Editor’s Note: Most successful turkey hunters recognize the importance of slowing down to take more turkeys.

Although yelping three times and throwing your call away works to call in gobblers, waiting longer and moving less also will result in more gobblers riding home in the back of your turkey vest. Here’s the facts:

* turkeys have short legs and walk slowly most of the time;

* turkeys rarely come running to a call;

* turkeys will require twice as much time to reach you as you think they will;

* you can learn more about how long a turkey takes to come to you by watching your watch than if you use your best-guess idea;

* probably 50 percent of the time, when a turkey quits gobbling, and you think he’s left your area, he’s still on the way to you or close enough to see you if you stand up;

* you need to look at your watch and wait 30 more minutes by the clock before you move, even if you know for sure a turkey’s not coming. Often the turkey you’ve thought has left will come to you within 30 minutes;

* soft calling – clucks, purrs, and soft yelps – will produce more gobblers than loud calling will;     * you can bag more gobblers without a call than you can with one, if you study the terrain and the turkeys that live where you hunt;

* you’ll take twice as many turkeys if you spend half as much time learning the woods and the turkeys as you do practicing your calling;

* you can build a natural blind the quickest and easiest with ratchet cutters or pruning shears and use it to break-up your silhouette to keep the turkey from seeing you; and

* you need to move less to see and hear more turkeys.

To learn more about turkey hunting, check out John E. Phillips’ print, Audible, Kindle and Nook turkey books at https://johninthewild.com/books/#turkey and at www.barnesandnoble.com. You also can download a free Kindle app that enables you to read the book on your iPad, computer or SmartPhone. You can learn more about calling turkeys by going to johninthewild.com/audio-files/ for audio turkey tapes to purchase of Lovett Williams, Rob Keck and Chris Kirby, available for download to your SmartPhone, tablet or computer. For a free copy of John E. Phillips’ “The Turkey Gobbler Getter Manual,” go to https://johninthewild.com/free-books/ to download.

Tomorrow: Call in a Gobbler without Being a Great Caller