Let's talk turkey

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How do you know if you have turkey in the area?

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right now you will have to either see them, find scratches, or poop

if you see a large area that looks like an armadillo kinda tore up some leaves, it is probably turkey scratches

I'm not a big fan of metallic pot calls. Theres a certain "twang" they produce which is very identifiable if you hear them in the field. That said, I do find that Rios and Merriams cant get enough of those twangy yelps.

Typically anodized aluminum is quite slick making it hard to get good contact with the peg. Powder blasting the surface makes the surface rougher and more porous which helps resolve that issue.

I prefer a custom slate over glass caller myself. My fav is a caller made by Clint Corder out of Mulberry, TN...









6 more weeks...

I have a copper and slate from Wendell Rye of Lights Out Custom Calls



so ready

still have yet to kill a multi bearded bird

Great looking birds there

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Will be starting turkey hunting this spring.

Any tips?

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Theres all sorts of sage wisdom for turkey hunters.

"Call less", "sit perfectly still", "roosted doesnt equal roasted" and so on.

I tell people this. The key to successful turkey hunting is hunting where there are significant numbers of turkeys. You cant kill a bird that isnt there. We are all guilty of romanticizing the process and believe we seductively called that tom away from his harem or made him do something he wouldnt do normally. The truth is he was willing and so he came. The difference between the excellent turkey hunter and the average/novice in my mind is three things.

The excellent hunter knows how to identify the "willing" bird. Be it a tom thats alone, shows some tendencies to be dominant, etc. Secondly and more importantly, the excellent turkey hunter realizes that woodsmanship kills a lot of turkeys. Knowing where the tom is and where he's going and getting somewhere in between is often a far better strategy than setting up decoys and trying to call one up. Lastly, the excellent hunter knows his gun. He's spent time at the patterning board and theres little doubt if he/she gets a bead on the bird its going to die. I cant tell you the number of blown hunts I've seen due to misses or hunters being inpatient and/or unable to judge distance.

Get out there and enjoy the experience. There are few things that get my blood pumping like the sounds of a gobbler firing off the roost on a crisp Spring morning.

Wendell Rye at lights out makes an awesome andozied alum pot. I have killed several birds with mine. I dont know what it is about it but they love it. The surface is pretty slick but it dosent take long to figure it out. Yellow heart or Mahogany are the best woods. As for copper the best sounds come from smaller pots in woods like osage. Copper is a little raspy and takes a lighter touch.

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Will be starting turkey hunting this spring.

Any tips?

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Go check out the Old Gobbler website. Lot's of great info there.