Editor’s Note: My longtime friend, Preston Pittman of Pickens, Mississippi, one of the nation’s top competitive turkey callers, has won five turkey-calling championships. Not only is Pittman a contest winner, Preston Pittman actually becomes the turkey when hunting. On a “David Letterman Show” some years ago, Pittman strutted and gobbled and preened himself just like a wild turkey would. According to Pittman, if you’re hoping to take turkeys in the spring, you must observe turkey body language with your binoculars and use that knowledge to become the turkey.

Question: What else are you doing as you are moving through the woods, Preston?

Pittman: I learned from deer hunting that when you’re sitting in a tree stand in the afternoon, and you hear a squirrel bark, that squirrel is telling you that there’s something moving through the woods. A squirrel won’t give away his position, unless he sees something or hears something that causes him to give an alarm cry. Therefore, when I’m deer hunting, and I hear a squirrel bark, if I’m sitting on my tree stand, I stand up, nock an arrow and get ready to shoot. I’ve learned that more than likely, there’s a deer walking through the woods, and I should be able to see him soon. I’ve also learned that when I stand up and get ready to shoot, many times that squirrel is barking at a turkey that’s moving through the woods.

So, I’ve started carrying a squirrel barker, a small bellows-type device that makes a noise like a squirrel bark when you tap it with your hand, as well as my turkey calls during turkey season. I’ll blow my diaphragm turkey call to sound like a turkey-hen yelping. And, I’ll have my squirrel barker out and pat on it, so that it barks like a squirrel right after I give those hen yelps. What I’m trying to do is create a scene in that gobbler’s mind that not only is there a hen walking around in the woods where he hears the yelping coming from, but there’s a squirrel that has seen that hen and has started barking at her. Squirrel barking is one of the most-natural things you hear in the woods, especially when turkeys and deer are moving. Using this tactic, I can disguise the fact that I’m a hunter, and better convince the turkey gobbler that I’m a real hen walking through the woods.

To learn more about turkey hunting, check out John E. Phillips’s books, “The 10 Sins of Turkey Hunting with Preston Pittman,” available in Kindle at http://amzn.to/14BdFMY, and “How to Hunt Turkeys with World Champion Preston Pittman,” available in Kindle and print at http://amzn.to/144Irn5 and from Audible at https://www.audible.com/pd/B01N39E8NT/?source_code=AUDFPWS0223189MWT-BK-ACX0-079067.

Tomorrow: Paint a Picture for the Turkey with Preston Pittman