1. Call More! Sometimes that big bird needs to hear some excited love talk. He may not be that interested in a few yelps, but crank it up a few notches with some excited cutting from multiple calls and he may just come running.
2. Call Less. If that ugly thing has been beat up by a bigger bird or has been shot at a time or two, he can get real skittish. That is when you need to tone it down a bit and pull him in with light yelping along with feeding clucks and purrs.
3. Move Less. I love to scout hard and find the places that gobbler wants to be, because it is always easier to call him to where he is going than back to where he is was! So just find a good strut zone, sit back and wait him out. He wants to come, you just have to give him time.
4. Move More. Like I said, I love to sit tight in a good spot. However as the Spring goes on, the bird’s patterns may change do to different foods becoming available or hunting pressure. That’s when you need to hit lots of spots for 30 minute set ups. You can scout as you move, and by covering more ground, you greatly increase your odds of finding a lonely bird looking for a hen’s company.
5. Use Decoys. A lot of times a smart bird will only come close to where he thinks a hen is, then gobble and wait for her to come the rest of the way to him. That is when a hen decoy can seal the deal by letting him see what he is missing. Or add a jake decoy with the hen to rile him up when he thinks a younger bird is taking the female he should rightly have.
6. Don’t Use Decoys. Old birds are smart, and sometimes they just don’t like those turkeys that don’t move or act naturally. So they hang up at 60 yards waiting for them to come to them. By not using the decoys, you eliminate that and hopefully encourage the gobbler to strut on in looking for her when she doesn’t show.
7. Hunt New Property. After a while, hunting pressure can make the birds go silent and hard to kill. That is when it is time to hit a new tract for some fresh birds. Also, a change of scenery can often do wonders if you are stuck in a rut of hunting the same set ups all of the time.
8. Hunt Your Old Property. You know it like the back of your hand, so why go somewhere where you are not going to know the bird’s patterns? Instead, just rely on your scouting and hang tight. If you are where he wants to be, that old gobbler will show up soon.
9. Hunt With A Partner. Quite often a wily red head just will not come any closer no matter how much you call to him. That is when a strategically placed partner can drop the hammer on a bird that thinks he knows how to check out the loudmouth hen without risking too much.
10. Hunt By Yourself. It is hard to move through the woods silently and get set up in a good spot without being detected by the eyes or ears of a limb hanger. And you can double the difficulty if you are hunting with a newbie. However by hunting alone, you eliminate that handicap. You also don’t ever have to miss them gobbling on the roost at daybreak because your partner did not show up on time, nor do you have to leave the woods until YOU are ready.
I would do another post on my Top 10 Ways NOT to Kill A Turkey in the Lowcountry, however you can just start over at the top of this post. The list is the EXACT same… And that my friends, is what makes turkey hunting so hard.
When is the right time to implement any of these ideas? It just depends!!! If I could make the right call even 10% of the time, I would be the best turkey hunter that ever lived.
And needless to say, since I am not posting on my opening weekend gobbler, I did not get one yet. However I have come close, and I look forward to giving you a full report tomorrow. Stay tuned…
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Beginning tomorrow, South Carolina lowcountry turkey hunters will have tens of thousands of public land acres to hunt on. Because while the private land season opened on March 15th, public land hunts for region 6 (which covers the lowcountry) runs from April 1st to May 1st.
