The Masters’ Toughest Toms

Most of us have engaged with a tough gobbler or two — birds that outsmart us at every turn. They stick in our heads as we question where we went wrong. We’re in good company. Some of the world’s best callers and woodsmen, such as call maker Preston Pittman and TV and seminar personality Steve Stoltz, are part of our club. The difference between us and them, however, might be how they learn from their circumstances and readjust for success.

“Back in the old days, a buddy of mine called me and said he wanted to give me a bird,” Pittman said. “In those days, nobody gave you a bird unless it was a horse’s rear or the person couldn’t kill him. I was intrigued.”

At the landowner’s property, Pittman scanned a 60-acre pasture with cattle in it. The adjoining land featured a pine hillcrest descending into beautiful hardwoods and a pretty creek bottom.

“I thought my friend must have been drunk to give me all this,” he said. “But all this was just the pasture — no woods, no creek bottom, nothing. I thought, ‘Well, my friend messed with me again,’ but figured I’d still spend a morning among the cows.”

The next morning, a turkey gobbled from the roost. The only place Pittman could hide was within a deep, undisturbed blackberry thicket hugging the meager fence bisecting the pasture. Underneath the thicket, every blade of grass was bent. Hunters had hunkered down there previously. Pittman thought, “I’ve got you now.”

The gobbler fervently responded to Pittman’s calls and moved in, strutting, gobbling and putting on a show. Pittman’s shotgun was a 40-yarder guaranteed, so he had to pull the bird closer. At 65 yards, the tom suddenly spooked and hauled off. Pittman couldn’t chase him. The pasture was his prison.

The second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh mornings were repeats.

“The eighth morning, as I got out of my truck, I looked down and realized some cows had gotten out and eaten ryegrass,” he said. “If you’ve ever been around farm cattle, you know ryegrass consumption means a mess on the ground, not neat cow pies. I looked at that poop, and then I looked at the roost area and said, ‘Big boy, it just dawned on me. I can kill you.’ I picked up the soupy mess, smeared it all over my body and headed for the blackberry thicket.”

When the bird hit the ground, Pittman clucked and yelped softly twice. At 18 yards, the gobbler met his demise. He was an old bird with better than 1.5-inch spurs. The gobbler was in tune with his environment. He just didn’t expect Pittman to come along.

How did the cow poop help Pittman kill the bird?

For many, hunting is about calling, working, sneaking, crawling or fanning. Folks ignore the story Mother Nature is telling. If you’ve hunted around cattle, you know they come to investigate when you start calling, which they did in Pittman’s case.

“Looking at the cow dung, I realized the cattle had smelled me and then ran to mid-pasture, startled,” Pittman said. “The turkey had learned to watch the cows and react to what the cattle were doing. On Day 8, the cows smelled cows, not me. They nibbled grass just 10 feet behind me, indicating all was well.

“Pay attention to everything around you. Use your eyes and ears. Focus on more than the gobbler. Dissect the situation. Everything in nature communicates, vocally or through actions. Pay attention and become part of the natural surroundings.”

“In my late teens, I traveled to Arkansas’ Ozark Mountains to broaden my hunting horizons,” Stoltz said. “The first morning, I realized I had to get away from the cadre of public-land hunters to find less-pressured birds. I heard turkeys high on a mountain top, which was almost impossible to climb. But of course, I made my way up and got on a bird. Unfortunately, the classic hunt ended without me seeing the bird. I hunted the rest of the day, but no luck.”

The next morning, the same scenario played out. Stoltz stayed on the bird, catching up to it several times. But again, the gobbler drifted away, cooled down and shut up.

Day three was a replay. Time was running out. Stoltz only had a morning or two to get the job done. Admittedly, he was almost ready to give up and return to Missouri with his tail between his legs.

“I needed help,” Stoltz said. “So, I called expert turkey hunter and friend Eddie Moyers. He listened to my tale and instantly asked, “Can’t you hunt all day there? Why don’t you try to kill him in the evening before he goes to roost? He’s got hens with him during the day. If he doesn’t have a hen with him returning to the roost site, he may be a lot easier to kill.”

Stoltz hadn’t considered that option. Late that afternoon, he climbed the mountain again and followed every ounce of Moyers’ advice, arriving before the bird moved in so he wouldn’t bump him. He set up about 100 yards from the roost area and got comfortable — head net down, calls out, gun ready and not moving. Every 10 to 15 minutes, Stoltz combined yelping with feeding calls to imitate a hen heading to roost.

“An hour passed and nothing,” Stoltz said. “I had to remain patient. Eddie warned me to be alert and active as the evening slipped toward sunset. He told me to throw out a fly-up cackle as my last resort. So, I did a quiet cackle. The turkey gobbled just out of eyesight. Moments later, he stepped into view in full strut and walked right up to me.”

The hardest Arkansas turkey to kill, on top of a high mountain, became the easiest turkey to kill in another situation. The bird was an old, long-spurred gobbler that wanted hens to come to him. Whether he intended to breed or roost with the hen didn’t matter. The scene Stoltz created was natural, and the gobbler responded.

“I was a young kid on this hunt,” Stoltz said. “I learned there’s no replacement for experience. I found someone who could help me and teach me. I can’t express strongly enough the importance of learning from people who have been there and done that. Mentors can save you tons of heartache.

“Patience and tenacity are also critical. People give up too soon. When the hot tom they’re targeting shuts down, they do too. The reality is that those turkeys aren’t going anywhere. They’re still going to be there. You simply need to adjust to the turkey’s mindset and figure out what’s next. Become a turkey and think like a turkey. Patience is one thing, but stick-to-it-iveness is the Holy Grail. The harder you hunt tough birds, the more success you’ll enjoy.”