Editor’s Note: I first interviewed Matt Morrett of Pennsylvania when he won the World Turkey Calling Championship at 16. He also won the Junior and Senior Grand National Turkey Calling contests and the World Friction Turkey Calling Championships five times. Today, Morrett, who started hunting turkeys with his dad in 1976 at 6, is the marketing director for the Pennsylvania Game Commission. Here are some of Matt’s recollections on what turkeys can teach us.
The more you know about the average public-land turkey hunter, the better your odds are for bagging a gobbler on public lands. The average public-land turkey hunter is willing to get up before daylight, possibly for the first two weeks of turkey season. However, after that, whether he’s bagged a bird, he’s often had enough of getting up before daylight.
Later in the year, as the leaves come out on the trees, those leaves muffle the sound of a turkey’s gobble. Therefore, when I’m hunting in the late season, usually later in the morning, I’ll sit down as quickly as possible if I hear a turkey gobble. I don’t try to move closer to the gobbler because I know he’s close enough to call if I can hear him gobble through the foliage. Most of the time, if you try to close the distance and get near the gobbler, you’ll find the gobbler is closer than you think and spook him. As long as that turkey is gobbling to you when you call to him, and if there’s not a ditch, a creek, or hens between you and the turkey, then more than likely, he’ll continue to come looking for you. Because you’re hunting later in the season, many, if not most, of the hens already will have gone to the nest or are on the way to their nests. So, the gobbler coming to you is less likely to find a hen before he moves to where you’re calling.
Since the leaves are out in the late season, and you can’t hear the turkey gobble at longer distances, remember that the turkey can’t hear you either, until you’re closer to him. I plan to go farther and call more in the late season than in the early season. However, if you find a turkey that will gobble later in the morning and later during the season than he has at the first of the season, your chances for taking that turkey are much better than they are at the first.
Hunters always talk about patience being one of the key attributes of a good turkey hunter. We usually refer to having enough patience to wait for a turkey to gobble and then having enough patience to wait for that turkey to show up. However, I think more patience is required to wait until 8:00 or 9:00 am to hunt turkeys when all your buddies have been in the woods at daylight. You want to wait until your buddies have quit hunting turkeys before you start hunting hard.
Looking for more content? Check out our YouTube channel and watch “Doug Shipp – One of My Toughest Turkey Hunts” by John E. Phillips.
Check out John E. Phillips’ 12th book: “Turkeys: Today’s Tactics for Longbeards Tomorrow“
- hunting strategies with pros Will Primos, David Hale, Eddie Salter, Preston Pittman, Allen Jenkins, Terry Rohm, Paul Butski, Larry Norton and others.
- information about taking turkeys with .410 shotguns.
- box-call techniques.
- strategies for moving on turkeys.
- ways to hunt public-land gobblers.
- the differences in calling and hunting Eastern, Osceola and Western turkeys.
- the latest research on turkeys; and other information.
Click here to check out John’s 12th turkey book.
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
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
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
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: Matt Morrett’s Calls for Turkeys
You may also enjoy:
“Learning from Turkeys with Matt Morrett” Day 1: Public Land’s High Pressured Turkeys
“Learning from Turkeys with Matt Morrett” Day 4: Turkeys That Understand Hunters
“Learning from Turkeys with Matt Morrett” Day 5: One of Matt Morrett’s Toughest Turkeys
“Learning from Turkeys with Matt Morrett” Day 3: Matt Morrett’s Calls for Turkeys
Old Turkey Calls Still Work Today Day 1: You Can Call More Turkeys
You Can Take More Turkeys Day 2: Understand That Named Turkeys Generally Are Bad Birds
