Who’s a Turkey Expert?

From Turkey and Turkey Hunting

I’ll stand up and raise my hand. I am a turkey hunting expert. There isn’t anyone alive who knows my turkeys better than I do. However, that only covers 200 acres of ground in the Trans-Bluegrass of Kentucky. Of course, even I occasionally leave a tag unfilled, and most days I get skunked, so I guess you can all just thank me for sharing and I’ll sit back down. Nevermind. Sorry.

The point of it is, you might think I was an expert turkey hunter if you came out to my farm and we went out together. I’d seem to know exactly what was going on in the turkeys’ heads and I’d seem to have an uncanny sense for where they would be and what they would do. However, what you would not realize is that I’ve been doing it over and over on the same turf for almost a decade, and it is nothing more than having a good memory. Turkeys, given the same piece of terrain do pretty much the same thing, year to year and generation to generation. If you dragged me off my home turf and put me some where else, I’d not do so well.

There are a few times I’ve hunted with an expert here and there– even a minor legend. This is nothing against any of them or against any of the current experts and legends out there. It’s just that everyone takes time to get used to the situation on the ground and adapt what they know to what is at hand. Some guys have a broader range of experience, but the turkeys are capable of laughing at us all equally.

We have had some serious self-styled experts on here. Some of them even had acolytes that would sing their praise. If you got down in the weeds with it, you would figure out sooner or later they were really good at timing. One expert on here talked about going out and taking the turkeys’ temperature, and if it wasn’t right for his taste, he’d go home and wait a day.

Having my own 200 acres is both a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, I have my own plot and I can control who hunts it. On the other hand, if the turkeys are having an off day, so am I. I can’t pick up and go somewhere else. What it forces me to see is the whole evolution of my season as it unfolds. I can tell you for a fact that there are maybe less than 5-7 days in our 3 week Spring Gobbler Season where my gobblers are really open to being called off the roost, called away from hens, or susceptible to run and gun. On the other hand, those 5-7 days are usually incredible. Anyone out on those days with a modicum of experience would think themselves a turkey hunting genius. Gobblers come from 500 yards off. Gobblers pitch down off the roost and fly right to the end of your barrel. Gobblers stop strutting in front of hens and run right to you. Even I get to thinking I’m an expert.

The big difference between me as a turkey hunter back in the early 80’s and me the turkey hunter of 2010 is that I’ve now seen that bigger picture. I’m not THAT much of a better caller. I’m not THAT much of a better woodsman. I don’t make as many boneheaded moves, but given the chance I can still make the turkeys laugh.

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