John’s Note: Walter Parrott, of Farmington, Missouri, has won five World Turkey Championships with his Knight and Hale calls (http://www.knightandhale.com/) and so many state, national and regional championships that he can’t count them. He’s also starred in many outdoor videos. Here’s his best secrets for getting his tom.

If you get too close to a gobbler and spook him off the roost, watch the direction in which the turkey flies. Decide where you think he’s landed, and move about halfway in that direction. Let the woods settle for 15 or 20 minutes after you arrive at your new calling position. Then give some soft clucks and yelps and maybe a few lost calls. Also, listen for other turkeys in the area because you may or may not can call back the gobbler you’ve spooked. However, you may can call in a gobbler you haven’t spooked. Give this bird plenty of time to show-up.

If you go to a hunting camp, and the folks there want you to hunt a bad turkey they haven’t killed, do all the homework you can before you enter the woods.

Learn . . .

* who’s hunted the turkey;

* where they’ve hunted the turkey;

* what calls they’ve used;

* what the turkey does when he’s been called to;

* where the turkey goes when he leaves; and

* where the turkey roosts.

To take this bird, you’ll have to give various calls, use a different caller from what everyone else has used and, if possible, call to this tough turkey from a place no one else ever has called to him from before. I’ll either call to the turkey with my double-sided box call or use a yelper.

I also like to use a wingbone call for this situation. Most hunters rarely if ever use this difficult-to-learn call. Due to its infrequent use, it can be deadly effective. But I won’t leave my diaphragm calls at home either. Each individual hunter sounds different with his diaphragm call. Therefore, I’ll have a different sound from what the gobbler has heard from other hunters.

Listen to the Turkey:

Let the turkeys tell you how to call to them. An ole bird I once hunted always moved through the woods with two hens and a jake. One day, when I found this gobbler by himself, I called like two hens and a jake to try and make this turkey think his three running buddies had walked just out of sight. He came as straight to me as if I had him on a kite string.

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 tapes to purchase audio turkey tapes 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.

Next: Find the Turkeys with Chris Parrish