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 could hunt Rio Grande turkeys on the Nail Ranch in Texas. The Cook Ranch borders the Nail Ranch. A good friend of mine, Johnny Hudman, guided hunters on the Cook Ranch. We had dinner together the night before the opening day of the Texas turkey season. We had been scouting the day before the dinner, and we had found a large flock of gobblers and hens roosting in some cottonwood trees on the edge of a small branch.

Johnny told me, “I’ll be guiding some hunters from Florida on our side of the ranch.” I told him I’d found the same flock of turkeys and would be hunting them on the Nail side of the ranch. Johnny replied, “There are probably 20 – 30 gobblers in that flock of turkeys at the ranch, so there’s plenty of gobblers for both of us to hunt.” I laughed and answered,  “Alright. You be on one side of the ranch, and I’ll be on the other.”

The following day, instead of trying to get close to the branch, I went up to the top of a small hill, well away from the branch, where I knew that turkeys would be roosting. They’d be able to hear me but couldn’t see me. I got into my stand site very early in a group of mesquite trees. An open flat and the branch were in front of me. Just before daylight, I heard my friend Johnny’s truck over on the Cook Ranch and heard the doors open as he and his hunters eased out of his truck and started slipping close to the branch.

In a little while, when I spotted the faint first light just before the sun came up, I heard Johnny yelping – sounding like 500 gobblers gobbling all at the same time. So, I started yelping, and the gobblers answered me before finishing my Yelp series. As soon as the gobblers shut up, Johnny would yelp. Johnny was calling a little louder than I was; I was calling halfway soft. As the sun began to sneak out from behind the hills, using my binoculars, I could see the hens start to fly out of the trees, followed by the gobblers flying out of the trees behind the hens. I watched the gobblers through my binoculars. The gobblers would turn, face Johnny, and move in his direction. Then, once I began calling softly and not very aggressively, the gobblers turned toward me and came my way. Then, most gobblers got with the hens and went in different directions.

I spotted the two gobblers Johnny and I both were trying to call. Every time Johnny yelped, I yelped as soon as he stopped. The two gobblers came my way. So, I decided that the soft, sweet calling I was doing was what the gobblers wanted to hear rather than that loud, aggressive calling that Johnny was doing. I also used several callers simultaneously – a box call, a mouth call, and a slate call. Then, I sounded like a flock of hens.

Johnny over on the Cook Ranch continued to use the same mouthcalls he’d made from the beginning. I decided those two gobblers would go to three hens (me) calling instead of one hen (Johnny). For about an hour, Johnny and I continued trying to call these same two gobblers. Finally, when the two birds got within range, I picked out the enormous turkey with the longest beard and shot him. After I shot, I knew my turkey was down for good. With my binoculars, I saw Johnny and his hunters were somewhat aggravated that I’d bagged one of the turkeys they had hoped to take.

Lessons Learned from the Captain Cook Turkey:

• Lesson #1: You may have competition calling in a gobbler from other hunters and hen turkeys.

• Lesson #2: I called sweetly and not so aggressively on my mouth diaphragm, unlike Johnny, who called hard and loud.

• Lesson #3: You can use various calls to sound like several different hens to increase your odds of calling in a gobbler, only listening to one other hen. You can paint a picture of three or four ladies wanting to meet him in that gobbler’s brain.

• Lesson #4: Every time one of those turkeys gobbled, I’d call back to him softly. I wanted those two gobblers to know that I still was in the place from where they’d heard me calling.

• Lesson #5: I decided to call softer and with less volume than Johnny, who had been calling loudly and aggressively. Of course, I still wanted the turkeys on the ground to hear me; the closer the two gobblers got to me, I lowered the volume of my yelp, and I think that’s what sucked those two turkeys to within gun range.

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: Hunting the Comanche Turkey