Why Good Turkey Hunters Always Seem Lucky

Every turkey hunter knows that good luck can play a big part in bagging a bird. (Photo by Realtree)

I was out of breath, exhausted, and feeling a bit defeated. My turkey hunting guide and I had spent the day traipsing up and down the steep hills and through the prairies of Kadoka, South Dakota in pursuit of two hens and a gobbler we’d located that morning. Each time I thought I was about to get a shot, the birds would head in a different direction. After not hearing or seeing the birds for hours, we decided to call it a day and walk the long trek back to the truck.

As we crested a hill and approached the vehicle, I began removing my gear when my guide threw his hand up and motioned for me to freeze. I looked down the hill and spotted the three birds that we’d chased all day only about 50 yards from the truck. We immediately dropped to our stomachs and belly crawled to within range. I took the shot, downing the gobbler. With thousands of acres of prairie land for those birds to wander, running into them by the truck was pure luck, especially since we thought they’d moved off in the opposite direction.

Any turkey hunter will tell you that sometimes the difference between an empty vest and a filled tag comes down to a little well-timed luck. But even when blessed with good luck, some skill and knowledge are required to seal the deal. Check out these good-luck stories from fellow hunters, along with a few lessons about the skills that brought the luck full circle.

NOT ONE LICK OF SKILL

Bert Moore, with Schooler Outdoor Marketing, says he believes luck is about 75% of any successful turkey hunt, especially in the Southeast where he lives and hunts. In fact, he says his first gobbler was the result of pure luck and not one lick of skill.

“My first Eastern kill was 100% luck. I was 14 years old and my friend Brian and I were fishing one afternoon and not catching many,” Moore said. “I suggested we go turkey hunting instead. Neither of us knew anything about it, but I had a brand-new Lynch box call and wanted to see how it worked.”

The boys, who had been fishing on Moore’s grandfather’s farm, decided to cross a creek and set up in the woods on the side of a hill to try their luck.

“I started yelping on the box non-stop. I was doing way too much calling,” Moore said. “It was really a shot in the dark, as we had no idea what we were doing. After a few minutes, I stopped calling and we were sitting there just talking. Suddenly, I heard what I thought was a person walking in the leaves. I told Brian to be quiet, because there was a poacher on our property. All of the sudden, we heard the loudest gobble that shook us to the core. I slid around the tree and saw the biggest gobbler standing behind us at 20 feet. I clicked the safety off my Remington 870 12 gauge, pulled the trigger and ‘click’ - there was no shell in the chamber! I quickly pumped the action, loaded a shell, pulled the trigger and we had our first dead turkey. It was nothing but luck!”

• Even though Moore said his success was 100% luck, he knew enough to get out there and try. He sat in a good place, made some good calls, and a gobbler showed up.

• Moore’s skill with a shotgun and ability to be calm under pressure following the misfire sealed the deal.

Sometimes, despite all odds, simple good luck can steer a gobbler into shotgun range. (Photo by Realtree)

BAD STORM ENDS WITH GOOD LUCK

Timber 2 Table chef Michael Pendley has had many a successful turkey hunt thanks to his skill and expertise gained over years of hunting around his Kentucky home. But he says luck played a special role in helping him bag a couple memorable gobblers in particular. That first lucky hunt occurred approximately 25 years ago.

“A buddy and I were hunting a farm we hadn’t scouted. Our plan was to park up high and work our way down a steep, sharp ridge to the river bottom below, expecting birds to be roosted in the heavy timber along the river,” Pendley said. “The sky was heavy and overcast. Thunder rumbled in the distance as we stepped out of our truck. We debated, but decided to go through with our plan and head to the river. We were about a third of the way down the ridge when a bolt of lightning lit up the nearby sky. Thunder crashed instantly before the light even left the sky.”

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Pendley said he and his buddy decided it would be better to stick near the truck. They planned to just sit down and wait for daylight to see if they heard a gobble closer to the top.

“We each found a tree on either side of the ridge crest. As the light slowly grew, we noticed dark shapes in the trees around us. Because the elevation drop on the sides of the ridge was so steep, the tops of the mature trees on either side of the crest were at eye level. The dark shapes were turkeys, mostly hens. We had unknowingly walked into a roosted flock. With the heavy clouds, winds and impending weather, they hadn’t noticed us walk through.

As the light slowly grew, the hens started to tree yelp around the pair of hunters.

“A gobble rang out just 50 yards below me. I couldn’t see the tom, but he was probably roosted in shotgun range,” Pendley said. “We never made a sound. After a few more hen yelps rang out, he pitched down and landed 10 yards away from me. He belted out a gobble and I took the shot. At the sound of the shot, the hens exploded off the roosts around us. It was pretty cool. The clouds were so thick that the grip and grin photos back at the truck required a camera flash. The pictures looked like it was still dark outside.”

• After years of experience in the turkey woods, Pendley knew that sometimes the conditions require that you just get still and wait.

• The hunting pair knew that setting up on either side of the crest would give them a good view of the land below.

• Despite an iffy weather forecast, the pair went hunting. Persistence — and maybe even stubbornness — is often at the root of any “lucky” turkey hunting story.

TYLER’S COLLISION COURSE

Realtree’s Tyler Jordan says he’ll never forget the one morning of turkey hunting when he got “flat-out lucky.” Jordan said he had a fired-up bird that was responding to a lot of his calls.

“But, at one point, he sounded like he was drifting away from me. Instead of trusting the setup, I made the classic mistake — I got up to make a move. Our back and forth went on for about 30 minutes. I should have remembered the No. 1 rule in turkey hunting, which is that patience kills more turkeys than anything else. Instead, I eased about 70 to 80 yards closer toward him, thinking he was still a good way off. Suddenly I heard what I thought was a turkey drumming. He hadn’t gobbled in four or five minutes, so I quickly sat down against a tree and went completely still. Then, maybe two minutes later, that bird crested the hill right in front of me and came straight in. It was a good reminder that when a gobbler goes silent, it doesn’t always mean he’s gone — sometimes it means he’s already on his way. My poor judgement could have ruined the hunt, but instead I got lucky!”

• Jordan’s calling skills kept the bird interested and moving in his direction.

• Jordan knew to sit down and get still and concealed when he thought he heard the turkey drumming.

• Patience is usually a virtue, but sometimes a risky move at just the right time can pay off with a gobbler.

Even with the best luck, you’ve gotta have the skill and knowledge to seal the deal. (Photo by Realtree)

BAD LUCK TURNED GOOD

Tennessee land manager Michael Arnold recalls a hunt during which a lot of bad luck turned into good luck.

“I had been hunting this particular gobbler for a few days. He was whipping up on me pretty badly, so I decided to get in early one Saturday morning. When I crossed the creek and walked across the cornfield to the base of the ridge where he'd been every day, in the darkness I was surprised to hear the voice of another hunter saying, ‘hey, I’m here.‘“

Arnold headed back toward the cut cornfield and stopped a couple hundred yards from it, trying to possibly hear another gobbler. Not hearing anything, he headed to the field where he spotted a fan probably 400 yards out. He crouched got down in the rows of corn stalks and attempted to close the distance. He soon spotted a hen and a gobbler off to the side and tried calling to them. But with every call, she would lead him away from Arnold.

“I army crawled a little closer to within 70 or 80 yards of the birds. The gobbler was facing away, so I tried to get a few yards closer. The hen stuck her head up, spotted me and took off — luckily without making a sound. Completely unaware that she’d left him, the gobbler was still facing away. He then turned, and when he noticed she was gone, his head went from blue to red. He came out of strut, tucked his wing and started to leave. I gave him three soft yelps and he blew up and came straight to me, giving me a 20-yard shot. Luckily after spooking his girlfriend, I was still able to get him into range.”

• Arnold wasn’t afraid to crawl on his belly, and he was able to cut the distance on the birds without them seeing him.

• He didn’t panic when the hen spooked, or when the gobbler dropped strut. Instead, a few well-timed yelps turned the situation around at just the right time.

A Turn of Good Fortune

Turkeys for Tomorrow writer Josh Honeycutt says his luckiest turkey hunt happened just last season.

"Well, it was actually a case of bad luck capped off with a sweet sip of irony. You see, on one particular hunt, I pulled a shot on a bird at 45 yards and winged him. I felt wounded myself."

Immediately following the shot, the longbeard flew off and sauntered back into the dark timber. Feeling dejected but determined to finish what he started, Honeycutt grabbed lunch and returned for the afternoon hunt.

"I heard a few gobbles in directions that seemed to be by other birds not winged by my shot that morning," Honeycutt said. "Ignoring them, I pushed in the direction that the wounded bird had gone. Not calling, I slowly still-hunted along the edge of the timber and glassed the open fields and cover around me. After a couple of hours, I spotted the bird only 400 hundred yards from the point of impact earlier in the day."

The turkey was feeding in a crop field. Occasionally, it'd flip its wounded wing as if to flick off the discomfort. All the while, Honeycutt shadowed its position and paralleled its route, maintaining a visual. Finally, the bird turned up a fencerow that led to a box blind, leading Honeycutt to believe the bird would roost nearby. He took up a position directly behind the blind.

"When the bird broke 20 yards, I leaned around the side and finished what I'd started," Honeycutt said.

• Every turkey hunter misses at some point, and many would give up after seeing the bird fly away. Not Honeycutt. He shook off the bad shot and kept after it, despite hearing other birds gobble nearby.

• Honeycutt anticipated where the bird would try to roost and, knowing it probably wouldn’t respond to a call, he put himself in the best place possible for an ambush. It worked.

Even the best, most skilled turkey hunters say good luck has been the reason for their success on more than one occasion. (Photo by Nate Hosie)

LUCKY FRIED TURKEY FOR DINNER

Realtree.com Editor Will Brantley was hunting in Texas with his family when Lady Luck smiled on them. It was several days into the season and the turkeys had been pressured a bit. His wife Michelle was up to shoot, and he and his son, Anse, were tagging along with her.

“We got on a bird late in the evening, around 6 p.m., that gobbled like crazy. He got close enough that we could hear him drumming, but it's thick everywhere in Texas, and we never could see him. He went quiet for a while, and then when he gobbled again, he was a couple hundred yards away. We decided to back out and try him again the next morning, figuring he'd be roosted right there close. “

The Brantley family got out there early the next day, and as they were sneaking down the trail toward the live oaks, they went right past the spot where'd they'd been set up the evening before, when they'd called the bird in so close.

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“There were three little trees growing there that were just barely tall enough for a turkey to roost in. One of the trees was dead and wasn't much more than a sapling, but I looked up in it and could see a black blob silhouetted against the sky. Sure enough, it was a longbeard, asleep, with its head tucked under its wing. Anse tapped my shoulder and pointed, and there were other turkeys asleep in the other trees. We were right underneath them, and turkeys were starting to gobble in other places. I couldn't believe these hadn't seen us.”

So, Anse stuck a hen decoy in the trail, and the three hunters bailed off into the brush. Brantley says it was a terrible setup.

“It started cracking daylight, and the gobbler started strutting and gobbling on the limb, but facing the other way. We were so close that I was afraid to call, and none of us were comfortable. He gobbled and strutted for a while and then, I kid you not, the little limb he was sitting on broke and that turkey almost fell out of the tree. He hit the limb underneath and steadied himself and turned our way and spotted the hen decoy in the trail for the first time. And then he just pitched right out and landed 25 yards off the end of Michelle's gun barrel. I yelped at him to try and get his head up, but he was so in love that he stayed tucked. She smoked him, and we had fried turkey for dinner. It was delicious.”

• The Brantleys backed off an evening setup that wasn’t working for a fresh setup the next day.

• Knowing they were too close to the roost to call, Anse Brantley stuck a single hen decoy in the ground. Once the gobbler saw that, it was game over.

In each of these scenarios, such as when Pendley and his buddy stumbled upon the roosted birds or when the hen quietly abandoned Arnold’s gobbler, luck may have tipped the odds, but success still depended on the hunter’s ability to read the situation and respond accordingly. Even when a bird drifts into range, it takes knowledge of turkey behavior, woodsmanship, calling skill, and steady shooting to seal the deal. Luck is always great, and the best turkey hunters are usually great at making it themselves.