By DAVID RAINER, Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources
One of the most frustrating aspects of pursuing the Eastern wild turkey in Alabama is hunting the wily birds in wide open territory, open agricultural fields or clearcuts for example.
With virtually no cover to hide, hunters may have to resort to somewhat extreme measures to bag a bird in the open. I remember trying to outwit what I call field turkeys with Preston Pittman, who has won so many turkey calling contests that I can’t list them all. Pittman finally said, “If I have to dig a hole in the middle of the field and get there at midnight, I’m going to figure out a way to kill this turkey.”
Late last season, I headed to Choctaw County to hunt a field turkey with Larry Norton, a two-time World Champion caller. The bird he had located was using a clearcut that had been cleared in recent years, which meant no real cover existed. Still, it was the only gobbling bird we found.
“I used to hate hunting field turkeys until I figured out how to do it,” said Norton, a longtime turkey guide at Bent Creek Lodge near Jachin. “When I first started hunting turkeys in a field, like most young hunters, I would be too impatient. Turkeys come to a field to feed. They might be strutting, but the main reason they come to a field is to feed.”
Norton said after calling to the gobblers for about 30 minutes, he would get frustrated and move to the other corner of the field, which could take another 30 minutes to keep from spooking the turkeys.
“I’d finally get to the other end of the field and look up, and the turkeys would be 20 yards from where I’d been sitting,” he said. “It happened several times until it finally dawned on me one day that I needed to start paying attention to what they’re doing in the field.
“What he’s doing is trying to fill his craw (crop) up, especially in the afternoon when he’s getting ready to fly up. He might be pecking around eating grass and seeds when a grasshopper takes off to the side. He goes to grab the grasshopper, and now he’s headed in the opposite direction. He’ll start pecking again and pick his head up to listen for the hen. Then he’ll turn back and start feeding in your direction. If he’s out there and fills his craw up, he’ll pick his head up and listen. Then he’ll head straight to you. Just about every turkey I’ve killed like that, his craw was filled slam full of stuff.”
If he gets on a gobbler later in the afternoon and doesn’t have time to get properly set up to hunt the turkey, Norton uses a different tactic.
“I try to remember where a turkey was gobbling around that field that morning,” he said. “Then I’ll back off 100 yards from the field. He’ll want to come to a hen that’s calling because his other hens are not being receptive. I remember hunting a turkey with Tom Fegely (the late outdoor writer) on a power line that had 15 hens with him. I was afraid if we got too close, it might intimidate the hens and they would leave, taking him with them. We backed off 100 yards from the power line, and I told Tom that he might come in quiet, or he might be drumming. Twenty minutes before fly-up time, I heard him drumming. He was easing our way pretty swiftly. Tom shot him at 20 yards.”
Norton also said field turkeys require specific calling techniques as well.
“If he’s got hens with him, do feeding calls, shy hen yelps, clucking and purring and scratching in the leaves,” he said. “You don’t want to intimidate the hens.”
Norton remembered a hunt where a gobbler was all ‘henned up’ with about 25 hens around him when the shy calling helped his hunter bag what became known as the “white lizard” turkey, one of Norton’s favorite hunts while he was guiding. Norton was standing beside a pine tree looking at turkeys in a 2 ½-acre field that had a significant slope with windrows.
“I was clucking and purring, and the hens started coming toward us,” he said. “The hens got close, and I knew the gobbler had to be right there somewhere, but I couldn’t see him. There was a log laying in the edge of the field, and I saw what looked like a white lizard coming down that log. I thought to myself that I’d never seen a white lizard, and then the gobbler walked out from behind the log. It was the top of his head I was seeing coming down that log.
“Sam (the hunter) was on his knees, and he got his gun up. After a few minutes, I could see the barrel start dipping down. I eased my right hand out and caught the barrel and held it up until the hens cleared away from the gobbler. I told him that when I turn the barrel loose you shoot. He came to Bent Creek 10 years later, and all he talked about was that white lizard.”
Another memorable field gobbler that Norton hunted numerous times was nicknamed the “glitter turkey” for a specific reason.
“That turkey was like a bird dog trained on a collar,” he said. “I’m pretty sure I called him up in this little hollow. He was shot but got away. I thought he would probably die, but he didn’t. I heard him gobbling after that and went to him. I yelped and he shut up. I went back to the truck and crowed a couple of times, and he gobbled. I went back down and yelped. Nothing.”
Later in the season, Norton and a buddy happened to ease up to a field, and the gobbler was out there by himself.
“My buddy said, ‘Let’s see you put some of the World Champion calling on this turkey and get this over with quick,’” Norton said. “I yelped one time, and that turkey came out of a strut and ran the other way.
“The next time I see him again in that field, I yelped real softly, and he took off running again.”
