Turkey season arrives in spring when Mother Nature is showing off her awesome power, with the full spectrum touching all senses. Hunters not only get a chance to take a long-bearded gobbler, but they get to be immersed in an exemplary part of God’s creations and can soak in the sounds, smells, and sights of a spring turkey hunting morning.
The gray, silent winter mornings pale in comparison to these colorful and musically vibrant spring mornings during turkey season. When a turkey answers that early morning call, both hunter and bird enter a trance until they often meet and one party comes out successful. But the hunter doesn’t always strut out of the woods with a turkey draped over their shoulder.
What exactly goes wrong when a hunter leaves empty handed? Turkeys aren’t necessarily smart creatures, but they know how to avoid danger when something doesn’t measure up.
Every wild animal is equipped with a set of extraordinary senses or abilities to be able to survive. Deer use their eyes, noses and ears to detect dangerous situations, and they can mobilize their strength, agility and endurance to avoid any potential threat to their livelihood. Turkeys have similar sensory capabilities, with a few exceptions. They can’t smell much but can see nearly 360 degrees around them without moving their heads. And turkeys can pinpoint sounds by direction and distance with excellent precision. To entice a turkey into shooting range, hunters must make all the right choices. Sometimes, one mistake can lead to dismay and no turkey for the table.
R.J. Seiler of Stokesdale, N.C., a seasoned pro at taking trophy whitetails; he flips the switch in the spring and focuses on taking his turkey limit.
“I have been turkey and deer hunting for over 20 years, and if I could only choose one, it would be turkey hunting,” Seiler said. “It’s loads of fun, especially when everything goes to plan, but sometimes small mistakes can send the bird going the other way.”
Turkey hunting blunders come in many shapes and sizes, from calling too much and moving at the wrong time to just plain missing the shot. Seiler believes one of the worst mistakes is impatience.
Turkey season arrives in spring when Mother Nature is showing off her awesome power, with the full spectrum touching all senses. Hunters not only get a chance to take a long-bearded gobbler, but they get to be immersed in an exemplary part of God’s creations and can soak in the sounds, smells, and sights of a spring turkey hunting morning.
The gray, silent winter mornings lack in comparison to these colorful and musically vibrant spring mornings during turkey season. When a turkey answers that early morning call, both hunter and bird enter a trance until they often meet where one party comes out successful. But the hunter doesn’t always strut out of the woods with a turkey draped over their shoulder.
What exactly goes wrong when a hunter leaves empty handed? Turkeys aren’t necessarily smart creatures, but they know how to avoid danger when something doesn’t measure up.
Every wild animal is equipped with a set of extraordinary senses or abilities to be able to survive. Deer use their eyes, noses and ears to detect dangerous situations, and they can mobilize their strength, agility and endurance to avoid any potential threat to their livelihood. Turkeys have similar sensory capabilities, with a few exceptions. They can’t smell much but can see nearly 360 degrees around them without moving their heads. And turkeys can pinpoint sounds by direction and distance with excellent precision. To entice a turkey into shooting range, hunters must make all the right choices. Sometimes, one mistake can lead to dismay and no turkey for the table.
R.J. Seiler of Stokesdale, N.C., a seasoned pro at taking trophy whitetails; he flips the switch in the spring and focuses on taking his turkey limit.
“I have been turkey and deer hunting for over 20 years, and if I could only choose one, it would be turkey hunting,” Seiler said. “It’s loads of fun, especially when everything goes to plan, but sometimes small mistakes can send the bird going the other way.”
Turkey hunting blunders come in many shapes and sizes, from calling too much and moving at the wrong time to just plain missing the shot. Seiler believes one of the worst mistakes is impatience.
Don’t move too soon
“Moving too early is one of the No. 1 reason birds get bumped,” he said. “It can be easy to get impatient when the bird hasn’t showed up yet.”
When gobblers respond to calls, especially from hens, they are showing interest and will often come to the location where they heard the call. The amount of hunting pressure and the age of the bird will determine how quickly one comes, if at all.
“It’s easy to get impatient and want to move on the bird too soon and bump him,” Seiler said. “I have learned to sit tight for longer periods of time and give the bird every opportunity to show before I move. A lot of hot birds gobble hard for the first few hundred yards, then shut up, but they will still be on a steady march coming right in. You just have to be patient and wait on them without overcalling.”
Figuring out what birds are doing can be frustrating, because hunters have no idea what they are actually telling the gobbler when they belt out a series of clucks, cutts and yelps. A response from a gobbler could translate into several outcomes.
“When calling to a gobbler, I try to evaluate what is happening and effectively take his temperature with the way he responds and how involved his responses are,” Seiler said. “A hot, 2-year-old bird will gobble its head off and come to you fast as possible. Older birds may give you a courtesy gobble but have no interest in coming due to already being with hens.”
Don’t overcall
Calling is one of the crucial and most-exciting parts of turkey hunting. It doesn’t take a world-champion caller to get a gobbler into range, even if the gobbler is a 4-year-old with a paintbrush beard dragging the ground. But calling too much can leave a hunter empty handed at the end of the day.
“A lot of times, in my opinion, less is more when it comes to calling to a bird. I like to back off and make him do a little looking for me or make him think the hen that he has been hearing has lost interest in him,” he said.
Switching up the types of calls he’s making is one of his most important tactics for luring in a pressured bird.
“I am a fan of Hanks Custom Game Calls; their pot calls and mouth calls are among my favorites, and then a box call late in the season. I try switching calls to give them a fresh sound that they haven’t heard all season,” Seiler said.
Some gobblers just will not come in, no matter how sweet the sound is from a box, slate or diaphragm.
“Gobblers stuck with a group of hens will not leave the ladies, no matter how good of a caller you may be; you just have to leave that bird and find another,” he said.
Hunters can come back to hunt the troubling bird on another day or later in the day after the gobbler has finished breeding its hens.
Don’t get too close
Setting up too close to a roosted bird is another common mistake. Most of the time, hunters do not know exactly where the bird is perched, and it can be tough to know where to set up. The direction the turkey is facing will greatly influence how loud his gobbles sound from the roost. And with hundreds of neotropical migrants, owls, crows and even a nearby farmer’s rooster competing for stage time, it can get noisy, and knowing the location of the roosted bird can be a critical detail.
Early in the morning, hunters want to get close enough to the bird to make it easy for the bird to come in and make the death march — but not too close.
“It is better to back off and let the morning play out from a distance than set up too close and get busted,” he said.
Don’t rely on decoys
Decoys can also change the trajectory of an incoming gobbler in more ways than one. Most of the time, Seiler will use a set of Avian-X decoys, including a three-quarter strutting jake and two hens — unless it’s later in the season.
“In late season, I sometimes will not use any decoys at all. I will set up my buddy in front and then get 100 yards or so behind him to drag the bird through him for a shot. This technique can work very well any time of the season,” he said.
While today’s decoys can look like the spitting images of a real-life breathing, flapping turkeys, sometimes there can be some details that just do not sit well with an incoming bird. A hen decoy may cause an incoming gobbler to stop as soon as he sees the potential mate. In nature, hens are supposed to come to the gobbler, but most gobblers juiced up on sex hormones are too impatient and keep coming to the hens — at least until they can see her. Sometimes, omitting decoys altogether will keep gobblers moving around and looking for that yelping hen they want to mate.
If turkeys were completely careless, they would have gone extinct back when Native Americans ruled the continent. But they have natural instincts to live and recognize danger, even when doped up on sex hormones. Few hunts go as planned, but if patience and careful methods are utilized, the hunter can head home with a happy ending and meat for the freezer.
Know where, how your shotgun shoots
Before deer hunters release their arrows or fire their favorite deer rifles on opening day, they will make sure their weapon is shooting true. Few hunters do the same when it comes to shooting a shotgun at a turkey, but they will be the first to bellyache when they come up short on a double-bearded gobbler on opening day.
Turkey hunters should always pattern their guns with their turkey shot shells before a life-altering hunt.
Turkeys are a big target, but many hunters miss birds. Hunters need to shoot their guns at various ranges to see how their loads carry into the paper. It only takes one pellet to kill a turkey, but it sure increases the chances of a fatal shot when 80% of the load lands on a pie plate-sized target.
Veteran hunter R.J. Seiler always patterns new loads in his weapon of choice before the season.
“Patterning your turkey gun is very important,” Seiler said. “I like to know what my gun is doing at 50 yards, even though very few of my shots are actually at that range.”
Seiler will go through various loads to see which pattern the best, giving him the tightest patterns at 50 yards.
This season, he is attempting a Grand Slam with his Thompson Center Encore, single-shot 12-gauge. He took his Osceola in Florida in March and will be heading to Kansas and Nebraska to get his Rio Grande and Merriams. Then, it’s back to North Carolina to finish up with an Eastern in Rockingham County. He is using the new TSS load of No. 9s this season.
“The new TSS loads can kill birds at an extreme distance of 60 yards,” he said. “It is imperative that I pattern my gun to see how these loads carry at these distances, and what choke and load combination works best.”
Turkey loads of all sizes and brands pattern differently in various shotguns and chokes. The only way to know is to shoot and see what holds the best pattern.
“I am using Jebs Head Hunter 660 choke in my Encore and a Vortex Venom red-dot sight. It is deadly out to 60 yards, but I prefer to keep my shots 50 yards or less,” Seiler said.
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