Sometimes the conservative approach is the right way to go, but sometimes a gobbler needs to be leaned on a little. Or a lot. The trick is to figure out, early in the game, which of these strategies is best. Let’s look at how you can make your decision:
The gobbler wasn't having any of it. He'd announced his presence at first light, without any prompting from owl, crow, hawk or me, and he'd continued to gobble with gusto from his limb until shortly before sunrise. That gave me time to close the distance, analyze the situation and ease into what I judged to be the highest-percentage setup.
Fat lot of good it did me. He answered my single soft run of tree yelps, and 10 minutes later I heard the limbs thrash as he left the tree. I saw him gliding through the forest, from left to right, slowly losing altitude and displaying that peculiar combination of grace and ponderousness that characterizes a turkey on the wing. His oblique-angle glide brought him marginally closer, but took him out of sight behind a little cone of ground known locally as a "tater knob.” I estimated he was 120 yards out when he hit the ground.
And there he stayed. My battered old ears can't hear drumming at that range, but he gobbled often enough to let me know he was still there. For more than an hour, he was still there.
It was a situation that afforded several options. I could have used the cover of the tater knob to slip closer to the bird along the left-hand side of the slope, or I could have climbed the back side of the knob and set up above him. Both moves would've put me within 75 yards of the turkey and given me good calling position. Or, I could have taken rounders around the right side of the knob. It would've been a slightly longer journey that left me no closer to the gobbler, but easily accomplished the sometimes difficult objective of changing locations and calling to a reluctant gobbler from a different angle.
CONSERVATIVE OR AGGRESSIVE?
All those choices were available. So, of course, I selected none of them, and stubbornly continued to call to the gobbler from my original setup spot, thus perpetuating a strategy that had already proven unsuccessful.
Long story short, I didn't kill that turkey. First a hen came strolling past me along the bench, gobbler-bound, and by the time I figured out that I could've waved my arms at her and scared her off without alarming the out-of-sight gobbler, the chance to do so was gone. Then a second hen came in, yelping, from somewhere behind the tater knob, and my gobbler got quiet.
An hour later, I got up, crept to the top of the knob and gazed glumly down its back slope at the open hardwood flat that no longer contained a strutting tom. Surprise, surprise. It was exactly what I deserved for being so timid.
That wasn't the first time I'd lost a duel with a gobbler by being too tentative, and it certainly hasn't been the last. For me, at least, one of the biggest bugaboos in all of turkey hunting is trying to decide whether to be laid-back or aggressive when working a turkey.
It's not enough, though, to say there are "conservative" and "aggressive" hunting and calling strategies for turkeys. In reality, there's a sliding scale of hunting and calling techniques, ranging from ultra-conservative to mega-aggressive.
Building a blind on the edge of a green patch, then sitting in it all day long and never making a call is an example of ultra-conservative tactics. On the other end of the continuum, mega-aggressive hunting tactics might include covering huge amounts of ground during the day, calling nearly non-stop and extremely excitedly to any gobbler heard, and making several moves while calling to the bird.
Both extremes have their place, and both of them work well when used in that place. Imagine if a hunter had only these two choices:
1) Sit still and don't say a thing
2) Circle and move and call so much you blow the gobbler's feathers off
If these were the only choices, even the most inept turkey hunter would get it right half the time. But, as with all other aspects of life, the most effective hunting and calling strategy for most turkey hunting situations falls somewhere between the extremes. Which, of course, makes the decision-making process a bit of a guessing game.
THE TIMID TURKEY HUNTER
If my own experiences and observations during the past 3 decades are any indication, most turkey hunters are too timid when engaged in a duel with a gobbler. In today's video-driven world of run-and-gun turkey hunting tactics, that seems like an odd state of affairs, but I'm pretty sure it's an accurate assessment.
It's an understandable mindset. Turkey hunting is an expensive, complicated, laborious business. After a hunter has jumped through all the hoops-buying his equipment and licenses, practicing his calling, scouting his hunting grounds, traveling to distant places, rising in the mean hours of the night, walking through the dark woods to a predetermined listening spot-and has actually made contact with a gobbling turkey, the last thing he wants to do is mess it up.
Therefore, most of us enter each new relationship with turkeys on the conservative side. We set up well short of that iffy space where we run the risk of spooking the turkey. We call softly and sparingly.
Basically, we play a waiting game, until this new encounter with this new turkey begins to take shape.
This low-key, cautious approach is exactly the right thing to do with a lot of turkeys, and it's generally the safest and most appropriate way to begin most gobbler encounters. But when the low-key stuff doesn't work, it's time for something a little more pushy.
A COMMON MISTAKE
That's where many turkey hunts fall apart. Many hunters are reluctant to change calling positions, for fear of spooking a bird. Others aren't willing to make a long detour to get around a gobbler when the bird is either nailed down or moving in the opposite direction. Some hunters refuse to change calls when what they're using doesn't work.
Their reasoning runs something like this: That gobbler is already suspicious, and if I get more aggressive, I'll run him off.
That's faulty reasoning. If a gobbler is still hanging around and gobbling every once in a while, he's not suspicious. Spooky, maybe. Cautious, certainly. But not suspicious. A suspicious gobbler doesn't hang around gobbling. He just leaves.
At this stage of the game, continuing with a conservative hunting strategy is almost sure to be a losing game plan. Truck_loads of turkeys have been killed by using the conservative approach, and more truckloads of them will die in the future, but rarely will conservatism shoe the baby once a gobbler has demonstrated he's not moved by it.
RAMP IT UP
Instead of continuing to wimp around with the conservative stuff, the smart move is to get more aggressive when it's become obvious the laid-back approach is failing. Still, many hunters hesitate to make this change, worrying they'll lose the gobbler by running him off.
Again, that's faulty reasoning. It's impossible to lose that which you never had. And anyway, getting a little more aggressive isn't like jumping off the roof of a tall building. You don't have to do it all at once; it can be done in gradual stages, until you start to see some positive results out there where the turkey is.
And if it isn't working, you can always back off again and reassess the situation. The quickest and most risk-free way to ramp it up is to simply increase the excitement level and frequency of your calling. Instead of the soft yelps, clucks and purrs you've been using, get louder with it.
And if it isn't working, you can always back off again and reassess the situation. The quickest and most risk-free way to ramp it up is to simply increase the excitement level and frequency of your calling. Instead of the soft yelps, clucks and purrs you've been using, get louder with it.
Start breaking off a few of those yelps into a faster, choppier cadence. Mix in a little cutting. Run a friction call and a mouth call simultaneously, to sound like more than one turkey.
Some experienced hunters call this process "taking a turkey's temperature." It doesn't always work, and sometimes the bird continues to respond in the same desultory fashion he's been using all along.
But when you're dealing with a turkey that wants his calling a little on the spicy side, it's pretty obvious by the bird's reactions when you reach that desired level of excitement and aggressiveness. If you start calling more aggressively to a gobbler you've been being conservative with and he suddenly starts cutting your calls with his answering gobbles, you're making progress.
DON’T BE NAILED DOWN
Sometimes this change in calling is the only thing you need to do, and a formerly non-responsive turkey will break loose and come marching in. More frequently, though, closing the deal will require a little more on the hunter's part. Such as changing calling positions.
One of the things that makes turkey hunting challenging is that calling a gobbler to the gun goes against the natural order of things. In nature, the gobbler gobbles, and the hen comes to him. A hunter sitting still and calling to a gobbler is going against nature twice, because a wild hen doesn't stand in one spot like she has a foot nailed to a root. She moves around. So should the turkey hunter, if that option is available. As often as not, the movement is even more important than changing the calling style.
It doesn't have to be a move toward the gobbler, either. Just the movement itself is often all that's required-but, of course, only if the turkey doesn't see you when you're moving. Sometimes remaining undetected requires a careful retreat to put some distance between you and the bird, then taking rounders and carefully approaching again into calling distance in a different position.
In some cases, this maneuver might require going a considerable distance, and that keeps many hunters from giving it a try. It's a mindset I've never understood. What else have you got to do that's more important?
If the combination of movement and more aggressive calling still fails to break a gobbler loose, try crowding him if the terrain and/or vegetation will allow a close approach. The closer you can get to a reluctant turkey before setting up, the better off you're going to be – assuming the turkey doesn't see you.
GUARANTEED VICTORY
In some instances, you'll be able to get within shotgun range of a turkey that was hidden below a hill or fold in the landscape. If you can get this close, a few soft clucks and purrs, or maybe a little scratching in the leaves, is all that's needed to pull him into sight and under the gun.
Often, though, you won't be able to get that close to a gobbler. In that case, it's sometimes effective to do just the opposite: pretend to leave the turkey. Slowly retreat from the gobbler's position, calling as you go, then set up again and wait to see what happens.
The gobbler might break from his position and follow you, and if he does, you'll likely be in the driver's seat. Continue to retreat, calling as you go, but then double back 50-75 yards toward the bird and set up along the line of your retreat. If he continues to follow, he might walk right over you.
If none of that works, but the turkey is still gobbling, just hang in there. As long as you're still in contact, you have a chance. And if the hunt ends in the gobbler's favor, don't write him off. A bird that's impossible to call today might be a pushover tomorrow, or whenever you can hunt him again.
Come back to him, and try to analyze and take advantage of the things you learned about his behavior during your first encounter.
In short, don't give up. That's really the only way you can lose.