6 Ways to Attack Late-Season Gobblers

Posted on May 14, 2015 by HavalonKnives

By Mike Marsh

If you have the will to hunt challenging
late-season birds, one of these strategies will
help lead the way!

The perfect turkey decoy set-up to lure gobblers in

This set-up was irresistible to a mature gobbler with 1 1/4-inch spurs. It consists of a mounted hen, a plastic jake decoy and a gobbler decoy with a real fan mounted. The set-up was created to lure this dominant bird. The range was 10 yards. The weapon was a crossbow. (Photo: Mike Marsh)

When the weather gets hot and spring turkey season gets long in the tooth, the easy gobblers are gone. Hunters who still have a tag must switch attack plans, adapting to changing breeding habits and habitat use. Here are six ways to increase the odds of filling that tag.

1. Switch to a custom call

Mass-manufactured calls are based on traditional patterns and materials. Therefore, a lot of them sound pretty much the same. To give late-season gobblers something new to think about, I resist the temptation to employ custom calls during the early weeks and reserve them for the late season.

Ralph Jensen of The Master’s Touch (www.mastershoppe.com/calls.html) in Wilmington, North Carolina made my favorite custom call. The box is cherry and the lid is raised-grain chestnut that gives extremely raspy sounds. I also use Super Yelper (www.Superyelper.com) scratch boxes. Richard Shively uses different woods to make different sounds and tunes his calls to different pitches. Havalon writer and editor Steve Sorensen (www.EverydayHunter.com) also makes custom scratch boxes, and each of his calls produces a wide variety of pitches.

To call late-season turkeys I often use only my voice because it’s a natural sound. Master a hen’s yelps and cuts with your vocal chords and you can toss away the diaphragm. Another great late-season call few gobblers have heard is a homemade wing-bone.

The author with his lucky catch of the day, thanks to an effective turkey decoy

The author used every trick in the book to fool this wary gobbler. One was hunting on a Sunday in North Carolina, when only archery gear is allowed. No other hunters were in the woods to ruin the set-up, and that may have helped bring this wary old gobbler into crossbow range. (Photo: Mike Marsh)

2. Raise the decoy bar

Gobblers learn to ignore poorly designed decoys, and they won’t often fool a late-season bird. However, incredibly life-like decoys are effective during later weeks, with those made by Dave Smith (www.davesmithdecoys.com) getting high marks.

I raise the bar with a mounted hen, and using a super-realistic jake decoy with her will help keep a strutting gobbler from hanging up when he sees her, which is a natural reaction. Her feathers moving in the wind and the old boy’s jake-jealousy often overpower his caution.

A last ditch trick is adding a gobbler decoy, whether it’s a stuffer or one with a real fan. Recently I used a Mojo Outdoors Scoot and Shoot (www.mojooutdoors.com) with a real fan to attract a dominant bird into 10 yards, and took him with a Horton Vision crossbow. I had hunted the old bird for days (perhaps years) without success.

Using a lifelike gobbler deke works best when you are certain you’re hunting the cock-of-the-walk. If he sees a real hen and a mounted gobbler or tail fan, he goes on the attack. A subordinate bird may display but hang up, or just run away.

3. Blind luck

Late in season, warier gobblers take their time coming to a call. A hunter must sit without moving as long as it may take because a gobbler can spot the slightest movement from a great distance. A blind keeps the hunter concealed and allows him to fidget without limit. If the bird arrives silently in what would be a bad shooting position for a hunter without a blind, the hunter remains undetected while he shoulders his shotgun.

Turkey hunting from a blind can come in handy for late season gobblers

Mike Marsh took this gobbler by hunting from a blind. The bird came within 10 yards and was downed with an arrow from a crossbow. (Photo: Mike Marsh)

4. Hunt late in the day

By the end of the season, henned-up gobblers become rarities after 10 a.m. Peak hunting hours are between 10:30 and 12:30, but you might jumpstart a gobbling session anytime during the afternoon.

You may not hear as many gobblers when you hunt later in the day. However, any gobbler that sounds off is often more willing to come to a call than those you heard at sunrise because he probably doesn’t know where any hens are.

5. Follow the food

Many hunters don’t realize that when everything turns green, turkeys generally abandon food plots. Greenery in controlled burns and budding forests pull them away in favor of abundant natural foods, including grasses, seeds, buds, insects and other invertebrates.

I have taken turkeys that would not leave swamps as they filled their crops with dragonfly larvae, or wanted to stay in the timber where budding saplings were crawling with caterpillars. Examine the crop of a late-season gobbler and it will tell the tale.

Check out the crop of late season gobblers and it could lead you in the right direction

The crop of this gobbler held native seeds and vegetation and no evidence of man-made food plantings. (Photo: Steve Sorensen)

6. Share him with a friend

If a stubborn gobbler has you hearing gobbles in your sleep, share him. No two hunters call the same way. No two hunters take the same approach. A simple switch in calling techniques, decoys or set-up locations can turn the tide. Give your partner the lead role, allowing him to plan the hunt and call while providing him with just enough information to start the hunt. Follow along as an observer. Leave the calls you’ve been using at home, but be sure to bring your shotgun.

Late-season birds are a challenge, but if you have the will to hunt them, one of these six strategies will help lead the way.

About Mike Marsh:

mike marsh headshotMike Marsh’s articles, columns and photos have appeared in more than 100 magazines and newspapers. He lives in Wilmington, North Carolina and has written four books about the state’s hunting, fresh-water and salt-water fishing. His latest is “Fishing North Carolina.” To contact Mike, view his award-winning articles and photos or order his books, visit www.mikemarshoutdoors.com.

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Recipe: Quick & Easy Wild Turkey Parmesan

Posted on May 11, 2015 by HavalonKnives

By Tracy L. Schmidt

No time for a turkey dinner?
Think again!

Finished wild turkey parmesan

Here is a look at the finished dish. Turkey doesn’t long on the plate at our house. (Photo: Tracy Schmidt)

Some folks think that cooking wild game meats is complicated, but it doesn’t need to be difficult at all. This recipe is great for a family-style dinner after a long day of work. It comes together so fast you might be able to catch all the members of your family at the same place at the same time. And, after they’ve eaten it once, they’ll want to be there to eat it again. Even kids can help with the preparation of this dish. We like to serve ours with a tossed garden salad and garlic bread.

Sometimes I get the turkey and the breading mixture prepared the evening before so I can just come home and get started with cooking. This meal works well with wild turkey because the meat does not become tough — a complaint I sometimes hear from people who eat wild turkey that’s not properly prepared. The other thing that turns people off is finding feather bits attached to their meat. The easiest way to deal with any remnants of undercoat feathers during preparation is to use a paper towel to remove them.

The key to executing this dish successfully is to make sure the bottom of your turkey pieces do not burn while they are cooking through. Once you put the sauce on them you won’t be able to flip them over, so make sure your pan heat does not run away from you. I lift my pieces during the cooking process to check for burning. To be safe the meat needs to reach an internal temperature of 165°F.

Tenderize your wild turkey cutlets before breading them

Tenderize the cutlets until they are thin and then bread them. (Photo: Tracy Schmidt)

Ingredients:

1 egg white
2 teaspoons milk
Table salt
Pepper
1/2 cup corn flake cereal crumbs
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
4 portions of wild turkey, tenderized flat
2 tablespoons butter
1 (8-ounce) can pizza sauce
1/4 cup grated Italian cheese blend
Quart-sized plastic zip bag

Instructions:

Combine egg and milk in bowl. Pat the turkey dry, then salt and pepper the portions. Place the Parmesan cheese and cereal crumbs in the plastic bag and shake to mix. Then dredge the turkey pieces in the egg mixture and put in the bag, zip it shut and shake to coat. Dredge and shake each piece twice.

Brown your wild turkey on both sides without burning it

Brown the turkey portions on both sides, keeping the side that will be the bottom a lighter brown. (Photo: Tracy Schmidt)

In a large skillet, melt the butter and brown the turkey on both sides. Keep one side just lightly browned and put the pizza sauce on the darker browned side that will be the top. Add a few sprinkles of the cheese blend and cook for 3 to 5 minutes. You can cover the pan briefly during the last minute or so to help melt the cheese. Go lightly on the cheese so it melts quickly before the bottoms of the turkey pieces burn (if uncovered) or get soggy (if covered).

Cooked wild turkey parmesan with cheese on top

Top the turkey pieces with the sauce and a light sprinkling of cheese. (Photo: Tracy Schmidt)

An alternative method is to cook the turkey separately from the sauce, heat the sauce in the microwave and then add it to the top of the cutlets when they are cooked through. Then sprinkle the cheese on top of the heated sauce.

About Tracy L. Schmidt:

Tracy Schmidt headhsotTracy L. Schmidt is a certified master food preservation specialist and the author of the book “Venison Wisdom.” Each of her recipes is tested and perfected. She is married to Daniel Schmidt, editor in chief of Deer & Deer Hunting magazine and host of “Deer & Deer Hunting TV” on NBC Sports. Tracy enjoys the versatility of Havalon Knives in both the kitchen and the field.

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6 Reasons We Miss Turkeys — Part 2

Posted on May 8, 2015 by HavalonKnives

By Steve Sorensen

Most of the time when we think we miss
a turkey, we don’t completely miss!

Use these tips in order to never miss another turkey

An awkward shooting position almost cost the author this gobbler, but despite a sprained ankle, and two hunters firing $25 worth of ammo at this gobbler, both are smiling. (Photo: Steve Sorensen)

In Part 1 of this article, we looked at some basic reasons we miss gobblers — stretching the range of your shotgun, misjudging your distance and obstructions between you and the turkey. Those are easy to understand and we’ve heard about them often. Here are three more reasons you’ll want to pay attention to.

4. Failure to pattern your shotgun

Some recommend doing this every year. I don’t think it’s unnecessary unless you’re shooting a different shell, or you get a new choke tube.

However, you may have patterned your gun but didn’t do the job correctly. Don’t simply aim to discover the longest range at which you have a dense pattern. Also try to find out where your pattern begins to open up. Many a gobbler has been missed because it was too close. At 10 or 15 yards, your shotshell pattern may not be bigger than a baseball and will send a swarm of BBs whizzing by the turkey’s head.

Therefore, the goal of patterning is to learn the capability of your shotgun and load at every range, not just at your shotgun’s maximum range. You need to know how big the pattern is at 10 and 20 yards, and how dense it is at 30 and 40 yards. You should test different shot sizes and different brands. Sometimes a certain shell will leave gaps in the pattern plenty big enough to miss a turkey’s head.

That scenario is one of the few cases where a miss is really a miss. Most of the time when we think we miss a turkey, we don’t completely miss. We just miss his head while splattering his body with copper-plated BBs. If infection sets in he may soon die, or be weakened and caught by a coyote or bobcat. People say, “Nothing goes to waste in nature,” and that’s true. But if you go on to fill your tag, your “miss” still removed an extra gobbler from the population. Pattern that shotgun. Know how big the pattern is at close ranges, and how dense it is at longer ranges. Don’t let him get too close, and don’t shoot farther than 75 percent of your effective range. (See number 2.)

A vintage photo of the author with a 40-yard shot turkey

The author’s first gobbler way back in 19 — never mind — was 40 yards away, the longest shot he has ever taken. He recently patterned that old double barrel and found that it’s barely a 30-yard shotgun. Nevertheless, somehow a BB found its way into this gobbler’s noggin. (Photo: Steve Sorensen)

5. Awkward shooting position

When you pattern the shotgun, you shoot from a comfortable position with your eye in line with the scope or the beads on the barrel. But when you shoot at a real live gobbler’s head, with your pulse pounding in your ears and the glands sitting atop your kidneys squirting adrenaline into your bloodstream, it’s nothing like shooting at a silhouette outline of a gobbler’s head on paper. Plus, when you’re shooting at a live gobbler he can twist you into a pretzel.

A few years ago my second gobbler of the season came from behind on my right. I had to contort my body into an unnatural position, and by the time I pulled the trigger I had tilted the shotgun and dropped the muzzle. I hit the turkey at 30 yards and took his legs out. To make matters worse I twisted my ankle as I ran after him in an unmowed field.

My buddy, Dick, was nearby and helped me look for him in the long grass. We were shooting five-dollar shotshells, and the cost of the shots we fired at the flopping gobbler came to $25. It was an expensive turkey, and I was hobbled for a few days, but I did get him. Also take note that if he had been out there at 40 or more yards, I probably would have missed altogether — so this is another case where limiting my shot to 75 percent of my effective range paid off.

6. An improper sight picture

This may be the biggest reason we miss gobblers. It takes discipline to maintain a proper sight picture.

Sighting is simple. Align the barrel of your shotgun with the neck of the turkey — the spot where those wattles meet the black feathers of his neck. If you aim at the head and shoot high, the shot sails right over him. If you aim at his neck and shoot high, you still may cover his head. So aiming at the neck rather than at the head gives you a little extra insurance.

A scope can help with your overall sighting for turkeys

A scope on your shotgun can help you maintain a good sight picture. (Photo: Steve Sorensen)

A proper sight picture is easy to practice but hard in the field because we have a tendency to lift our heads, either in anticipation of the recoil or so we can watch the turkey go down. We end up with our eye aligning the front bead with the turkey, but we’re actually tipping the barrel of the shotgun upward, and we shoot over the turkey. That’s why some hunters prefer two beads on their shotgun barrel — one at the front and one toward the back. That puts three elements — your eye and two beads — in line with the turkey.

A scope on your turkey shotgun will eliminate this issue. It insures a good sight picture because you won’t be tempted to look over the scope, and you can see only when you have the turkey in the center of the scope.

We miss turkeys for all these reasons, and you can probably come up with one or two more. Eliminate the mistakes and you’ll eliminate a gobbler virtually every time you pull the trigger. And you won’t make excuses.

And if you still miss, don’t cry the blues. The turkey may not have realized what happened, so sit still. In 30 minutes or an hour he may begin to gobble again. Figure where he is, set up again, call him back and don’t miss.

About Steve Sorensen:

hunter outdoor writer steve sorensenSteve Sorensen is the author of “Growing Up With Guns” and “The Everyday Hunter Handbook Series.” He writes an award-winning newspaper column called “The Everyday Hunter®” and edits content in the Havalon Post. He has published articles in top magazines across the USA, and won the 2015 “Pinnacle” Award for magazine writing. Invite Steve to speak at your next sportsman’s event, and follow him at www.EverydayHunter.com.

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6 Reasons We Miss Turkeys — Part 1

Posted on May 5, 2015 by HavalonKnives

By Steve Sorensen

Think about these reasons for missing,
and vow that the next gobbler you shoot
will fall over dead!

No more empty shells if you learn these reasons for missing turkeys

Pay attention to these reasons for missing, and you’ll walk away disappointed from fewer of these. (Photo: Steve Sorensen)

“If you’ve never missed a turkey, you haven’t hunted them much.” That’s often true, but it doesn’t have to be. Almost every time you miss a turkey, you shouldn’t have. Yes, a gobbler might make a sudden, unpredicted peck at the ground or pull his head down just as you squeeze the trigger, but those aren’t the reasons most hunters miss. We can miss for lots of reasons, but mostly it’s these six (three today and three next time). If you understand them, you’ll have no excuse for missing.

1. Stretching the range of your shotgun

“My shotgun reaches out to 60 yards!” the guy told me. If that’s true (it hardly ever is), that doesn’t mean you should pull the trigger when the gobbler steps across the 60-yard threshold.

I was once calling a gobbler that decided to head the other way. I didn’t know he was headed for another hunter, so I got above the bird and set up a little ahead of him. Just as I was about to offer my most enticing yelp, ka-boom! I walked over to the crest of the hill just in time to see a guy throw his hat on the ground in disgust. “What happened?” I asked as I walked up to him.

“I don’t know. He was in range — no more than 60 yards away.” I didn’t have the courage to tell him what happened. So, I’ll tell you. The bird was too far away for all but the most specialized shotguns. It doesn’t matter that you got one good pattern on a paper at that distance.

Turkey shotguns have come a long way in the last decade. Manufacturers now make specialized turkey shotguns, and custom gunsmiths can trick them out to produce dense, turkey-killing patterns at 50 and yes, even 60 yards. But knowing your shotgun is capable of 60-yard kills doesn’t mean every turkey shot from 60 yards away will flop over dead.

I’m confident my shotgun can kill a gobbler at 50 yards with the right load. Should I take 50-yard shots? No — and I never have.

Judging the distance between you and the turkey can be difficult

Often a series of objects between you and the turkey makes judging distance more difficult. Logs, rocks, vegetation and even shadows can deceive your eyes. (Photo: Steve Sorensen)

2. Misjudging distance

Accurately judging distance is critical to shooting turkeys, but I’m seldom right on the money. Even though my shotgun might kill a turkey at 50 yards, I like to shoot them at 30 yards. That gives me a huge margin for error in judging distance. It also insures that the shotgun pellets I send him still have plenty of energy when they collide with his head.

My rule-of-thumb recommendation is to limit shots to no more than 75 percent of your shotgun’s effective range. That means if you consistently get a good pattern on paper at 40 yards, take 30 yard shots. For a 50-yard shotgun, that works out to about 37 yards.

Why limit yourself to 75 percent of your effective range? Because people often misjudge distance by 25 percent, and a misjudgment in the wrong direction will cost you. Suppose you have a big gobbler at what you think is 40 yards away. And suppose you misjudge the distance by a factor of plus-25 percent. He’s really out there at 50 yards, and you’ll watch that gobbler get away.

Yes, my rule-of-thumb means you have to call gobblers in closer. That means you won’t get as many shots. But it also means you don’t miss them or worse yet, scare the daylights out of them AND send them off with a wound that ends up killing them — which is often what happens. Don’t shoot when you think you can kill him. Shoot when you know you can kill him.

3. Obstructions

One big difference between patterning your shotgun on paper and shooting at a gobbler in the woods is that when you shoot at paper you have no obstructions between you and the turkey. In the woods you often don’t notice an obstruction between the place where your shot leaves the barrel and the place where it meets the gobbler’s head.

Nearby trees can take a beating when turkey hunting

The author needed every BB in the powerful 3 1/2-inch shotgun shell because a sapling between him and the gobbler took a beating. (Photo: Steve Sorensen)

Several years ago I was hunting in New York with custom turkey call maker Nathan DeGroot. We weren’t having any luck, but just before I had to leave to head home Nathan yelped and a turkey gobbled close by, on posted property. The bird quickly came across the property line to 35 yards, and I centered the bead where he runs out of feathers on his neck. He went right down, and as I walked up to him I saw a sapling thicker than a broomstick that was splattered with BBs. It also looked like someone took a chisel to it — a notch, clean and square, was cut out of it by the shotgun wad.

What did I learn? Every yard between you and the turkey increases the chances that something will be in the way. At 35 yards he wasn’t a big challenge for a 3 1/2″ magnum shotshell. But I didn’t see the sapling at about 25 yards. Fortunately enough BBs got by it, or the gobbler would have had a much better day, and I would have headed back to Pennsylvania crying the blues.

Watch for Part 2 and get three more reasons why we miss turkeys.

About Steve Sorensen:

hunter outdoor writer steve sorensenSteve Sorensen is the author of “Growing Up With Guns” and “The Everyday Hunter Handbook Series.” He writes an award-winning newspaper column called “The Everyday Hunter®” and edits content in the Havalon Post. He has published articles in top magazines across the USA, and won the 2015 “Pinnacle” Award for magazine writing. Invite Steve to speak at your next sportsman’s event, and follow him at www.EverydayHunter.com.

Learn more turkey hunting secrets with
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Do You Know Jack? 5 Tips on Chain Pickerel Fishing

Posted on May 2, 2015 by HavalonKnives

By Mike Marsh

5 things you must know to catch
eating-size chain pickerel!

The author caught this chain pickerel at White Lake in North Carolina

Mike Marsh caught this chain pickerel or “jackfish” at White Lake, an acidic Carolina bay lake in North Carolina’s coastal plain. The name chain pickerel is derived from its chainlike markings. Where the name jackfish comes from is anybody’s guess. (Photo: Mike Marsh)

The acidic waters of southern coastal plains hold an amazing abundance of chain pickerel. But, mention “chain pickerel” and you may draw a blank stare. For southern anglers, they go by “jackfish,” or simply “jack.”

Bass anglers admire their powerful, leaping fight, but hate them for chewing up bass lures with their sharp teeth. In any jackfish stronghold, all fishermen casting for other species will hook a few. Most anglers just turn them loose. However, for those who know how to prepare them properly, jackfish offer excellent eating. Here are five things to keep in mind when trying to catch them.

1. Know jack habitat

Chain pickerel inhabit tannin-stained creeks and rivers, millponds, farm ponds, city lakes, oxbow lakes and Carolina bay lakes. Acidity is the key to an abundant population with plenty of large individuals. A pH of around 4.5 is at the lower end of the appropriate range. The closer the pH gets to 7.0, the fewer you’ll find and the more other predators like largemouth bass displace them.

Capt. Butch Foster with his chain pickerel or jackfish catch at White Lake

Capt. Butch Foster of Yeah Right Charters caught these jackfish at White Lake. (Photo: Mike Marsh)

2. Know jack habits

While jackfish bite year round, they’re most aggressive in cold water. I’ve caught them from water covered with skim ice, which inspired me to fish for them at White Lake, an acidic Carolina Bay lake in North Carolina. In January and February, the fish form large schools as they feed on baitfish. As spawning begins in February and March, anglers who catch them often find their tails bleeding from the bites of other jackfish.

Despite winter’s cold, we caught 33 jackfish up to 24 inches long, with the longest fish weighing more than three pounds. Anglers who catch chain pickerel longer than 26 inches or weighing more than four pounds are eligible for an award from North Carolina’s Angler Recognition Program (NCARP). While the state record is eight pounds, the award criteria, which recognizes fish of exceptional sizes, show that few fish top four pounds despite what many anglers think. Jackfish are long and thin, which makes judging weights difficult to those who are not familiar with them.

3. Know jack fishing methods

A shiner on a float rig will get immediate attention from a jackfish. When using live minnows, the angler should give the fish time to swallow the bait before setting the hook. Otherwise, the hook may be firmly in the fish’s teeth and will not move enough to ensure a hook-up. Casting crankbaits, inline spinners or bass spinnerbaits also entices strikes. The best way to find big concentrations of fish is by trolling a stickbait such as a Lucky Craft Pointer or crankbait such as a Rapala Shad Rap (www.basspro.com).

Catching chain pickerel is easy if you're using enticing baitfish

A jackfish will strike anything that resembles a baitfish. Small crankbaits are great for trolling or casting. (Photo: Mike Marsh)

I was fishing with Captain Butch Foster of Yeah Right Charters (www.yeahrightcharters.com) when we caught those 33 jackfish. We trolled small crankbaits to which we applied Pro-Cure Crappie and Panfish Magic Super Gel (www.pro-cure.com) and the fish obviously homed in on the scent.

4. Know jack teeth

A jackfish’s rows of teeth are extremely sharp and can bite through light monofilament lines, so anglers should add a hard monofilament or fluorocarbon leader of 15- to 20-pound test. Anglers should use pliers to remove hooks and a towel or glove to control the fish.

5. Cleaning and cooking jack is a snap

Most anglers ignore jackfish as table fare. While the meat is white, flaky and delicious, Y-bones similar to those of northern pike (a close relative) require a work-around. Captain Foster fostered a method of removing these bones. Using a sharp fillet knife — Havalon’s Baracuta is perfect — he cuts the fillet normally then places it skin-side down. With his fingertips, he locates the Y-bones on the dorsal side, then slices alongside them and outward, toward the dorsal fin. Then he cuts the ventral side in similar fashion. This yields two strips of edible meat from each fillet, with the Y-bones remaining in a strip down the middle that he discards.

Prepare your jackfish the right way and you can get some nice cuts of meat from your fillet

After cutting the fillet from a jackfish, use a sharp knife like Havalon’s Baracuta to cut along the outside of the Y-bones, rolling the knife toward the outer edge. This yields two strips of meat from each fillet, one on the dorsal side and one on the ventral side. The strip with the Y-bones is discarded. (Photo: Mike Marsh)

Another method is cutting and skinning the fillets, then frying them in a normal manner. Once the flesh flakes, he picks out the Y-bones before eating the meat. One more method involves cutting the fillets into one inch cubes. The cubes are battered, fried to a crisp and eaten, Y-bones and all.

Now you know jack! And you know they’ll satisfy your taste for the fight as well as provide great-tasting table fare. What more could you want from a sportfish!

About Mike Marsh:

mike marsh headshotMike Marsh’s articles, columns and photos have appeared in more than 100 magazines and newspapers. He lives in Wilmington, North Carolina and has written four books about the state’s hunting, fresh-water and salt-water fishing. His latest is “Fishing North Carolina.” To contact Mike, view his award-winning articles and photos, or order his books, visit www.mikemarshoutdoors.com.

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