The Bad Bird Bible Chapter 1, Verse 2- Joe Drake

Joe Drake of Fortson, Georgia, a member of Realtree's Hunt Team and an active participant in turkey-calling contests explained that, "With older turkeys, I'll often go in to the bird from a different direction other than the one from which everyone else has approached that turkey. Several years ago I hunted a gobbler that lived on a military base. To reach him, I had to cross a young cutover to get to the woods to set up.

"The first morning I went in to hunt this gobbler, I called to him. The gobbler came in like I had him on a rope until he reached a certain spot. When he hit that place, he ran as hard and as fast as he could away from me. Because I knew the turkey hadn't seen me, I assumed that a coyote had attacked the turkey there.

"The next morning I set up where I had before, called to the turkey and watched him come to me. As he reached that same spot, he ran away from me again. I couldn't decide what was wrong with this turkey -- whether he'd seen a snake or if there was a hole or a coyote den at that spot. But for whatever reason, on two consecutive mornings when that turkey came to a certain place he'd start running away.

"I circled around, got on the back side of the spot where the turkey had spooked each time and started calling to him. I hadn't called 15 minutes when the turkey came right into me, and I took him. After I bagged the bird, I wanted to see what had caused him to drop his strut and run each time. When I walked the same route as the turkey had and reached the place where the turkey had broken and run, I spotted an unusual-looking clump of bushes that I discovered was a blind. I later learned that not only had someone been hunting that same turkey, but the hunter had shot at the bird from that spot.

"When I looked at the gobbler I'd bagged, I found scars of old shot wounds. Then when I cleaned him, I found old No. 6 shot in his breast. Since I shoot No. 4s, I knew it wasn't mine. Evidently that bird ran each time he reached that spot because he'd been shot there before. "By approaching him from a different direction and calling to him from where he'd never been called to before, I bagged the bird that nobody else could take."

To learn more about hunting turkeys, go to Night Hawk's homepage and click on hunting books.

For more information about Realtree's turkey-hunting products, go to www.realtree.com.

TOMORROW: THE BAD BIRD BIBLE CHAPTER 2, VERSE 1- DAVE STREB

Check back each day this week for more about The Bad Bird Bible ...

Day 1 -The Bad Bird Bible Chapter 1, Verse 1- Joe Drake
Day 2 -The Bad Bird Bible Chapter 1, Verse 2- Joe Drake
Day 3 -The Bad Bird Bible Chapter 2, Verse 1- Dave Streb
Day 4 -The Bad Bird Bible Chapter 2, Verse 2- Dave Streb
Day 5 -The Bad Bird Bible Chapter 3, Verse 1- Brad Harris

John's Journal