CWTF 2017 Inaugural Member's Edition Magazine

oss hen and then match her,
yelp for yelp, cluck for cluck.
To be successful it is important
that you exactly repeat every
“word” she says, right down to
the tone and frequency. Play
that answering back game for
a minute or two until you get
her attention. Once she is onto
you don’t wait until the hen is
done talking: instead, be rude
and interrupt her every time
she is starting to talk. Nothing
gets a hen more fired up then
another hen cutting her off in
mid sentence. Hens will get so
angry that quite often they will
come running looking for that
disrespectful intruder and the
tom will waddle busily after her.
The rest is up to you to make it
count.
If you can’t bring the hens
to you the next option is to
ambush the gobbler. Put the
calls away and observe in
what direction the birds are
travelling, using a good pair
of binoculars if necessary. The
turkeys, like all animals, have a
natural tendency to follow the
path of least resistance. Use this
habit to your advantage and
try to predict what route the
birds are taking considering the
terrain features. Carefully try to
loop in a big arch around the
birds and get ahead of them.
Be fast but as quiet as you can
and use every caution to stay
undetected from the traveling
turkeys. Set up an ambush that
will take the turkeys past you
and within shooting range.
Another tactic that can also
work very well is to rush the
birds and scatter the flock. This
is a very common tactic used
during the fall season but can
work great on spring turkeys as
well. If you can’t get any closer
than 70 to 100 yards, charge
the flock, or where legal, send a
hunting dog to scatter the flock.
The idea is to separate the tom
from the hens. Watch where
the tom is flying or running and
then following him as soon he
is out of sight. After a while the
gobbler will try to reunite with
the hens or go and look for new
company. Set up near where
the tom settled and start calling.
Since he lost his hens he may
be willing to pay attention to
your calling now.
3. THE ACCESS TO YOUR SET
UP IS BLOCKED
Many hunters have
witnessed turkeys behaving very
strangely at times. For example,
a turkey doesn’t really mind
flying across a river or ravine,
walking across a small shallow
creek, a road or slipping under
barbwire fences, or navigating
through a thicket to find food
and shelter. But no matter how
desperate a tom is for female
company he will rarely if ever
cross an obstacle to follow hen
calls. This has to do with the
fact that male turkeys are male
chauvinists. They will go only
so far and then fully expect the
female to come the rest of the
way to them.
One time I watched a
gobbler strutting back and
forth along a field edge getting
more and more agitated as
his head turned from a purple
red to a dark blue and back
to fire red again. Each time I
called he answered with more
anger and frustration added
to his thundering gobbles. But
no matter how sweet my hen
music must have sounded to
his ears he would not come
one step closer and kept pacing
back and forth along that same
path. About a half hour into
that game and with no result
I eventually got tired of it and
had to find out what made
that bird walk back and forth.
There was a small shallow ditch
he could have easily crossed
but to the tom that was an
obstacle he was not prepared
to cross. Nobody knows why
toms refuse to cross barriers, or
even perceive such obstacles as
barriers. By nature turkeys are
good flyers and very agile on
their feet. As mentioned before
turkeys are used to flying and
sometimes for great distances
but not when they follow a hen
call. Like I said, they are male
chauvinists.
The best solution to this
problem is to avoid having any
sort of barriers between you
and the turkeys. Good preseason
scouting helps you to
pinpoint all possible barriers.
When hunting on short notice
on unfamiliar land, survey your
surroundings before setting
up to call. But no matter how
careful you are, if you hunt
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