Learn the Breeding Cycle of a Wild Turkey

Let's face it, we will never know exactly what a gobbler is thinking. However, we have a good idea of what his motives are during the spring.

In one word - girls. During summer, fall and winter a gobbler's movements will be determined, in large part, by where he can find his next meal. As the days grow longer, they turn their attention toward more important things like breeding hens. Learning how a gobbler reacts to hens can help you improve your chances of tagging a longbeard this spring.

In principle, spring turkey hunting is not difficult. Find a gobbling bird in the predawn darkness and set up nearby. As the sun starts to break the horizon, let out a few hen yelps and sit at the ready. When the bird flies down and walks within 30 yards, take him.

In the woods, however, it doesn't always work that way. Oftentimes, the trick to turkey hunting is finding the right bird at the right time in the right place. The same bird that ignored your calls in the morning may run you over later that afternoon.

Here are a few general tips about turkey behavior in the spring:

• Gobbling is used to bring hens to the gobbler. Remember that you are trying to do the opposite when you are turkey hunting. Be patient and adjust your calling intensity to suit his mood. You will typically want to try and get him fired up.
  
• Strutting is a close-range technique to attract hens to the gobbler.
  
• Dominant toms usually gobble more than subordinate ones.
  
• Jakes do gobble and strut. However, they are often afraid to, especially later in the spring after a dominant bird has whipped them a few times. Just because the spring woods are quiet doesn't mean there aren't any turkeys around.
  
• Gobblers are usually surrounded with hens early in the morning. Toward midmorning, the hens will often leave them to sit their nests. The time to be there is when a old tom is alone. Did you ever have a vocal bird at predawn working your calls only to have the bird shut up when he flew off the roost? It is probably no surprise, but he most likely had hens all around him.
  
• Gobblers still mate in the rain - they just don't gobble as much or you can't hear them as much due to the noise. There is no reason why hunting rainy-day gobblers can't be successful. Look for birds in fields and pastures when it is raining.
  
• A common misconception is that toms sometimes just get tired of gobbling and shut up later in the season. This is not true. Gobbling will peak just before hens are ready to breed (usually just before your hunting season starts) and again after most hens have started to incubate their eggs (usually toward the middle to later part of your season). Late-season hunting is a great time to find a lonesome tom.
  

To help improve your calling skills, the NWTF offers Spittin' Feathers II. This instructional audio takes you through clucks, purrs, cutting and more. You've never heard more realistic turkeys than in the woods. Click here to order Spittin' Feathers II today.

Pecking Order: Recognizing the Dominant Gobbler

Most of us would like to shoot the biggest, oldest gobbler on our property. The problem is that it can be hard to tell which gobbler this is until you actually have him in hand.

Fortunately, there are a few clues that may give a turkey hunter an advantage in picking out the dominant tom.

Most of the time, the biggest and/or oldest gobbler is likely to also be the dominant one within a flock. He can often be identified by the way he acts. When watching a small group of gobblers in the spring as they approach a hen or come to your calling, look for the longbeard that does all or most of the strutting. He will be the dominant bird nearly every time.

The other gobblers around the dominant bird will often strut, too, but usually they will not strut as long or as fully fanned. The boss gobbler may not come out of strut at all, his head is usually pulled in close to his body, and his fan is sticking straight up.

Another clue to identifying pecking order is to watch for attacks from the dominant tom toward other gobblers. The big boy may chase the others, or he may just turn their way, causing them to move off or break strut.

Gobbling behavior may also give clues to pecking order. Many times, but not always, the first turkey to gobble on a given morning is the dominant bird. However, on occasions when he doesn't gobble first, you may note that other gobbling turkeys suddenly fall silent when he finally sounds off. Another clue is that the hens may yelp back more often and with more excitement to the dominant bird.

Pay close attention to the turkeys' behavior, and you can take that top trophy we all dream about.