Snow Belt turkeys, like the rest of us up North, find a way to survive winter.  In places like Maine and Wisconsin, upstate New York, northeast Ohio, and northern Pennsylvania, there’s still plenty of snow on the ground, especially in the woods, even though it’s technically spring.

There’s hope though. Yesterday in Maine I heard hard gobbling at daybreak. Later, I watched a full-fan strutter with nine hens nearby (they’d found open ground surrounded by snow). He looked ready. [ Read Full Post ]

I’ve come to find out that diaphragm calls, long thought of as the iconic sign of a turkey-hunting expert, aren’t really all that iconic after all. In fact, I recall one spring in which Ray Eye, long considered one of the country’s finest mouth callers, spent an entire week with me using a single call—a simple peg and slate. Why? Well, I don’t find the whys nearly important as the whats, whens and hows of the results. [ Read Full Post ]

Shooting a wild turkey punctuates the enjoyable and sometimes frustrating process of scouting, finding, roosting, calling/decoying/patterning a spring gobbler into range. Your shotgun should drop it dead inside 40 yards, though most of the time I let birds work even closer. How about you?

My upbringing as a turkey hunter included simple-to-use pump shotguns by choice, options I saw depicted in the Outdoor Life issues of my youth, plus classy loaner firearms on the road at media camps. I’ve handled plenty, liked many, loved a few and forgotten about some others. [ Read Full Post ]