Editor’s Note: Turkey hunting is a game of options: A turkey has certain choices, and the hunter has other choices. And, although a hunter may be able to select several different strategies to outfox a wily woods wizard like the wild turkey, the purpose of the following test is to help you determine which is the very-best tactic to use. Let’s examine turkey-hunting situations you may encounter once you’ve gotten a tom to gobble, and determine which option may be best and why.

• A turkey has gobbled, and you’re on the way to him. But 175 yards from the bird, you encounter a creek. What should you do?
  • Take a stand on the side of the creek, and attempt to call the turkey up to the edge of the creek. Then shoot the gobbler across the water.
  • Try to call the tom from the side of the creek he’s on to the side of the creek where you are.
  • Wade the creek, move to within 75 to 100 yards of the turkey, and call to him.
  • Come at the turkey from another direction.

Answer: Wade the creek, move to within 75 to 100 yards of the turkey, and call to him, is the best solution to the problem, because even if you must get wet to reach the bird, you need to eliminate the water barrier between you and the tom as quickly as possible and get close enough to call the gobbler to you. This tactic is often the best one to ensure a reasonable chance of success on a gobbling turkey. If I don’t have to get wet on any morning turkey hunt during the spring, I feel like I’ve been lucky.

• While you’re on your way to a gobbling bird, you hear or see another hunter who’s moving quickly toward the turkey. You assume that the turkey hunter is a novice because of his actions. What should you do?
  • Outrun the other hunter, and attempt to reach the bird before he does.
  • Try to circle the turkey, and reach the bird from the side opposite of the other hunter. Then if the other hunter spooks the bird, you’ll have a chance at the turkey.
  • Forget that gobbler, and go hunt another one.
  • Leave that turkey alone, hunt a different bird in another area, and plan to return to that first gobbler at about 10:00 or 11:00 am, when most hunters will leave the woods.

Answer: Leave that turkey alone, hunt a different bird in another area, and plan to return to that first gobbler at about 10:00 or 11:00 am, when most hunters will leave the woods is the correct answer. If another hunter is working a gobbler that you’re trying to call, and he’s a beginner, then more than likely he’ll spook the turkey or not be able to call it to himself. The chances are equally as good that the tom will leave the woods before 10:00 am. By returning to the region where you know the tom was at daylight and giving a few soft yelps and clucks, you may be able to call in the bird after the woods settle down. Often two hunters unknown to each other are trying to take the same turkey. Both hunters will be in danger. No turkey’s worth getting a shot, and possibly shooting someone.

Tomorrow: Solve Turkey Hunting Problems

Check out John E. Phillips’ 12th turkey 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