Editor’s Note: Nationally-known outdoor writer and hunter J. Wayne Fears of New Market, Alabama, says, “If you’ve hunted turkeys for very long, you know that sometimes they don’t do what’s expected.” This week we’ll look at some of his turkey-taking adventures and hear what he’s learned from turkeys that haven’t done right.

I’d hunted in Alabama all my life, and the most giant turkey I ever had taken weighed 20 pounds. I wanted to go to Missouri and hunt one of those giant eastern gobblers that could weigh over 25 pounds, with some of them over 30 pounds. My host said, “Just about all these turkeys you’ll hunt will weigh 25-30 pounds each. You’ll see the biggest gobblers you’ve ever seen in your life.” That was all the encouragement I needed to leave my home in Alabama, where there are plenty of turkeys, to go to Missouri and hunt a giant gobbler.

For the first four days, I called in gobblers every morning. But each looked like they didn’t weigh more than 18 or 19 pounds. So, I didn’t shoot any of the toms I called in during four hunting days. If I didn’t get one of those giant gobblers, I might eat my turkey tag on the airplane ride home. All the turkeys I’d seen weren’t any more significant than our Alabama turkeys.

On the fifth day of the hunt, which was the last day, the weather turned off bad with a hard, blowing wind and a cloudy, overcast day – the kind of day when turkeys don’t like to gobble. Because the wind was blowing so hard, the other hunters in camp knew they wouldn’t hear a turkey gobble and made the decision to stay in camp.

My guide told me, “We’ll go out to where we’re going to hunt and sit in the truck until this wind stops blowing so hard. This wind is as strong as a tornado wind.” I told him, “Listen, friend, this is my last chance to kill a gobbler, so I want to hunt.”

I’d gotten to know the area we’d been hunting for the past four days. So, I told my guide I needed to get down in a hole where the turkeys could hear me, but the wind could blow over us and not affect my hunt. My guide took me to a little valley with hardwoods in the bottom of it. As I opened the truck door to step out, I put my hand on my head to keep my hat from blowing off. When I took my stand, I could hear the wind that sounded like a tornado blowing over the top of the canyon. I yelped with my mouth-diaphragm turkey call. Before I finished my yelps, several hens yelped back at me, although I never heard a gobble. I told myself, “I only have this morning to hunt. I’ll play with these hens and see if I can call them to me.”

I kept calling and soon could see a flock of hens coming to me, with two gobblers at the back of the flock. Both those gobblers looked to weigh about 18 pounds each. I told myself, “Nope, I’m not going to take a shot because those gobblers aren’t the size of turkey I came to Missouri to take.”

I quit calling them. The birds never saw me. The hens and gobblers all drifted back into the hardwoods in a little while. When the turkeys were out of sight, I decided I’d rather see turkeys than not see turkeys, so I started calling again. I got the hens and the gobblers to return to  the same place they were the first time I’d called them. I shut-up again, and the turkeys that weren’t any bigger than Alabama turkeys drifted back into the hardwoods. I called once more, and that same flock of turkeys with the same gobblers returned. This time I took a real hard look at both of the gobblers, and one of the birds had the longest spurs I’d ever seen. I said to myself, “I don’t care if that turkey doesn’t weigh but 5 pounds. I’m going to squeeze the trigger on him because I’ve never killed a gobbler with spurs that long.”

When that tom got separated from the hens and the other gobbler, I put the bead of my shotgun right on that bird’s wattles and squeezed the trigger. One of those turkey spurs was 1-1/2 inches long, and the other spur was almost 1-3/4 inch long. This bird had a 12-inch beard. Once we returned to camp and put that gobbler on the scales, I couldn’t believe my eyes. He weighed a whopping 28 pounds. The guides and the other hunters in camp couldn’t believe that I’d gone out in that windy, cold weather and hunt turkeys. They also were surprised at  the size of this turkey and how long his spurs were.

Lessons Learned from Hunting the Romeo Turkey

• Lesson #1: Hens are the best turkey decoys in the world. So, when you can’t call in a gobbler, begin calling in hens. Often toms like the Reincarnated Turkey never gobble, but why should they? They had a harem of about 20 or 25 hens. They would follow those hens, until one or more of those hens were ready to breed. So, they didn’t need to gobble. I never would have seen those two gobblers had I not called in that bunch of hens answering my turkey calls.

• Lesson 2: I learned never to let the weather stop me from turkey hunting. Even though this was one of the worst mornings for turkey hunting, it was my last day to hunt. I didn’t let the weather stop me from getting into the woods and trying to take a turkey. I decided if I could get out of the wind into some hole or canyon so that the wind would be blowing over me and not into me, I’d have a better chance of a turkey hearing me. I also realized that high wind wasn’t among the turkeys’ favorite weather conditions. They probably were looking for a hole, just like I was looking for a hole out of the wind.

• Lesson #3: I also learned that I didn’t know the difference between a 28-pound gobbler and a 19-pounder. Reflecting on all the toms I’d called that week, I realized that they could have weighed 25 – 30 pounds. I’d never seen a turkey that big, and those toms looked like the size of the turkeys I had been calling in Alabama. Due to this bird only being interested in finding a willing hen, I named him  Romeo.

Looking for more content? Check out our YouTube channel and watch “Why Hunt in the Rain” by John E. Phillips.

Check out John E. Phillips’ 12th 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

Tomorrow: Getting the Texas Captain Cook Tom