As said by Steven Rinella from Meat Eater, the golden age of turkey hunting is right now. There are more turkeys in North America than there ever have been. There has also been a big influx of new gun owners. This adds up to a situation where there are going to be more and more first time turkey hunters stepping into the woods, looking for the elusive thunder chicken than ever before. If you’re one of these first timers, welcome. If you’ve hunted before and just want to take a look at your gear, this should be beneficial to you as well. Here’s what you’ll need in order to be prepared on opening day.
Turkey Calls
Calling to turkeys is the best part of turkey hunting. Hearing an old tom turkey gobble and move in your direction is one of the coolest things. It’s a similar feeling to calling in an elk. Both are vocal and give you a lot of audible responses to what you’re doing. The better you get at calling the more likely you are to get a bird. Most people new to turkeys think of turkeys as only making gobble sounds, and go looking for a call that makes that sound. The gobble is the sound a male turkey makes. In order to attract a male, you need the sound of a female.
There are 3 main types of calls- a box call, a slate call, and a diaphragm call. There are also electronic calls, but most states don’t allow them, so I’m not even going to discuss them. All of these calls can mimic the yelp, cluck, put, whine, and cackle of a hen turkey. There are also locator calls, such as a crow or an owl.
Box call
If your just starting out, and aren’t too familiar with turkeys and the sounds they make in the woods, this one is the easiest to get right, and its the one I started with. It’s simple, and the design of the box itself makes it easy for first time users to start making turkey noises right out of the box with very little know-how. There are two big downsides for this call- 1. that its bigger than the others and a bit more fragile. 2. It can make noises if you just have it in your pack. If it jostles, it can make noises. To mitigate this second problem, I would wrap a rubber band around it. This worked pretty well until I would inevitably lose the rubber band in the woods. Despite these challenges, this is still the one we would recommend as the best first turkey call for beginners.
Slate Call
This call offers a little more control than the box call. You are essentially scaping a piece of slate with a stick and it produces turkey like sounds. There is a wider range of sounds you can get from the slate than you can from the box call. You have more ways you can work the call in your hands, and I think the slate responds a little better. I don’t think its as loud as the box call, but it sounds a little more like a turkey. It’s also the one they use on MeatEater.
Diaphragm Call
The diaphragm or mouth call offers the most control and versatility, but its also the hardest to master. We think that slate or box calls can sound more natural, especially when you’re starting out. One of the very biggest benefits to the diaphragm call is that you don’t have to move when using it. Turkeys have extremely sharp eyes, so this is an advantage. Once you get serious, you’ll probably have multiple calls, and you’ll be able to read the mood of the turkey and use a variety to call them in.
Locator Call
Male turkeys have a tendency to produce what’s called a shock gobble when they hear a loud noise. Our go to locator call is a crow call. The crow is a bit more piercing and high pitched than an owl call, while still sounding like a natural sound in the turkey woods. This option from Primos is fairly inexpensive and gets the job done, making it our go to for this type of call. We have a number of Primos calls and have been pleased with all of them.
Camo
For many animals, you need to worry about your scent. This isn’t the case as much with Turkeys. For them, its all about sight and sound. Their eyes and ears need to be considered when considering your gear choices for turkey hunting. Because of this, I invested in a good camo pattern that matched the desert mountains where I hunt. I scouted where I was planning on going, took pictures, and then went shopping with those pictures in hand of where I’d most likely sit, and bought what worked well. That season I had 3 separate occasions where I had other hunters walk within 10 yards of where I was sitting without noticing me. After that I got further from the road, but it was a great confirmation that I was doing things right. A great brand to start your search with is First Lite Camo. They make some good quality stuff.
If you don’t want to wear camo, we strongly recommend that you don’t wear red. Red is the color of a gobbler’s head, and is one of the colors turkey hunters look for. Most hunters are smart and know what they’re shooting at before pulling the trigger. There are enough idiots though that I try to make sure I’m not confused for a turkey.
Butt pad
Turkey hunting involves a lot of sitting. The way most guys do it is they go out with their locator call, trying to find a bird to hunt. Once they find it, you move close, sit, and try to call it the remainder of the way to you. Turkeys don’t always come when called though. So you can be sitting calling for hours. Or, you’ll hear it move off, and you’ll circle around, sit down again, and try calling again. Because of this move and sit tactic, it’s hard to bring along a full blown chair. It’s also hard on your tush to have to sit on rocks and branches while trying to not move. On a cold morning, it also helps keep your butt off the cold ground. A pad just makes life much better. After hunting once without a pad, I never went back turkey hunting again without one. It’s that much of a game changer. We use this Thermarest pad.
Decoy
Hunting turkeys is all about deception and tricking the turkeys into thinking all is well, and specifically that they’re making their way into a mating situation. For this, the simplest thing to present to a male is a female. We recommend using one or two hen decoys with your spread. This is our primary setup for hunting turkeys. We like to throw the collapsible hen decoys into our pack, as shown in the image below. We’re usually hiking in, and these are easy and light to carry and to setup.
Another exciting way to hunt turkeys is by using a male turkey decoy. The idea with this is that another male turkey will get territorial and will get really upset that there’s another male encroaching on their turf and trying to flirt with their ladies. You’ve got to gauge what sort of mood the turkey you’re hunting is in.
Mojo Scoot-n Shoot
Shotgun or bow
This is a personal decision, but the more popular choice for turkey hunting is the shotgun. If you’re hunting near private property or close to town, or if you are really into archery, you may want to go with the bow. The shotgun is definitely easier and is what we recommend for beginners. We pick up a 12 gauge when we go turkey hunting, but you could also use a 10 gauge or a 20 gauge.
Turkey Shot
If you’re using a shotgun, you’ll want to look into getting turkey shot shells to hunt with. Turkey shells are generally high power shotgun shells that have high density ammo for longer and harder hitting shots. The pellets are generally lead or tungsten. Lead is cheaper, but a proven heavy metal that gets the job done. Tungsten is heavier than lead which makes it great if you may need to take longer shots, and is nontoxic. Tungsten shot is significantly more expensive than lead though. We do not recommend using steel shot like you would hunting water fowl. Steel is lighter than lead or tungsten and you won’t be able to get as much lethal range with it.
Layers
When I’m hunting turkeys on a spring morning, the temperature can go from below freezing at dawn to around 70 or 80 where I’m at. Because of that I need a good layered clothing system. Most camouflage systems are designed to be layered, but you just need to consider all temperatures and weather you’ll face when going into the field.
Camouflage blanket
Like I mentioned, it can be awful cold in the mornings, and I find myself wanting whatever extra warmth I can get. If its not cold, I have also used my blanket to create a small blind to hide behind, and I’ve used it to create a sun shade. If I’m trying to cut down weight in my pack, I’ll leave my butt pad at home and just use the blanket for that as well. This camouflage blanket is fairly inexpensive, but has been surprisingly durable and held up well. I don’t care if it gets dirty, and it wouldn’t break my heart if it got ripped, torn, or otherwise ruined. They’re not bad to replace.
On X Hunt GPS
You can download maps to your phone and mark where you see things. This is extremely useful for trying to see the pattern of the turkeys. There are also pins for all sorts of species of game animals and other landmarks that are useful when hunting. I’ve used 4 different mapping software and this one is by far the best I’ve used. If you really want to get serious about finding and patterning turkeys, we also recommend that you look into trail cameras, and we’ve written quite a bit on them HERE.
Hiking Boots
Having your feet hurt or feet get cold is usually what cut’s a person’s hunt short. It’s usually the first pain point. If you’re going to start investing in something nice for hunting, this is where you want to start. A $200 shotgun and a $2,000 shotgun will kill a bird just as dead, but cheap boots can just plain make you miserable. A guy will be ok with spending that much on a shotgun, but won’t justify paying more for good boots. You’ll spend a lot more time out hunting on your feet than you will pulling the trigger. Buy. Good. Boots. We love Zamberlain, and that’s where we recommend people start. Once you get a good idea of what good boots look like and feel like, you can branch out, but Zamberlain is high quality, and a good starting point.
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Watch a Professional Hunter’s Turkey Hunt
You can actually watch a lot of MeatEater episodes online for free legally. Check it out. Watch MeatEater HERE>
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