BRUNCH-TIME GOBBLERS
Bird Dog Turkeys with David Hale
EDITOR'S
NOTE: I first hunted with David Hale about 25-years
ago. Although I had the same shoe size I have now, I
had a waist about three-sizes smaller and lots more
hair. Both of us young men had just started our careers
in the outdoors, and both of us wanted to take a turkey.
Although we worked hard all morning to try and bag a
gobbler, the bird we'd picked chose a flock of hens
to move through the woods with, rather than coming to
our calling. But I learned right away that I couldn't
tag David Hale a quick
quitter. I found out that he'd hunt turkeys from before
daylight until the falling of darkness or the law made
him stop.
According to David Hale, “If you hunt public
land, you can let other sportsmen bird-dog mid-morning
gobblers for you. As you drive into your hunting area
before daylight, notice the places where you see two
or three cars already parked on the side of the road.
If you see more than one car parked in an area, then
you usually know there's more than one gobbler in that
region. Make a mental note, or use a GPS (Global Positioning
System) receiver to mark the spot where you see other
hunters parked. Then get as far away from those other
hunters as you can to try to locate a tom they haven't
heard. If you fail to get a gobbler early in the morning,
go back to one of the places where you've seen other
hunters parked. If their vehicles are gone, park where
they've parked. Then go into the woods where they've
been.
Since
most public-land hunters will be out of the woods by
9:00 or 10:00 a.m., you can go right into the same spot
where they've been hunting. More than likely, they've
spooked, shot at and missed or in some way scattered
the turkeys in that region. If you'll go into some of
the same parts of the property where they've hunted
and begin to call, often you can call up the turkeys
they've spooked. I believe the easiest turkeys to take
are the gobblers you hunt at mid-morning on public-hunting
land.
|