Challenge, Adventure, Hunt
How do you know where the best place to set up to call a wild turkey in for harvest is? This question is one you’ll only ever have a definite answer to once you’ve harvested the feathery gobbler. The best place for a harvest, if you’re impatient and want what you want now, is at your favorite grocery store, but if you enjoy the challenge, the adventure, nature, and all it has to offer, keep reading.
Before stepping foot into the woods what are you wearing? The key is to blend with your surroundings, to look like a bush or part of a tree. It’s time to change that shirt, a florescent pink and green Hawaiian shirt is not going to blend. Save it for after you’ve harvested your bird, that’ll make some memorable photos!
What about the challenge? When entering your playground and the turkey’s habitat, multiple scenarios may stream through your mind and cause uncertainty of the perfect set up, allowing a flood of “What If’s” to drown out any logic. The biggest challenge is to pick a spot and settle within yourself that it’s a good one. Here are some important things to consider and do.
Directionally Settled
What direction should you face? This question can easily be answered only some of the time. As your boots hit the trail and you decide to hoot like an owl or caw like a crow and it’s followed by the excitement of a gobble, gobble, gobble, that’s usually, but not all the time, a dead giveaway, that’s the direction you should face. The tough decision comes when the strutter decides to keep his gobble to himself and sneak your way to check out the situation before announcing himself. In this instance, it’s best to make a decision based on hope.
Decoy Set Up
It’s crucial to draw turkeys into the ethical shot range, 30 yards no more than 40. That being the case, why would you set the decoys up at 30 or 40 yards? Do your research, learn the birds. Gobblers like to perform a solo dance at a safe distance before taking it too far. If you place the decoys at about 20 yards from you. The hope is the gobbler will come into an adequate shot distance to dance for the rubber hen. That should give you a perfect opportunity before he discovers the lady of the hour is nothing but a dummy, to take the perfect flop shot.
Slithery Inhabitants
Yes, there are other critters out there besides turkeys, some, depending on where you live, could harm, or even kill you. Don’t go in with an attitude of it’ll be fine, nothing’s going to happen to special ole me! Where’s your common sense? Always pay attention where you are walking and especially where you’ll be parking your backside for possibly a few hours. Snakes are sneaky and generally blend in much better than you, one of the most important tips to this quest is…DON’T SIT ON A SNAKE!
Rump Placement
If you’re sitting on the ground, you’ll want to find a tree wider than you, this will give you cover from the back. It’s hard to tell what direction the gobbler or gobblers will make their entrance, I don’t care how covert you think yourself to be, you can’t see everything from every angle. The more coverage from behind the better.
Coverage
The best spot will have enough cover to hide you but not so much you can’t see past your gun barrel or broadhead. If a gobbler decides to strut your way, he is going to be about eye level. Check your surroundings to ensure you’ll have a clear view of that blue headed beauty flaunting what his mama gave him. One of the trickiest tricks when hunting, is putting your eyes on them before they put theirs on you.
Hiding in plain sight, the best set up for turkey hunting
Now that you’ve picked the best set spot, don’t rush a guy, let him get comfortable. The only way you are going to do that is if you’re comfortable yourself. Get your weapon of choice in position, and ready, if you’re doing things right you should have a gobbler down, well, eventually, I hope. Remember it is turkey hunting. Hunting is an adventure, a hunter doesn’t always harvest. If you leave those woods with a bitter taste in your mouth because you didn’t harvest, maybe you’re not really a hunter but a killer.
