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Tips for Taking More Turkeys Day 1: How to Hunt Public Land Turkeys

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Editor’s Note: Matt Kelly of Alabama has been hunting turkeys for 40 years and guiding to turkeys for 12 years. He had one turkey his wife named the PIMA Gobbler, since Kelly had run out of names for this bird. Here’s Kelly’s story.

There was a gobbler on public land, and every time I hunted him, he found some way to beat me. I hunted this same bird for two years, but he just kept on fooling me every time. The last week of Season II, I started calling him “The General” because this gobbler had command of every gobbler in the woods. When he called them to attention by gobbling, they’d shut up.

I also gave him the nickname – “The Accountant” – because he seemed to have counted how- many hens he was supposed to have in his flock. Then if I started calling to him, he knew that wasn’t one of his hens and would shut up and not come in to me. When I put out a decoy hen, and this bird came in and spotted that decoy, he’d turn around and run like he’d seen a ghost from hell. When I came out of the woods during the last week of Season II, I called my wife and said, “I’ve run out of names for this turkey that keeps beating me.” She answered, “I know what you can name him – “Pain in My A**,” so I shortened that to PIMA.

I finally took ole PIMA on the day before the end of turkey season that second year when PIMA gobbled sparingly from the roost and then flew down. I took a stand in an area where I knew he liked to strut and try and assemble his hens. I forced myself not to call to that turkey. Finally, temptation overrode my patience, and I clucked to PIMA a couple of times. Well, he turned and ran as fast as he could away from his strut zone.

Forty-five minutes later, PIMA walked up on top of a berm and went back behind the berm. I clucked to him again and did a very-soft yelp. He went back up on top of the berm and then walked across a hardwood bottom toward me. I shot PIMA at 45 steps. He had 1-1/4-inch spurs and an 11-1/2-inch beard. Little calling and calling quietly brought this public-land gobbler, PIMA, to me.

Characteristics of Public-Land Turkeys and What They Know: I’m often asked, “What makes a bad gobbler bad?” On public land, I believe it’s the hunting pressure. You have to remember, the gobbler you’re trying to take lives in the woods where something or someone is hunting him almost all year long.

A public-land gobbler like PIMA knows:

the travel trails of the feral hogs and the deer in that section of the woods;

anything he hears moving in the woods that isn’t on one of those trails should make him very suspicious;

hunters tend to park their vehicles in the same places, time after time;

those hunters trying to take him will come from the same direction as where they’ve parked their cars;

the types of calls hunters use – a diaphragm call, a box call or a friction call;

the softness and loudness of those calls;

he needs to leave that place, if he gobbles and a hen doesn’t come to him; and

the sounds and calls a live hen make.

Most public-land hunters call too much and often too loudly. They’re educating these turkeys to not come to those spots where they hear that kind of calling. Many of these gobblers probably even can tell you the name of the call maker who makes each call they hear.

Looking for more content? Check out our YouTube channel and watch “Will Primos Talks Tough Turkeys” 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 12^th 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

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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

CHAPTER DETAILS & BUY

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”.

VERSIONS: AUDIBLE, KINDLE & PRINT

CHAPTER DETAILS & BUY