9 Fall Turkey Hunting Secrets – Part 3 (Secrets 7-9)

Posted on October 7, 2011 by HavalonKnives

By Judd Cooney

Fall Turkey Hunting Secret #7: A Good Dog

fall-turkey-hunting-with-dogI used to sneak as close as possible to a flock and then run at them waving and gyrating to spook them.  I never did screech or holler or even shoot a gun into the air as some fall hunters do.  The fast silent approach gets better flock dispersal with less chance of making them skittish about returning to the vicinity later.  My turkey chasing days are long past, but I’ve got a little Jack Russell terrier Feisty, that will put turkeys to flight at 40 plus mph.

She’ll cover the area and put every single bird to flight, then return to me, without my making a sound.   The turkeys consider her just another predator with no thought of human disturbance . This factor makes the fall birds much easier to call than when spooked by a hunter on foot.  On several occasions she’s put turkeys up in trees right in the area and will tree them just like a good coonhound or squirrel dog.  Fall turkey hunting doesn’t get much more fun than watching her work a flock and then calling them back.   A number of states allow a turkey dog for fall hunting but check the state laws in your area.

Secret #8: There’s A Lot Of Leeway in Calling

An hour earlier Jack and I had spotted a group of twenty or so turkeys around a waterhole.  Would have been an easy task to sneak within 50 yards or so and take a couple with our rifles, perfectly legal during Colorado’s fall season, but I wanted to call in a bird “up close and personal,” for Jack to shoot with a shotgun.  We sneaked up below the tank dam and broke over the top on the run, right on top of the flock.   Turkeys went every which way squawking and flapping in total panic mode.  Perfect.

Jack was still a bit confused by the tactic of spooking the turkeys when we could have stalked them and made a couple of clean kills but he’d never hunted turkeys before and didn’t realize this was one of the main tactics of hardcore turkey hunters for calling fall birds.   I set him up, hidden in a clump of oakbrush and got 30 yards behind him in another dense clump of brush.   We’d agreed to wait 45 minutes and then I’d start calling and try to bring the scattered birds back to where they were separated.

The yelping was the worst imitation of a hen turkey I’d ever heard.  It sounded like rubbing a broken bottle across plate glass.  Painful!     I figured my hunting partner, Jack just couldn’t pass up the chance to call in his first fall turkey.  Jack was a government trapper, one of the best predator callers I knew and a darn good elk caller as well.  But, jeez, his turkey calling was enough to scare even a tone deaf turkey out of the country.

A few minutes was all I could take of the raucous racket and horrible hen calls so I eased up and stomped around the intervening brush to get Jack to shut up.  Couldn’t believe my eyes OR ears when an old hen turkey stepped out of the brush and cut loose with the most awful calling I’d ever heard.  Proof positive there’s a lot of leeway in turkey calling sounds.

Jack thought I was the one making the atrocious sounds until the hen came running around the bushes. He removed her from the gene pool with a well-placed load of #5’s.

Secret #9: Spot & Stalk Is Hard!

Spot and stalk fall turkey hunting is about as challenging as hunting gets and requires a good set of binoculars, spotting scope and lots of patience.   Locating the turkey flocks is the easy part, figuring out how to get within range for your bow, shotgun or rifle is a bit tougher and the most challenging segment is actually getting close enough for a killing shot.   If you want to add a bit more challenge to your spot and stalk fall turkey hunting, limit yourself to only hunting for a trophy-sized longbeard.  I guarantee you’ll earn the trophy beard and spurs. You’ll also catch an incurable case of fall turkey hunting fever.

For a great knife to field dress and prep your bird for mounting, click here

How do you feel about fall turkey hunting as opposed to spring turkey hunting?  Leave a comment:

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Posted in Beginners Guide, Fall Turkey Hunting, Guest Writers, Judd Cooney, Turkey Hunting, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

9 Fall Turkey Hunting Secrets – Part 2 (Secrets 4-6)

Posted on October 3, 2011 by HavalonKnives

By Judd Cooney

Fall Turkey Hunting Secret #4: Call Them In The Right Direction

For successful turkey calling spring or fall, make it easy for them to respond.  This means coaxing them in a direction they are already prone to go or to an area where they would normally assemble, rather than trying to con them into reversing direction or move into an area they wouldn’t normally use or feel safe.

Secret #5: Isolate The Turkeys

The most popular method of calling to bag a fall turkey is to find a flock and spook them into scattering to the four winds.  Being flock birds, turkeys, hate being isolated and alone.  When you break up a flock in the fall, it doesn’t take them long to start calling loudly trying to locate their flock mates and get back together.  It’s important to break up the flock as quickly and violently as possible to spread them out as far as possible.

Secret #6: The Right Calls

Once I spook a flock, I move cautiously into calling position 100-200 yards from where the turkeys were spooked in the direction that highest number of turkeys headed.    I won’t make a sound for at least an hour unless I hear birds start calling.  I use lost hen calls, the kee kee’s of young birds and coarse, plaintive old hen yelps.  Once I see or hear birds responding I’ll switch to softer sounding clucks and purrs to bring them the rest of the way.   Fall is one time when it’s tough to overcall birds. You’re not dealing with pressured and skittish toms. Scattered turkeys can get boisterous and the sounds the old and young birds make vary a lot between birds.

Next post: My Favorite Fall Turkey Hunting Secret

What’s your favorite tactic for fall turkey hunting?  Leave a comment below.

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How to Debone an Elk Using the Gutless Method

Posted on September 28, 2011 by HavalonKnives

On Outdoor Life’s “Live Hunt” Blog, Aron Snyder Debones an Elk with a Havalon Piranta

How To Debone An Elk - Gutless Method - by Aron Snyder for Outdoor Life

Aron Snyder

Want to learn the gutless method of processing wild game in the field? Watch this short video from Aron Snyder, a star from Outdoor Life’s Live Hunt blog, as he demonstrates how he removes the meat from an elk without gutting the animal.

How To Debone An Elk by Aron Snyder, star of Outdoor Life’s Live Hunt blog

Have you tried the gutless method on big game in the field? Which do you prefer, field dressing first, or the gutless method?

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9 Secrets To Fall Turkey Hunting Success

Posted on September 27, 2011 by HavalonKnives

Part 1 – Finding and Ambushing Fall Turkeys

By Judd Cooney

Fall turkey hunting is a whole different ball game than spring turkey hunting.  In spring, gobblers fill the woods and fields with their gobbling making them easy to locate.  That’s when toms are hot, horny and gullible to seductive hen yelps, cutts, purrs and cackles.   However, fall turkeys are usually found in two groups:

  • flocks of hens and their full grown poults
  • bachelor groups of long beards or jakes.

While toms don’t gobble much in the fall, they respond silently to the right calls at the right time and place.

Fall turkey hunting isn’t as popular as spring hunting and this means a lot less hunting pressure during this season, a definite bonus to turkey hunters.   A lot of states have liberal fall seasons and many allow either hens or toms.  Some of the western states even allow the use of rifles during the fall season.  Make sure you know the laws in your area.

Secret #1: Where To Locate The Turkeys

Turkeys are birds of habit and often use the same feeding, roosting, loafing area or waterhole at near the same time day after day.   They generally move along the same routes to and from such areas with predictable regularity making them susceptible to calling or an ambush.  If you can pinpoint a key feeding, watering or loafing area you are half way to a Thanksgiving or Christmas turkey dinner.

Secret #2: Ambush Near Water

My favorite ambush location is a waterhole or other water source such as a creek crossing or spring seep. Such primo watering areas will be liberally trod with turkey tracks leaving little doubt about their preferability. During the cooler fall days, turkeys generally water at least once a day, usually in the evening before going to roost. In some areas of the country and when the fall weather is on the warm side fall turkeys will water morning and evening generally at nearly the same time every day.

Secret #3: Use A Blind

A pop-up ground blind is an ideal way to ambush fall turkeys in any location. Unlike four-legged critters with a discerning sense of smell and larger brains, turkeys pay little heed to a newly erected blind, even set in the wide open. I’ve had them walk within a few yards of a pop-up blind set up an hour earlier. This is by far the best way for a bow hunter to skewer a fall bird and works equally well for firearm hunters. A blind is especially effective with young or neophyte fall turkey hunters as it gives them an extra measure of undetectable movement. Using a blind in combination with a couple decoys in a feeding area or loafing location is one of the most successful ways to call fall turkeys.

Next post: Secrets to Calling Fall Turkeys

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How to Fish Swimbaits, Crankbaits and Frogs
for More Bass in Fall ~ by Darl Black

Posted on September 26, 2011 by HavalonKnives
Largemouth Bass

Both hard-body (pictured here) and soft-body swimbaits produce big largemouth during the early fall.

Swimbaits – Available in hard-body and soft-body models, swimbaits are highly imitative of specific preyfish. Developed on the west coast originally as large lures for large fish, today swimbaits are available in sizes as small as three inches and in shapes that imitate shad, shiners, bluegills, gobies, perch, trout and any other species which bass are fond of eating. Personally, I find soft swimbaits more versatile in terms of coming through shallow cover. However, hardbody swimbaits are equally effective in catching bass. Storm Lures offers a wide range of species specific soft swimbaits. Sebile has outstanding series of both jointed soft and hard Swimmers with impressive imprint patterns, while Strike King offers a paddle tail Shadalicious in a 3.5-inch model that bass everywhere find hard to turn down. The secret to a swimbait is not to over fish it. Simply cast it out, count it down to a desired depth and begin a slow, steady retrieve – and hold tightly to the rod!

 

Crankbaits – Over the summer, some bass anglers literally wear themselves out cranking big-bill hard baits as deep as possible – in some cases trying to get the lure down to 20 feet or more. It’s a lot of work. But in early fall as more bass are feeding on shad and shiners in shallower water – sometimes only a few feet deep – crankbaiting becomes fun again. Three different crankbaits are the workhorses during early fall: square lip; wake bait; and lipless rattle bait.

Square-lip models come through brush and wood cover with fewer hang-ups because of their greater deflection ability than a rounded-bill crank. Described as a non-diving crankbait, wake baits represent a shad swimming right on the surface. Most lipless rattle baits are sinking models, thereby enabling the angler to adjust running depth based on the speed of retrieve; the bait’s distinctive sound chamber attracts the attention of bass. Strike King, Bomber, XCalibur, Bandit and Rapala are among the firms offering all three of the above crankbait styles.

Largemouth Bass

Just ask FLW pro Dave Lefebre – frog baits aren’t just a summer lure; they will catch bass in shallow vegetation in the early fall, too.

Fall Frogging

 

It is a given that largemouth bass in the early fall are on the trail of schooling preyfish in the majority of reservoirs and natural lakes. But, as also noted previously, there are exceptions. On some waterways the thick mats of vegetation along shore will continue to hold largemouth bass, and the most effective lure to draw them out is a hollow-body frog bait. These frog-shaped lures glide across the surface without gathering strands of weeds. The simple surface disturbance generated by the bait is what the bass keys in on. Frog baits are available from River2Sea, Spro, Southern Lure, Snag Proof and Optimum Baits.

Many anglers think frog lure fishing is a summer-only presentation, but in select waters the technique is effective well into early fall. Some northern anglers point to the annual fall frog migration when amphibians move from wetlands into the muck bottom in a lake’s shallows to hibernate. I’m not arguing one way or the other on the issue, but simply pointing out an exception to the schooling preyfish fishing patterns that most anglers focus on.

You are now primed for fall largemouth bass fishing – go catch ‘em!

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Plus, you’ll learn scores of other tactics that only the most seasoned hunters know, just click on the image below.

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