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.

Comanche was another Rio Grande gobbler I hunted. I was hunting on the Clear Fork of the Brazos River – just east of Abilene and Albany, Texas. I named this gobbler Comanche because I found some old tombstones while scouting on the first morning of my hunt. Several of the tombstones had the names of young children, and the bottom of each tombstone said, “Killed by Comanches.”

The first morning I hunted at that ranch, I was working with two gobblers, but they had a flock of hens with them. I also heard a flock of hens coming from my right. As soon as that harem of hens reached the gobblers, they took those longbeards out of sight and out of hearing. So, I went back to the ranch to eat lunch. The other hunters at that ranch that week didn’t believe in hunting turkeys in the afternoon. However, in my home state of Alabama, we could hunt turkeys all day. I’d bagged several birds through the years hunting in the afternoons. So, one of the guides drove me back to the same place I’d hunted that morning.

In Alabama, I’d learned that if I located a gobbler who got with hens in the morning, he’d probably stay with them until later in the morning when they went to the nest. Or, they’d just all go in different directions. That gobbler often would return to the same spot where he’d met his hens that morning.

Once I got out of the truck, I returned to the Mesquite flat where I’d called the gobblers that morning. I blew my crow call loudly, and both the longbeards I had called in the morning gobbled through that crow call. I estimated the gobblers were about 150 yards from me. One of the gobblers had an intense voice, and the other gobler had more of a high-pitched gobble that sounded like a jake. I made myself comfortable and set up to look in the directions from where I thought the turkeys would come to me.

I yelped loudly. A turkey jumped before me, but he was the higher-pitched (more shallow-sounding) tom. I thought, “That bird’s probably a gobbling Jake.” However, since the deep-voiced gobbler didn’t answer, I at least wanted to see what this turkey looked like.

I yelped again, and the shallow-voiced gobbler answered. He’d cut the distance between me and him to about 80 yards. I got my shooting sticks out and put my shotgun between them to have a more solid platform than trying to shoot offhand. Before I got ready to shoot, I thought I heard a gobbler drumming off to my left. I thought, “That’s either someone trying to start an old truck or a gobbler drumming.” As I cut my eyes to the left, about 10 yards from my stand, I saw a rattlesnake. He wasn’t coming toward me but was parallel to me at about 10 yards. I knew I was in a heck of a predicament. I had a gobbler drumming to my left, another turkey gobbling in front of me, and a rattlesnake that had all my attention.

Then the snake disappeared. The high-pitched gobbler kept closing the distance to me. The drumming sound off to my left became louder and louder, and I knew I had to make a decision. As quickly as possible, I moved my crosshairs to the left to be ready to take the drumming gobbler if I saw him. Just about the time I got myself set up so that my shooting sticks and shotgun pointed in the direction the drumming was coming from, that gobbler hopped out from behind some thick cover. He was in full strut about 20 yards away. I yelped, the gobbler dropped his strut, and I squeezed the trigger.

Lessons Learned from Taking Comanche:

• Lesson #1: I learned from Comanche that if you were hunting in a state where you can hunt in the afternoon, afternoon hunting would pay off. You could often return to the same birds you’d discovered in the morning and get them to come to the same spot you’d been calling from earlier.

• Lesson #2: I learned that boss gobblers are much brighter than young gobblers. That boss gobbler I took moved quicker than the shallow-gobbling bird did. He tried to sneak into the place where the hen was and drummed to try and steal the hen before the younger bird reached her.

• Lesson #3: You must use your ears to listen for other gobblers closer to you than the one you think you’ll shoot. Oftentimes, more than one or two gobblers may hear you calling. An older bird generally will listen to a younger bird gobbling and the hen’s answering him. Then, that older turkey will try to sneak in and drum to attract that hen.

• Lesson #4: I learned I couldn’t allow venomous snakes to make me move and lose my turkey.

Looking for more content? Check out our YouTube channel and watch “A Turkey for a 7-Year-Old” 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