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I don’t know of any online tutorials, but I do have 30 years of turkey hunting experience.
1. Start soft and infrequant and work up from there. Some birds like the TV show, power calling, but most like it soft and sweet. You can always increase frequency and volume as the bird responds. If you over call right away, you can turn them off real quick.
2. when in doubt, sit tight and shut up. Birds that answer every call are asking you to come to them. Get quiet and make them come looking for the bird that WAS calling over here, but got quiet. Lots of birds have been killed by making them get curious about the hen that stopped calling.
3. Every morning and every bird is different. Some mornings they will gobble at every sound in the woods. Tomorrow they are dead silent.
4. carry lots of calls. Some birds like box calls, some like slate calls. Gotta have what they like to make them talk!
Like I said in #1, I like to start soft and slow. You need to “take their temperature” and guage their activity level.
I had a bird that I killed a few years ago. I hunted him myself and with others for 3 weeks. Every day he flew down, went his strut zone and hung out for 3 hours before he wandered off. We could get within 100 yards of his roost, call him down, but he always went to his strut zone. Finally, I went and waited for him at his strut zone. That morning he hung in the roost woods for 2 hours! I moved about 50 yards closer to him, and with one call he ran 400 yards across an open field to his death! 26 pounds, double 10″ beards and 1 1/4″ spurs.
My point is that even the most “predictable” bird can and will be unpredictable at some point in the season. Being able to adapt will kill more birds than trying to use a “Step 1, step 2, step 3” type of approach.
I like Fred’s response. He did a good job of summing up something that’s incredibly difficult to put your finger on. So much of my strategy relies on past hunts, but more importantly, the mood of the bird interpreted from his tone, volume, and actions.
Admittedly, that comes from experience. Knowing that, there’s a few groups of metro birds that can’t be hunted which I highly recommend going to and calling at where legal.
I understand what you’re asking about strategy, but don’t overlook the “how-to” tips of using each call well. I’m a firm believer that woodsmanship and patience kills more birds than anything, but if you’re short on either or both, being a damn good caller is your next best bet. Each bird is different, and much like Poker, you can work off of likelihoods and percentages, but the data is clouded by a funny card that turns up somewhere in the deck it shouldn’t have been. The best turkey hunters I know play those odds but aren’t afraid to try something different on a bird that doesn’t play ball.
In the meantime, have you attended a DNR Wild Turkey Clinic? I’ve got one going on in Cannon Falls April 12th, and I spend about an hour on pure strategy. Most importantly, a day in the hunt, where I go through my preferences for how to hunt birds throughout their typical spring daily patterns.
There’s some good books out there, but alot of the articles I read are fluff. I’d highly recommend just spending time listening to real birds as often as you can. That might be an audio file, or even better the real thing if you can. I know for a fact that I’m hunting better at the end of the season than I am at the beginning.
Joel
