the tube can imitate any sound a turkey makes, from soft purrs to long-range locator calls and everything in between.”
Cobb said in addition to versatility, a big plus for the tube call is that few hunters use it. But the unique sound of the call will often get a quick, gobbled response when other calls don’t.
“It’s air operated and does require some movement, but when carried with a lanyard around the neck, it’s easy to use with minimal movement,” he said. “If calling for someone else, I’ll hold it under my mask, call, and the bird can walk all the way in. When alone, once I get a bird fired up and he’s moving my way, I’ll get the gun on the shoulder.
“It’s a good tactic that hunters can use to elevate their calling technique,” he said.
(For information on custom tube calls contact the author at tmadewell50@gmail.com)
Beware the quiet one
Steve Cobb said this first segment of South Carolina’s turkey season offers an excellent opportunity to tag a gobbler that sneaks in silently.
“This occurs anytime, but the first segment is prime time for another gobbler to slip in silently and poach a hen,” he said. “This is often a mature, but not dominant, 2-year-old longbeard.
“When hunting an area that likely has multiple gobblers, odds are good another bird may slip in quietly,” Cobb said. “Whether I’m calling to another gobbler or the hens with him, vigilance is essential to seeing a silent gobbler.”
The stealthy gobbler is slipping in unannounced to the hen before the gobbling bird arrives. Cobb said using a decoy is a good way to divert a gobbler’s attention as he scans the woods for movement or sound. The approaching gobbler may cluck or yelp softly once he’s nearby to prompt the hen to respond so he can lock in on her position. But generally, if Cobb doesn’t spot the birds slipping in, hearing the gobbler drumming is his first clue a silent suitor has arrived.
Stay alert and well camouflaged during turkey season
“It’s makes the hair stand up on the back of my neck when I hear unexpected drumming,” he said. “At this point, the odds of success basically depend on the gobbler’s position relative to my gun. But at least I’m in the game. But if I see the gobbler first, I can make well-timed adjustments and improve my odds.”
Cobb said good camo, a well-hidden setup and constantly scanning the woods for movement and sound can lead to killing a stealthy gobbler.
“As a rule of thumb, if I see him before he sees me, I have a decent chance,” he said. “Gobblers approaching silently occurs frequently, so scanning the woods around me is part of my natural hunting scheme, because I’ve killed a lot of longbeards this way. It may be a brief, close-quarters encounter, but it’s highly intense and productive.”
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