How do you take a turkey’s temperature?

[From cbbase34:]

Hi there, you said something about Learn to take a turkey’s temperature, how

do you do that? thank you

Well you first have to get underneath the gobbler, this is usually done by first pushing his
head down with your left hand and then bringing the tail up with the right. Put the neck
firmly under your left boot. Use the pressure of your boot on his neck to encourage compliance. Now take the thermometer, well lubricated with Vaseline and place it. . .

. . . by the way, watch out for the spurs. They’re nasty.

But seriously, “Taking the temperature of a gobbler” is simply feeling him out to see if he’s interested in you. The ones that want to breed are the ones that will close the distance. The way I do it is by starting out with a low quiet series of clucks and yelps and then build up. Somewhere along the way, the gobbler will either answer during your call or after. If he honors your call after you’re done, it means he is interest, but he wants you to come to him. If he cuts in while you’re making the call, it means he’s hot and is coming towards you.

Call variation is important. A tom my hate your mouth call, but love your slate or your box. He may turn himself inside out trying to gobble when you cluck, but go silent when you hit him with a hot yelp. Who knows? They are individuals, and they have strange and varying tastes.

One of the best ways to take a gobbler’s temperature is to shut up. If he is interested, he’ll gobble, sometimes repeatedly, trying to get you to answer. If he was only luke warm, silence will be met with silence, and then you will have to either find another gobbler or get this one warmed up.

You can also tell a lot about a gobbler from how the gobble sounds. A gobble that is pointed away from you is muffled. However, when that old head slews around and he points right at you– even from a half-mile away– that gobble sounds different. It sounds like a laser beam. He’s locked on you and you know it–giving me chills right now thinking about it!

A gobbler that is interested, but not hot can be enticed further with a bunch of tricks. Changing calls is one. Repositioning is another. I’ve worked gobblers for two hours with nothing more than a cluck every quarter hour or so. I did not give up, because he was consistently showing his was hot. It was just that he was so far away and there were a couple of ravines between us, that it took him a while. On the other hand, I one yesterday that made one gobble my way, hopped down and took off and I never saw or heard him again.

I’m in right now. I got up at 5 and checked the radar and there were several small thunder bumpers on their way. They are coming through now, so I am waiting until the rain lets up and then go out. There’s something about walking out in the woods with a metal pool in your hands during a thunderstorm that I find unnerving– call me old fashioned.

Good luck. Write soon. Write often.

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