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Turkey Hunting Tactics

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CHAPTER 13
SETTING UP ON GOBBLERS

The most important consideration when deciding where to set up to call in a gobbler is to know where a turkey doesn't want to walk. A gobbler prefers not to ...

  • get his feet wet by crossing water
  • fly across water
  • walk through heavy cover or downhill
  • walk under a fence or fly over it
  • move into an area where he's encountered danger before
  • go into a region where he thinks another gobbler will beat him in a fight

If a sportsman sets up in any of these areas and tries to call up a gobbler, chances are good that the bird won't come to him.

However, there are places a turkey enjoys walking. He is very apt to walk in a clean woods with little underbrush and in fields where he can see for great distances. He'll also walk on flat ground whenever possible.

And a turkey follows a regular routine. He's like the old man down the street who goes by the barber shop at 8:15 a.m., stops at the hardware store to find out if anyone's sick, dead or just married, swings by the coffee shop to pick up a newspaper and a sweet roll and then moves on to the fire station for a game of dominoes. You can set your watch by that old man.

You can also set your watch by an old gobbler in the spring. That bird has a set routine as predictable as the man down the street. Figure out that pattern and you'll probably bag the bird. He will roost in the same tree, fly down in the same direction, try to mate in his strutting zones and feed in the same fields. Once you know the routine, then it's time to plan the setup.

The Typical Set Up

One of the problems that a novice hunter has when setting up on gobblers is that he tries to get too close to the turkey. The result is that the bird spots the hunter and moves out of the area well before the hunter even tries to call him in.

Most often, this happens when a turkey gobbles in the direction of a hunter, turns around on the limb, faces the opposite direction and then gobbles away from the hunter. The bird then sounds farther away than he actually is. A good rule of thumb is to always set up farther away from the bird than you think you should.

 
 
Turkey Hunting Tactics is $21.50

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