The Secret Weapons of Turkey Hunting (Part I)

By Kyle Swart

Proof of a gobble call's effectiveness

If you are like most spring turkey hunters, you use a box call, diaphragm call, slate/glass friction call, or something similar. You, as with I, have likely had less than desirable success rates in the past. Those are all great calls, and I put each of them to some good use every spring. However, last spring, I found a secret that dramatically increased my success rate when calling those smart ol' gobblers.

My newly found secret weapon is the gobble call. I have always carried a gobble call in my turkey vest but I was afraid to use it for fear that it would scare the birds away. Boy was I making a mistake by not using it.

Last spring, my dad and I started using the gobble call on almost every hunt we went on. We ended up calling in four separate gobblers on four separate successful hunts, and those are only the ones that we or someone we called for ended up shooting!

In one situation, the farmer that we have plow our food plots was on the tractor and we didn't have anything better to do, so we decided to go walk off about 100 yards into the woods and start calling. With the first calls (diaphragm call) we got a far-off gobble from the other side of the food plot that was currently being plowed. We continued to call for a half hour and the gobbles weren't getting any closer. My dad decided at that point to try the gobble call, after all, what did we have to lose?

Instantly after we used the call, that ol' tom fired off two gobbles and we knew it was game on. We then started back up with the diaphragm calls, and every time he gobbled, we would cut him off with a gobble of our own.

We could tell he was getting closer and fast! Not 5 minutes from the 1st time we gobbled at him, here he came sprinting through the woods straight toward us and at half strut, constantly gobbling the whole way! At that point we ceased all calling, and prepared for a shot. Within 20 seconds of us first sighting him, he was in shotgun range and my dad let him have it.

After the shot, my dad and I just looked at each other in awe. We couldn't believe it. That tom wanted nothing to do with us until we gobbled at him. He even walked around a food plot that was being worked on just to get to us! And with that, we used the gobble call many more times that season with very similar results each time. If you don't own a gobble call, I would definitely recommend that you invest in one.

Why Whitetail Food Plots Work Better Than Bait

by Scott Bestul ~ Field & Stream Magazine ~ Whitetail 365 Blog

It’s time to plow under the clover-plot-equals-corn-pile argument. Of the many fresh debates germinated by modern whitetail management, none has proved faster growing or hardier than food plots vs. bait, in which one side insists that planting plots to attract and kill deer is no different from luring them to a mound of carrots or sugar beets. This may sound perfectly sensible…until you soil-test the dirt from which the logic grows.

Food plots are very different from baiting—and better for the health of the deer herd as well as for hunting. And while it’s true that a small plot of lush clover in the middle of otherwise barren woods may be no different from a pile of corn in terms of fair-chase principles, food-plot planting and management provides a long list of tangible and intangible benefits. Here are the main ones.

#1 - Better health

Food in a pile forces deer into unnatural concentrations, upping the odds of disease transmission through nose-to-nose contact, a proven vector for bovine TB. Also, because most bait lies directly on the ground, baited deer are more likely to ingest each other’s urine and/or feces, a suspected cause of CWD.

Even a quarter-acre plot adequately spreads out feeding deer in most cases, and because deer typically eat the leaves, fruits, or seeds of food-plot plants, they ingest less dirt, diminishing the likelihood of urine or feces consumption. And since food plots are on the landscape 24/7, competitive feeding, and therefore crowding, naturally decreases.

#2 - Deer behavior

Multiple studies have shown that the continual visits a baiter makes to freshen his pile change deer behavior, making them more cautious, more nocturnal, and tougher for everyone to hunt. Once you plant a food plot, on the other hand, you are more or less done, and deer will visit it as they would any natural food source or ag crop.

#3 - Hunter relations

One of my biggest beefs against baiting is its effect on public-land hunting. Invariably, the baiter draws an immediate, imaginary boundary around his setup and claims squatter’s rights—ratcheting up tensions with other public-land hunters. By default, food plots, which are planted almost exclusively on private lands, don’t create this kind of conflict.

#4 - Habitat stewardship

A hunter may plant his first food plot with the sole purpose of luring a deer for the kill, but before long, something very cool happens to many a food plotter: He finds other ways to improve deer habitat. Of course, not every weekend farmer becomes a land steward, but this evolution is common.

What’s more, food plots benefit more than just whitetails. In a study completed in 2009, University of Georgia researcher Will Ricks inventoried populations of invertebrates, small mammals, and songbirds in and around clover plots located in Pennsylvania, New York, Georgia, and Tennessee. Then he compared them with adjacent forested areas. In each location, the abundance and diversity of nongame wildlife species was greater in and around food plots.

Finally, believe it or not, there are still some places in this country where deer densities are low and food is a limiting factor. Here, perennial food plots—unlike bait—can help increase the area’s carrying capacity and improve deer hunting for not just the planter but eventually his neighbors, too.

Early Season Success

Kyle Swart

Date: September 15, 2011

           Finally it was here. What I and every other hunter in Michigan had been waiting 9 months for...deer season. It couldn't have come any sooner this year. I was eager to get out and not only get a deer on the ground, but it had been almost a year since I had been in a treestand.
           The early season is probably one of my favorite times of the year to hunt. The deer are still somewhat predictable and are still in their summer feeding patterns. From what I have learned through experience, deer seem to move more during daylight hours in the early season than they do in any other season, which makes it a good time to get out and hunt before they are pressured and turn seemingly nocturnal.
           It was the 16th of September. The second day of the early firearm doe season here in Michigan. I was bowhunting as usual (yes it is legal to use a bow during a firearm season in MI). I finally had a day off of work so I decided to hit the woods.
         I would be hunting over one of our new food plots, planted with rape and purple top turnips. We had lots of trailcam pictures of deer using this food plot in daylight, so I figured it would be a good stand to sit in.
         I got in the stand at about 5:30 pm. This gave me 2-3 hours to sit. Within 5 minutes I was surrounded by squirrels, and I had to try really hard to keep myself from sticking arrows in a few of them.
         It was about 6 o'clock when I had the first whitetail action. A doe fawn came through the woods and stood under my stand for about 5 to 10 minutes. (see picture below)

Doe fawn under my stand

   
  She eventually wandered back off into the woods and soon after she was gone, a spike horn came to within 20 yards of my stand and stood there for a while browsing on green leaves and other summer growth.  I watched him for a few minutes until I heard leaves crunching off to my right side. I looked over there and here came a 5 point. It was a nice young buck.
        The 5 point and spike united and browsed on leaves together. While  I was watching them, I failed to notice that a nice doe had entered the food plot.
        I took a quick glance to the plot and there she stood. Not 25 yards from me, about to leave the food plot into the brush. I quickly but quietly grabbed my bow and came to full draw on her. She caught some movement from my stand as I pulled the bow back, and she was focused on me.
       It was now or never, I settled my 20 yard pin just behind her shoulder and released to arrow. It was textbook perfect shot placement. The arrow passed through and I could see it stuck in the dirt. She ran off the plot, and with every step, and large spray of blood was released from both sides of her.
       She stumbled and fell before reaching the woods, but somehow gained footing again and made it another 10 yards before she expired. In total, she made it 30 yards from where she stood when I shot to where she lay.
        It was a very easy tracking job. As soon as I stepped off of the food plot on the blood trail, I could see her white belly. I called my dad and told him the news and he came out to the lease with a couple of friends to help get her all cleaned up and in the back of the truck.

Mature doe I was very glad to get a shot at

   
        I couldn't have asked for a better start to the season.