For about 25 wonderful years, I was a turkey hunting buddy of the late Dwaine Bland, a local and national legend among turkey hunters and a fine friend. I was a professor at Oklahoma State University, and Dwaine was an electrician. We harvested many birds and let a lot more walk away. He also called in our son’s first turkeys, so he was like a family member.
Dwaine had a way with words, and his advice has struck with me for years. So, I’d like to share some of his turkey hunting wisdom by quoting him as best I can remember. I used his advice to pull three wary toms from hens last year. Here’s the first “Dwain-ism”:
“Most birds are taken before opening day.”
Dwaine was a very ethical hunter, so those words stopped me in my tracks. I replied with the most intelligent statement I could think of: “Huh?” He laughed and told me I should have several birds totally patterned so that on opening day, I can choose which one to hunt or move to another if someone was already there. I normally spend almost as many hours scouting before the season opens as I do actually hunting.
I’ve downed many cups of coffee sitting in my truck or on a log simply listening to the fly-down and trying to determine what the birds wanted to do. Many times, that tells me exactly where I ought to set up. I also carry a good set of binoculars. If I see birds in a field, I use the binoculars to watch them for a while. Often, they will clue me in about where I can set up the next day for success.
Finally, from one year to the next, different birds will often follow the same pattern. If I’m going back to an area where I took a bird in a previous year, that’s the first place I’ll check. Often, the next generation will follow the same pattern.
I call turkeys for a buddy, and we found a really hot area on his farm. I’ve called in quite a few birds for him over the years. Don’t tell him, but I think we could just sit there quietly and harvest a bird every year because they often repeat the same patterns.
“It’s a whole lot easier to call a bird to where he was going to go in the first place.”
If I’ve patterned a bird, then I know where the bird is likely headed, and I should sit between the two points in a logical ambush spot and call. Knowing “what to say” and “how to say it” can be very important. Once I hear birds closing in, I use soft yelps and purrs, and they usually gobble. I follow with a sequence based on the bird’s movements and calls. If I know where he will likely roost, I set up several hundred yards away on his path and don’t call at all or use very soft flock talk.
“If you shoot a bird, don’t get up and run to it. Keep your shotgun on it; if it lifts it head, shoot again.”
If you run out to get the bird while other birds are still around, it gives those birds a Ph.D. in turkey-people wariness. When you stay put, those birds only know there was a loud noise and a buddy laid down. They will leave eventually, and that’s when you should go to your bird.
In the meantime, if I shot the dominant bird, the sub-dominant birds will often "attack" the bird on the ground. However, I keep my shotgun on the one I just shot. If he lifts his head, I didn’t get a good shot. If he pulls his legs under him, he may try to fly when I stand. Standing up could spook him.
“If the tom has hens with him, he’s not about to leave several good-looking girls to go after one that he can’t see. Get aggressive with cackle calls only after he gets hot.”
This one is fun but seems to work only about half the time. I worked birds for an hour only to see them moving left to right with hens about 150 yards away. I used aggressive assembly calls and had their attention as they lifted their heads and looked in my direction at every call. The assembly call is a series of 10 or so yelps in a demanding fashion, much like a hen calling to her chicks. That usually draws gobbles, and it did. Immediately I cut off the gobble with an excited cackle, which brings another round of gobbling. Then I repeated.
It's important that I already had the birds hot. After the third set of these calls, I saw the birds say goodbye to the hens and start running in my direction. Rather comically, at this point, they were sure of love and it became a race that ended with a dead bird on the ground.
The other half of the time when I try this, the birds seem to say, “Hey, I’ve got hens already here, but I’ll come back later.” If they do leave, I try to be patient in case they come looking later.
“If they are close, in strut, and following hens, call the hens and not the toms.”
Sometimes I’ll switch my calling to attract hens, not toms. If the hens come, the toms will follow as if on a string. The cackle call tends to run off the hens, so be careful.
To learn how to call a hen, I spent many hours sitting close to roost trees and listening without any calling. I’ve also done this in a turkey barnyard. Contented flock talk is a bunch of purrs, clucks, and very soft yelps, and it’s steady. So, I softly start talking to them. It doesn’t always work, but when it does, it’s neat.
The lead hens are listening, but they don’t really show me they are. They just sort of turn and head my way slowly. I like to use decoys for this situation. I have three hen decoys and a jake.
On a hunt in the Oklahoma Panhandle, a significant flock of hens with one dominant tom, two other mature birds, and a couple jakes strolled by me. The dominant tom would answer all my calls, but he wasn’t about to leave those hens. When I switched to the soft flock talk, the hens slowly turned in my direction and fed right in.
“If you can hear them, It’s impossible for them not to hear you.”
I’ve spent time listening, and I've noted turkeys are very soft talkers most of the time, especially when content. This also tells me not to call loudly unless I am locating toms. I like crow calls better. Yes, I do walk through the woods yelping loudly at times, like in windy conditions. But once he answers, I talk softly every time.
“Listen to flocks wake up and learn to mimic.”
I’ve spent many hours listening to flocks wake up and talk at first light. I don’t gobble when they’re in the tree, so this is only about the hens. My first call is usually a very soft purr using a small quiet slate. Shortly thereafter, I make a very soft yelp or two. Then I shut up. Normally I get a gobble in response if they are close, and I picture them saying to each other, “I didn’t know she was there, did you?” They aren’t very patient, so they may gobble a few more times. But I stay quiet.
About 10 minutes before normal fly-down time, I’ve cackled and beat the ground with a wing or even my hand to mimic fly down. Then, I start my normal call sequence. I’m very careful of the fly-down cackle because I’ve had them shut up completely at that point and stay in the tree much later. (Yeah, maybe it’s just my cackle).
“Let the bird tell you how much to call.”
When I started turkey hunting, the method was to use the box call and yelp three times to let him know where you are. If he answers, follow that with one more set of three yelps, then shut up and wait. I did a lot of waiting and not much harvesting. It was frustrating to have him gobble several times then not respond.
There are times now when I’m calling frequently and other times when I call very little, depending on what the bird seems to want. If he gobbles only once or twice but is moving my way, I play hard to get and stay patient. I think cackling to a bird like that can scare him off, so I try to be seductive (difficult for an old guy). I’ve had birds not answer for 30 minutes, and so I stood up to move a little and there he was, approaching silently.
“Walk carefully away from the bird to convince him you are leaving.”
This can work well with two people, a caller and a shooter. The natural order is for the hen to come to the gobbler. I’m trying to change that order. Thus, sometimes the bird decides there’s no need to move and continues to answer and goes into strut. But the bird isn’t about to come in. One trick is to leave a shooter in place, and the caller can slowly back away from there, putting more distance between the caller and the tom to simulate the hen leaving.
“Try again later when they’re alone.”
Typically around the second week of the season, the hens take off to nest about mid-morning. Until then, the dominant tom has hens and is probably not interested in pursuing another one. But sometimes lesser toms will break from the flock and come in. I once had nine jakes leave the flock and fly across a creek to me; this is highly unusual, but the dominant bird did not leave.
Another time, I called only twice when they flew down. My buddy didn’t have a bird yet, and he was also calling to this flock, so I stayed quiet. About 9 a.m., a loud gobble sounded off about 30 yards away. Sure enough, two mature toms came up the creek looking everywhere for the hen that called only twice earlier. I think the hens had all gone to nest and the toms were out looking. This also explains why birds are often easy to call at midday. A lonely tom is very callable.
“If you mess up calling, don’t go silent; call again immediately.”
I once lived close to a large flock of turkeys and spent many hours just listening to them. You can learn many things by doing this and one of them is that turkey don't always sound perfect, either. People sometimes choke or stutter when talking to each other. Why are we surprised to hear that turkeys do also and that turkeys don’t all sound alike?
When I call and mess up, my natural reaction is to shut up and compose myself. This is the worst thing I can do, as it calls attention to my mistake. Thus, I continue calling and even call more right after I've messed up a call. I’ve had birds go silent, but I’ve also had birds seemingly not notice if I quickly resume calling. If I continue to mess up calls, I know I should go home and practice.
“If the birds are decoy-shy, ditch the decoy for extra time.”
The more we use decoys, the more chances we take that toms will become decoy-shy. A few years ago, I picked up my box call and gave a series of three yelps (I believe a box call reaches farther than other calls). Far off, a gobble rang out, so I repeated the yelps. He gobbled again and was running straight to me. I told my buddy (the shooter) to get ready, for it would be quick. Sure enough, the bird ran into our opening, saw the decoys, and ran for the woods without breaking stride. Luckily the shooter was quick and bagged the bird.
If we hadn’t had decoys out, that bird might have stopped running to look around, giving the shooter a better chance. That was perhaps the oldest bird I’ve ever called in. He had curved spurs 1 ¾ inches long, a 12-inch beard, and weighed well over 20 pounds.
I’ve only felt that birds were decoy-shy a few times. When I did, I brought in the decoys.
“Know your shotgun and load pattern.”
I used to shoot 3-inch No. 5 shot out of a full-choke, double-barrel American Arms shotgun. Recently, I switched to a Hevi Shot mix of 5, 6, and 7 shot with very impressive results through a turkey choke. The smaller shot puts considerably more shot in the head and neck than larger shot. It’s important to pattern the shotgun, which I do every year even though I’ve used the same gun for about 30 years. I shoot about ¾ the way up the neck, so ¼ of the neck and the head are seen above the shotgun barrel. At 20 yards, I don’t put any pellets in the body, which pleases the family when we serve it.
Even though I pattern at 40 yards, I never take shots more than 30 yards. Most shots are at 20 yards. This load at 20 yards puts the turkey down for good. The challenge is to pull the tom in close, and with good camouflage and calling, he likely will stick his head up at 20 yards.
True confessions: A few of these "-isms" are mine, but you wouldn’t listen to me, so I’ll leave you wondering. Dwaine was a very special friend, and my family and I were very lucky.
Take your children, grandchildren, and even the neighborhood kids hunting with you to pass along the heritage of hunting. May all your birds have long full beards and long spurs.
Editors Note: Tap into Wildlife Department Resources
Every year the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation publishes a Gobbler Report and sends it to the agency's email subscribers. Normally published within a week of the youth spring turkey season opener, the report provides the most up-to-date status of turkey breeding and activity from every region of the state. The info comes directly from Wildlife Department personnel stationed across Oklahoma, giving insights to hunters who are making plans for opening day. To receive the Gobbler Report, make sure you're signed up to receive Hunting Updates emails from the Wildlife Department. If you've purchased a hunting license through the Go Outdoors Oklahoma online license system and provided a valid email address in the process, then you should be signed up already, unless you've unsubscribed. If not, go to the Department's Outdoor News webpage to sign up.
You can also check out the wild turkey section of the Department's Hunting Resources webpage. You'll find additional tips and information about spring and fall hunting, as well as maps, articles and links with information that might help you in your quest as a turkey hunter in Oklahoma.
We'd be remiss not to remind you also to read up on turkey hunting regulations for the season and area you plant to hunt. Spend time reading through the general regulations for hunting in Oklahoma, the section directly related to wild turkey hunting, and also the special area regulations if you plan to hunt public ground. That way, you'll be educated on what the rules are and how to comply. The regulations are available online here, or via the Go Outdoors Oklahoma mobile app for iPhone or Android.
Finally, don't forget to obtain your hunting license and turkey license through your Go Outdoors Oklahoma online license system. Youth under 18 need only the annual youth super hunting license to be ready for whatever hunting opportunity comes their way. Whether resident or nonresident, the super license is the best thing that's happened for youth hunting in decades. We've written all about that here.
-Sidebar by Michael Bergin, senior communication & education specialist for the Wildlife Department