Why Turkeys are the Easiest & Hardest Bird to Kill
Ryan Barnes for SPLIT REED
Cover Photo: Nick Costas
If you’ve decided to read this article, you’re probably here for two reasons:
1. To see what tips and tricks you’ve been missing out on to make someone think that turkeys are actually easy to kill
Or
2. To figure out what arrogant prick could ever think that killing a big mature tom is a simple task.
Or maybe it’s a combination of both.
However, turkeys can be easy birds to put on the dirt when hunted correctly. It all comes back to the basics that we all know and love for any type of hunting- scouting, prepping, and knowing how to read and react to the birds. This doesn’t mean that just by putting in the time scouting, figuring out the birds’ feeding and roosting patterns, and becoming fairly decent on a call, you’ll all of a sudden start collecting tail fans year after year. What it means is you’ll give yourself a better chance of harvesting quality toms when Spring rolls around.
So why even throw that type of title out there? No, it’s not clickbait. The reality is when turkeys are in the full heat of “spring fever”, the hunter can really put himself at a great advantage by locating a gobbler and staying still, and being patient! You don’t even have to be the best on a call. Just a few basic clucks and yelps on a call to let a hot and bothered tom know that you’re in the area can do the trick. The last two turkeys I’ve killed I didn’t even need to put a decoy out. I called to locate the tom, he gobbled, I called again, he gobbled, then got to my spot, and there he was. That happened two years in a row. Obviously luck and trying to be quiet as I walked played a part in that, but don’t underestimate the curiosity of a hot gobbler. I didn’t need to set decoys. I didn’t need to move my stand. Just walk quietly and shoot straight.
Another factor to making turkey hunting easy is realizing, turkeys may be elusive, but they’re also everywhere! Currently, there are approximately 6,000,000 wild turkeys in the US right now (the population is declining, however, and that’s a problem, so we do want to raise awareness of that). If you want to give yourself a running start, go out early in the mornings (or later at night), find a grassy hillside with some brush and timber that could roost some birds, give a crow call, and listen for the shock-gobbles. If you hear those loud, rolling notes ring out… There you go! You have birds to hunt. It can be difficult once they decide to shut up and not gobble at all once they’ve come down to the ground, but that shock gobble can make all the difference in the world when it comes to making sure the woods that you plan to hunt is going to have birds.
Turkeys also love to follow patterns. Much like deer, they will try to follow the same patterns as close as they can until temperature, predators, or other factors force them to change. They like to feed low early in the morning, then work their way back high. So you, being the hunter, can do one of two things, try to call in the gobbler and break him out of his daily ritual, or set your decoys up along the route you know they like to go. This works well as the season moves on because the bird becomes less apt to want to move a great distance to do something he’s already done all spring and no longer has the desire to pursue. When you set up along the tom’s route, it makes it easier to entice him into shooting range. You took the work away from him having to break his routine to come to your call and your decoys. Instead, you took the work to him, which makes it easier to give a face full of TSS.
Another thing that makes killing turkeys easier than most birds, is, even though they may be difficult to fool, they can be extremely easy to pattern. Especially when you find their food, water, or sunning areas. If you can find one of those hot spots, and have it dialed in for a few days in a row. You can just start punching your tag. Turkeys can travel 2-7 miles a day depending on the terrain. That doesn’t mean they don’t have their favorite spots to eat and drink. Just like a man has his favorite restaurants and bars. If you find those, you’re sure to kill a quality tom.
However, with all this in mind, I still refer back to my previous statement, this is only true if you HOLD STILL AND BE PATIENT! If you can’t master those two elements, you won’t be able to kill anything you chase. Especially turkeys.
In all reality, turkeys are like anything else, they have a brain the size of an almond, but they outsmart humans every day. But if you’re smart about how you hunt, you can find that turkeys are a lot easier to kill than you may think.
And for those of you who think this article is blasphemy and want me burned at the stake, just wait for my next article...
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