Earlier than I realized to name a turkey, really taking pictures a chicken at all times felt out of attain. I might by no means work a field name excellent, my slate calls seemed like a pitchfork on a chalkboard, and mouth calling appeared completely unimaginable. I settled for a push-button name and ended my first spring season with two unpunched tags in my pocket.
Calling is without doubt one of the most intimidating issues for a brand new turkey hunter to wrap their head round. However who says you have to know the right way to name in a gobbler to kill it? Each spring, hunters shoot quite a few birds with out making a lot as a cluck. To assist illustrate this level, I sat down with Rick Grubbs, a South Carolina turkey knowledgeable and proprietor of Waccamaw Looking Companies. Rick and his son Will are third- and fourth-generation turkey guides who assist hunters bag mature japanese gobblers all spring. In addition they journey the south looking birds from Florida to West Virginia.
Rick sometimes hunts turkeys with calls, however I requested him what he would do if I took all of his calls away. He wasn’t phased. He not solely is aware of the right way to kill a tom and not using a name, he’s bought an all-day technique for no-call turkey looking. Right here’s how he’d get it achieved.
Early Morning: Hunt the Roost
Your greatest crack at a gobbler is to hunt them on the break of day. It’s not solely as a result of you understand the place he’s, however you possibly can actually paint an image to idiot him as he comes off the roost. After finding roosted birds the evening earlier than, Rick says he’d go in quietly and arrange close to the roosting tree. “I’d use the terrain to get in on him as shut as I might,” he stated. “Then I’d simply let him gobble and gobble till he felt it was time to fly down.”
Rick stated that birds get quiet earlier than they fly down, and that’s your cue. “Take your hat, and beat it in your proper or left thigh to simulate the sound of a hen’s beating wings coming off of the roost. At that time, he’ll in all probability suppose to himself, I haven’t heard any hens fly down, however I simply heard one over there, so I’m going to fly down that means.”
After listening to the chicken hit the bottom, Rick stated he’d change issues up. “I’d then do some gentle scratching within the leaves. If he heard that and wolfed, I do know that he is aware of precisely the place I’m at.”
Once you hear that gobble, the following factor you need to do is nothing in any respect. “Simply wait,” Rick stated. “I’ve seen many turkeys simply stand there, gobble, and by no means transfer after they hear a mouth or slate name off of the roost. Once you shut up, it’ll break that chicken. He’ll come proper to you. They simply can not stand it.”
Mid-Morning to Mid-day: Go The place the Hens Go
In case your roost hunt didn’t work out otherwise you couldn’t find a chicken within the first place, your subsequent greatest transfer is to search out floor the place turkeys prefer to go. This requires homework and a little bit of woodsmanship. Rick stresses that the important thing to his turkey season, calls or not, comes all the way down to scouting. He is aware of the place birds wish to go after they fly down, and an enormous a part of that’s finding meals sources and turkey signal like scratch marks, tracks, and indicators of strutting.
“After dawn, I’d go arrange on a chufa patch, an outdated ag subject, or a meals plot,” he stated. Within the days earlier than his hunt, Rick would’ve scouted and glassed to determine the place birds had been going and what they had been consuming. Word the time of day you see the birds in your scouting missions, and attempt to beat them to their favourite hotspots while you hunt.
“If I’ve bought no calls, I’m going to attempt to get forward of them,” he stated. “I’m going to look at the hens, particularly as a result of that’s the place the gobblers are going to go. Don’t get me improper. We don’t normally ambush or bushwhack birds this fashion, however in case you take my calls away, I’m going to attempt to do precisely that.”
When you’ve positioned roosting timber and meals sources and discovered the place birds prefer to spend their morning, you should use instruments like onX to plot the turkeys’ path. After that, all you have to do is wait and perhaps add just a little leaf scratching for realism.
Afternoon: Bump and Dump With a Set of Decoys
In South Carolina, you possibly can hunt turkeys within the afternoon, however that may not be allowed in your house state. That stated, there are nonetheless some classes to take from Rick’s afternoon technique.
Simply as with mid-day, Rick would give attention to the place he’d seen birds and chicken signal earlier than. The distinction is, this time of day, he likes to make use of decoys to match what he’s seen of birds within the subject earlier than. For instance, if he’s scouted an aggressive tom pushing jakes round, he’ll go together with a half-strut jake decoy and a hen. When he’s positioned a really perfect afternoon spot and picks the proper unfold of dekes to go together with, he eases into the sphere in his truck.
“Often, we’ll have a driver to drop me or the hunters off,” he stated. “If there aren’t birds there, I’ll arrange, make a brush blind, and put out the decoys. If there are birds there, we’ll bump them out of the sphere with the car, then arrange and look ahead to them to return again.”
Rick says that if the turkeys see him strolling into the sphere as an alternative of driving, there’s a very good probability they’ll get spooked and received’t come again. However with a car, they normally return after it’s gone and Rick or one in all his hunters is in place. As soon as the lure is ready, Rick simply wants to attend for a gobbler to step into the sphere and see his unfold.
