MASTER TURKEY HUNTERS

Harold Knight on More Master Turkey-Hunter Characteristics

EDITOR'S NOTE: Each year John E. Phillips hunts with some of the nation's top turkey hunters and learns all he can about their calling and hunting strategies. This week we'll talk with a couple of master turkey takers to learn more about how they hunt. Harold Knight, one of the founders of Knight and Hale Game Calls in Cadiz, Kentucky, now a subsidiary of EBSCO, has taken a world-record turkey before and has won many calling contests across the nation. He's well known from speaking at hunting seminars and outdoor shows where he shares his turkey-hunting findings with his listeners.

Harold Knight names more attributes of master turkey hunters. "3) A master can hunt turkeys no matter what weather conditions he faces. Weather affects turkeys a great deal. But a master will know what turkeys do in the snow, the rain, the wind and hail. He'll know how and where they hole up. Then when they move, he'll know where they're going. When a master wakes up and looks out the window, no matter what the weather is doing, he knows what he must do to kill a turkey that day. And he's thinking, 'Today is a good day to chase a gobbler.' The truth is, you can't take a gobbler if you don't go hunting.

"4) A master can hunt effectively when the woods are full of people. I know plenty of good turkey hunters who haven't learned to adapt to hunting pressure. If they're hunting a good gobbler and someone walks in and flushes him, they'll quit and go home -- but not the master. He'll go and look for another bird or continue to hunt that spooked turkey, knowing that getting him into range will be more difficult. The hunt may have been changed by the pressure, but it hasn't been ruined."

TOMORROW: HAROLD KNIGHT NAMES MORE MASTER TURKEY-HUNTER ATTRIBUTES