Turkey

Nothing is more satisfying than shooting a turkey in the face with a load of 5s. It’s just such a wonderful experience, and it is made even more special with the right gun.

It wasn’t that long ago when dedicated-turkey shotguns hit the market and the category has blown up in lockstep with the rise in turkey populations and our desire to hunt them.

These days, it’s a sad gobbler chaser who doesn’t possess a camouflage shotgun chambered for 3.5-inch magnums and choked just right in order to place a ridiculous amount of pellets in a paper plate at 40 yards.

A match made in conservation heaven. Bass Pro Shops and the National Wild Turkey Federation have influenced wildlife conservation and our hunting heritage like no other over the past four decades. Thanks to Bass Pro Shops founder and CEO John Morris, the NWTF's Save the Habitat. Save the Hunt.

When I first started turkey hunting more than three decades ago, I had two mouth diaphragm calls. I shot the first two birds I called in on opening day.

Many turkey hunters don't believe they need a scope to make an accurate shot at a bird only 30 or 40 yards away. That's especially true for long-time shotgunners skilled at hunting ducks, pheasants, doves, rabbits and quail.

But the typical sight on a shotgun isn't very good for the precise aiming needed in turkey hunting. Many shotguns have only a front bead sight, with no rear sight, and that can make for difficult shooting using an ultra-full-choke turkey gun.

The magnitude of the first call when turkey hunting cannot be understated.

If it is made from the wrong place, a hunter's location easily could be discovered. If it is made at the wrong time, a gobbler, or his hens, could become suspicious and, instead of leaving the roost toward the hunter, they could fly out the other way.

Calling to birds on the roost is an easy conversation to get sucked into.

Thunder chicken, hammerhead, boss tom and Mr. Waddles, are just some of the slang terms turkey hunters give to old, mature gobblers. One thing turkey hunters don’t lack is an imagination and the ability to have fun.

Mossback is another term you’ll hear, referring to an old tom that’s alluded hunters for years, living in deep, dark forests so wet, the bird has moss growing on its back.

Geography, as much as ingenuity, plays a role in what slang terms are assigned to a turkey.

We found my friend Chuck's Brittany, Wyatt, pointing staunchly into a laurel thicket twice as high as his head.

“Maybe it's a grouse,” I said.

We hadn't planted any training birds in that area, and were just letting Wyatt and another dog stretch their legs.

Chuck stomped around in the laurels, with no result, yet still his dog pointed, quivering. Chuck expanded his search, and soon started to back out of the thicket.

“You're not going to believe this,” he said. “It's a turkey.”

One of the reasons I love turkey hunting is the very act allows you, no begs you, to be somewhat mobile. Running and gunning for deer is a tough proposition, but turkeys are tailor-made for in-field travel.

However, especially when bowhunting birds, you might not find yourself as mobile as possible. You might also find yourself hunting a small woodlot, which does not allow you to cover much ground.

I entered the fourth and last week of the Pennsylvania season a desperate woman.

On the final Saturday of the season, I set up a lone hen decoy in a secluded corner of a newly planted field and settled into a ground blind.

And wonder of wonders, as the morning sky blazed red at the horizon, I saw a tom turkey strutting silently, just over the crest of the field. I called, and he immediately gobbled, and came over the crest so I could see his whole body, still strutting.

For a few happy moments, I was thinking, today's the day.

Unlike hunting for other species, turkey hunting is like a dance. While the word dance might invoke thoughts of weddings or the hokey pokey, the analogy isn't as far off as one would initially suspect.

Think of turkey hunting like dancing in the way one move cues a corresponding action. A call is made, a bird responds, and now two parties are involved in a tango that includes moves and counter moves.