Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt Foundations podcast, your guide
Speaker 1: to the fundamentals of better deer hunting, presented by first Light,
Speaker 1: creating proven versatile hunting apparel for the stand, saddle or blind.
Speaker 1: First Light Go farther, stay Longer, and now your host
Speaker 1: Tony Peterson.
Speaker 2: Hey everyone, welcome to the wire to Hunt Foundations podcast,
Speaker 2: which is brought to you by first Light. I'm your host,
Speaker 2: Tony Peterson, and today's episode is all about how to
Speaker 2: hunt turkeys that have already been hunted real hard. All right.
Speaker 2: It is the last of the bonus turkey content that
Speaker 2: I'm going to give you this week. Now, if you're
Speaker 2: feeling a strong desire to go out and shoot a
Speaker 2: tom in the face of your twelve gage, or maybe
Speaker 2: try to run an arrow through his midsection, feel free
Speaker 2: to head on over to the meteater dot com to
Speaker 2: check out a bunch of other turkey hunting content, or
Speaker 2: take advantage of our Turkey Week sale that is going on.
Speaker 2: You're gonna find steep discounts on a ton of good stuff.
Speaker 2: But also see that that's going to end real soon,
Speaker 2: so if you want some new gear, you better get
Speaker 2: over there now, all right. This podcast is a fun
Speaker 2: one for me, and I hope you enjoy it too.
Speaker 2: I think that there is such a variability and the
Speaker 2: difficulty of hunting different creatures that it pays to seek
Speaker 2: out something that is closely related to your reality, if
Speaker 2: that makes any sense at all. Well, when it comes
Speaker 2: to spring turkeys, the whole thing often looks so easy
Speaker 2: because it often is. Turkeys are dumb and unpressured turkeys
Speaker 2: are dumber than dumb. They're wonderful to hunt because they
Speaker 2: act like we hope turkeys will act. But there are
Speaker 2: also birds that just know how to survive due to
Speaker 2: hunting pressure, and while they don't act like dumb birds,
Speaker 2: they do have plenty of weaknesses you can exploit. That's
Speaker 2: what this episode is all about. So here we go.
Speaker 2: The weirdest thing that exists, at least in my opinion,
Speaker 2: in hunting, is the general belief that most of us
Speaker 2: are good at this stuff, or I guess you know,
Speaker 2: to put it in another way, there doesn't seem to
Speaker 2: be a general understanding of the talent differential in hunting
Speaker 2: that there are in so many other pursuits. I'm sure
Speaker 2: you have all met someone who is naturally athletically gifted
Speaker 2: Some people just are, and they excel through their careers
Speaker 2: until they start to meet more and more people who
Speaker 2: share their gift. Then it boils down to discipline, to
Speaker 2: have hard work ethic that you know it's going to
Speaker 2: help you outshine the rest of the talent pool. We
Speaker 2: accept that in football and baseball and hockey and basketball
Speaker 2: and cricket and probably golf and a whole bunch of
Speaker 2: other sports. We accept it in academics too. Some people
Speaker 2: have a brain for maths and some people have, you know,
Speaker 2: a brain for not math, like me. Some people have
Speaker 2: a gift with words, others it's music. I've been playing
Speaker 2: guitar for like thirty years at this point in my life,
Speaker 2: and I can watch ten year olds on YouTube who
Speaker 2: are way better than me. Life isn't fair in this way,
Speaker 2: but I guess since there is always someone better than
Speaker 2: us at everything, maybe it is fair. Since almost every
Speaker 2: one of us isn't all that exceptional at any one task.
Speaker 2: But that's okay. Though. We don't need to be Tom
Speaker 2: Brady level good at something like hunting. We just need
Speaker 2: to recognize what we're dealing with, and if it bothers us,
Speaker 2: try to figure out how to get better. It doesn't
Speaker 2: do us any good to focus on someone else's success
Speaker 2: when all that brain power could go toward elevating ourselves. Now,
Speaker 2: this is going to make me sound real cringey, as
Speaker 2: my daughters would say, but it's true. For some reason,
Speaker 2: I just gotta have a natural gift for killing turkeys.
Speaker 2: I always have, and I promise you it is not genetic.
Speaker 2: Because my father probably holds the record for the most
Speaker 2: unfilled turkey tags. Ever. He started applying for tags in
Speaker 2: Minnesota when the seasons first opened up, like back in
Speaker 2: the eighties I think late eighties anyway, and he hunted
Speaker 2: them pretty hard for a lot of years. He traveled
Speaker 2: to Missouri to hunt them, too, and he almost never
Speaker 2: ever killed one. Part of his problem is a lot
Speaker 2: of hearing damage and the reality that he can't tell
Speaker 2: where a bird gobbles. Ever, as a counterpoint, my hearing
Speaker 2: sucks too, But I still managed to kill a lot
Speaker 2: of toms anyway. Ever since I drew my first tag
Speaker 2: at fourteen, I've pretty consistently stacked up turkeys, spring birds
Speaker 2: with a shotgun, no problem. When I figured out the
Speaker 2: archery thing, no problem, fall birds, ah, no problem. And
Speaker 2: now that you know how awesome I am. Let me
Speaker 2: tell you something, I kind of believed I was truly
Speaker 2: gifted at turkey hunting for a long time. The more
Speaker 2: time I spent hunting really pressured birds, which came from
Speaker 2: a lot of public land hunting and from hunting places
Speaker 2: where generational pressure stacked up over years as hunting spring
Speaker 2: birds exploded in popularity, it made me realize that I
Speaker 2: can be humbled pretty quickly out there in the spring woods.
Speaker 2: The more I traveled and the more ways I try
Speaker 2: to challenge myself at turkey hunting, the more I realized, oh,
Speaker 2: this is just like deer hunting. The more pressure on
Speaker 2: the birds, the harder they are to kill. It's just
Speaker 2: a simple equation, and it dominates hunting throughout our country
Speaker 2: and i'd guess probably the world. Now. I don't think
Speaker 2: turkeys are as smart as deer, but I do think
Speaker 2: they can be generally more cautious. They don't have the
Speaker 2: curious thing that deer do, even mature bucks, and that
Speaker 2: saves a hell of a lot of birds from dying.
Speaker 2: They also generally have more predators than deer, which means
Speaker 2: they might find themselves a dish on the old menu
Speaker 2: at any given point in their lives. Deer experienced this too,
Speaker 2: but it's less consistent if you consider a lot of
Speaker 2: mature deer don't have much to fear aside from coyotes
Speaker 2: and people in an awful lot of places. Turkeys have
Speaker 2: more to fear out there, and it's reflected in their behavior.
Speaker 2: This is a good point to parallel this to deer
Speaker 2: hunting one more time. To drive this whole thing home.
Speaker 2: The truth is that if you hunt really pressure turkeys
Speaker 2: the way conventional turkey hunting advice tells you to hunt,
Speaker 2: you're going to mostly fail, just like you'll fail by
Speaker 2: going out on public land in Pennsylvania or Mississippi during
Speaker 2: the heart of the rut, rattling every ten minutes. Pressure
Speaker 2: turkeys are certainly callable and certainly killable, but they won't
Speaker 2: be called in and killed the same way birds on
Speaker 2: unpressured ground will be. Well, that's not entirely true, but
Speaker 2: it kind of is. While you might just post up
Speaker 2: on a pitcornfield on private and call birds into your decoys,
Speaker 2: that same kind of open field on public dirt might
Speaker 2: be a total loss cause just to the concentration of
Speaker 2: pressure around openings that our turkeys might be using Here's
Speaker 2: the deal. If you happen to hunt birds that get
Speaker 2: hunted a lot, your first and best choice is to
Speaker 2: differentiate yourself from the competition. Look at it this way,
Speaker 2: what are most people most likely to do, Say, on
Speaker 2: a chunk public land in southern Wisconsin, if they want
Speaker 2: to shoot a tom for starters, They're mostly going to
Speaker 2: be running and gunning with a shotgun. They'll be out
Speaker 2: there at first light when the birds are most likely
Speaker 2: to gobble off the roost. Since they're going to be
Speaker 2: running and gunning, they might have a decoy or two.
Speaker 2: They are very likely to try to get close to
Speaker 2: a bird on the roost if they are lucky enough
Speaker 2: to hear one, and that is a great way to
Speaker 2: spook a certain amount of birds off the roost. They
Speaker 2: are also most likely to get antsy if their original
Speaker 2: plan doesn't work out. They'll either sit for a short
Speaker 2: time and then move, or not sit at all while
Speaker 2: they sneak around trying to get a bird to sound off.
Speaker 2: They're going to have a big presence in the woods
Speaker 2: and most likely not kill a bird while letting lots
Speaker 2: of birds know they are around. There will be far
Speaker 2: more of them on the first day of the season
Speaker 2: than the last, and far more of them on a
Speaker 2: Saturday than a Tuesday. They'll be there before work and after,
Speaker 2: but not as much in the middle of the day.
Speaker 2: If it's snowy, windy, super rainy, cold, there will be
Speaker 2: fewer of them out. I think this would be true
Speaker 2: for hunters in every state, and that means the opportunity
Speaker 2: to be different and capitalize on what the birds don't
Speaker 2: expect you to do is kind of universal when it
Speaker 2: comes to pressure turkeys. Now are there differences in this
Speaker 2: when it comes to subspecies. Sort of, Easterns seem to
Speaker 2: be the most susceptible to changing their behavior due to pressure,
Speaker 2: but that just might be my bias. It might also
Speaker 2: be because some of the states with Easterns have been
Speaker 2: hunting turkeys a hell of a lot longer and with
Speaker 2: more intensity than some places with Rios or Miriams. I
Speaker 2: can't really speak to Osiola's on that front because I've
Speaker 2: never hunted them, so I guess my point is this,
Speaker 2: if you hunt where lots of people hunt, don't hunt
Speaker 2: in scout like lots of people hunting scout. That's the
Speaker 2: secret to whitetails too, but it's still hard enough, where
Speaker 2: folks keep looking for a magic bullet they can buy
Speaker 2: or some kind of revolutionary strategy they can adopt. I
Speaker 2: don't think either exists really, So let's take pressure turkeys
Speaker 2: and look at what they are most likely to do.
Speaker 2: They are going to be quieter than unpressure turkeys. This
Speaker 2: is just like public land over the counter elk. The
Speaker 2: more you make noise and predators come running, the less
Speaker 2: likely you are to keep making lots of noise. This
Speaker 2: goes for bull elk as well as tom turkeys and hens.
Speaker 2: There is subtlety to turkey language on pressure properties that
Speaker 2: cannot be ignored. This seems to be heightened around times
Speaker 2: of mass movement, like during the first two hours of
Speaker 2: the morning and the last two hours of the evening.
Speaker 2: The more the birds have to move across the landscape
Speaker 2: to get where they plan to feed, the more likely
Speaker 2: they are to try to be quiet when they do it.
Speaker 2: They are also more likely to approach slowly and quietly.
Speaker 2: This is where a lot of hunters fail. On one hand,
Speaker 2: you have a tom that might go check out a Hennyhear's,
Speaker 2: which might be you. But if he takes his time
Speaker 2: to get there, say forty five minutes he doesn't gobble
Speaker 2: on the way in, how likely are you to be
Speaker 2: there and not moving when he shows up? To get
Speaker 2: a visual, Pressured birds require patience, and that's really hard
Speaker 2: when they don't talk, but it is the truth. They
Speaker 2: also often require library voices when you're calling to them.
Speaker 2: One of the things I've noticed on public land birds
Speaker 2: in multiple states is that I have pretty good success
Speaker 2: ratio of calling them in versus blanking on a setup,
Speaker 2: but that they almost always end up close without me knowing.
Speaker 2: Rarely do you get that bird that gobbles with every
Speaker 2: step and just has to commit suicide by running in
Speaker 2: with zero caution. They almost always end up really committing
Speaker 2: to my decoys when I see them too, and I
Speaker 2: think this speaks to good decoys, but also them just
Speaker 2: seeing what they expect to see. It can be fun
Speaker 2: to run a gun without decoys, but if you are
Speaker 2: struggling on pressure birds, sometimes more is better when it
Speaker 2: comes to decoys. Now, again, I can't prove this, but
Speaker 2: I think this has to do with the fact that
Speaker 2: most folks aren't running a big spread when they run
Speaker 2: a gun, if they are running any decoys at all.
Speaker 2: I think that the other aspect of this is that
Speaker 2: it's often far easier to call in birds in the
Speaker 2: woods when they are pressured. They like the cover, and
Speaker 2: because of the cover, they tend to need to get
Speaker 2: closer to see what's going on. If they come in
Speaker 2: silent and see a few hens and a jake in
Speaker 2: the spot they heard calling, they are seeing what they
Speaker 2: expect to see and where they expect to see it.
Speaker 2: They are also seeing something that a lot of hunters
Speaker 2: won't do because it's kind of a pain in the ass.
Speaker 2: What they will see though, if you're not careful, is
Speaker 2: you This is a big one for hunting pressure birds.
Speaker 2: But the truth is got to hide yourself. Simply leaning
Speaker 2: up next to the trunk of a tree and hoping
Speaker 2: the birds will ignore you is a low pressure turkey
Speaker 2: hunting strategy. Can it be done, sure, but mostly you're
Speaker 2: going to get picked off enough to convince the birds
Speaker 2: to stay out of range. Dead Falls, brush piles, the
Speaker 2: depth of shadows, and some cover in front of you
Speaker 2: and behind you are the key to the whole thing.
Speaker 2: I like to always try to tuck into down trees
Speaker 2: somehow so that if I need to reach for my
Speaker 2: slate call or make some kind of movement. I can
Speaker 2: do it behind the trunk of a dead tree. It
Speaker 2: is that simple. It's also important to give yourself the
Speaker 2: option to be comfortable. You know, the right cushion goes
Speaker 2: a long ways here. Clearing out a little spot to
Speaker 2: sit if you can, and then assessing your ability to
Speaker 2: sit there still for two hours is really important. Discomfort
Speaker 2: amongst hunters saves an awful lot of animals every year.
Speaker 2: Really hiding yourself while staying comfortable and then setting decoys
Speaker 2: far enough away to draw attention well away from yourself
Speaker 2: just a good idea. When I'm hunting really pressure birds,
Speaker 2: I kind of stick to like the twenty five to
Speaker 2: thirty yard range out there, especially if I'm running and gunning.
Speaker 2: It feels too far when you're setting those decoys up,
Speaker 2: but when a bird does commit, it feels like a
Speaker 2: really nice distance for having a little leeway with movement
Speaker 2: but still being able to harness the full potential of
Speaker 2: your turkey loads. So in other words, when they get
Speaker 2: into the spread, they are almost always dead, dead dead.
Speaker 2: It also seems to be consistent that pressure birds are
Speaker 2: most likely to respond to calling in the middle of
Speaker 2: the day. I have experienced this a lot and it's
Speaker 2: almost to the point where I wonder why I bust
Speaker 2: my ass to get out there before first light when
Speaker 2: I know I probably won't be in the game until lunchtime.
Speaker 2: If you don't believe this, give it a real try.
Speaker 2: You will hear more birds at sunrise, but you will
Speaker 2: call in more birds at noon. This is often true
Speaker 2: on lightly pressure birds as well. But when you have
Speaker 2: a lot of competition, you can take advantage of the
Speaker 2: windows of time during the day when most folks bow
Speaker 2: out and go eat some pancakes take a nap. Sounds
Speaker 2: a little like public deer hunting, doesn't it. Here's another
Speaker 2: thing that parallels deer hunting. If you're going to hunt
Speaker 2: pressure birds and you have all day to hunt, plan
Speaker 2: to hunt all day. That can be tough when the
Speaker 2: daylight is like sixteen hours long. But the truth is
Speaker 2: that when you're out there, you have a chance. If
Speaker 2: you plan to go home mid morning, you know it's
Speaker 2: easy to call it early. If you don't commit to
Speaker 2: the hunt, the odds are sticking around long enough for
Speaker 2: something to happen. It's kind of low. This lesson was
Speaker 2: drilled home to me over and over and over. When
Speaker 2: I really started traveling to hunt public land turkeys in
Speaker 2: various states. Since I didn't have anything else to do
Speaker 2: but go back to camp and sit around, and since
Speaker 2: you're always in the game with turkeys even when it
Speaker 2: feels like you're not, it was easy ish to stay
Speaker 2: out all day. The birds that I had killed often
Speaker 2: were the first birds I heard or saw, you know,
Speaker 2: hours into the day already, But they eventually worked into
Speaker 2: the calls and ended up getting slung over my shoulder
Speaker 2: for the walk home, which in heavily transfers you know,
Speaker 2: a few ticks from them to me and almost always
Speaker 2: covers my camel pants and blood from the bird's head
Speaker 2: wapping into my ass in the back of my legs
Speaker 2: the whole way back to the truck. Being out there
Speaker 2: for more hours also does something else. It clues you
Speaker 2: into the birds that aren't coming into your calling. Some
Speaker 2: birds have a very specific strutting zone, and they keep
Speaker 2: you know, pretty tight hours of operation. Even pressured toms
Speaker 2: might end up on a specific ridge at midday to
Speaker 2: flaunt their stuff. And while it might seem random to
Speaker 2: watch one you know or hear one in a specific spot,
Speaker 2: it's probably not random. If you can hear a bird,
Speaker 2: you have something to work with. If you can see
Speaker 2: a bird, even hens, you really have something to work with.
Speaker 2: Turkeys often do the same thing day after day until
Speaker 2: the weather or the predators convince them to alter their routine.
Speaker 2: Watching a silent tom follow hens through a wood lot
Speaker 2: today means you might want to get out there tomorrow
Speaker 2: at about noon and just sit tight. Now. There are
Speaker 2: no guarantees, of course, kind of like when you see
Speaker 2: a buck do something during the rut, but that intel matters,
Speaker 2: even if it doesn't immediately help you fill a tag.
Speaker 2: Turkeys are the same way, and the best way I
Speaker 2: found to get clued into them when they've been pressured
Speaker 2: is by getting out there and spending as much time
Speaker 2: as possible with them while trying to keep my presence
Speaker 2: or my felt presence to an absolute minimum. Keep that
Speaker 2: in mind the spring come back next week because I'm
Speaker 2: going to get back into the world of white tails. Now.
Speaker 2: That really is it for this week. That was a
Speaker 2: lot of episodes, a lot of stuff to drop on you.
Speaker 2: But I hope you learned something about turkeys. You know,
Speaker 2: maybe you went over to the mediater dot com and you,
Speaker 2: you know, listen to a few podcasts checked out some articles,
Speaker 2: maybe bought yourself some new calls or something. Whatever, This
Speaker 2: Turkey Week campaign is almost over, so if you want
Speaker 2: to take advantage of those discounts going on over there,
Speaker 2: you better get over there now. And as always, thank
Speaker 2: you so much for listening and for all your support.
Speaker 2: Can't tell you how much it means to us here
Speaker 2: at Meat Eater. We are nothing without you guys, so
Speaker 2: thank you so much for that. We truly appreciate it.