15 Advanced Turkey Hunting Questions and Answers

Turkey hunting is an endeavor that requires ongoing learning. Even with a lifetime of knowledge to bank on, we never completely understood every element of turkeys and turkey hunting. There is much we can learn, though. Here are advanced turkey-hunting questions and answers you should know.

1. Is the breeding cycle further along due to a warmer winter?

While a warm winter might provoke an early spike in gobbling and strutting, it tends not to greatly impact actual breeding. As with the whitetail rut, the turkey breeding cycle is driven by photoperiod (daylight length). Despite what some hunters may think, this is what the research shows.

2. If I shoot the gobblers early in the season, can jakes carry the breeding role the rest of the way?

Recent research by turkey biologists, such as Dr. Chamberlain with the Wild Turkey Lab, and others, we now know that jakes cannot breed in a viable manner. While they can conduct the breeding ritual, sperm counts are almost always too low to fertilize eggs. Therefore, the majority of jakes cannot successfully breed hens.

3. How should I approach a hung-up gobbler?

Every turkey-hunting situation is different, but hung-up turkeys are usually best approached one of a few ways. First, if hens are to blame, it’s best to see what direction the flock is going and circle ahead of them. If an obstacle is in the way, such as a fence, you might reposition as well.

Other times, there are no obstacles, but a turkey just hangs up and doesn’t come any closer. Nature designed it so that the hens usually go to the gobbling toms. By attempting to call a gobbler to your position, you’re attempting to reverse the typical order of the wild turkey song and dance. It might require patience to give that turkey time to commit.

4. How should I target a henned-up strutter?

A henned-up longbeard can be quite difficult to tag. Sometimes, you can call to the hen, bring her in and he’ll follow. Other times, you can pop a tail fan (on private land you alone hunt) and pull that turkey into range. Other times you can crawl behind that same fan and get within range. You might even use available habitat cover, topography and general terrain to sneak closer to the flock’s position. You could give that strutter time to lose its hens, and then reengage that turkey between mid-morning and mid-afternoon.

5. How do I hunt a stubborn field strutter?

Field birds, field strutters, open-land longbeards and stubborn turkeys under similar monikers make for difficult hunts. If general calling efforts won’t work, consider deploying several decoys. Or consider flashing a tail fan. Perhaps even crawl to that bird, given enough available cover. A safer option is to come back the next day, deploy decoys and wait for that turkey to return.

6. What’s the best tips and tactics for a pressured gobbler?

Pressured turkeys can be very difficult to tag. Oftentimes, these birds gobble less than unpressured longbeards and commit to callers’ positions less often, too. For these turkeys, play the long game. Set up shop in an area known to hold turkeys. Put out decoys and call sparingly. Wait for the turkey to give in and commit. Pressured turkeys require more patience and more reserved tactics.

7. Is TSS better than lead for turkey hunting?

There are pros and cons to TSS and lead turkey hunting ammo. However, the benefits of TSS far outweigh its cons and certainly outpace the advantages of lead ammunition. TSS is better for numerous reasons, including denser pellets, more pellets per payload, the ability to use 2 ¾-inch shells (ethically), the ability to use smaller shotgun gauges, lighter-recoil guns, better patterns, extended ranges and more.

8. Are the first few hours, midday window, or last few hours of the day best for calling in a turkey?

If roosted alone, it’s oftentimes easy enough to call in a longbeard soon after fly-down. If roosted with hens, the odds drop significantly. Given the latter, the middle hours of the day are oftentimes the best time to call in a gobbler.

9. Is it better to call with or without decoys?

In most instances, calling with a decoy is best. It adds a visual to back up the audible that the turkey hears. It can encourage a bird to come on in when otherwise it wouldn’t without seeing the decoy. However, in some situations, the turkey might hang up, expecting the hen (decoy) to approach it. All said, calling is usually more effective alongside decoy use.

10. Can a turkey become call shy?

A common myth is that turkeys can become call shy. That’s false. Generally, the truest reasons for lack of gobbling are turkeys being removed from the landscape (via hunting), higher predator populations, heavier hunting pressure, etc. But it most likely isn’t a result of hunters calling to turkeys and the subsequent reduction in responsiveness.

11. Why do turkeys head to the fields when it rains?

Turkeys use their eyesight and hearing for survival, primarily the former. Wind and rain make it more difficult for turkeys to see, especially in timbered settings with limbs, twigs and leaves moving with the wind. Open fields provide fewer wind-swept items to hinder their eyesight. Furthermore, bugs and grubs tend to hit the surface after a moderate to heavy rain.

12. Is that gobbler roosting in the same tree every evening?

In areas with few roost trees, turkeys oftentimes roost in the same areas. This is common in grassland and plains settings. However, in the eastern half of the country, where trees are more abundant, turkey usually don’t roost in the same trees every day. Instead, they tend to use a rotation of roost trees. At times, it’s different turkeys using the same roost trees, making it seem as if the same one is roosting in the same place.

13. What are some more nuanced turkey vocalizations to know and use?

Everyone knows the cluck, purr and yelp. And the mighty gobble is the most famous of all. But more obscure and nuanced turkey vocalizations include the assembly yelp, cutt, fighting purrs, fly-down cackle, kee-kee, kee-kee run, spit-and-drum, tree yelp (tree call), whine and more. These lesser-known calls are great to know, too.

14. What are the best food plot plants for wild turkeys?

Turkeys eat a variety of things, but some food plot plant species are better than others. Of course, the king of turkey food plots is chufa. Other good options include alfalfa, buckwheat, cereal rye, lespedeza, millet, sorghum, oats, wheat and most species of clover.

15. How do I improve turkey populations on my hunting land?

Many turkey populations are going through a downswing. Habitat destruction, loss of nesting cover, increasing predator populations, booming nest predator populations, disease spread, overharvest (in some states) and other challenges continue to hammer turkey numbers. That said, self-regulating harvests (below the full bag limit), improving habitat, offering more nesting cover and trapping predators and nest predators can save a lot of turkey lives.

There are hundreds of advanced questions a hunter might ask, but the above are some of the most important, and if answers are understood and implemented, the answers just might make you a better turkey hunter.

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