I have one property . It’s my farm, and the only folks that are allowed to hunt it are my sons and my old boss, SuperCore. What I’ve learned there in 13 seasons is that generally there are only a few days a season where any group of turkeys are willing to be called. The rest of the time, you can sit back and read a book. However, on those days where they want to be called, they will come to nearly anything.

On my 200 acres, I have three or sometimes four independent groups. I won’t call them flocks, because there are sometimes several flocks in a group. The groups act independently of each other. In a way, it is an analog to hunting three different farms. They may be hot out by Gobbler’s Knob and completely dead out at the Honey Hole. On average, however, the whole place is either on or off and it is mostly off. I get reports from my neighbors, and places as close as a couple of miles will be hot when mine is dead cold, so it is a fairly localized phenomenon. The key to success is being out as often as possible and being in the neighborhood of a gobbler when he gets the urge.

My turkeys have a very short memory. I think we give them far too much credit for getting overworked and over-hunted. My reason for saying this is that I have a really good place to sit right on the back of the house. From The Thoughtful Spot, I can survey a good chunk of my own place and several adjoining farms. We go back there in the evening for a cocktail before firing up the grill. Frequently, we have turkeys come out to visit before, during and after season. I have seen the same three gobblers come up towards the house three nights in a row and get terminally surprised when they find humans. I have seen similar things happen elsewhere on the farm. I am left to conclude my turkeys cannot remember from one day to the next.

What I do think is happening is that hunters interpret the turkeys’ coolness on a given day to being over-hunted. If things were hot on the Opener, and then by mid-week the gobs have clammed up, folks think it is due to too much hunting. I have stopped believing that. I have searched for the reasons why, and my answers so far are hazy. However, it may be that there are forces at work that we do not fully understand. The one answer I’ve gotten that bears further research is that falling dewpoints will turn on gobblers. That is a rare circumstance on spring mornings.

I used to believe the conventional wisdom, and worked hard to vary my calls, change venues, vary my routine, etc. If you look back on my earlier writings, I talk about hunting one 200 acre plot as a chess game. In retrospect, I believe now that I may have been over thinking it, specifically on calling. I used to say to myself “I used my slate call yesterday, so I’ll leave that home and go with the crystal.” The past few years, I’ve been more likely to say, “The slate worked well yesterday, so I’ll stick with that.” Last season, I didn’t fill a tag. Oh, don’t get me wrong, I think my new plan worked. I just buggered up shooting opportunities. If I’d been on the right side of the tree instead of the left, or gotten my gun up sooner. It was good season. I just didn’t put anything in the freezer.

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