If you had a mentor...

When I started turkey hunting the county harvest total for that year was 11 turkeys. I had a guy who hunted the same areas as I did and he told me that "Patience kills". I hunted 6 years before even getting a shot. But once I figured it out... its been a very enjoyable ride for many decades.
 
I learned more from sitting in a goose pit with Harold Knight and David Hale and talking turkey between flights of geese than ANYWHERE else. The biggest thing was if I liked to hear a bird gobble and didn't care if I got a shot, to call loud and a bunch. If I wanted to kill him, sit tight, tone it down to soft, and maybe scratch in the leaves occasionally. My kill percentage went WAY up thanks to those two true gentlemen.
 
When I was 16 or so I had access to a farm with a good mix of fields and timber. I'd killed 2-3 turkeys on field edges so that's how I setup. One morning I listened to turkeys gobble all morning in a block of river bottom timber. I sat on the field edge 500 yards away hoping they would make their way to the field. They never did. There was one other guy who hunted that farm. He was and is a very good turkey hunter, and is now a good friend of mine. I talked to him that night and told him what I'd heard. He asked why I didn't go into the timber and I didn't have a good answer. The truth was I didn't have a clue what to do when I got there. But he told me "if you want to kill turkeys, you need to go where the turkeys are. Get in there with them next time."
 
"While turkeys are wary and everything in the woods wants to eat them, they are not smart."

"Learn what drumming sounds like."
 
"Find a tree, sit down, preferably in the shade, and turn into a rock". Basically sit down, keep your butt still, stay there, and scan with your eyes only, looking for the big white "softball". His head that is.
 
Was fortunate to be born into a Family that was steeped in Traditional Turkey Hunting Tradition, both Spring and Fall, mainly on my Father's side. Was engrained in my head at a very young age "A really good Turkey Hunter can make Turkeys come "look" for them, even on days when they are not talkin"
 
Can't remember who said this but it was in an article I read inOutdoor Life in the 70's. I think the article title was "In the Presence of Game"..."keep you cool about you when your quarry comes around."
 


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