Turkey

SUCCESSFUL TURKEY SEASONS START HERE.

The wild turkey is an elusive bird. To get the gobbler, get the know-how. Strategies, management and gear for the hunt can all be found right here.

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Lions and Tigers and Bears

You hear it a lot lately, on hunting shows and in magazine articles, “take a kid hunting.” It’s a theme that we as hunters should be proud is getting much needed attention. It’s by no means a new concept but in my opinion, it was put on the shelf for a while during the “big” period.

Big Game, Turkey

Chris Phillips Says Hunting Merriam’s Turkeys Can Be Fun

The Merriam’s tom has a different sound to his gobble, and instead of sounding like he's choking, the Merriam’s seem to roll his gobble out. Too, Merriam’s gobblers can be like Rios and come in hard charging. But in the middle of their runs to the call, they may hang up and start to act like eastern gobblers. When they leave the roost, Merriam’s seem to know where they're going every day. They're relatively easy

Big Game, Turkey, Mossy Oak, Firearm

Chris Phillips Tells Why He Loves to Hunt Rio Grande Gobblers

I love to hunt Rio Grande gobblers. I can call aggressively to them, they gobble a lot, and they come to calling. They’re not nearly as spooky as Mississippi gobblers. When I first started hunting Rio Grande gobblers, I thought I would blow those gobblers out of the woods with loud aggressive calling, but I found just the opposite was true. These birds in the Midwest like to talk a lot. They're much like junior

Big Game, Turkey, Mossy Oak, Bow

Chris Phillips Tells How to Hunt Mississippi Turkeys

When I moved from Mississippi to Kansas, I spent an entire year trying to learn how to hunt Midwestern gobblers, because I have to hunt them so much differently than I do the turkeys in Mississippi. In Mississippi, if I use a decoy, I’ll only use only one Avian-X hen decoy. On the properties I hunt in Mississippi, if I put out a jake decoy or a strutting gobbler decoy on the edge of a

Big Game, Turkey, Mossy Oak

Chris Phillips: Traveling Turkey Hunter

Mossy Oak ProStaffer Chris Phillips of Novi, Michigan has been chasing gobblers for 40 years and hunts private land in five states. Over the years, he's built a network of people who give him access to prime turkey hunting property. He hunts about 5,000 acres in Nebraska, 12,000 in Mississippi, 10,000 in Kansas, 2,000 in Missouri and 2,000 in Michigan for a total of 31,000 acres.

Big Game, Turkey, Mossy Oak

Jerry Lambert Tells How to Get Private Land to Hunt Turkeys

Here in Michigan, many of the farmers believe that turkeys destroy their crops. Turkey hunting is so new to Michigan that many people who deer hunt don’t turkey hunt. Last year I heard a fellow talking to one of his friends. He said that he deer hunted his property, but he didn’t turkey hunt on it. Immediately, I asked him, “Do you mind if I turkey hunt your property?” He replied, “Not at all, come

Big Game, Turkey, Mossy Oak

There's No Such Thing as a Slam Dunk Turkey Hunt

Last season I hunted with my brother Jeff. I started calling, and we had four gobblers coming across the field toward us. Since I wasn’t planning to hunt that day, I had my digital camera with me, and I was shooting photos as the gobblers came to us. These gobblers came to within 40 yards in a full strut with their tail feathers fanned. My brother had a bow and arrows, but 40 yards was

Big Game, Turkey, Mossy Oak Obsession, Mossy Oak

Why I Use the Turkey Call Most Turkey Hunters Don’t

I'm often asked, “Why do you still use the push button call?” I use the push button call quite a bit, because it’s really easy to use. All you have to do is push the button, and the little box will make a yelp. My push button call has a really-raspy yelp. Too, making a bad call with the push button is difficult.

Big Game, Turkey, Firearm

The Turkey That Taught Me the Most About Turkey Hunting

I hunted this turkey about 2 or 3 years ago. Every afternoon after work, I saw this gobbler in a field that my dad owned, and this turkey would be leaving my dad’s field going toward our neighbor’s property. I tried for three afternoons to call that turkey back into my dad’s field, but he wouldn’t come. Finally, I decided to hunt that turkey on the weekend, so, I could get to the field earlier

Big Game, Turkey, Mossy Oak

Turkey Hunting Without Experience

I'm an avid reader. So, I read everything that I could find about turkey hunting. You could say I went to college on turkey hunting. Once I called in that first turkey, I totally understood why people hunted turkeys. I couldn’t believe how exciting interacting with a wild turkey gobbler was – to call to him and that bird talk back to you. Then if you were lucky, that wild gobbler would come looking for

Big Game, Turkey, Mossy Oak

Michael Adams Prefers to Take People Turkey Hunting and Let Them Shoot the Gobbler

As I’ve mentioned earlier, I enjoy taking other people turkey hunting. If I can call a gobbler within gun range, I believe I’ve won the hunt, regardless of what happens after the bird is within shooting distance. I never will forget when I took another Mossy Oak Pro Staffer on his first turkey hunt. The day before the hunt, we went out scouting for turkeys but we never did see a gobbler. So, the next

Big Game, Turkey, Mossy Oak, Firearm

I Have To Pay the Price to Take the Turkey

Michigan is somewhat unique in that some of the public land that I hunt also serves as parks where people hike, walk their dogs, have picnics and get out in the woods during the warm days of that third season. I’ll even see people riding bicycles on the property where I'm hunting. On this state park, deer hunting, small game hunting and turkey hunting are permitted.

Big Game, Turkey, Mossy Oak, Firearm

Cold Weather and No Cover Means Tough Early Season Turkey Hunting in the North

When snow is on the ground and is falling, I've learned that the turkeys aren’t nearly as active as they are later on in the season. Very rarely will you hear a turkey gobble, and very rarely will you hear hens or gobblers calling at fly-down time. For the most part, all Michigan turkeys are silent. So, locating turkeys is really tough. When I'm calling under snowy conditions, I call very softly.

Big Game, Turkey, Mossy Oak Break-Up Country, Mossy Oak

When Hens Don’t Come to You - Don’t Move

When I first started hunting turkeys, I liked to hunt by myself. But lately, I've found that the real joy that I get out of turkey hunting is calling in gobblers for other people, and teaching them how to turkey hunt like my dad has taught me. If I know other turkey hunters are hunting where I’m hunting, I’ll use a very high-pitched hen call. I don’t want to talk to the gobbler but instead

Big Game, Turkey, Mossy Oak

Michigan’s Michael Adams on Turkey Tactics

Michael Adams from Linden, Michigan, has been a Mossy Oak pro for 7 years. The director for television station WJRT Channel 12 in Flint, Mich., he’s been hunting turkeys for 10 years.

Big Game, Turkey, Mossy Oak