“gobbling”

Hunters aged 6 to 15 checked 1,443 gobblers during the Arkansas youth turkey hunts April 12 and 13, an increase of 22 percent over last year’s total. Meanwhile young turkey hunters in Ohio, enjoying their state’s special season to pursue gobblers the same weekend, took 1,740, beating the three-season average of 1,571 birds.

If you hunt turkeys long enough, you’ll see them do some crazy, unexpected things. Our man’s seen plenty of that, too—enough to make him think long and hard about how to counter some “Crazy Ivan” moves.

Here’s a basic three-step turkey hunting plan devised to put the odds in your favor this spring.

FACT: Coming home is more important than coming home with a gobbler.

Mike Roux considers the conventional wisdom on chokes and shot for turkeys, pondering whether the tightest constriction and heaviest pellet is always the best move.

Eastern birds just seem to be wiser and uncannily adept at escaping us. If you don’t believe it, you’d best read this before trying your luck on an Eastern tom.

Mike Roux discusses the changes in turkey hunting since he came of age, and the tools new hunters should avail themselves of. 

Mike Roux has spent long enough in the turkey woods to know spring comes in four specific cycles. Here's how to hunt each and every one.

Contributor Mike Roux talks his readers through tactics to kill a Tom late in the season.