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.
I was fortunate to grow up in Pennsylvania when we didn’t have many turkeys to hunt. I learned that if I found a turkey that gobbled in the spring and was away from other hunters, he might be the only gobbler I had to hunt all spring. However, turkey hunters can cover much of the country today and have several turkeys to hunt in one morning.
I’ve often been asked, “Matt, what do you do when you’ve missed a turkey, spooked a gobbler, or hunted him so hard and so long that he quits gobbling?” My answer is, “If you only have one turkey to hunt, hunt him until the end of the season or until he rides home with you in the back of your pickup truck.”
Early in my turkey-hunting career, I learned that the easiest way to bag a gobbler consistently is to learn where the turkey roosts, where he goes throughout the day, why he goes there, and where he flies up at night to return to the roost. I never consider a day of turkey hunting a loss if I learn more about the gobbler I’m hunting. Tough turkeys are the best teachers for hunting turkeys. You’ll soon realize that your greatest chance for success will always be when you know what the turkey wants to do, where he wants to go, and why he wants to go there, even before the turkey makes those decisions for himself. Most of the gobblers harvested today are taken because we make the gobbler do what we want him to do, especially early in the season if the turkey hasn’t had any hunting pressure and hasn’t heard other hunters calling to him.
When hunting 2-year-old gobblers, they’re young and fired up; we can make those turkeys do what we want. But after a turkey has been shot at and missed, spooked by other hunters, and heard enough turkey calls to tell you the manufacturer’s name on each call, he’s one of the toughest game animals to take. He probably knows more about what you’ll do than you understand about what he’ll do. I’m not saying turkeys are smarter than we are. But they’ve adapted their habits to stay away from danger.
Often, the only way to harvest those smart turkeys is to be where that turkey wants to be and be in that spot before he arrives there. Eventually, I know I can take that turkey. The best call when hunting a tough, well-educated gobbler is often no call. When one of those bad birds hears you call, he knows where you are, who you are, and what you plan to do to him. Experience has taught him not to go to that type of calling. He knows if what he hears is a turkey hen, then she’ll come to him, and he won’t be required to go to her.
So, instead of cutting and loud yelping, I’ll go where Tom wants to be and cut and yelp softly. Occasionally, I’ll scratch in the leaves and act like I’m a hen feeding or a new hen he hasn’t heard before, and I’m not interested in him.
Looking for more content? Check out our YouTube channel and watch “Why I Rest My Hunting Regions” 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: One of Matt Morrett’s Toughest 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 5: One of Matt Morrett’s Toughest Turkeys
“Learning from Turkeys with Matt Morrett” Day 3: Matt Morrett’s Calls for Turkeys
“Learning from Turkeys with Matt Morrett” Day 2: Late Season Public Land Turkeys
Turkey Tales from J. Wayne Fears Day 4: Getting the Texas Captain Cook Tom
Solve Late Season Turkey Hunting Problems Day 5: Hunt Sheiks and Hard to Take Turkeys
