Editor’s Note: Nationally-known outdoor writer and hunter J. Wayne Fears of New Market, Alabama, says, “If you’ve hunted turkeys for very long, you know that sometimes they don’t do what’s expected.” This week, we’ll look at some of his turkey-taking adventures and hear what he’s learned from turkeys that haven’t done right.

I once hunted on a large ranch in South Dakota with a group of outdoor writers. The only place for these gobblers to roost was cottonwood trees on the edge of a small branch. All the turkeys on this ranch seemed to come to these cottonwood trees to roost.

My friend, Wayne, from Pennsylvania, was on this trip, too. We spent several days trying to call these turkeys down after they’d gone to roost from early in the morning until late into the day. However, both of us were unsuccessful. Snow fell every day we hunted. Several other writers on this hunt agreed that he’d be a real hero if someone could take a gobbler under these conditions. If none of us were successful, we’d have no turkeys in camp to photograph.

On the last morning, all the writers took stands about 100 yards from where the turkeys were roosting. We heard the chorus of toms gobbling at daylight and the hens yelping. However, none of us had a chance to take a tom. Just before the birds left the cottonwoods, I began to think, “After these turkeys leave the roost every morning, they move to the high, open prairie hills. While the turkeys are still in the trees, I’ll run into the high prairie mountains and try to call a bird from up there.”

I went away from my stand while there was no light. I didn’t tell any of the other writers what I was doing. I ran as fast as possible and walked a mile away from the roost site and the other hunters. I set up on one of the high prairie flats and heard a gobbler yelping from the roost. That made me think that all the turkeys had flown down from their roost, but I hadn’t heard a single shotgun fired. So, I started yelping softly with my diaphragm call and then heard two turkeys gobbling at my yelping. I knew those two birds were headed my way. I had no trees on the flat where I’d set up. I was in snow about 6 inches deep with grass surrounding me.

I lay flat on my stomach and could feel the snow melting under me. Before lying down, I noticed a clear spot on the side of the hill that was only about 20-30 yards away. I yelped softly, and the gobblers gobbled before I finished yelping. Four to five hens walked past me about 10 yards from my flat. I spotted three toms following those hens.

When one of the long bearded gobblers separated from the other two, I took a shot with my 12-gauge shotgun. The bird went down. I jumped up, ran over to him, and put my foot on his head while he was flopping. I was so proud of myself because all the other writers downhill probably had heard the shot and were looking at me.

Once the gobbler quit flopping, I picked him up and held him high – hoping all the other writers could see me with this big bird. I put that tom on my shoulder and walked down the ridge like the proud hunter. But eventually, I had to quit carrying that big bird and put him in the back of my turkey vest. Required by law to attach my turkey license to the tom’s leg, I laid the bird down, took my vest off, laid my gun on him, and started digging through my vest to find my turkey license. Then I heard a noise behind me. I turned around and saw the turkey had come back to life, run down the hill, and was now on another mountain. He turned, looked at me, gobbled, and quickly started away from me.

I thought I had killed the bird because he was completely limp. I had stepped on his head, just enough to keep him still and look suitable for pictures. All the other writer turkey hunters were watching me. I had to find out what had gone wrong.

After losing my bird earlier and embarrassing myself in front of all my fellow outdoor writers,

I returned to where I’d been hunting. Once I arrived at where the bird had been flopping, I saw a perfect imprint of that gobbler’s head in the snow and mud. Evidently, due to the ground being so soft and muddy, the pressure of my boot on his head hadn’t caused instant death like I thought it would.

Next, I walked from that spot to where I was when I took the shot. I realized that the bird was much further away from me than I had thought he was when I took the shot. He was 65 yards from where I’d shot with my 2-3/4 inch No. 5s. The No. 5 shot hadn’t done anything more than knock that turkey unconscious. Those No. 5s had run out of steam before they reached the turkey.

I arrived at the bottom of the hill and met up with my fellow journalists. They laughed hilariously about me and the turkey I thought I’d killed.

Lessons Learned from Hunting the Reincarnated Gobbler:

• Lesson #1: Be sure of the distance you are from the turkey before you take the shot. Back then, we didn’t have range finders and magnum shells like we do today. Using my range finder today, I’ve learned to check the distance from where I am to where I think the bird will come.

• Lesson #2: Know the capability of your shotgun shells to put a turkey down before you take the shot. I shot the turkey at a greater distance than I should have.

• Lesson #3: You need to go to the spot where the turkey wants to go if you can’t take a bird from the roost. I’d gone to where the turkey wanted to go, so my hunting plan was right. However, my shot was wrong.

• Lesson #4: You must be confident your tom is dead before you pick up your turkey, throw him over your shoulder, and try to carry him out of the woods.   

Looking for more content? Check out our YouTube channel and watch “My Toughest Turkey with Harold Knight” by John E. Phillips.

Check out John E. Phillips’ 12th book: “Turkeys: Today’s Tactics for Longbeards Tomorrow“

Expert Guidebooks on Turkey Hunting: Best Sellers

Turkey Hunting Tactics
This turkey hunting audiobook has entertaining chapters like: “How to Miss a Turkey”, “Hunting with a Guide”, and “The Turkey and the New York Lady”.

You’ll learn about all the subspecies of turkey across North America, how to use a turkey call, how to scout before turkey season, how to find a turkey to hunt, and what hunting gear you’ll need to put the odds in your favor to take a wily gobbler.

VERSIONS: AUDIBLE, KINDLE & PRINT

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How to Hunt Turkeys with World Champion Preston Pittman
You easily can take a turkey if you don’t make any mistakes, but you have to know what the deadly sins of turkey hunting are to keep you from making those mistakes. If you understand how to hunt a turkey, you’re far more likely to take a gobbler than if you just know how to call a turkey.

Of course, calling is important, and if you want to learn to call a turkey, Preston Pittman will teach you how to call turkeys with box calls, friction calls, diaphragm calls, and other turkey sounds.

You’ll also learn why Preston Pittman once put turkey manure all over his body to kill a tough tom.

When you have turkeys that strut and drum in the middle of a field, when you know there’s no way to get close enough to get a shot, Pittman will show you some weird tactics that have worked for him to help you hunt tough ole toms.

But the main thing you’ll learn in this book is how to become the turkey.

Using what he’s learned while hunting wild turkeys, he’s also become a master woodsman who can take most game, regardless of where he hunts. To learn more secrets about how to be a turkey hunter from one of the world champions of the sport, this turkey-hunting book with Preston Pittman is a must.

VERSIONS: AUDIBLE, KINDLE & PRINT

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The Turkey Hunting Guides’ Bible
The quickest way to learn how to turkey hunt successfully is to either hunt with a turkey hunter with years of experience or a turkey-hunting guide. These two types of turkey hunters have solved most of the problems turkey hunters ever will face. 

Just as one size of shoes won’t fit every person, one style of turkey hunting doesn’t fit each hunter.  Each turkey-hunting guide interviewed for this book has his own style of calling, hunting, and outsmarting turkeys.  

While listening to this book, make a list of the new information you’ve learned, take that list with you during turkey season, and try some of the new tactics. Then you’ll become a more versatile turkey hunter and prove the wisdom from The Turkey Hunting Guides’ Bible.   

VERSIONS: AUDIBLE, KINDLE & PRINT

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Outdoor Life’s Complete Turkey Hunting (2nd Edition)
This Audible book will help you learn how to call turkeys with two of the nation’s best, longtime and well-known turkey callers, Rob Keck, formerly with the National Wild Turkey Federation, and Lovett Williams, a wildlife biologist who recorded wild turkeys giving the calls that you’ll learn how to make on various types of turkey callers.

VERSIONS: AUDIBLE & KINDLE

Tomorrow: Taking the Turkey Named Romeo