Little things can affect a hunt’s success

Patience and avoiding those little things that may go wrong can lead to success.

Many hunters think of bow hunting as a huge-antlered buck standing motionless at 20 yard with nothing but a few low-growing weeds and air between them and the deer.

This so-called calendar pose is what many short-term bow hunters expect to see while hunting. They've been conditioned over many years to expect such a shot, no matter how unrealistic it may be.

The same hunters seldom think of spotting a nice buck, his head held low, as it ghosts through a cedar swamp or tag alder tangle. The truth is that while an occasional shot is taken at a broadside, head-in-the-air buck, the reality is much different than what our imagination delivers.

It's often the little things than determine success or failure while bow hunting.

 

The little things about bow hunting reveal that more often than not a buck seldom offers easy, open shots. Often, the animal is partially screened by brush or is standing in thick cover. Deer often stop when their vitals are screened by thick brush.

One of the little things that hunters must learn, and practice faithfully, is patience. Hunters who get strung out by a motionless buck that doesn't move are usually unprepared for a shot when the deer does.

Patience is something all of us must believe in. It's always better to sit motionless, and if the buck doesn't move before shooting time ends, chalk it up to another night when the deer outsmarted the hunter. Such things happen far more often than we care to think about.

Sitting motionless and silent is the best alternative to trying a Hail Mary shot that may make it through the brush to the buck's vitals, but for whatever reason, it never does. Taking a low-percentage shot only educates or wounds the deer.

There have been countless times when I've spent 30 minutes to one hour waiting for a buck to move that last 10 feet to offer an open shot. More often than not, they refuse to budge and shooting time ends with the animal still standing motionless in thick cover.

Patience is a virtue when bow hunting for whitetail bucks.

Another little thing to remember is to stay in your stand until the buck moves off by himself. Start crawling down out of a tree, and you'll have ruined that stand for the rest of the year. Just hang tight, remain silent, and let him move when the mood strikes him.

Building your patience seldom happens overnight. It takes time and a great deal of practice, and blowing many possible opportunities, before you acquire the necessary skills to wait out the deer.

Don't do something stupid if the buck is slowly making his way to you. Perhaps you are in his travel route, and if you sit patiently, the buck will move to you. If you haven't been calling, and suddenly start calling to a nearby deer, the animal may turn away. It may or may not spook, but if the deer keeps coming to silence, don't introduce something new into the situation because things could backfire.

Be very cautious about dropping things. I've seen bucks and does stop 50 yards away because they have seen something they don't like. I once watched a buck come a long ways only to stop just out of easy bow range.

Why the buck stopped was beyond me, but stop he did, and he kept looking on the ground along the edge of a tag alder run between him and me. I studied him through binoculars, and tried to see what he was looking at, and it remained a big mystery.

Pay attention to the little things in your hunting area.

 

He left without coming the final 20 yards necessary to provide me with a clean shot within my established shooting distance. He walked off and soon disappear, and as shooting time fell, I eased from the stand and walked over to that spot.

It took a moment of looking around but I found what had spooked the deer. A hunter had moved through that area while hunting grouse and woodcock near the alders, and apparently had shot at a bird.

I found an empty 12 gauge shotshell, and it was laying somewhat in the open where the setting sun would glint off the brass. It wasn't much, but from where the buck had stood, there was still a tiny glint of sunlight there. The buck knew something was different, and turned and traveled another route.

It's the little things that can make or break a bow hunt. Always be aware of what is going on around you during a hunt because if can affect how deer react.

Posted via email from Dave Richey Outdoors

Turkeys can make fools of hunters

Is a gobbler like this one in your future. Hunt hard and smart?

It was quiet today. Too quiet for the first day of the first hunt of our Michigan's spring turkey season.

After two days of very strong winds, it dawned fairly windy this morning which would keep the birds roosted longer. I was outdoors a good bit today, and heard nary a gobble or a shot. I made a few phone calls to some turkey-hunting friends around the state, and based on what was seen and heard, the opening day got off to a slow and quiet start.

I've avoided the issue for a variety of reasons, but most importantly, it would never be my intention to play the gas-price hole card to cause people to stay home. But with gas prices that seem determined by supply and demand or price gouging to hit a new high every day, many people are foregoing some of their former outdoor pleasures to save money.

A bad first day of the turkey season doesn't make a hunt.

Trust me, I feel your pain because we've pulled in our horns due to high gas prices. A couple of people I've discussed the issue with feel as I do: people aren't traveling very much. The steelhead runs showed fewer anglers; fishing guides report fewer spring trips; and I suspect when all the votes are counted, many sportsmen may give up their chance to turkey hunt unless they can do it close to home.

The cost of losing one day's wages by taking time off work doesn't appeal to any of us. No one can really afford to go as often as we did a few years ago. The inflated price of gasoline will hurt some of the tourist business in many locations.

But then, is that really the cause of a poor showing today? Who knows? It could be the fault of the weatherman telling us that tomorrow or Wednesday we may see another 10 inches of snow, which certainly wouldn't help turkey hunters.

Can we ignore the possible warnings? I think not, based on the screwy weather we've had since New Year's Day. It's certainly not been like most Michigan winters. We get quite a bit of snow in our area near Traverse City, and I've kept track since the first significan snow-fall last November, and I've tallied 176 inches so far.

Some snow won't bother the gobblers but if the white stuff is accompanied by very much wind, it will keep the limb-hangers in place longer than usual. An old-fashioned blizzard would wreck at least two days of hunting effort.

Hunters must be prepared for any weather eventuality.

We've heard the wind blow before in this section of the north country, and often such storms blow through to the north or south of where we live. It makes little difference: it will have an major effect on hunting success wherever it hits.

In past years of driving back roads while scouting for birds, I've come to accept one fact: the fewer vehicles spotted while scouting usually means fewer hunters in the woods, which can mean a reduced turkey harvest.

Of course, wild turkeys are every bit as unpredictable in their actions as the spring weather. I've hunted lots of years in many areas of the country. And one very important thing I've learned is that predicting the actions of a big old Boss Gobbler is much like predicting your mother-in-law's attitude in advance of her visit. I'd like to talk to someone who has figured out gobblers and moms-in-law, and maybe they could teach me something I should know.

So, is there a moral to this story? You bet, and let's hope it works for you this week and me next week. The short and sweet part of this moral is simple: we can't change the weather, and even if we could, wild turkeys have a strange sense of timing. They always seem capable of throwing a big monkey wrench into any potential turkey hunt, and often do so without provocation.

Lay the best plans in the world, exercise the utmost caution, possess the stillness of a hunting owl, and yet, wild turkey can and will out-wit human hunters. Call like a champion, choose your hunting areas with great care, enter on quiet feet long before dark, sit with the patience of Job, and turkeys may spot the slightest movement, and charge off to parts unknown.

The best of plans often go awry when it comes to gobbler hunting.

The balance of your hunting time may be spent trying to find one gobbler who was in the back of the classroom when hunter savvy was handed out, and he may still find a way to humiliate a grown sportsman. He may zig when you feel he'll zag, and the shot pattern will poke tiny holes in the dirt but not in the bird.

It's nothing personal, you know. Turkeys don't think like we do, and I've seen them come 300 yards as straight as a string, and when they are within five yards of providing a shot, they will stop, strut a bit, turn around and walk back to their original spot. Who knows why?

It's been said many times that there's more to turkey hunting than pulling the trigger. Sometimes us mere mortals just don't stand a chance in the turkey woods. It's just part of the turkey mystique we must accept, even if we never do understand it.

Posted via email from Dave Richey Outdoors

Forget the Weather: Go Hunting

If nothing else about turkey hunting holds true, there is one thing that does: wild turkeys are hard to hunt on windy days like the past two. My hunt doesn't begin for a week, but lots of first-season hunters hope tomorrow morning's wind is not gusty and strong.

There are days when it doesn't pay to dress in turkey hunting togs. Once, a few years ago, was a day when a guy really didn't want to spend all day hunting gobblers.

In fact, most people didn't want to spend one hour sitting outside in hopes a longbeard would come calling. The weather was just too cold and nasty.

I'm living proof that it's impossible to shoot gobblers from bed.

I got up in the dark, leaving a warm and comfortable bed, and could hear the wind whistling outside. My eyes were wide open, my ears cocked toward the bedroom window which I reached up and opened, and I began a private fight with myself.

One part was clamoring: "You fool, it's impossible to shoot a gobbler while laying in bed. Get up, and get out there into the woods. Your last days of the spring turkey hunting will soon end. Forget the weather and get with it."

The other part, the more logical side of my brain, argued the other side of this problem. "That may well be true, but tell me when have you had a good turkey hunting day in really windy weather? Huh?"

It seemed a standoff. Both sides of the problem made some valid points, and both sides had a strike or two against them. Both made sense, in a rather twisted kind of way, and the final decision had to be made by the guy laying in a warm and comfy bed.

Deal with the weather, get out in it and hunt up a gobbler.

Recognizing the problem, I made my decision. I rolled over, closed my eyes, dozed and dreamed of a fanned-tail gobbler marching to the call like a good little soldier. He came, head-up, wary and looking around, and I woke up again just as the Day-Glow bead was settling on his noggin.
It was still dark, but graying up toward dawn. My watch said 5:45 a.m., and I decided to let my ears do some work for a change. If I heard a bird gobble, I'll hit the floor moving, climb into my camo, grab the cased shotgun and my hunting vest, and head out.

I laid there for almost an hour, and heard some robins and other song birds outside, but not one gobble was heard. Up I come, jumped rather slowly into my pants and shirt, and went out for the morning paper. I'm listening with both ears cocked, hopefully in two different directions,  desparate to hear a gobbler beller from yonder woods.

No such luck today. The paper was eased out of the tube, and I stood there for 20 minutes in 40-degree windy weather and listened. I can hear a gobbler a mile away, and so I'm covering nearly four square miles with my ears.

There was nothing but the sound of wind whistling through the trees. I spotted a doe, her belly heavy with fawns, cross the road a quarter-mile upwind of me as I stood motionless and silent. The old girl moved rather sluggishly, and it was apparent this year's litter of fawns would be born very soon.

Michigan's weather often changes. Hunt and hope for the best.

In the house I go, my mind now on the next Detroit Red Wings play-off game. That line of thinking made me happy, and I began having turkey hunting thoughts again.

My mind conjured up many past turkey hunts, in my younger days when time was limited and I hunted regardless of the weather. Thinking back, I've shot a couple of gobblers in a heavy rain when they looked like giant two-legged, water-logged rats coming to the call.



There were days when the Toms roared, and days when they snuck in as silent as drifting fog. Some of those days I shot a gobbler, other times my wife did, and on many occasions, whoever was hunting with me popped a cap and took a grand longbeard as he raised his head to look things over.

I've also hunted enough to know that some of this turkey hunting business, and the weather conditions we encounter during the season, are rather meaningless. For every rule, there seems to be an exception.

The rule holds true with many things. Normally, I would have been out there looking for gobblers that don't gobble. It's mighty difficult to really get cranked up, but I donned my clothing, grabbed my venerable Model 870 Remington, stuffed three magnum loads of No. 5 copper-plated shot into the old cornshucker, and headed out into the cold morning air.

I moved often, called sparingly, covered a mile of terrain, and never saw or heard a gobbler or hen. Once, I thought I heard a hen mouthing off at my calls, and moved in that direction.

I gave it a few minutes of rest, and tried again, now about 200 yards closer to where I thought I heard the hen. I tried calling again, hoping for some word from a tired old gobbler who still had enough in him to want to breed one more young hen.

No such luck. It may have been the wind or just wishful thinking, but nothing came to the call in that morning's wind. However, there is always tomorrow and with luck the wind will die and the gobblers will gobbble like we expect them to.

Based on tonight's weather of cold temperatures, rain and snow, the prospect for tomorrow's hunt may not be everything we hope for. But, one can always hope. Right?

Posted via email from Dave Richey Outdoors

When the Hunting Urge is Gone

It's sometimes odd how these blogs come about. Sometimes they are planned long in advance, months before they are used.

Other times a note from a reader triggers the thought for another blog. Sometimes they just pop into my head while reading the morning paper over coffee.

This one, if we live long enough, will be one that each of us will face. A man wrote:

When do you know the urge to hunt has withered and blown away?

This loss can vary with people of different ages.

It seems a simple question with an equally simple answer. Live long enough, and the answer will become obvious.

The urge to hunt may leave any of us at any time although at age 71, I'm happy to admit it hasn't clawed its way into any of my urges and driven me away.

Age and health conditions can play important roles in when this question becomes a reality. A disability or serious health problem can slow or stop anyone. The natural attrition of hunters is due, in large part to age, feebleness, illness or some major injury that may make hunting just too difficult or painful as we grow older.

The average person, based on hundreds of conversations with other sportsmen, can begin to lose his/her urge to hunt anytime after the age of 55 years, and for some, even earlier. For many, they just get lazy and decide not to go out.

Health slowly eats away at a formerly active hunter, and more time is spent dreaming of the old days and not looking forward to future field trips. Often the hunter, growing older, may develop a heart or lung disease that makes it far more difficult to muster up enough energy to hunt regularly.

Some sportsmen may blame not having anyone to hunt with, and I'm indeed fortunate with my eye problems, that Kay is not only my best hunting buddy but my wife, and a person who enjoys bow hunting as I do. Some are not so lucky, and I know some older hunters who have taken young sportsmen hunting for years, but the youngsters forget who originally brought 'em to the dance. Now that is a sorry thought and extremely rude behavior for anyone.

The urge to stay home comes with the normal aches and pains of the aging process. Many say they no longer like venison, the woods are too crowded, too many small deer...whatever. There are millions of such excuses.

The aches and pains of aging often begin the downward slide for most folks.

There are usually a variety of reasons. Some folks fear falling from a tree stand, and pin their reluctance to hunt to a fear of falling. Some say they don't see or hear as well as 10 years ago but that happens to almost everyone during the aging process.

As this progresses, hunters begin making excuses for not wanting to go hunting. Reasons include but are not limited to:

• I haven't had time to sight in my rifle.
• I've found that my shotgun doesn't shoot as well as it once did (which means the hunter is really missing more often).
• Got me a hitch in my git-a-long.
• I had forgotten that this hill seems a lot steeper than it once was.
• I've been huffing and puffing for two years. Don't want to die and miss out on future hunts. Huh? Say what?
• The sun is too bright, not bright enough, and the  snow is getting deeper in the woods. etc. Snow makes it too difficult to get around, and I'm afraid of falling.
• Gas is too expensive. Doesn't bother them to go bowling, golfing or doing something else. But they are right about the cost of gasoline.
• Hunting just isn't as important to me as it was 20 years ago. Perhaps the most true of all of these statements.

Such excuses are just that – an excuse not to go hunting.

I've heard all of these excuses, and countless others, but the fact is the person is too ill, too lame or too lazy to exert the energy required to go hunting. It's not the hunting that is at issue here. It is the attitude of the sportsman.

The fact is that hunting can be hard, physical work, but those who stay in decent physical shape won't find it much different. The loss of a close hunting buddy often takes the hunting fire out of the belly of the sportsman who is left behind. Perhaps that is the time to find and teach a younger hunter about this pastime.

Sharing the wealth of a lifetime of hunting with a young hunter can help keep us young and more in touch with the seasons and the game we hunt.

We all grow old and we all grow tired, but hunting at one's own pace is available to all sportsmen. Take your time, remember those past hunts when the fire burned bright in our hunting plans, and we couldn't wait to get into the field.

Sometimes, a little kindling in the form of watching a young hunter develop their personal memories, is all it takes to renew our personal interest  and our perception of hunting.

It may be the start needed to rekindle the hunting flames of yesteryear, and bring some old-timers back into the hunting fold.

Turkey Hunting

What does turkey hunting mean to me? It can be a rather difficult question to answer, but for many spring hunters, it means shooting a gobbler.

Well, that can be more easily said than done. During the spring season, only gobblers can be killed and often they are with hens. Those drab-looking hen-birds are notoriously wary, and are every bit as alert as an old whitetail doe.

There are many things that attract sportsmen to this past-time. It is, in fact, the only spring hunting season. With the opener of the first gobbler season on April 18, many camouflaged hunters will be afield.

Turkey hunting is a way of life for many spring hunters.

The rules are the same for everyone, and are detailed in the 2011 Michigan Spring Turkey Hunting Guide It’s important that all sportsmen hunt in the specific area they chose for a spring turkey hunt. Hunting times are from 30 minutes before sun-up to 30 minutes before sundown. The limit is one bearded bird, and note that some hens may have a visible beard.

I’ve seen some of the decoys available that can move by pulling a string or with the aid of battery power. Only wind movement is legal when turkey hunting. No electronic calls may be used to replicate the sounds that real turkeys make.

It is illegal to shoot turkeys roosted in a tree. It also is illegal to use or carry bird shot larger than a No. 4 shot. The most common sizes are No. 4, 5 and 6. shot. It also is legal to hunt wild turkeys with a bow, and hunting with bow-arrow from an elevated position is legal.

Scouting for birds is encouraged before the season opens, but hunters also are encouraged to leave their turkey calls home while scouting. Do not call during the scouting season, and I consider scouting by car as the least invasive method. Drive slowly, look for birds, note the time of day, and knowing the time can be useful. It possible, locate a gobbler (often with hens) just before they fly up to roost, and return to that area long before dawn. Don’t shine lights or talk, and don’t call to the roosted birds before shooting time begins.

Absolute quietness and stillness are two keywords to remember. Find a comfortable place to sit, and park yourself behind a tree as wide as your shoulders. Whenever possible, never get into a calling match with other hunters. It is a way to be accidentally shot by someone else. If you feel you are verbally dueling with another hunter, give up and leave without moving in the direction of the other hunter.

Leave calls at home if you are not confident. Use a hen turkey decoy.

If you lack experience or skill at calling, keep turkey calls in your pocket or at home, and rely on a turkey decoy. Set it up about 25-30 yards away, and if using a hen and gobbler decoy, place the gobbler fake near you so an approaching bird must pass in front of you to get to the decoy.

Turkey hunting requires a number of outdoor skills: woodsmanship, sense of direction, being able to gauge distance, good hearing, learning to sit still, being able to shoot straight, and much more. Most important of all is to learn how to sit without moving.

The challenges of being successful are many, and the odds in favor of success are lower than the odds of failing. Murphy’s Law states that “if anything can go wrong, it will.” Turkeys have added their stamp of approval to that known rule, and have gone on to establish countless other  ways they can use to further confuse hunters into making stupid mistakes.

There are many good things in favor of taking up turkey hunting. It occurs in the spring when no other hunting takes place. Sportsmen can find wild turkeys throughout most of the state, but rules apply when application is made for a spring turkey license. One must choose which hunting seasons they wish to be considered for, but the first hunt tags for most areas are difficult to draw. Choose an area you know well.

Wild turkeys are big birds and certainly can be easily seen. On most occasions, however, they are accomplished at quiet travel, remaining out of sight if they sense danger, and because they are big, the human brain seems to tell us the bird is closer than he really is. So, we miss.

I have literally hundreds of turkey calls. Most are diaphragm calls, but I also own scads of box calls, push-pull calls, a fairly large number of  pot calls with surfaces of aluminum, crystal, glass and slate. We should carry only those calls that we use most often, but a niggling little doubt causes us to second-guess ourselves, and that leads to more calls than we need. The result is we tend to lose calls, in one way or another, and those lost always seem to be our favorites.

Two or three turkey decoys are plenty. One hen decoy can do the job.

At most, I carry three decoys -- a jake and two hen decoys. Some folks I know may carry a half-dozen decoys, and putting out that many usually takes longer in the dark than we plan for, and it’s easy to make too much noise. Two or three decoys are plenty, and a single hen decoy can work on most gobblers.

We can take savage delight in being afield on a pitch-black morning, and get to watch nature come alive. The tweetie birds call at sunrise  as they begin to move around, and we’re often treated to deer sightings. Occasionally a late-hunting owl will be seen.

It’s the sights and sounds of dawn that invigorate my soul. It’s watching the rising sun give off shafts of brilliant yellow, orange and reds, and then a black cloud can be seen as it changes from black to a deep and vibrant purple. The sounds of a crow, an owl hooting, or a fence gate squeaking, can make gobblers rattle the woods with their roaring gobbles. Hens often call softly, but can start badmouthing and trash talking a gobbler for no apparent reason.

Turkey gobbles, whether near or far, never fail to stir my blood. In my mind’s eye, I see a gobbler with a white head, strutting around trying to impress the hen. We have our decoys out and well placed, and our calls, and we begin calling. The gobbler answers, and if things are meant to be, the longbeard will begin strutting in your direction.

The hunt is far more important than the kill.

We look forward to it, and if all goes right, will soon see a snowball-white head bobbing through the woods. Then we see the bird displaying, and our heart beat is like a triphammer, pounding in our chest and we can hear the blood pulsing in our ears. We may start sucking air, hyperventilating and often wonder why the bird can’t hear it. Closer and closer the bird comes, and then, there the gobbler is with his head held high as he looks for the hen.

As we place our shotgun sight where his head and neck join, a sudden thought goes through our head and we realize we’ve done everything right to reach this point in time. We also realize that there is so much more to turkey hunting than pulling the trigger.

Shooting a gobbler is anticlimactic. It’s only the icing on a turkey hunter’s cake. The actual hunt, everything that leads up to the shot, is the real thing and is why we hunt these birds.

Try not to confuse the issues and believe a dead bird is the sole reason for hunting. Do that, and forget what went before, and turkey hunting will soon lose its charm.

Posted via email from Dave Richey Outdoors

Turkeys in the fog

It was several years ago when I experienced what personally felt like a perfect turkey hunting day to me. I awoke with plenty of time to hike to my hunting spot, and stepped outside to see what the weather like.

I should have turned on the yard light first. Everything was a blur as thick tendrils of fog hovered like white gauze from ground level up to the tree-tops. It was impossible to see but I decided to leave early to walk to my hunting location. I’d need more time on this day to find my hotspot.

Turkeys often stay roosted until the fog clears off but these birds had been put to bed the night before. I knew where they were, and didn’t need any landmarks to find this spot. Just get on the north-south dirt road, and walk along the edge of it until i reached a narrow finger of woods that came down to the road. The almost one mile walk would take longer on this day, so I forsake a breakfast and hot coffee in favor of the early start.

A one-mile walk in the fog to reach the turkeys.

The fog was so thick it was literally impossible to see your hand in front of your face. My tiny penlight was shone on the road edge where weeds met the dirt, and I actually walked past the finger of woods in the dark and fog, and had to backtrack.

I eased off the road and into the trees, and knew I was within 200 yards of the roosted birds. There were three adult gobblers with long beards, two jakes and two hens ready for breeding. I had no clue what the day would provide but knew the birds would stay roosted even longer in the fog.

A narrow spot of farm land was separated by two woodlines. There seemed to be no need for a turkey decoy because the birds couldn’t see the ground. All I had to do was sit still near the clearing, wait with infinite patience for a roosted gobbler to call, and then try to sweet-talk him to within 35 yards while hoping all the birds didn’t approach at once.

A long hour passed, and there seemed to be a lightening of the fog but it was still impossible to see the trees on the other side of the clearing. The birds were roosted 100 yards deeper in the woods, and a small water puddle lay at the base of the roost trees.

Fog so thick I couldn’t see my hand in front of my face.

The second hour passed without hearing a bird. The fog seemed thick enough to cut, and it was lighter but the ground fog hung heavy over everything within sight. Eventually a lone crow flew over, cawed once, and a moment later a gobbler returned the greeting. Nothing happened for a few moments, and the bird gobbled again, and was joined by the others.

I sat there, knowing the birds probably wouldn’t fly down until it got a bit lighter so they could check for danger. I kept my silence, and so did they, and by nearly 9 a.m., the fog was thinning slightly but it still a long ways to go before I’d be able to see well enough to shoot.

Time seemed to drag by for another 30 minutes before the sound of flappint wings was heard. They hadn’t flown down but were getting restless on the roost. I coaxed out the faintest purr from my old Ben Lee box call, and the birds lit up. They double- and triple-gobbled, and the hens were making noise, and the tree-top-talking went on for another five minutes before they pitched down into the open spot in front of me.

The unseen gobblers called

All the gobblers, including the jakes, began ripping the air apart with their gobbles. Another faint yelp started another round of gobbling as the birds circled the clearing looking for the hen. On several occasions, the gobblers were right in front of me and their footsteps in the leaves could be heard, and they kept circling in a clockwise manner. The sounds still seemed a bit muffled by the fog but all the birds were within 25 yards of my shotgun, but the dense moisture-laden air was still too thick so see a thing.

Those birds circled around me, time after time, until about 10 a.m. when the fog began to clear. I called softly one more time, and the birds stopped moving. The biggest longbeard was 50 yards away, and I tried to appear to his male urges. One of the hens began calling to him, and I began a duel with the hen, and we verbally fought for 10 minutes before all the birds shut up and they moved off through the woods.

It had been a long morning of sitting with just a bit of calling, but the suspense of those birds circling in the fog right in front of me, has left an indelible imprint on my memory. I didn’t shoot that day, and it didn’t matter, because the symphony of turkey talk coming at me through the fog was enough to satisfy my hunting desire for one day.

Posted via email from Dave Richey Outdoors

Stay calm when turkey hunting

When everything comes together, and the bird cooperates, this is the result.

Watch some television hunting shows about chasing gobblers, and many of those good old boys can control their nerves although some hyperventilate a bit as a nice gobbler gets closer. They may get excited but they almost always appear cool and rock-steady.

They shoot gobblers with what appears to be calmness. I know some hunters who hunt a dozen states every spring, and they have plenty of time and experience to hone their skills to avoid moving at the wrong time or to make some of the other costly mistakes made when gobblers close the gap between out-of-range and time-to-shoot.

I've had gobblers almost trip over my feet, brush against my elbow as I sit with my back to a tree, and stand within three feet of my shotgun barrel and gobble in my face.

Be prepared for a gobbler and don't flinch when it comes.

Are my nerves better than yours? I can't answer that question, but when I hear a bird approach, stop to spit and drum, I know any movement or noise on my part would end this hunt fast. Once a bird came very close to me along a fence, and was near enough for me to grab had I been dumb enough to try.

Most people who grab supposely dead long-spur gobblers off the ground by the legs when the bird is still flopping usually only make that mistake one time. A bird with good spurs will rake deep cuts in your hand, and most require a visit to the hospital.

I was ready for that sneaky bird, and once he put a couple of trees between us, and stopped to fan out and display, I knew this hunt would end with a big and dead gobbler over my shoulder.

He gobbled once near the decoy, and when the deke didn't respond, he lifted his head to look around, and I shot him. Is this coolness under fire or just a matter of experience?

Look sharp for circling strutters but don't move your head.

To my humble way of thinking, it is more experience than ice water in my veins. There has been some times when I haven't had a chance to test my mettle against a wise or gobbler because my season started with high winds and snowy weather, and birds didn't work well.

There have been many times when a bird may circle. Your eyes can only track a bird just so far to the right or left and you lose sight of him. Just because you can't see the bird doesn't mean he or one of his chums can't see you. Grit your teeth and hang tight.

These are times when so-called "nerves of steel" come in mighty handy. My hearing helps make up for my poor vision, and I can hear turkeys walking behind me and that helps me know their exact location. The trick then is to remain absolutely motionless, and wait for the bird to circle around in front of the shotgun. Sometimes they do and other times they don't. It's a part of the hunt we can't control.

Think of yourself as a statue: immobile, rigid and incapable of making a movement or sound. Trust me, it's tough to do when a gobbler gets right behind you and rocks your head and hat with a tremendous gobble. Expect that to happen, and be prepared for it. If a gobble doesn't come, that's great, but it's smart to be ready to avoid jumping.

Talk yourself into a state of immobility until the shot.

Imagine the bird is searching for a hen. Your shotgun should be to your shoulder and balanced across your knees long before the gobbler gets close enough for a shot. The stock should be against your cheek, you eye lined up over the front bead, red-dot sight or scope. Once the bird is in the right spot, pinch off the safety between a thumb and forefinger, ease the finger up to the trigger, aim and shoot.

It's sometimes amazing how motionless and quiet you can make yourself if you concentrate on it. Just take the occasional deep breath, ease it out softy, try not to hyperventilate, and enjoy the experience for what it is, an exceptional opportunity to experience absolute calmness before the shot.

Then, if you shoot straight and a big longbeard lays on the ground 30 yards away, feel free to let loose with a silent scream of wonder and joy. An audible scream will probably spook other nearby birds out of the county and ruin any chance for someone else to score.

Turkeys often will stand and look when a shot goes off or they may run 20 yards, stop and turn around to look at their fallen friend.

Occasionally they will take off and fly far out of sight before landing.

A loud scream will send birds wildly on their way. So learn to conquer your nerves, and it's surprising how easy turkey hunting can be ...at least once in a while.

Posted via email from Dave Richey Outdoors