“A poor caller who’s familiar with the hunting area and turkey movement there will kill more long beards than a great caller on unfamiliar turf. If you pitted a world-champion caller against a farm kid on land with which the kid was familiar, the smart money would be on the youngster to tote a gobbler back to the barn.” — “Hunting Pressured Turkeys” by Brian Lovett

One thing to remember, even when you’ve seemingly been outsmarted, is that the brain of a turkey is about the size of a walnut. The turkey has not outsmarted you; most likely you have not taken advantage of your superior, possibly untapped, brain power.

Wild critters don’t move aimlessly. They need food, water and rest, and they must breed, and need to meet these needs without getting killed by two or four-legged predators. Many attribute great capabilities for wisdom and craftiness in wild critters; I believe they are in simple terms acting on the sum total of their experience, which is combined with an incredible knowledge of their range.

So, to bag game we need to up our game. We hunt turkeys during a changeable time in our yearly seasons – the transition from winter to spring. According to weather predictions, we’re going to go from overnight freeze to flip-flop weather. What are the turkeys going to be doing?

Rain

The fields at my house have been disked, and throughout the day those fields are absolutely polluted by robins, yes, early and getting the worms. Rain falling in open fields brings bugs and worms to the surface, so it’s a good practice to set up on open fields when it’s raining.

Rain can also affect turkeys in other ways. Heavy rain around daylight, may delay the turkeys fly down time. They may linger on roosting branches for an hour or so past daylight. Turkeys may stay out of fields with high vegetation, because they’ll want to avoid getting their lower body feathers soaked.

Sun

Studies in the northeast show that turkeys do the most gobbling when temperatures are from 60 to 70 degrees. Why is this? Some theorize that this fact has nothing to do with temperature, and more to do with hen behavior. The hen goes to her nest shortly after flying down, and possibly this coincides with the rise in temperature an hour or two after daylight.

When temperatures are warmer than 70, turkeys seem to hit the fields early and late, and spend the heat of the day loafing and feeding along oak ridges. Late in the day, they of course prefer the fields which are near roosting areas.

Wind

Turkeys have excellent eyesight and hearing. Let the wind make a ruckus in the woods, and it takes away one of the turkeys’ most important defenses. Turkeys will adjust their normal travel patterns and find places out of the wind and quiet. Studies have shown that turkeys gobble less when winds are greater than 12 miles per hour.

Terrain

Scout! Where are the ridges, creeks and bottoms? Where are the barriers? Why are turkeys entering and exiting a field at a certain location? Where are the roost trees (fewer and fewer as our state’s hemlocks die)? Where have fields been planted, are there any places where young plants are poking through the dirt, like a salad bar for the turkeys?