Now that I’m an old man myself, and have graduated to the status of struggling veteran, I realize that the advice offered by that sage old-timer was sound and insightful. Accordingly, my early-spring hunts now see me devote more time to making the effort to get into the best possible calling location than to actually trying to call in a gobbler.

Just being in the right spot isn’t enough, though. Open, bare woods work against the turkey hunter in most cases, as a turkey’s vision is as acute as its hearing, and both work better before greenup. At that time it can see and hear farther and better, and can more easily detect the subtle sounds and movements that the hunter must invariably make to get the gun on the bird.

Setting up so that the approaching turkey is out of sight behind a ridge or under a hill until it’s in gun range is one way of dealing with the long-range vision problem, but even in hunting areas featuring a lot of roll in the landscape, not every place such as the old-timer described -- which a turkey either is headed to anyway or would be OK with checking out -- gives you that option. And before greenup starts in the typical Southern river swamp or pineywoods forest, a gobbler may have the advantage of a largely unobstructed line of sight extending 300 yards or more.

A portable blind can help prevent you from being seen or heard by your quarry, but it can’t make a turkey see something that isn’t there -- namely, another of its kind. It’s another way in which the high degree of visibility in the pre-green woods works against the hunter: An approaching gobbler expects to be able to see the bird doing the calling, so it’s likely to come the rest of the way into range if it doesn’t get that confirmation.

Decoying is the obvious answer, but almost all commercial models are either hens or jakes, and considering that the turkeys are still largely in sex-segregated flocks, this isn’t good. I’ve had many early-season gobblers balk at hen and/or jake decoys, and I’m convinced that the counterfeit turkeys’ lack of resemblance to adult gobblers is the reason. I’ve had some success with affixing a longer beard to a jake decoy, but sometimes the gobbler I’m working seems intimidated when he spots the other longbeard.

One last tactic for pre-greenup hunting: the exercise of extreme patience. Run-and-gun tactics are worthless -- partly because the turkeys aren’t yet ready for aggressive tactics, partly because your chances of getting busted by a sharp-eyed bird are much greater in late winter’s wide-open woods. Scout and find several places that the turkeys are using heavily, and then spend your time in those places. Make yourself comfortable and wait ‘em out.

GREENING UP AND GEARING UP
In most areas, spring greenup and the break-up of the winter flocks happen pretty much simultaneously.

“When the white oak leaves are the size of a squirrel’s ear, it’s time to go kill a turkey”: another tip from another old hunter. Pretty unscientific, I guess -- but in a lifetime of hunting turkeys, I’ve never heard a wildlife biologist say it any better.