Subtleties That Can Sink a Hunt

Hunting is challenging enough without adding subtle slip-ups. Planning and calculating each step of your hunt offers a way to avoid as many turkey hunting blunders as possible. Several gaffes can turn a good hunt bad with one misstep. Know what stands in your way of success before it occurs.

Are you a standout citizen? That’s great in your social life, but when hunting, you want to blend into the backdrop as inconspicuously as a timber rattlesnake. In brief, choose your hiding location wisely. Melt into the background by fusing your form with Mother Nature. Choose tree trunks that are wider than your shoulders, hunker in the shadows of boughs, and even use a downed tree as a foundation back brace and a skeleton of limbs in which to coalesce. To get even more out of your thoughtful hideout, match your camouflage to the terrain. Camouflage that’s too dark or light stands out like a St. Bernard at a Chihuahua training school.

Moving when in full view of turkeys is worse than setting up in an exposed position or wearing a crass camouflage pattern. Sure, a turkey will not give you a second look in the shadows while you’re veiled in $2,000 worth of camouflage, but you still cannot move if those beady eyes are looking your way.

Paranoid does not begin to describe a turkey, which believes that everything seen or unseen is out to get it. Quick or slow, turkeys pick up movement and then crouch for flight or putt an alarm signal. To avoid alarm bells, make your moves as turkeys pass behind vegetation, bend to peck or engage in turkey social behavior, taking their focus away from their environment. When you need to adjust your gun, do so slowly to get the shot. Slow is smooth, and smooth is fast.

Whether you have a setup site in mind or need to select one on the move, choose a location that turkeys appreciate more than you do. Turkeys prefer to travel on level ground, not climb like goats. They rarely appreciate crossing water, especially moving water or large expanses of water. They also get confused while bumping into tightly woven livestock fences that don’t let them slip under.

Your site selection should be finalized before testing the calling waters with gusto. If a gobbler or hen answers once or twice, they could already have a GPS lock on your position and be headed your way. Find a good seat before yacking it up.

People do not have patience nowadays, and I blame social media. Gratification arrives in seconds, and that mentality sinks a turkey hunt. Be patient. Turkeys live in a world where any false move results in their demise. As such, turkeys might take up to an hour to sneak in to investigate calls. Sit longer and move less. Calls should also be tempered. Instead of hammering nonstop, try to incite an increasingly verbal confrontation. If that fails, back off and let the chatter of a tranquil flock lure in cautious birds. Finally, do not overpressure hotspots such as a roost. Give reliables a try, but if you strike out, set up along travel corridors, and feeding and loafing areas.

Your setup, especially if you’re not using decoys, requires you to imagine the scenario from a turkey’s perspective. If a turkey arrives and discovers sounds emanating from an open setting, it’s a game ender. Turkeys, like most animals you call in, expect to see a conversationalist at the end of their journey. To avoid failure, set up in habitat that requires turkeys to hunt you. Rolling terrain, scattered brush, woodland openings and the like make a turkey weave through cover to find calling. Field edges are great setup sites while using decoys, but they can give turkeys too much of a view. If turkeys do not see another turkey or scrutinize a statuesque decoy too long, it’s game over.

Finally, understand what’s occurring at the time of the season you’re hunting, and pay attention to turkey chatter before staking an entire decoy team in a field. For example, your area might have intense hunting pressure, prompting you to hunt in dense cover, as flocks might not want to expose themselves on field edges. Less might be best in that scenario for decoy numbers. Or your area might not experience any hunting pressure, so you can coordinate an entire theatrical performance of decoys.

If decoy decisions create anxiety, here’s an allaround duo that works throughout the season. Purchase a hen and jake decoy pair, such as the Montana Decoy Co. the Purrfect Pair XD Combo. It includes a hen and a jake that party together at any time of spring to bring in an angry gobbler or bossy hen.

Take an extra moment at the beginning and throughout the hunt to consider your next step — the move that won’t sink your hunt.