What to Do When a Turkey Hangs-Up
Put One Hunter Up and One Back
 Editor’s
Note: You won’t take a proud, mature gobbler with
conventional calling tactics. These bronze barons have
attitudes. They consider themselves the finest birds
any hen ever has seen. They feel so sure of their masculinity
and superiority that they believe every hen in the woods
will come running to them. They won’t exert any
extra energy to go to a hen. You also can recognize
a proud gobbler by his extreme caution. A proud gobbler
will stop about 50 to 60 yards from where you call,
gobble, strut and drum — but not come any closer.
When a tom takes this position, most hunters say he’s
hung-up. But you can take a bird that acts like this.
 One
spring morning when I hunted with my longtime friend
and hunting buddy, Dr.Bob Sheppard of Carrollton, Alabama,
we failed to come into close contact with a bronze woods
wizard. Finally, at 11:00 a.m., we heard a turkey gobble
about 150- yards away.
“I’ve tried to bag that gobbler since the
beginning of the season,” Sheppard said. “That
turkey will come down that woods road about 120 yards
in front of us and look out into the clean hardwood
bottom. If he can’t see a hen, he won’t
leave the road. We only have a chance of killing that
turkey if you’ll move as quickly and as quietly
as you can to the edge of the woods road before the
turkey gets there. I’ll stay back about 75 yards
and call from where the turkey can’t see me. If
you reach the woods road before the turkey, you’ll
have a shot at him. But if the turkey arrives first,
he’ll spot you coming through that open bottom.”
I moved rapidly through the river-bottom swamp and
spotted the road ahead of me when I heard Sheppard cut
on his diaphragm caller. The gobbler croaked out his
mating call close by. I sat down quickly in front of
the largest tree I could find, laid my 3-inch magnum
on my knee and pointed it at the road. My breathing
hadn’t had time to slow before I heard the gobbler
drumming and strutting on the road. But I still couldn’t
see him.
Sheppard kept calling from  behind
me. Then shafts of sunlight knifed through the trees
and illuminated the tom’s feathers. When Sheppard
yelped, the turkey dropped his strut and walked to the
edge of the road beside a big tree, keeping most of
his body behind the tree. The bird’s head and
neck moved up and down and in and out as he scrutinized
the hardwood bottom for the hen. I knew the turkey wouldn’t
stand in that place long if he didn’t spot a hen.
I could see only his head and beard. I realized if I
took the shot, half my pattern would hit the tree in
front of the turkey.
Finally, the turkey made a half-step from behind the
tree. When the crosshairs in my scope overlaid the turkey’s
wattles, I squeezed the trigger. The bird weighed 19.5
pounds and had 1-¼-inch spurs.
To take a bird that consistently hangs-up, put the
shooter 50 to 75 yards in front of the caller. Then
when the gobbler comes in and chooses to hang-up 50
to 75 yards from where he hears the hen, he unknowingly
will stand right in front of the hunter.
Tomorrow: Don’t Call
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