Editor’s Note: From a Google survey, I’ve learned what hunters want to know about hunting turkeys. Many of them never have turkey hunted before, and others have called longbeards but have specific turkey-hunting problems they don’t know how to solve. First a hunter needs to understand that each gobbler he or she hunts is an individual bird with his own traits, hunter experiences and survival instincts. So, no one answer will answer all turkey hunters’ questions for each turkey-hunting situation. If you have turkey-hunting questions you need possible answers for, email [email protected], and John will try to help. 

Why Wear Hunter Orange?

Question: Do turkey hunters wear orange?

John E. Phillips: Yes and no. When a turkey hunter is hunting a turkey, he wants to be as invisible as possible. However, after he’s harvested a bird, most turkey hunters will wear orange for several reasons. A man walking through the spring woods often can be mistaken as a turkey, and the orange color on his hat or his back lets other hunters know he’s a hunter, not a turkey.

Most often, when a turkey hunter is coming out of the woods after a successful hunt, he’ll either be carrying the gobbler on his back or have the gobbler’s head hanging out of the back of his vest and the tail feathers of the gobbler on his other side – two parts of a turkey that other hunters are hoping to see. Wearing hunter orange is recommended anytime a hunter leaves the woods once successfully harvesting a gobbler.

When Is Turkey Season?

Question: When is turkey-hunting season open in my state and area?

John E. Phillips: The answer to this question can lead you to a ton of useful information that will help you this season. Go online to the Game and Fish Department website for your state to learn the turkey seasons and bag limits for the upcoming season. This website also will tell you the public areas you can hunt for free or nearly free that are close to home.

What about Turkey Hunting on Sundays?

Question: Can you hunt turkeys on Sunday?

Answer: Once again, I refer you to your state Game and Fish website. If you’re planning to hunt on public lands, you must remember that different national forests, Bureau of Land Management Properties, state lands, and/or other public-hunting areas may have different regulations, seasons and bag limits during turkey season. Ensure you know what the rules and regulations are in place wherever you plan to hunt before you go.

Why Hunt Turkeys in the Afternoons?

Question: Is turkey hunting good in the afternoons?

John E. Phillips: Absolutely, if the state you’re hunting in permits afternoon hunting. However, even if the state you’re hunting in doesn’t permit afternoon hunting, leave your shotgun in your vehicle, go into the woods, listen and look for turkeys. From many veteran turkey hunters I’ve interviewed and hunted with, I’ve learned that one of the best times to take a gobbler, especially in places with intense turkey-hunting pressure, is from 11:00 am to 2:00 pm. Most turkey hunters will start hunting before daylight and leave the woods by 8:00 or 9:00 am to get back to work or meet their buddies for lunch. The turkeys have learned to pattern hunters, just like hunters’ pattern turkeys. They’ve also learned that they’re less likely to see or hear a turkey hunter during that mid-day time and often will gobble much more.

Another reason that hunting in the late afternoon can be so beneficial is that most turkeys will gobble just before, or when they fly-up to the roost for the night. Then the next morning, you’ll know where that gobbler should be. Your ability to get close and call to that tom at first light gives you a much-better chance of taking that bird.

Tomorrow: Why Turkeys Are Difficult to Hunt

Expert Guidebooks on Turkey Hunting

Turkey Hunting Tactics

These 22-blockbuster chapters answer questions beginning turkey hunters as well as veteran turkey hunters have. In the Kindle version, you’ll also get links to 24-bonus videos made with some of the greatest names in turkey hunting to learn their best tips.

VERSIONS: AUDIBLE, KINDLE & PRINT

Mossy Oak Pros Talk Turkey Tactics

The individuals in this book are recognized as top turkey pros, who hunt with newbie turkey hunters as well as masters of the sport, and share their best turkey-hunting strategies.

VERSIONS: KINDLE, PRINT

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