By Donald Devereaux Jarrett, Mossy Oak Prostaff
Somewhere in the middle of the afternoon I committed a cardinal sin, even knowing better before I did it. I had dragged a client around the prairie of South Dakota since well before daylight and we had put a lot of miles on our boots. We were hunting a draw in the Missouri Breaks, and I had been taught years earlier that if you’re hunting high, you absolutely must stay in cover. Shortcuts simply aren’t an option. But the lack of a willing participant combined with fatigue had taken its toll. So, instead of working up and down the fingers above the draw as we moved along, I decided to take the shortcut and go across a wide-open grass strip between two fingers of trees. Less than ten yards into the opening my client grabbed my arm and said, “DJ!! There’s a gobbler!!” I looked across the draw on the side hill opposite of the one we were working just in time to see a big Merriam’s gobbler sprinting for cover. I was more than dejected and extremely embarrassed by my error. It was bad enough that my client witnessed it, but knowing better was the worst of it. We hadn’t been on a bird since before lunch and to finally get in the neighborhood of one hours later and then blow it, well, I was kicking myself to say the least. I don’t know if we would have killed that bird if we (I) hadn’t been spotted in the wide open, but I knew we certainly weren’t going to kill him now.
Let’s be honest, hunting birds in the open country can be tough. That’s not just in the West or Midwest country either. The big ag fields across the country present the same, or at least similar, challenges. There are ways to improve your chances of throwing an open country bird over your shoulder, though. Hard lessons learned have upped my success on these tough birds.
Photography by Tes Randle Jolly
Shortcuts
Simply put, there are none. Like I mentioned above on my South Dakota blunder, you simply can’t get out of cover. Think about it this way. When you are in the woods, you’re already in cover. Many times, there is enough cover between you and the bird when you strike him in the woods. I would be willing to bet though, that many of us, maybe most of us, have bumped birds, even in the “cover” of the woods. So, it just makes sense to stay out of the openings when hunting turkeys. I have been hunting with people before who certainly know their property better than I do. But I can’t, for the life of me, understand why they would walk us through an open field, stop in the middle of it and call. What happens when a bird hits just inside the trees and then steps out into the field to witness two camo clad, busted individuals right out in the open? I have gotten a sideways look a time or two when I have suggested we not do that. I’ve also given one or two of those looks when they have refused my request to stay in the trees and not call in the openings. It might be quicker from Point A to Point B by going straight across a big field, but it costs you dearly when you get busted. Skip the shortcut and stay in cover.
Calling out in the wide open is taboo and I can guarantee that it will bite you eventually if it hasn’t already. I was walking a logging road on a Georgia Wildlife Management area one day. This time I was solo, and I had only heard a couple of birds at daylight. I struck out with them and decided to cover some ground by mid-morning. I had picked up an old logging road that would allow me to cover some good turkey hang outs and I stopped here and there to give a call. At one point I came upon a long straight section of roadbed to call. When I did, a bird hammered inside a hundred yards, straight in front of me and then, suddenly, he stepped into the roadbed. I froze, he freaked, hunt over. He disappeared like a vapor, and I was left feeling more than stupid. I believe, I would have killed him had I done it the right way. That was early in my turkey hunting days and since that snafu, I have never called to a bird, particularly on a roadbed, without getting next to a good setup if one hits the call. Sometimes, there just isn’t enough time to look for a place to sit when a bird answers the call. Find it ahead of time.
In or Out
I will just say here that I prefer to try to pull a bird out of a field as opposed to trying to pull one into a field. Early in my turkey hunting career, if I spotted a bird in a field, I had it in my head that I simply HAD to get to the edge of the field. First, that is tough enough as it is. Getting on the edge of a field that a bird is already in can get you in trouble quickly and, unless he is in it somewhere where he can’t see you get to the edge, that hunt will be over before it ever starts.
When I see a bird in a field, I’d prefer to set up back off the edge, usually 25 to 30 yards into the woods. I have killed more than a few birds doing this. The birds I have killed either came out of the field and into the woods to find me or he walked the edge of the field trying to find me. Either way has worked out pretty well for me; not so much for them.
I recall a bird I spotted in a field one day. He was in the company of eight or ten hens and three other gobblers. When I passed the field, I already knew what I wanted to do. I drove past the field a hundred yards or so and parked my truck. Then I made my way down an old logging road that wrapped around behind the field the birds were in. The woods were thick between us, and I went to the opposite side of the field and set up 30 yards off the field in good cover.
I sat quietly for the first half hour. The birds weren’t even in view of the pocket of the field I was set up off of. I couldn’t see them for a while, but I finally saw a couple of hens feeding along in the field a hundred yards from me. I decided to call, softly, to see what the reaction would be. A hen that was out of sight around the bend of the field immediately jumped on me and we got into a brief cutting match. Within five minutes she came along, cruising the edge of the field. A longbeard followed but stayed further out in the field as he scanned the woods. When the hen came into the woods, he took a few steps closer. A few was all I needed. When the rest of the birds left the field, I walked out into the field and wrapped my hand around his scaley legs. I couldn’t hide the grin when I saw his long, sharp spurs. That plan has paid off repeatedly over the years.
If you choose to set up on the edge of a field, pockets can cause a gobbler to hunt you more so than a straight tree line. It makes a difference for whatever reason. Gobblers seem to stay on course, keeping their distance from the tree line, but points or bends where pockets in the field exist are great setups that can have you in range when he cruises by.
Decoys
Decoys have always been hit or miss for me. I have seen gobblers run in, wide open and attack my decoys and I have seen them shy away the instant they spot them. It is a gamble and I will generally think long and hard before using them, always depending on how the birds are acting in an area and what kind of pressure the birds are under. Also, if jake numbers are high and they are running the show in an area, I’m not going to use them. Most of the birds I kill in areas like that seem to slip in to avoid drawing attention from a pack of jakes.
For instance, when I first started turkey hunting, I didn’t have a decoy, nor did I want one. Then I went on my first out of state hunt for turkeys. I would be hunting with longtime friend and hunting partner, Cal Marsh. We had spoken with a few people who had hunted Rios in Texas before and that’s exactly where we were headed. They highly recommended decoys so of course we got a few to take with us. The very first bird we set up on was over the hill on a wide, sandy road. We stuck a hen decoy in the sand and set up to work the bird. We managed to pull the bird to the hill in the road and when he saw the decoy, he locked it down. He strutted and gobbled in the middle of the road, outside of gun range, for a full forty-five minutes. He finally spent all the gobbles he had stored up, turned around and disappeared back over the hill from where he came. He didn’t seem spooked by it, and he obviously thought enough of it to give it some time of day, but I believe when he spotted it, his mindset was simply, “Here I am”. We were more than aggravated but still tried the decoy in various set ups for the remainder of the day and most of the next day. We never came close to getting our money’s worth out of it.
I didn’t touch another decoy for 15 years until the year Primos’s “B Mobile” arrived on the scene. A friend of mine had purchased one and asked me if I’d like to give it a test drive. We were hunting a piece of private ground together that Spring, but he was unable to go that evening. I decided to take him up on his offer and to this day I can still see the gobbler, running full speed, in full strut toward the decoy when he came in view of it. I had pulled him out of a hardwood bottom into a small field and had placed the decoy along with two hen decoys out in front of me when I set up. I shot him to prevent damage to my friend’s decoy.
Since that day, I have rethought my stance on decoys and have reached a happy medium. The wide-open spaces are the usual areas where I use them and then only if everything else I’ve tried has failed. Then they still fail at times to bring a bird closer. I do believe that giving the bird something to see can be advantageous in open ground at times, but I have seen birds completely disapprove of them and leave quicker than they came in. There is little more frustrating than having a bird show up and leave because he saw something he didn’t like. If that thing happens to be a decoy, then it’s on me. It’s my fault and I have a hard time dealing with it. I’d rather him show up and leave because he didn’t see what he was looking for. But inevitably, when that happens, the first thing I think is, “Probably should have used a decoy”. Either way, it’s a gamble, with or without.
Variances
When hunting wide open spaces, take everything you can into consideration. The area is first. Is it public or private ground. I can tell you real quick, if it’s public ground, the fields get absolutely hammered, and the birds therein. Unless I know of a bird that is hanging out in a particular field on public ground, I just don’t spend a lot of time there.
Private ground is different, but it still depends on pressure. Pressure on wild turkeys makes for a much tougher hunt most of the time. I have hunted private ground in Texas, where the “dumb old Rios” hang out, in open terrain and thought I was never going to get one that acted according to that description. The birds had been hammered by that point of the season, and it was exactly like public land hunting.
South Dakota, one of my favorite places to spend turkey season, has a lot of diversity. I mainly hunt the prairie, and it is big, wide-open country. While there is great advantage spotting birds, you have to remind yourself that the birds have that same advantage. You might watch a strutter from 500 yards, but you might have to cover a lot more yardage than that to set up on him. When I hunt that kind of terrain, I will let that bird I spot way off do as much of the work as he will. Sometimes, provided he can hear me, he will do all of it. Working birds in from great distances is not uncommon there and hunting in any wide-open country can allow you to still see a bird you might otherwise think has lost interest. They might get to you in a hurry, but they might take their time. Be patient and give them a chance to cover the ground, even when they disappear into cover. If was on the way when you lost sight of him, there’s a good chance he’s going to show up eventually. Call enough to stay on his mind and wait.
Considering different subspecies is not something I give a lot of thought to. They are all just turkeys. All of them can be a pushover for the call and all of them have the ability to dish out a good ol’ butt whipping. The pain is equal regardless of the brand.
Whether you are hunting a farm field in Missouri or standing on the tree line glassing the open prairie, the challenge is there. Accept it and discover the reward of wide-open spaces.
