FOREST AND STREAM 
539 
* 
Finally in our brief for the wild turkey gob- 
ler, I should mention his bravery—at least while 
courting. A masculine hog on the war-path has 
some menacing aspects, but, pound for pound, I 
myself should much prefer to mix it catch-as- 
catch can with the hog than a wild turkey gob¬ 
bler fighting for his harem. At other seasons 
the turkey is not noted for bravery. Quite 
otherwise. At breeding time, though, there is 
not a buzzard, a dog, a hawk, or even so large 
an animal as a cow that gets by the wild turkey 
gobbler without a fair warning to get out. Then 
rival gobblers often fight to the death at breed¬ 
ing time. While perhaps it is not good form 
nowadays to advocate the genteel practice of 
shooting up one’s' adversary in the love game, 
still I think we all agree that there is something 
wrong with the girl who is satisfied with a boy 
who shows yellow. 
Brother Turkey inhabits the immediate en¬ 
virons of his mother during the first year of his 
life. Each flock, is, indeed, a miniature govern¬ 
ment of itself with the mother hen the reigning 
autocrat. In one way only do the young gob¬ 
blers decline to follow her lead—the aforemen¬ 
tioned matter of eating though they toil not. 
But so far as I have been able to observe the 
old hen doesn’t try to correct this habit, so I 
suppose the boys are not to be blamed. There 
is much in heredity. Whatsoever the old man 
soweth, that also shall the sons reap! 
Each of these meandering oligarchies has a 
certain space of ground over which they seem 
to range regularly. They go and come with a 
regularity which is positvely unique in birds. 
Usually they take from two to three days to 
complete an orbit of the range. If you see them 
crossing a certain field to-day, it will be two or 
three days before you see them in that field 
again. Next time they will be going the op¬ 
posite way. Several days later you can expect 
to see them in that field again, the direction of 
movement being . again reversed. Moderate 
shooting does not seem to interfere much with 
the schedule, though of course so wary a bird 
as the turkey is quick to seek more sheltered 
parts of their range if hunted often.' 
This tenacity of family union is what makes 
the turkey so easy for the skilled turkey hunter 
to bag, yet also increases the difficulty the ama¬ 
teur has in killing in the most sportsmanlike 
methods. And of these, the most genteel, from 
the viewpoint of the bird which wants to keep 
its head on still, is the method of using an 
artificial call to lure the bird into range, think¬ 
ing that is another turkey calling “grub pile.” 
Especial dexterity is needed if the bird called is 
an old one, either hen or gobbler, which has 
weathered a couple of seasons and no sex lure 
is working on its thoughts. Young birds at the 
age at which over three-fourths of the turkeys 
killed in the South are shot—by squirrel hunt¬ 
ers—in the early fall, are very easily fooled by 
artificial yelping. Later on in breeding time 
birds lose their caution to considerable extent 
and again become comparatively easy prey. But 
given well-grown birds along in December or 
January, and I believe anyone will say that the 
turk puts it all over the goose in the matter of 
laughing to scorn the huntsman’s wiles. 
I have had turkeys sit in a tree not a hun¬ 
dred yards from my blind for over two hours, 
I meanwhile spieling on my yelping bugle till 
I cracked my lip—and that turkey never peeped 
I found him sitting up there when I got out of 
the blind. If you had asked me before that in¬ 
cident I would have modestly pronounced my¬ 
self no slouch with the turkey bone; ask me 
now and I would say my name is Mud. The 
fact is you never know what a turkey is go¬ 
ing to do till it does it. Which is another re¬ 
gal attribute. 
The process of hunting turkeys with a call is 
simply to flush the birds, then follow in the di¬ 
rection they took, build a blind, get into it, wait 
the proper time, then call. The best way to 
flush is with a dog, if the dog is trained to sit 
still in the blind or can be sent home after the 
birds have gotten up. Or the hunter can very 
nicely get them up by simply legging it some 
ninety-eight miles more or less, the habit of 
the turkey being never to fly when danger 
threatens unless the danger comes upon them 
suddenly. This the dog does. It trails around 
slowly, then getting a good whiff of turkey 
scent, starts into the scent like a flash. Rushed 
upon in this way the birds get up in a hurry. 
But a man hunter alone, unless he has the 
know how” knowledge, goes crashing around 
through the woods making all kinds of racket, 
so much that the turkeys can hear him com¬ 
ing a mile away, when they quietly slip off to 
another part of the woods. On the hunter ap¬ 
proaching this spot history simply repeats it¬ 
self. Anybody who has been there will tell 
you ninety-eight miles is conservative rather 
than exaggeration. 
On the other hand, the real wise old turkey 
hunter doesn’t walk much. Instead of going 
after the birds he lets the birds come to him. 
Which demands patience. But he has learned 
to be patient. My belief is that no man who 
isn’t patient to the nth degree can make a real 
good turkey hunter. That is my own fault. I 
want to kill and eat a turkey in less time than 
many an old timer devotes merely to tuning up 
his call. 
Blinds are simply a bit of screen between 
the hunter and the game coming to the call. 
Some make light blinds; some heavy. I like 
light ones. It looks more natural. Heavy 
blinds look too much like houses, though many 
turkeys are killed from such. Whatever you do, 
however, try to get it to look like a small clump 
of brush naturally growing there. If ever¬ 
greens like holly, cedar, pine, etc., surround the 
spot, make blind of same; if dry beech and oak 
leaves are hanging on branches near, use them. 
In either case it is well to intersperse a few 
branches of the other kind of decoration—a 
few green twigs in the dry leaf blinds and vice- 
versa. Blinds should be made somewhere near 
the general vicinity the birds have flown to, 
and it is well to select a spot with good view 
for the length of good gun range all around. 
You never know what side of the blind the 
turkey is coming up on. It is provoking to have 
a turkey come up very close but still be unable 
to get it because some bushes, tree trunk, rock, 
etc., is standing in the line of vision. Some 
turkeys, like squirrels, seem to pick out a protec¬ 
tion like that to keep between themselves and the 
supposed bird calling, though this habit is by no 
means constant enough to justify calling more 
than an accident. 
Having built the blind you get into it and set¬ 
tle down for a wait. You wait so the birds can 
get a little settled from their fright before call¬ 
ing. With first season birds which have not 
been hunted much one to two hours is long 
enough to wait, unless the birds begin to call 
themselves sooner. Old, much hunted, scary 
bird require longer to settle. Indeed, many 
times these do not call at all till the next feed¬ 
ing time. It is worse than useless to call before 
proper time as birds will not answer, and will 
also knowing no turkey calls so soon “smell a 
rat” and not answer at all. If flushed in early 
morning they do not call till supper time,—if 
flushed about supper time they roost alone and 
do not call till morning. This is where the re¬ 
mark about the rambling oligarchies applies. 
Each of these tribes is in reality a family. It 
stays together for the first year. Once scattered, 
the birds strive to pass any obstacle to get to¬ 
gether again. 
But, as with people, there are certain mem¬ 
bers of the family which overmaster the others. 
What these say goes. So when they are flushed 
and scattered, these mental potentates call the 
rest up to them. They do it by not saying 
much. So, in calling turkeys the hunter will do 
well to do likewise. Don’t call too much. Let 
the other fellow do the biggest talking. 
