Editor’s Note: A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned that from a Google survey, I’d learned what hunters wanted to know about hunting turkeys. Many of them never had turkey hunted before. Others had called longbeards but had specific turkey-hunting problems they didn’t know how to solve. First a hunter needs to understand that each gobbler he or she hunts is an individual bird with his own traits, hunter experiences and survival instincts. So, no one answer will answer all turkey hunters’ questions for each turkey-hunting situation. If you have turkey-hunting questions you need possible answers for, email John at [email protected], and he will try to help. 

Question: Why hunt turkeys with other hunters?

John E. Phillips: There are two answers to this question. First, I enjoy turkey hunting with other people, particularly skilled turkey hunters, because I can learn new techniques and share new ideas with them. Over the years, I’ve learned that every turkey hunter has different strategies for taking turkeys. The more I can learn about turkey hunting from other people, the easier hunting alone will be. I can gather new information and photos to share with my readers. Too, hunting with other people extends my season. After I have taken one or two turkeys, I always stay one gobbler short, so I can guide newcomers and youngsters turkey hunting. The sport of turkey hunting is getting a gobbler within hunting range. If I can achieve those goals, I’ve won, regardless of who’s pulled the trigger.  

Question: Why should I consider hunting with a turkey guide?

Phillips: If you’re a newbie to the sport of turkey hunting, the more times you can hunt with a seasoned veteran, the more you can learn about turkey hunting, specifically how to call, when to call, how to set-up a kill zone, and how to take the shot. You’ll have the opportunity to tap into the wisdom of turkey hunters who guide almost every day,

allowing you to gain valuable information from a mentor.  

Question: Why give away a gobbler?

Phillips: Some turkeys will gobble to you and won’t come. You may have used every trick and turkey call you know. You also may hunt a gobbler for 3-5 days and still be unsuccessful. A gobbler like this can ruin your turkey season by your spending so much time trying to take him that you don’t have the time to find another turkey to take. World Champion turkey caller and hunter Rob Keck told me, “When I go into turkey camp, someone may say, ‘We’ve got a gobbler down on the back 40, and several of our best turkey hunters haven’t been able to take him. So, we’re letting you hunt him tomorrow.’ I realize they’ve decided to give away that longbeard to me, which sometimes makes better sense than that bird driving everyone on the club crazy.”

Tomorrow: How to Call Turkeys in Different Situations

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