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.
When the birds clam up and refuse to come to calls, you need to go to them. Where safe and legal, stalking and fanning a tom works wonders. Read this then try low-crawling.
Hunters who don’t map out a plan of action beyond when to wake up risk getting skunked. Here’s insight into the mind of turkeys to help you pick the right spots to set up, and when to move and call to outfox toms from sunup to sundown.
Eastern wild turkeys, found in 38 states, are our most widely distributed subspecies of wild turkeys—and also perhaps the most confounding bird to hunt. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Try these tactics to avoid frustration.
The frosty white-tipped tom of the West lures many turkey hunters from other regions. But the bird that roams the Rockies can’t necessarily be hunted the same ways as birds in Eastern forests.
By this time of year, toms have regrouped into bachelor bands and hens have gathered with their poults, which means turkeys enjoy the security of large flocks. Here’s how to outfox all those eyes and ears and take home a bird for Thanksgiving.