an expert woodsman with limited calling ability will kill way more birds than a champion caller with no woodsmanship skills. Every time.

x2

Another thing that I ALWAYS try and do, especially when in the woods or in a roadway is set up where when that bird pops into view he is within range. There is no telling how many times when I started turkey hunting that I would be set up where the bird could see my location for 100 yards or more before he got to me. More times than not he would not see a hen and lose interest. I used decoys then on just about all field setups and often in the woods too and it helped some, I very rarely use them now and like it better. By setting up where a bird is within 40 yards when he can see you and you can see him it allows you to be ready (you better be ready) but he knows you are close and you know he is close (hopefully). Once he knows he should be able to see you he is going to stop, look, crane that neck, and present a shot more times than not. This is easy to do in the woods where you can set up 40 yards from the crest of a hill and also in a roadway set where you can set off to the side a few feet. There are some places where you have to set next to the road and that is ok, but If the trees are undergrowth are open enough I will often set 20 -30 yards off of the roadway where I am better hidden and in the shadows. You can get comfortable, relax, and spend lots of times in a good area this way and still have the cover to get your gun up if one slips in on you.

REALLY good advice here - all I can add is do alot of scouting/listening weeks before the season comes in. Slip down roads look for tracks (which way are they headed, strut marks, etc.) Slip up on patches, openings, go find where they roost, locate the hen "tribes" and just learn what's going on. If you find the hens you will find the gobblers. Good part is by doing this early if you get busted it won't matter as much as it would in the days before the opener. Also, alot of mornings I might hear a gobbler and if I am not in the right place I may not even attempt a hunt till the next AM when I have a better terrain and time advantage on him. I am a testament to the "Woodmanship has killed more gobblers than calling" saying but it is true. I don't have a lot of fancy calls. Its ALOT easier to kill one if you get between him and where he wants to go.

Also if you don't hear one don't quit hunting - start hitting clearcuts, patches and burn some shoe leather - at least you might learn something and get some excercise.

I also hunt alot in the afternoon - it will tell you where you need to be or NOT be the next AM.

BTW I think it is easier to call one uphill is because they know a fast escape/take-off is much easier running back downhill.

Lots of great info in this thread!

All I can add is this - when calling, less is more.

Most beginning hunters run the turkey off by calling too much and too loud. Don't scare the turkey off and you will have a good chance to kill him.

This may be the best thread in the history of aldeer....all of our resident turkey experts throwing advice out there. Merry Christmas to us rookies.

I was gonna post something like this. I heard someone say a long time ago about calling ducks was that it was like speaking a foreign language. The more you talk the more likely you are to get busted. I always figured that translated to turkeys. I don't have near the credibility as some of yall but I do know all that calling on TV shows is BS.

That's right. Thank you experts!!!!!!

Wow! I'm new on here. I've built my life around turkeys and turkey hunting. I've met a lot of hunters who THOUGHT they were experts on turkeys, but you guys are giving exactly the right advise. Clearly you all have done more than win a calling contest somewhere. This kind of knowledge can only come from years of getting your butts kicked by educated turkeys. Looking forward to sharing and learning on here. The learning never stops.

Its nice to learn but boy it sucked while going through it. What seems funny to me. I read all this stuff and its so true.

It seems it doesnt matter how much you read it, its still hard to learn unless you get whipped a few 100 times.

I think us turkey hunters are just slow learners, thick skulled, and stubborn. You would think that after we get our butts handed to us by a pea brained bird once we would learn, but NOOOOOOO we go back again and again and do the same stupid things only to come out with the same results. Eventually after 100's of screw ups we learn just enough to win one every now and then and we think we are the shiznit, but really we are just puppet's that they toy with. I don't think anyone ever gets to be great at killing them, they become good at not making the stupid mistakes that cost you hunts.

That's put very well. You just get a little better at not making the same mistakes.

Well put.

The owner of the lodge I started out guiding for used to tell us all as we were walking out the door in the mornings, "just remember boys, you're going up against an animal that has a brain no bigger than a nickel . . . good luck"!!!

Man this is a good thread.

I think something that makes a turkey hunter really good is to start out for a couple years with alot of turkeys and alot of opportunities but after that a guy needs to go through a period when he isn't getting into near as many birds for whatever reason and he learns to really sit down on and be patient with the few that he does hear.
I was a bad turkey hunter that killed a pretty good many turkeys for the first few years simply because I had so many to work with.......If I was fooling with one and he shut up there would usually be another one gobbling within earshot so I'd just get up and go to another one. No telling how many turkeys I ran off or just walked off and left, but I really didn't have a teacher and I didn't know any better. Most of what I ended up killing at that time were two year old birds also. When our numbers fell off, I had to learn patience and how to sit with a turkey and before long I ended up getting pretty rough on them.

Tom Kelly references a quote from McIlhenny's book pretty early on in Tenth Legion and I think it's the best advice a beginning turkey hunter can ever get. I can't quote it but I can prettymuch paraphrase it....... "If you're working a turkey and he shuts up then the best thing for you to do is to shut up too and assume that you've won the game and he is on his way. Don't worry about how long it takes him because he doesn't have any sense of time to begin with. Just be ready and be listening for him to drum because more often than not that's what you'll hear if you just sit there and be still for a little while" That's pretty simple advice but it's about as time-tested and deadly as anything I've ever tried or heard of in the turkey woods.

This thread has really taken off since I last looked. There's a lot of really good advice in these words but I think the only way you really will learn is time in the woods. Memories and lessons are truly learned in the field with first hand experience more than anything you could ever read. These tips are all great to try to remember and keep in mind though.

Another thing that I think has made me a much better hunter is hunting public land. I hunted private leases and clubs for several years and did pretty well. I thought I knew a lot about turkey hunting, then I went to college and hunted public land for 5 years. I found out quick that I didn't know anything about dealing with these birds. Over those 5 years I learned a ton though and began killing birds. The last two years I killed my 3 bird MS limit on public and called a few in for friends. After that when I would get a chance to hunt private land it was much easier and I would laugh at the ways I used to hunt. Every bird is different though and I still get my tail kicked by birds more times than not. That's what makes it fun though. You learn something new every day in the turkey woods.

Woodsmanship, Patience, and a good shotgun. I will add one thing....so many times you kill the turkey before the gun goes off. Learn something about him every time you hunt him until you pull the trigger.

Very well put.

I didn't start hunting turkeys til I was in my late 30's and have been blessed with killing few nice ones. To me the best way to learn is to find a great turkey hunter and take him with you. Or in my case, have one talk you into going for the first time. I had the privilege of hunting with YEKRUT the first couple of years of my turkey hunting career, and we tore them up. I watched, learned and listened. To me nothing could be better than surrounding yourself with experienced people. Me and YEKRUT don't see eye to eye on many things but when it come to turkeys we share the same the same views, most of thoughs I had to learn. Really guys it's no different than anything else in life, surround yourself with people that are better than you and you will elevate your skills. I'm blessed with a good bit of land and alot of birds, but its the people and the tricks of the trade that make the difference.

Last year I was on my on, and made plenty of bone-head mistakes. But I killed birds, not because I'm a good hunter but because of what I learned from others.

So Redman, if your first couple of years are half as good as my first, hang on big boy, it might be more than you can handle. YEKRUT is as good as there is, so shut-up and listen and I can almost guarantee you will be "shooting one in the face" soon.

A ton of great advice here, but I don't recall this being mentioned... Learn to hear drumming. It is a skill that a turkey hunter cannot put a value on. As everyone knows, when birds don't gobble it doesn't mean they aren't there. Move slowly/quietly and listen for the "vrrrrrooooooooommm" - it is a dead giveaway that a longbeard is close, unless you are like me and think you hear it in Publix. It will help tremendously, especially when birds circle you and when a birds has gobbled 100 times in 30 minutes and then shuts up.

Apologize if previously mentioned.