February 24, 2023 Optics for a Turkey Gun- Shotgun Scope or Shotgun Red Dot By: Justin Hunold With today’s purpose driven Turkey Guns, Turkey Chokes and Turkey Shells choices a plenty we are sling patterns tighter than ever. We are able to carry longer, set up better and shoot further. Not only are the guns, chokes and shells better but Turkey hunting is becoming more and more refined. From basic lead, to plated, duplex, heavier than lead and TSS shot we are sending shots that pattern as tight as baseballs at 25 yards and sometimes even further. Even though most modern turkey guns come with some form of fiber optic sight on them we should be thinking of those as a backup system. If you’ve spent the time, money and effort to get a gun specifically to chase turkeys, that gun should wear a modern optic. What kind of shotgun scope should you use on your turkey gun? Why? Let’s look at shotgun optics choices for turkey hunting. Why should you run an optic for turkey hunting? The simple answer is precision. When you were out in the field with a simple high brass , heavy game load, full choke and bead you had to know where that gun patterned. This was likely a large pattern by todays standards and you have to keep it in mind everytime you pull the trigger on a Tom. Now, we are shooting ultra tight patterns out to ranges well beyond sixty yards and we need to know where that shot is going to be. Most patterns are the size of a baseball at twenty five yards with today’s gear, so if you’re off by three to four inches you missed. And who wants to think about where to hold to center the pattern. Sight it in, hold the dot on the spot and press the trigger. The rest takes care of itself. Simple and effective. Also, when you’re shooting at longer ranges a bead or even rifled sights are likely covering up way more than they should be for you to place those pellets where they have to go. With a scope or red dot you know exactly where your point of aim is. Be sure of your target and beyond, it works a lot better if you are sure where your projectiles will be hitting within reason. What optic should you have on your Tom tagger? A lot of that is personal preference and hunting style differences. We all have our opinions but there are a few reasons for both a red dot and a LPVO (low power variable optic). Let’s look at them both and help you decide Red Dots When we are looking at the first and more popular category of scopes for shotgun we come to Red Dots. There are three types of Red Dots, Reflex, Prismatic, and Holographic. A few years ago I would have said Prismatic sights were the route to go, but more and more reflex sights for shotguns have taken center stage. Holographic sights are great, but tend to be a bit more expensive. Prismatic’s still have a place but for most folks the benefits and price point of a reflex sight is where it’s at in the turkey woods. Why would you use a reflex sight for a shotgun chasing Tom’s? Adjustable brightness, for when that cloudy spring dawn turns into a sun baked backdrop on an open field, red dot sights for shotguns leave you the ability to quickly adjust the brightness of the reticle. Also weight, a reflex sight is a great lightweight option for those long hikes along oak ridges looking for gobbling birds. Precise, no matter who is behind the reflex sight, no matter what angle the glass is at, no matter what eye dominant or hand dominant position that shooter is in, if the dots on the target it will hit there. Wherever the dot is is where the shot will end up. This isn’t the same for any other sight style other than holographic. This is a real advantage in the turkey woods where non dominant hand shots are somewhat common. Also, take your kid or wife or friend out hunting, hand them your gun knowing that if they put the dot on the spot you have to worry not. LPVO A while back you would see a lot of the famous TV hunters putting the smack down on gobblers with Turkey Specific low power variable optics. For a lot of folks there has been zero reason to move away from these. Let’s look at why you want a scope on your turkey gun. When that Tom hangs up in that open field at 65 yards and you know your TSS is still plenty deadly at that range, you can crank that LPVO up to 4x and place the crosshairs or dot on the waddles, knowing the EXACT placement. What about shooting through that little gap in the brush at his red, white and blue head? Yup, these are the best cases for a scope for turkey hunting. A fairly new option for LPVO’s that might be an interesting addition to some folks for turkey hunting is an illuminated single dot or reticle in conjunction with the standard reticle available with a lot of these models. Still using a red dot to anchor you to that head poking through the brush, but this time with a bit of magnification, which is right up some hunters alley. The limiting factors for a more traditional shotgun scope are weight and field of view. Obviously, a variable scope is going to weigh in the range of pounds comparatively to even a tube style prismatic sight which tip the scale in ounces. The other area where a red dot, especially a reflex sight, does a bit better a job on a turkey gun is in the field of view category. The almost non existent ring you will perceive on a reflex sight leaves little to the imagination. Meaning you will see your Tom and everything else going on around him, to make the safest, most accurate, and most ethical shot possible. Our Turkey Guns come with proprietary bases for mounting optics, and even though we have nice fiber optic beads on the barrel we suggest you use that base to mount the optic of your choice. When running and gunning for turkeys there is a lot left to chance, exact aiming and shot placement shouldn’t be one of them. We do our best to give you every reason to put the best shot on that bird possible, whether that’s with the optic mounted on the included base or a quality fiber optic bead. Let’s be honest we wouldn’t build a base and include it with every Retay Turkey gun if we didn’t think you should be giving a good quality optic a try. Put the dot on the spot and worry not.
February 17, 2023 Turkey Shells What shells Should You Chase Toms With This Spring By: Justin Hunold Let’s start from the very beginning, it’s the very best place to start. Ben Franklin’s pick for our National Avian Emblem, Thanksgiving Dinner Star, and befuddler of spring hunter the Wild Turkey, they are tough to kill. So, when we are chasing them a lot of the focus has been put on the gun and choke combo, optics, calls, camo and energy drinks. What is the actual thing that does the dispatching though…the ammo. Let’s look at the anatomy of a turkey shell and also what shells you might consider running this year. What are the components of a shotgun shell? This is interesting because when I started chasing turkeys almost 30 years ago the answer was shoot them with a high brass 3” magnum #4 in a full choke. In all honesty, that hasn’t changed a ton during the ammo shortages of the past few years; plenty of birds were being chased with a similar set up, but Turkey Shells aren’t just beefed up game loads. Generally if we start at the front of the shell, you will see a crimp. The crimp is what holds all the shot and other components in the shell, you can have folded or rolled. Folded crimps will have a familiar star pattern in the folds. Rolled crimps will have a flat disc facing out with the edged of the rolled shell holding it in place. Either will work just fine, but more and more you see top end turkey loads with rolled crimps. The reason that is the case is the rolled crimp allows for a touch more internal volume for components ie. shot. Inside the shell you will find the shot, in lead or similar shot 4,5,6’s tend to be the most popular sizes of buffered lead in the shells.A lot of states will limit your shot sizes to those coinciding numbers, shall not be smaller than a 6 or larger than a 4. Often in a turkey load the lead is plated with a harder metal such as copper. Shot will have buffer between it. This helps the pellets not bounce off of each other during flight therefore retaining their roundness and stability. Those two components are housed in the wad. The wad is simply the plastic cup that holds the shot and buffer in place as it goes down the barrel. The wad sits on top of the powder and the powder sits on top of the primer. All of this is housed in a hull or shell. Shells come in three sizes for 12 gauges and two for 20 gauge (for our purposes). Both guns will support 2.75” and 3” shells, some 12’s will also take a 3.5” shell as well. Always check the gun for the length of the shell it will take. With that the longer the shell the more total components will fit inside of it, in the form of powder and shot. So a 3.5 inch 12 gauge supports a lot more #6 shot than a 2.75” 20. So after that history lesson what makes a Turkey Load different? Generally, turkey shells will have as much shot as possible in each size shell. Where as a 3” #4 duck load might have an ounce and an eighth of shot, a turkey load will likely be filled with more than an ounce and a half of the same size shot. You don’t need to lead a turkey, so with plated lead shot and more of it being pushed out, velocity on turkey shells is normally slower. It doesn’t need to get there fast, it just all needs to get there and as densely as possible. With a waterfowl load you likely want a large ish pattern that has few gaps, say about 30” , a turkey shell should be delivering all of its shot very tightly. Often that need for a lot of shot delivered in a tight area leads to companies leaning on a high pellet count and high quality buffer to make that happen. Now we get into the zone of shot composition. What are the pellets made of? This is a lot like our evolution of waterfowl shells articles. The difference is there is almost no non toxic requirements (California withstanding). Meaning lead has dominated Turkey Shells for a long time. But when it comes to shotgun shells for turkey hunting, lead is not your only option. Tungsten, Bismuth and other denser than Lead have made their way over to turkey hunting. This started a long time ago with the original Heavy Shot, but with the advent of some advancements in turning out higher grade heavier than lead shot and better components there is a real swing to these new options. All forms of TSS or Tungsten Super Slam shot have made their way into retailers and chambers of guns alike. When you may have stepped down to a 6 shot in the past to increase pellet count , you can now shoot a #9 and when that #6 lost it’s steam at 40 yards that TSS in #9 is still plenty lethal at 60 and beyond. But that comes with a price tag. Normally TSS from any manufacturer is going to top $10 a shell. And shot sizes that small aren’t legal in all places. If you’re a dedicated Turkey hunter and you can constitute the price tag of the TSS shells and proprietary choke that should be used by all means send them down range. They are a devastating combination for spring Toms. Yet, do not discount a great shot shell stuffed with plated #4,5, or 6 shot. More of that will take to the woods than TSS this spring and it has killed mountains of turkeys over the years. With modern buffer, powder, Shot construction and shapes, and even duplex or combination of all of these shot sizes and materials together turkey loads have never been more potent. And with that, don’t fall into the bigger is best mode of shot shells. More and more folks are shooting heavier than lead options in 20 gauge when putting big strutters on the ground. Often a 3” option will pattern better in a given gun than a 3.5” shell of the same manufacturer and style. But with that there are a lot of people who carry a 12 gauge stoked with 3.5 inches and 2 ounces of hellfire. Cause you can’t kill them too dead. And at the end of the day all of this is about putting those tough Toms on the ground for good. We are lucky hunters to have so many options.
February 10, 2023 Turkey Guns – Features for Taking Toms By Justin Hunold A feature rich Turkey Gun makes for more confident shooting. When the Turkey Hunting boom started back in the 1970’s any ol shotgun folks had kicking around went into the woods chasing those spring Toms. As time went on folks realized Turkey’s are tough. They started to tote Magnums sporting 3” chambers and delivering that payload through a fixed full choke. And as chasing spring birds grew in popularity so did the list of tools we specialized to chase them. Shotguns were no exception to this rule, and now we are able to bring a true Turkey Gun to bear. Let’s take a look at some modern must haves in the turkey woods. What makes the “best turkey gun” for a modern hunter. Optics- Listen, lot’s of birds have fallen to a plain old front bead, and that will continue to happen. The same goes for fiber optic sighting systems, most modern guns come with them and they are always good to go. More and more though, we get after birds with an assundry of optics on top of our guns. Some folks like a LPVO or Low Power Variable Optic, like a 1-6x24mm. They feel that the ability to “zoom in” helps them deliver precise shot patterns at extended ranges and who’s to argue? This is what these optics are made for, that 0-100 yard zone. Guess what ranges we shoot Turkeys at 0-65 ish The next group of folks run a Red Dot optic of some sort. I fall into this group. Whether a traditional red dot housed in a tube or a prism style sight these are becoming the go to in the spring woods.They are light to carry, dummy proof to use, mostly bomb proof and do exactly what a hunter needs in the turkey woods, putting a point of aim where the center of the pattern should go. Plus in those low light mornings and rainy spring days that red dot is easy to acquire and easy to see on a bird’s head and neck. Retay turkey guns have integral patented scope bases. The picatinny pattern will easily accept any optic of your choosing. If that optic were to fail the whole system is removable so you can trust the fiber optic bead at the end of the barrel. Chokes- Way back in the 70-80’s hunters shot fixed full guns and occasionally modified if that’s all they had to run. The number of chokes available to a modern turkey hunter is staggering. There are a ton of constrictions, porting patterns, wad catching systems and even shot composition specific chokes. In general a good name brand Xtra Full Turkey Choke will work, you just have to find the best load to match that choke. If you’re shooting TSS we suggest a TSS specific choke. The goal is to deliver double digit pellet count into the head and neck of the Gobbler at any reasonable shooting distance. All of these chokes should do that with the right turkey load. Turkey shells pack more ounces of shot than just about any other shotgun shell. Velocity doesn’t really matter in the turkey woods, so these shells will sacrifice speed for shot capacity. With that a lot of folks will shoot a 20 gauge or a 12 gauge in 3 inches. 3.5 still has a following but modern turkey shells, turkey chokes and ballistics mean that folks are patterning better and better with the shorter 3” variant. Retay has huge aftermarket support in the way of choke tubes and with 20 gauge and 12 gauge Turkey guns we have the ability to deliver whatever performance you need from your turkey gun. Especially with our Dead Straight Deep Bore Drilled Barrels. Our guns pattern 20% better out of the box to begin with. A Sling helps when walking out heavy Barrel Length- When I started Turkey hunting it was with a 28” barrel side by side shotgun. Man, that gun shot, but it was long and gangly to carry through the under story. I later moved to a 26” pump gun and finally to a 24” barrel Gordion Turkey. The 20 gauge Gordion Turkey comes with a 22” barrel. The shorter barrel is lighter, easier to carry when slung over the shoulder, and easier to maneuver in a seated shooting position. Plus in the tight cover that woods hunting has the shorter barrel just clears that brush and shrubs so much easier. You don’t need the momentum of a 28 or 26” barrel to swing through or follow up. Likely you need one precise shot, much like a rifle, and doing that with a more compact gun is a joy in the thick spring woods. Grips- About a decade or so ago the familiar pistol grip stock emerged on turkey guns. This allows for steady holding and support when seated and having the gun on your knee. It also compliments the use of optics by lining a shooter up in a comfortable position. Anyone who has shot a Magnum Turkey Load will tell you the recoil is stout. The almost 90 degree pistol grip allows a shooter to handle that recoil a lot better and more comfortably. With pump guns kicking a bunch more than a semi, our new GPS-XL Turkey has a pistol grip to help you handle all of that. Yet, you can still choose a traditional style stock in any of our Turkey Guns because we know this gun might be serving you in a duck boat, layout blind or even chasing rabbits. Our guns are built to hunt. Sling- Most of the turkey hunting we do is a game of miles and opportunities. Walking with a gun slung over your shoulder is a lot easier than having to carry it. Gotta work a pot call? How about running a box call? Both two hand affairs and a sling keeps that gun comfortable while you do that. The more gear we hunt with the handier a sling becomes. Blind? Chair? Decoys? Gotta have a sling to make it all work. Every Retay has been built to accept a sling with integral studs and sling swivels included. Those slip on slings suck so we just make it easy on you. A Great Turkey Shotgun can help lead to Great Photos like this. Can you kill turkeys with a good all around shotgun? You sure can. You can also open a paint can with a screwdriver, but it’s not ideal. So, why not use a paint can opener and why not get serious and get the best turkey gun you can. You deserve to enjoy your time afield and the birds deserve for you to be the most efficient killer possible. The right Turkey Gun helps you do that, and how confident you will be with a purpose driven gun. Confidence kills or so I’ve heard.
January 27, 2023 Should I Hunt Turkeys From a Blind? Thinking about hunting birds both in and out of the box. By: Justin Hunold A lot of Toms are fooled with Hub Style blinds every spring. There 15 yards in front of you just outside of that window your decoys look perfect. They look so good you have to remind yourself to not shoot your strutting decoy. With the blades of last year’s dry grass and the newly greened up version moving in the wind, you see Him lock on to your imitation flock out in the field. And like a young man sowing his oats that Tom is on his way down to get some, either a fight or a romp. This is the way of Turkey hunting from a modern pop up blind. Turkey Calls are very similar to ones from decades past, but the variety and reliability is a lot better, and yes decoys continue to look better and better with modern materials and finishes, and we even understand the spring Turkey better due to continued research, but one thing likely helps kill more birds every year than the modern pop up blind……but it saves a bunch too. Why should you be Turkey Hunting from a pop up blind? There are a lot of reasons to hunt from a blind, they hide your movement, they give you concealment in places that are wide open, they protect you from some of the elements, Turkey’s basically don’t react to them at all and they can help you stay patient. Let’s dive in on Who’s What, When’s, Where and How’s of Hunting Turkeys from a Blind. One main reason to hunt turkeys from a pop up blind is because turkeys dont adversely react to them. Not long ago when you saw a flock strutting in the middle of a field day after day and you couldn’t access them or if you could there was no cover to hunt them from they mine as well have been in a zoo. They were in a spot you couldn’t kill them in. The blind changed all of that. A camo blind standing up in the middle of the field will definitely not fool a whitetail and likely you won’t see a coyote or another predator unless that blind has been there a very long time or is adequately brushed in. When it comes to beards and spurs though, you can pop that thing up and hunt from it that morning. Ground Blinds make places that lack cover huntable for Turkeys Toms and Hens alike seem to not give a hoot about a pop up blind suddenly appearing in a spot it wasn’t yesterday. So, field hunting turned into a big option over the past 20 years when it wasn’t really on the radar much before that. If you see a Tom puffed up in the middle of the field every day, that bird is likely killable with a pop up blind and access to that field. Hunting in comfort is another great reason to hunt out of a blind. Rain, snow, sleet, and hail a blind can make you into a regular USPS mailman. No matter the weather you can generally hunt in relative comfort from a blind. This keeps you concentrating on the birds and not how miserable you feel. It also lends to your patience. Warm, dry and concealed tends to make a hunter stay put rather than feeling they need to be up and moving to stay warm. Sometimes staying in a spot is the key to the game. Impatient hunters save a lot of animals every year. For the reasons listed above Blind hunting is a great way to introduce new or young hunters to the game. A kid can be free to move a bit more in a blind, they can also have a tablet or even a couple games or toys to help pass the time. Teaching kids to hunt is a big undertaking. I believe that there are times this is best done with a compromise of toughing it and making it a bit more comfortable, a blind is a great middle ground. This is the same for newer hunters. Great teaching moments like how much you can move, what it’s like when Turkeys come in and a shot is imminent, judging distance, watching animal behavior can all be taught from a blind in a way that might not happen leaning against a tree. Plus for someone maybe not used to navigating the woods in the dark or at all a destination or home base is a great way to increase confidence. There are a couple instances when that blind that proves deadly so many times is the bane of a hunter’s existence in moments. One story that is told over and over is causing a malfunction in the weapon of the hunter in regards to the blind. This predominantly happens with a bow, the hunter forgets how many moving parts there are and a limb hits the blind, or the sight clears the window but they don’t estimate for the inches difference in arrow height at the shelf and next thing you know they have a new broadhead hole through there camo house. It can happen to a lesser extent with a gun but be aware of your windows in a blind. The other instance is when a bird sneaks in and won’t come around to the side a hunter prepped for a shot. This is when a hunter is generally cursing the blind and thinking that they could have had that bird if they weren’t pinned down inside but running a gunning outside. As a rule of thumb, I keep three windows open to help with this and the more dense the cover the less likely I am to be in a blind. At the end of the day the situation that surrounds the birds are the contributing factors in deciding whether or not to use a blind. Early in the season, with colder, wetter weather and birds heading to fields to get in that ever escaping sunshine, I’ll be in a blind. Having a new hunter with me, Blind time. When birds might be pressured and quiet, I’m more patient in a blind. In my opinion there are a ton of times you shouldn’t be in a blind. But every turkey hunter should own one or two and they should have them ready to go for the situations surrounding the birds.
July 22, 2022 Afternoon is for the Birds Turkey Hunting Tactics for the Afternoon By : Justin Hunold As you go to bed thinking about another early morning chasing Toms you begin to realize that between the grind of everyday life and waking up pre dawn on the days you can hunt that you’re wearing thin. So, skip the alarm and take advantage of the secret that can lead to responsive birds, fun and the chance to take one of those Tom’s you’ve been chasing home. Hunt the afternoon. Now, quick disclosure, hunting turkeys in the spring in some states is a morning only affair. It is illegal to hunt later than 12:00 pm. I will say I consider hunting in the afternoon anything after about 10:00 am. In the noon cutoff states that leaves you two hours to hard charge a bird. In states where you have the ability of hunting all day, afternoon hunting gives you a lot of opportunity. Why sleep in ? You may have heard that the best way to kill a Tom is to put them to bed the night before. By watching where the birds roost a hunter can sneak in tight to that tree the next morning. Setting up close to the roost is what everyone likes to do if possible. As the season goes on the tougher this becomes. Hunting pressure and the life cycle of turkeys can change where they roost as the season goes on. Also, when the toms fly down, that is the time they will most likely “Hen Up’ or find a receptive hen. This makes calling to them very tough. Patterning birds becomes tougher as the season goes on. Hens begin to nest, Toms travel more looking for hens and food. The food sources also change, and Turkeys are omnivores. For all of these reasons slipping around the woods later in the day can put the odds in your favor. When Should I get out there? At some point around mid morning Toms and Hens split up generally. This is why you want to be walking a ridge or river bottom or maybe even driving logging roads. Stop at points on the road or terrain that put you at the advantage for a set up. Use your turkey calls to try and strike up a gobble. As the season wears on the more likely a later hunt will be fruitful. As Hens are on the nests there are fewer and fewer opportunities for Toms to find love. It becomes a 2x multiplier in the afternoons late in the season. The Hens that aren’t on the nest might get some attention in the morning but just as in earlier in the season, that too shall pass. In some states, such as Pennsylvania, a hunter can’t hunt in the afternoons until after the second week. Let’s face it most birds are killed early in the season. So, the long beards that are around to talk turkey by the second and third week of the season have had their share of calls thrown at them, along with maybe some shot and arrows. Most of those calls and projectiles come in the morning, most of them in and around likely strut zones. As the days continue to grow longer, in more ways than one, you’ll likely find birds becoming more terrain based. I have found a lot of birds will congregate in and around water. Specifically, streams and rivers. There tends to be food, water and cover in a condensed zone around water. Ridges that might be getting a bit more choked with understory might be a close second as far as the later spring shift in habitation zones that you might find a bird. Tactics for a late alarm clock Don’t call unless you feel like you have a good set up within a few yards. Remember with the sun a bit higher you’re going to want to be in the shadows. The birds will really shine coming through the woods, and as much as I love seeing them steam in the early morning chill when they gobble, their iridessence is very prominent in the afternoon sun. When I am hunting later in the day I also tend to tote less gear. A lot of times my decoys stay in the vehicle. I also bring locator calls like the faithful crow call, owl hooter and peacock call. As, much as I keep them with me, in the afternoon, I rarely use them. I tend to lean on my actual turkey calls for locating birds. This is why the pre set up matters. Remember those shadows? Use them. You’ll likely be hunting in cover, actually in the woods. As far as turkey calls go, a box call is tough to beat for getting that response gobble. Box calls inherently cut the wind and tend to be a bit louder than other friction or mouth calls. Locating with a turkey call is a lot like locating with a locator call, it’s all in the reaction. Remember as the season gets older the birds do too, and they get wiser as well. These birds will be more likely to be quiet. They have been called to a lot. But in the warm spring sun setting up in a likely area and sitting in the warm sun can be a great way to pull the trigger on a bird. Some of the most successful turkey hunters I know have taken to a lot of sitting and less calling. This has to do as much with your attitude as the turkey’s. I leave my blind at home as well. These midday hunts aren’t the place for a black hoodie and hub blind. These hunts are the place for good boots and a bottle of water, put those miles on! Early in the morning I will spend less time calling from the woods trying to find a bird, I let my vehicle do a lot of that work. In the afternoon I might be stopping in the same areas but pushing much deeper before I call. Closers With all of that in mind, for a chance at a bird, you don’t have to be blurry eyed and burning your mouth on coffee that’s still too hot from just coming out of the pot. Wake up with the sun, make yourself a nice breakfast and maybe do some stretching. You may have gotten to sleep in a bit, but you’ll still be working to get a chance at a Turkey. The difference in the afternoon is that you might be the only one in the woods working to get that bird and you might have a more responsive partner in this spring dance.
April 15, 2022 We Love to Watch Them Strut By: Justin Hunold When you get a group of Turkey hunters together and the stories start flowing one thing becomes apparent, The sounds of spring dominate the conversation. We judge each other by our ability to imitate a turkey, we wax poetic over birds hammering on the roost, the weird sounds we hear a hen make sticks in our minds, hell we even discuss odd things that make Toms shock gobble. Let’s think about the fact that we have calling championships in which other callers judge the accuracy and artistry of the calling sequence presented on a stage in front of the world. For me though, the sounds are a primer and what really gets my motor turning are the sights of the Turkey woods. Hearing them is great, Seeing them is what matters The sounds let me know what’s going on, Tom over there , Hen over there, hunter over there or was that a real bird? That’s the thing, I love the sounds but more and more they seem to be becoming rarer and rarer. Let’s not forget with the progression in call technology and growth in turkey hunting opportunities hunters calling has never been easier or sounded better. This has led to a lot of calls being thrown at seemingly more highly pressured birds. There was an article in a major publication about staying quiet and waiting birds out just a few days ago, this should be the canary in the coal mine of what the sounds of spring are doing to our turkey hunting. Now picture this, you’re walking a ridge top and calling to get a response from a randy Tom. A few yelps in and he thunders from your north and another one hammers from your west, the best sounds. These birds sound equidistant and are both responsive, guess what matters more than the sound of drumming, spitting, gobbling; which bird can you see first. I don’t remember every gobble but I sure as hell remember the sights of the steam pouring out of a gobblers face as he gobbles, the iridescent shine coming off the strutting gobbler all puffed up trying to show off, or the patriotic flag themed dome piece poking through the red rippers and he’s picking his way through the thick stuff. How many times have you slammed on the brakes to see what the flock in the field looks like? How many times did that sight prompt your eye to look at your mapping app to figure out if you could get to those birds? So, as much time as we all like to focus on yelps, clucks, purrs, kee kee runs, spitting, drumming, gobbling and shock calling they are all just sounds in the ether. Clues. What happens if we never get that visual of a bird strutting, or flying down, or a hen sneaking through cover beckoning against you? Let’s look at not only the beauty of these cinematic spring scenes but also what goes into them and how they help us. Look at the more recent tactic of Reaping a turkey, or moving into position behind a strutting Tom silhouette and then shooting the target bird in the face from as close as possible. This tactic works best with a real turkey fan, birds can tell the difference and requires zero sounds, just a natural movement with aggressive posturing from the “Decoy”. Take a look at hunting decoys and the evolution of Turkey decoys over the years specifically. The foam decoys I had at 12 years old wouldn’t even hit the store shelves these days. We’ve gone from hair dryers to reform them to full body molded decoys. Stuff in your pocket to which frame pack carries my two full body Hens and strutting Jake the best? So, the visuals matter on a nuts and bolts level, and with more calling pressure and smarter birds, they matter more than ever.When we are using decoys the Gobbler gets to see what we are looking for as well, visual cues. Setting up in shadows, fully camoed, minimal movement, we want our footprint on the visual landscape to be as small as possible. We have to balance this with good decoy placement, set up to compliment the terrain and scene we are trying to paint with sound and sight. It’s a tough mix between a large visual and the subtle nuances of a natural scene. Turkey’s like to strut in the open in the spring, they are prominent on the landscape in this way, but remember this gets them killed and not just by us. When thinking about the aesthetics of the scene, think about the Hen laying in cover, the Jake just out of direct sight, the Tom not fully silhouetted in the strut zone. You can be too in their face but often you can’t be too subtle. Remember nothing is as subtle as a silent “B” and that’s the sort of play you should hedge towards when dealing with the visual acuity of a Turkey. At the end of the day I don’t believe that the folks who chase spring birds will ever forgo the love and admiration of the music of Turkey’s mating concert. In the end it is probably the most important attachment we have to the birds in many ways. Most of us will never forget the first hammering gobble we heard echo through that early morning misty mountain hop. I’ll never forget the one time I had twelve distinct gobblers answering me and I was too inexperienced to get sight of any of them. But that’s the point at the time I was hunting for the gobble. Now I hunt for the gobbler and I gotta see em to shoot em.To me the other visuals make for a stark contrast to the spring deer scouting time right before Turkey season too. Early spring in my neck of the woods still has snow and ice, a few leftover beech tree leaves hanging on, some oaks holding a bit of their lobed or spiked plumage and a lot of gray and brown. As turkey season comes in, those colors transfer from gray and brown to being splashed with greens of all hues, reds, blues and violets in the flowers that wake up from the winter nap. The aesthetic is striking. But when you hear that bird call in the distance, as thrilling as that is, remember it matters not until you can see all those colors in his strutting plumage as he does his best spring dance for you, the very best sight of spring.
