Turkey Mentoring

Last month, we covered some background on our turkey season that opens up on private lands on March 29 and on April 5 on public lands. By the time you’re reading this, many turkey hunters will have already been out in the woods searching for a longbeard. However, there was a great opportunity that was offered to youth 16 years of age and younger and the mobility impaired on March 22-23. That special weekend-long season was on private lands only.

A good friend of mine has been really great over the years, allowing me to turkey hunt on his property, and I shot a nice gobbler off it a few years back. Now it’s time to pay back a little by taking my friend’s son with me.

This year, I’ll celebrate 22 years of teaching Georgia Hunter Education as a volunteer instructor. I have enjoyed every minute of those classes, and I’m overjoyed when I get feedback hearing about a hunt that one of those kids has gone on. So, the planning for this hunt begins.

I like to get settled in about 30 minutes before first light to let the woods quiet down some. Then as light begins to break, I get still and listen. We might hear a gobbler start to open up or a hen start to yelp. If so, game on! I plan on helping my young friend get set up in the probable direction of travel, but he’ll need to be ready for a longbeard to appear in any direction. Then, maybe I’ll throw a few calls of my own on a slate or box call if it’s windy. The box call sound tends to travel a little farther. I’ll grab a stick and make some scratching sounds in the leaves to mimic a bird searching for an old acorn or two.

We’ll wait a while, and if we don’t have one coming in, we can move on. That’s a big difference in deer versus turkey. During deer season, you’ll probably be in a stand the entire hunt. In turkey season, if nothing is happening, you can just pick up and move to a new location. As we may move, we’ll keep our eyes searching the ground for turkey sign. It could be their tracks or leaves scratched up, or even some feathers.

Sometimes you may even find some gobbler “droppings,” which look like the letter “J.”

I always like to throw a call out every 75 to 100 yards when I walk. You just never know when you might get a gobble. If we do, we’ll determine the direction and post up at the nearest good tree. I try to sit with my back to a tree that’s wider than my shoulders to cover my outline.

My young friend is a focused learner, something I recognized when he took my hunter-education class. I know that I’ll enjoy sharing some of the things that I’ve learned over the years about longbeards—and hopefully a few recipes.