You think you have done it all.
But hunting a long beard will test you like nothing else.
Just ask any seasoned West Virginia hunter—a hunter who have done it all on bear, deer, and boar—and he will likely say wild turkey hunting is the most demanding sport the state has to offer.
The annual spring gobbler season certainly offers a challenging and exhilarating confrontation.
And to be successful, you need all the skills of hunting plus a few other gifts: superb calling techniques, discipline, perfect shot placement and a host of subtleties regarding camo getup and gear.
In addition, a hunter must be prepared to pay the price in patience. Taking a spring gobbler may require a four- or five-hour stint in close cover.
The reason is simple: At 30 yards on a laser-eyed tom, the difference between success and failure is measured in microns and milliseconds. Â
Its scientific name is Meleagris Galapagos Silvestri’s, but most of us country boys prefer to call it the eastern wild turkey.
Yet, the question asked by most hunters remains: What is the secret to bagging an old gobbler each spring season?
Some of us began our wild turkey hunting education with books, cassettes, and videos.
And before we realized it, we had accumulated a shopping bag full of various diaphragms; two or three box calls; a couple of slate calls, and multiple crows, owl, woodpecker, and goosecalls.
As we traveled through the woods in search of the elusive tom, we tried everything we had ever heard, read, or seen but with minimal results.
A backpack would have come in handy for toting all the turkey calls and camouflage paraphernalia.
Education is not cheap.
Sooner or later though, it dawns on all of us: the education of a turkey hunter can’t be bought in a store.
Instead, the woodsman ship required must be earned through hard work and hours in the woods.
So how does one go about becoming a player in what many consider to be a hunter’s greatest chess match?
Some old timers will tell you that its a matter of listening to the advice of experienced hunters and practicing perseverance and slow movements.
Stealth often plays a greater role in bagging a mature bird than the skills of calling.
You cannot find it in a store.
It is not in a catalog.
But it is out there for all.
Classic hunts in which you set up on a gobbling tom at daybreak and call him to the gun within a matter of minutes are bound to spoil you.
Most turkey hunts require more ingenuity and patience.
I have often heard tell of veteran gobbler hunters setting up repeatedly and using different calls and going quiet for 20 to 30 minutes.
Sooner or later we all come to realize that we can get along with a much smaller array of calls and no longer require a backpack or a wheelbarrow for toting gear.
I know of at least one young fellow who harvests a nice gobbler nearly every spring season without using any calling device: he mimics the antics of many of the feathered fowl in the woods, using only his own voice box.
To make matters worse for the rest of us, the kid says he will try his bow this season instead of his 12-gauge.
I must admire this kind of grit.
Some of us could not get a gobbler with a laser guided missile.
Talk to any successful turkey hunter and you will hear much of the same language as they describe their success.
It takes a fair measure of dedication, practice, advance preparations (scouting), sacrifices (money and time) and willingness to improve.
More than a few educated turkey hunters consider 20 percent of the hunt to be calling and the remaining 80 percent to be knowledge of the landscape, having multiple places to hunt, recognizing roost areas, and dusting locations, knowing the food sources, recognizing feathers and tracks.
In short, it requires woodsmanship.
The turkey has no clock and no schedule.
We must realize that we are in his world and rather than forcing him to come to us, try setting up where he wants to be.
During rainy and windy days, it often means hunting fields that offer a food source and visibility.
When the forest is noisy, a turkey prefers to be where he can see and hear predators.
Turkey hunting has proven to be one of nature’s most thrillingand exciting challenges.
Once we finally realize there is no magical answer to beordered from a catalog, it is amazing how quickly our hunting skills start to improve.
That is what gobbler success is all about.
You cannot get the education unless you are willing to pay your dues.
Much of a turkey hunter’s education about spring gobblers must be acquired in the woods, according to seasoned veterans who pursue the wily old toms. A camo-clad warrior with his shooting iron must pay his dues if he expects to harvest a sumptuous prize bird.
Mastery is obtained through time and patience; it cannot be ordered from a catalog or bought in a store. A variety of calls and devices are used to attract the lusting long-beards, which are sure to show up sooner or later as the season progresses, even if it is only the foul-weather fowl.
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Top o’ the morning!