This article comes courtesy of John M. Buol, Jr. of FirearmUserNetwork.com. Check out his site for more articles like this.

When I was volunteering as a certified hunter education instructor for the Wisconsin DNR, they published a compiled list of statistics for each season’s hunt. Being one of the top ten states for deer hunter participation, this makes an interesting and accurate case study. Let’s go over the lessons learned from the compiled numbers and see what we can discover about trends in field shooting and safety skills of hunters.

First, the good news. Organized events, even those as rudimentary as basic hunter education, are marvelously effective at improving safety skills. In 1907, decades before hunter education was established, there were 97 reported firearm mishaps statewide of which 41 resulted in death. The total deer harvested count was about 6,000.

In 2002, over five decades after the first hunter education program was established, the number of incidents was less than half that (47 total) despite a much larger hunting population taking the field: 618,945 licenses sold with 277,959 deer harvested.

According to the National Safety Council there is currently an average of seven firearm-related incidents for every 100,000 hunters in the United States. Wisconsin’s 2002 rate works out to 7  incidents for every 92,184 licensed hunters; close to the established national average.

This is yet more proof how safe shooting and hunting can be IF participants bother attending even the simplest, organized, skill-building event. Wisconsin’s hunter education course is a scant 10 hours with a large number of topics in the curriculum and there is no shooting proficiency test or standard. Twelve-year olds find the coursework simple. Worst of all, no follow-on events are offered or even suggested. Yet, the difference between the most vestigial training and none is astonishing.

Hunter education instructors and administrators deserve a pat on the back. Not too hard, though, as there are still a number of embarrassing problems to iron out.

In other articles and reports I’ve pointed out that about a third of all hunting “accidents” are self-inflicted and half are perpetrated by a hunting party member (someone the offending hunter knew was there.) That means there is no acceptable excuse for at least 80 percent of the mishaps.

The 2002 statistics prove this yet again. 14 of the 47 incidents (29.78%) were self inflicted and 24 of the incidents (51.06%) involved a hunter shooting a member of his or her own party. These incidents can be traced to abject incompetence due to unfamiliarity.

Actual hunting experience, without continuing range experience and training, is of little help. Tim Lawhern, Wisconsin’s Hunter Education Administrator, has noted in print that hunters with a number of years of hunting experience are often some of the worst offenders, not the new, inexperienced kids.

The numbers bear this observation out. Nearly half of the perpetrators (22 out of 47, 46.8%) were over the age of 35 and had hunted without mishaps for years. How can this be?

A new hunter takes basic hunter education and learns rudimentary skills. The tentative newbie is cautious with the lessons fresh in his mind. Unfortunately, after this one required event most hunters do nothing to further their field shooting and handling skills beyond this kindergarten level. As the years pass with incident-free hunts, and with nothing done to relearn and reinforce lessons learned, complacency sets in.

We see this with alarming frequency when adult hunters attend a field day with their kids – at least when we can get them to actually toe the line and shoot in front of the class. I’ve learned that the “experienced” hunter often has to be watched even closer than the kids at first. The new student’s safety procedures are just beginning to approach the Consciously Competent level. He may have to think about it first, but he knows what to do. The hunter who has neglected to reinforce these lessons too often reverts back to the Unconsciously Incompetent level, and doesn’t realize how much of the little skill obtained years back at the mandatory hunter education class has been forgotten. The most basic safety protocol violations, improper muzzle control and failing to keep fingers clear of the trigger, have to be watched for and corrected for a few rounds before the hunter begins to remember them again. Without a semi-regular refresher, such as a class, match, or other event, too many hunters learn the hard, painful way and end up as statistics in reports like this.

I’m continually amazed and disappointed at the number of really dumb and preventable gun mishaps. Some typical examples:

• “Victim reholstered pistol after a shot with finger on trigger, shot self in thigh.”
• “Victim had safety off and finger on trigger, shot self in foot.”
• “Victim sat down against tree and gun discharged.”

The numbers confirm the need for skill-refreshing events. Nearly two-thirds of the self-inflicted incidents (9 out of 14, 64.2 percent) involved hunter education graduates shooting themselves, and exactly three-quarters of the perpetrators who shot their hunting partner (18 out of 24, 75 percent) were graduates as well.

This is NOT a condemnation of the hunter education curriculum or instructors, rather, it is further evidence of the need to provide and promote adequate follow-on activities and sufficient participation by the majority of hunters and gun owners. As noted above, the most basic training experience makes a huge difference. It’s the follow-up, getting rank-and-file gun owners and hunters to bother to show up to shoots once in a while, where we drop the ball.

In summary:

• Organized, skill building events work! The huge drop in negligence due to hunter education proves it.
• Follow on experience is essential or the lessons will be lost. A mandatory, one time event is not enough.
• Raw number of years spent hunting is a poor indicator of skill. Hunters sometimes wait a year (or more!) between hunts. Refreshing skills in between through organized shooting events is vital.

Outdoor Hub, The Outdoor Information Engine - Lessons Learned from Hunter Education: Keep Learning!

This article comes courtesy of John M. Buol, Jr. of FirearmUserNetwork.com. Check out his site for more articles like this.

The effective range of the .30-30 is about 150-170 yards. Some of the wizzy new Magnums can outperform this by roughly 300 percent, at least on paper. But can the hunter outperform the .30-30? Can you?

The .30-30 WCF (Winchester Center Fire) was a hot little number when first debuted in 1895 but today’s hunters complain about this “obsolete” antique. Standard wisdom states this cartridge is best contained within a range of 100-175 yards. A .30-30 will push a 150-170 grain bullet out at approximately 2200 fps or so. With a 150 yard zero, the bullet will be about two inches above line of sight at 100 yards and around five inches low at 200.

Few hunters possess enough shooting skill that warrants better performance than this. Are you one of them? Find out with the .30-30 Drill.

Begin by getting a good 150 yard zero for that anemic .30-30 (or whatever your favorite hunting rifle is chambered in). Set up a Y-ring steel target at 150 yards. If you don’t have a quality, self-resetting steel target that is about 8-10 inches in diameter, a paper dinner plate at 150 yards makes an ersatz substitute. Get a shooting timer, or a buddy with a whistle and stop watch, to record the time.

Start from standing up. On the start signal adopt a sitting position and fire one aimed shot at the plate. Stand back up and repeat the drill for a total of three shots. After completing this three string/three round sequence from the sitting position, do it again adopting and shooting from prone.

We are shooting at the distance we zeroed giving point-of-impact at point-of-aim on a nice, level playing field with no intervening brush, trees, etc. All the shooting is done from the two most stable positions available in the field. Furthermore, the target is presented whole, as opposed to a large animal with the vital zone hidden somewhere inside, thus eliminating the need to estimate target angle. Just hold center and let ‘er rip!

Regardless of elapsed time, a hunter claiming to need something better than a .30-30 should get at least 5 hits out of 6 shots (83% hits) or better on this six MOA target every time. If so, our hero can actually make use of the ballistic capability provided by a .30-30 or equivalent for field shooting. If not, their maximum effective range in field shooting is shorter than 150 yards and the capability of a .30-30 rifle exceeds their present level of skill.

A more competent hunter-shooter who can get those same hits in ten seconds per shot or less just might benefit from a “better” rifle. They possess sufficient skill to warrant extended range.

Variations:

We can repeat this drill out even further. Use the same target and set at 200, 225, 250, 300, or out as far as you dare. Give the shooter an extra three seconds or so for every 50 yards beyond 150. Sight in appropriately and shoot. For example, .308/.30-06 and cartridges of similar ballistics can set their zero to 200-250 yards.

Outdoor Hub, The Outdoor Information Engine - Shooting Skills for Hunters: The .30-30 Drill

Author’s Note: Even if you’re not a professional deer hunter, if you do the work that professional deer hunters do, you can take bucks like a pro. Most professional hunters hunt year-round. Here’s the tactic that some of the most consistent deer hunters in the nation use to help them find and take the biggest bucks on the property they have to hunt throughout deer season.

“To take the biggest deer on the properties I hunt, I start putting out a deer attractant like C’Mere Deer in mid-May,” Jason Harvison who lives north of Nashville, Tennessee, explains. “Throughout the late spring and early summer, I put trail cameras in the places I hunt much of the year, to make sure I have quality bucks to hunt during deer hunting season. Other hunters set out feeders to determine the number of bucks they’ll have to hunt each year, before the season arrives. You can also watch the antler growth as the bucks come into velvet in the spring and summer and learn which areas of the property should have the biggest deer.”

The next step, once you know which areas are holding the biggest deer, is to determine what natural food sources the deer are feeding on during daylight hours at different times of the year. Your state wildlife biologist can provide that type of information for you. Try to find those natural food sources as close as possible to the area where you’ve been feeding or attracting deer. This is especially true if you’re hunting in a state that doesn’t permit baiting of deer; fertilize these regions of naturally-occurring deer foods. Then when you can no longer bait or feed the deer, the deer will come to the spots where you have been feeding deer and eat the natural browse during hunting season. Because you’ve put in the work before the season to train the deer to be where you want them to be, your chances of taking bucks at those sites will be greatly increased. Even though this tactic isn’t guaranteed, using this strategy, you often can find the biggest buck on the property, determine the number of bucks you’ll to have to hunt and attract those bucks to certain spots in the woods where you want to try and take them.

This is just a sample of what you’ll learn in the new Kindle eBook, “Deer and Fixings.” by John E. Phillips. Go to Amazon.com to order the book and download it to your Kindle, and/or download a Kindle app for your iPad, smart phone or computer to read the book with.

Outdoor Hub, The Outdoor Information Engine - Now’s the Time to Find a Big Deer to Take in the Fall

Did you know that the rut has happened as early as October in Illinois?  There is one factor that will start the rut a month or month and a half early.  Do you know what it is?  Temperature!

The reason the cold temperature will trigger the rut early is because that is how nature helps put the scent of does in heat all over the woods.

This is how nature helps the bucks find the does.  When a deer smells you 99% of the time, what does he smell?   He smells your perspiration.  He also smells it in a liquid state.  In fact, all animals smell in a liquid form, even a snake runs his tongue out to pick up the moisture from the air to help him determine what is around him. When you are really hot and it is very cold outside, you give off a lot more perspiration.  The same is true with does in heat.  This is why it is called “in heat.”

A doe’s temperature rises to about 112 degrees when she is in heat.  An example of this theory can be seen if you have ever peed outside when it was very cold.  Steam from the warm liquid goes straight up and then down and all around.  A deer has a normal body temperature of 104 degrees.  When she is in heat, the scent steam is coming off of her private parts and everywhere she goes it floats all through the woods sticking to every bush, blade of grass and tree it comes in contact with.

If you have ever owned a female dog that has come in heat, you will notice every male dog around – most of whom you’ve never laid eyes on before is at your house trying to find your female dog.  How did they know where to come?  Scent.  Specifically, the scent of the dog in heat which has been carried throughout the neighborhood and deposited on every bush and blade of grass around.  That is why male dogs go around smelling every bush they come by

This is identical to the steam or perspiration coming off of the doe in heat and being carried down through the woods by prevailing winds and sticking to every bush it comes in contact with.   When a buck smells this scent, especially a 5 or 6 year-old, he smells the liquid form of the scent and knows it is the real thing.  He won’t question scent in a liquid form that is disseminated through the air.  He will come straight to the source – or doe – to mate every time.

This is where The Vapor Maker comes into play.  The Vapor Maker is the only scent dispersal system on the market that you have total control of.  It requires no batteries because it is a pump up bottle that holds 16 oz. of liquid.  It has a special atomizing tip that will take any kind of scent and put it in the air exactly like nature does.  It also has a 3 foot hose with a clip to hook to a limb down wind or out to your side in a tree stand.  Because the bottle is made of a durable plastic you cannot hurt it or break it if you drop it from the tree stand. You can turn the bottle on by turning the ball valve, and with a 3 mph wind it will carry the scent 1/8 of a mile through the woods.  The more wind, the further the scent will go.  As you walk through the woods you can spray the bushes and low hanging tree limbs to lay a scent trail straight to your stand.  Because scent in the air in a liquid form is the natural way deer smell, it needs to be watered down.  A deer can smell 1000 times better than you and I.  If it is strong to you it will overpower the sensitive olfactory system of a deer.  You have to make the smell the same as nature does in order to fool the deer.

Deer are naturally inquisitive and may do anything at any time, but we want them to do it all the time because it is a natural instinct.  So a 1 oz. bottle of a strong scent would need about 8 oz. of water to make it smell natural.  At Vapor Trail Scents, LLC our scents are 100% natural – made from a food source deer and other animals love.   We gather the food source and make the scent ourselves.  We have found that 8 oz. of water to 4 oz. of our scent, My Sheila Doe in Heat, is perfect to fool all the bucks in your neck of the woods.

We also make the only cover scent and attractant – 33 Point Buck – that will eliminate the smell of gasoline.  The 33 Point Buck is so good we have a patent on it. We have tested it against all the top scent killers on the market and the 33 Point Buck consistently beat out the competition in eliminating all types of scents.

We are confident the 33 Point Buck will totally cover up your scent.  Used with the Doe in Heat, these two make an unbeatable pair to optimize your hunting experience.  We recommend 4 oz. of 33 Point to 4 oz. of water.  You can also spray it directly on your clothing using The Vapor Maker.

Our company also makes Dominant Buck and Wapiti Scents.  Read about us and our products at www.vaportrailscents.com

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkdKvC02Z1A

Outdoor Hub, The Outdoor Information Engine - How Animals Really Disperse Scent

Looking for a quick and easy solution for dinner tonight? Here’s a twist on a classic recipe for stroganoff that will spice up your dinner menu and create a meal the whole family will be talking about. Plus it’s a great way to clean out the freezer and get ready for this year’s Elk season.

Serves 6

Inactive Prep Time:  20-30 minutes

Cooking Time:  Approximately 20 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1 lb elk round steak
• ½ tsp kosher salt
• ½ tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 2 Tbsp Worcestershire Sauce
• 2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil, divided
• 1 Tbsp butter
• 1 medium onion, thinly sliced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 12 oz. button mushrooms, quartered
• 1 Tbsp fresh thyme, chopped fine, divided
• 1 Tbsp fresh dill, chopped fine, divided
• 1 Tbsp flour
• 1/3 cup red wine (or dry sherry)
• 1 cup low sodium beef stock or beef broth
• 8 oz sour cream, divided
• Additional salt, pepper and Worcestershire Sauce to taste
• Egg noodles, cooked per package directions (top with butter after cooking and draining)

Directions:

Slice elk into thin strips about 2 inches long and place in a bowl.  Add salt, pepper, Worcestershire Sauce and 1 Tbsp of the olive oil,   Stir to combine.  Set aside to marinate at room temperature for 20-30 minutes.

Melt butter in large skillet over medium-high heat; add remaining olive oil.  Add elk and cook for approximately 2-3 minutes, turning to sear all sides.  Remove elk from heat and set aside.  (Elk will not be cooked through.)

Add onion to skillet and cook until soft, 3-4 minutes.  Add garlic and cook for 1 minute.  Add mushrooms, half of the thyme and half of the dill.  Cook for 5-6 minutes, or until onions are very soft and mushrooms are cooked through.

Sprinkle the flour over the onions and mushrooms and cook for about 1 minute, stirring frequently.  Add the wine and scrape the brown bits from the bottom of the pan.  Stir in the beef stock and cook for 2-3 minutes.  Reduce the heat to medium low and stir in half of the sour cream until well-blended.  Stir in the remaining thyme and dill.

Add the elk back to the skillet and cook until the meat is cooked to medium doneness, about 3-4 minutes.  Serve over hot buttered noodles and top with remaining sour cream at the table.

Tip:  After each addition of vegetables, add a few dashes of additional Worcestershire Sauce and a few grinds of black pepper.  Finish the dish with a very light sprinkling of salt, to taste.  I use homemade stock made with no salt.  If you’re using canned beef broth or salt, use less salt in the dish.  Be sure to taste the sauce before adding more salt.

Jessica Beaver is the Accounting Coordinator for the Union Sportsmen’s Alliance. An award-winning amateur chef and baker, Beaver enjoys the challenge of developing recipes for big game, fish and more that can be seamlessly integrated into a busy family’s lifestyle.

Outdoor Hub, The Outdoor Information Engine - Quick and Easy Elk Stroganoff Recipe

There are certain traits that define a successful turkey hunter.  Woodsmanship is one.  An intimate knowledge of your quarry is another.  But the single most important characteristic one must possess in order to be consistently successful is patience.

Turkeys don’t wear watches, and aren’t bound to time constraints like we are.  They may have a destination in mind, but will take their own sweet time getting there.

I re-learned this lesson last spring while escorting my son on a youth hunt.  We’d scouted the birds, knew where they frequented and set up our blind well in advance.  Unfortunately, that morning they decided to exit the roost in the opposite direction.  The decision was made to try another location, where our search proved fruitless.  We returned a couple hours later to find a pair of longbeards strutting in front of our vacant blind.

A hung-up bird can try the patience of even the most seasoned veteran.  More often than not however, patience wins the day.

I was reminded of this fact again, just last spring.  Two compatriots and I were riding a Nebraska ranch road when we spied a lone strutter.  “Easy pickings” we thought; so we hastily stashed our ATVs, set out a decoy and made the most of a small patch of cottonwoods for cover.

My plaintive calls were greeted with eager gobbles, but the bird held its ground, refusing to come an inch closer to our location.  After a seemingly eternal 20 minutes we decided to cut our losses and move on to greener pastures.  About the time we were up and pulling up the decoy I glanced over to the bird’s general direction and noticed he’d broken the stand-off and was headed our way.  He saw me about the same time, and beat a hasty retreat for the hills.

For additional information on why you must find patience and wait him out, please visit – http://www.yamaha-motor.com/outdoor/events/dynamicevent/2/1631/yamaha_outdoors_tips_-_patience_wins_the_day.aspx.

Outdoor Hub, The Outdoor Information Engine - Yamaha Outdoors Tip of the Week: Patience Wins the Day

We all know that practice makes perfect—but taking your archery skills to a higher level takes perfect practice.

There’s no telling what situation or scenario you’ll find yourself against while in the forest or field. The ‘unscripted’ is truly nature’s beauty and beast. Many hunters have fantasized about grunting a mature buck into a broadside position ten yards from their perch countless times. In reality, it’s the immediate quartering away shot before he bolts or the white knuckled, nail biting, last second prayer we encounter before our buck-of-a-lifetime vanishes behind brush. There is no storyline to this fairy tale other than expecting the unexpected.

Simulating unique scenarios and injecting a hint of realism into your archery practice will morph your talent, enhance your confidence, and prepare you for the dynamics you will encounter on judgment day. Maximize your shooting capabilities by raising your ‘pin’ to a new level and shrinking your bull’s-eye to laser point focus.

Splicing arrows into my Big Green Target may elevate my archery mechanics, but it won’t make me any better of a hunter. Do you remember the last time you shot a bow outside? If I were to guess, I’d say that you were practicing somewhere around the 15-yard mark, standing straight up, feet perfectly squared to the target, and you held back your bow until the last gust of wind mellowed before your easy release. Now ask yourself, when was the last time you killed an animal that came into chip shot range, by himself, and stood broadside waiting for you to release? It just doesn’t work that way often enough.

Taking your archery practice to a higher level is an essential building block step in your killing abilities. Dedicate time to create your very own mock hunting experiences that you can share with your friends and family. You may want to implement tree stands, ground blind stations, and moving targets. There are endless opportunities and a mixture of fun situations to mock. It is a great way to increase your accuracy and boost your overall shooting confidence.

Below you will find a few tips that help increase lifelike hunting situations in your practice regimen.

High-rise:

If you plan on hunting from an elevated position, practice from treestand level. Shooting your bow from a deck or a gentle sloped rooftop will mock your average treestand shot. This will give you a firsthand perspective of what angles you’ll be shooting from once season begins.

Place your archery target in an assortment of positions. Tweak your angles broadside or quartering away to create natural challenges. This will give you the opportunity to slip your arrows into the correct crease and kill pocket during crunch time.

Take a Knee…or Two:

I never thought of practicing shooting from my knees until I ventured to eastern Colorado last fall and stalked monster mule deer with my bow. This tree-less prairie of muley paradise was my wakeup call and it proved impossible to take a simple standing shot. Belly crawling hundreds of yards, inching through tall wheat fields en route to a nearly hidden tine was an experience never to be forgotten. There was not one time we stood up and walked toward deer – neither will you.
Once we got within range, it was time to forget how cold and wet your hands felt from the snow, or how much your knees ached from clomping through bumpy fields. It was time to make the kill.

It takes a smooth and silent draw cycle and an immediate decision to align your pin on the buck’s vitals and let carbon fly before he busts you. Always be sure to carry a trusty rangefinder when hunting open fields or vast landscapes; objects in view may be closer than what they actually appear. My Halo rangefinder is always strung around my neck to give me the confidence that I’ll need when analyzing distance.

Take a seat:

Shooting a bow from a seated position can be difficult. You are against several variables that may deter your shot. The bottom cam kicking up dirt, weeds, or bumping your kneecap will toss an arrow off course and out of bounds – not to mention the extra strength it takes to crank the string back and hold the bow steady. Sitting against a tree and using it as a natural blind while turkey or elk hunting is a must when using stick and string.

Last spring I shot a turkey using my bow while playing peek-a-boo with a gobbler behind a huge oak tree. As the gobbler walked into my decoys, all I had to do was draw and quickly slink an arrow into the back of his tail fan. He pompously strutted into my setup and once he turned away, I killed him.

Like many of us, I’ve had just as many good hunts go bad and some just plain raw, but you’ll never know when you have to take an awkward shot at an animal.

Creating the most realistic practice scenarios will ultimately build enough confidence and experience to make your shot count when the moment of truth surfaces. Practice these different kinds of shooting forms and key in on perfect practice to help you on your adventure.

Outdoor Hub, The Outdoor Information Engine - Perfect Practice: Elevating Your Archery Hunting Skill Set

Proud hunters often compare the size of their birds, and this can lead to many friendly arguments. But another, less tangible question often puzzles turkey hunters: How old is that bird?

Many myths surround this subject. Some say that any bird over 20 pounds is at least three years old. Others say that a 9-inch beard is a sure sign that your turkey is at least 4 years old. Still others claim that a sharp spur 3/4-inch long indicates a three-year-old bird. What’s the truth?

Biologists with the Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism provide information that would seem to settle much of the debate about a turkey’s age. First of all, many things can affect the weight of a bird, so weight is not a factor. Spur and beard length, however, are important factors in determining a turkey’s age. Use the following rules of thumb to determine approximate age of your bird, keeping in mind that these are approximations for this region of the country and that habitat and other factors may affect these guidelines:

Spur Length = Age of Turkey
1/2 inch or less = 1 year (jake)
1/2-7/8 inch and blunt = 2 years
7/8-1 inch = 2+ years
1+ inch and sharp = 3+ years
1 ¼ + = 4 years

Beard Length = Age of Turkey
3-5 inches = 1 year
6-9 inches with amber tip = 2 years
10+ inches = 3+ years

To differentiate juvenile and adult birds from a distance, look at the tail fan while the bird is strutting. A bird with longer feathers in the middle or on the side of the fan is a juvenile while uniform length in tail feathers indicates an adult bird. With a harvested bird, you can distinguish adult from juvenile by examining the two outermost primary wing feathers — those longest feathers on the end of the wing. On adult birds, these two primaries will be rounded and have white barring extending to the very end. On juvenile birds, these feathers will be much more pointed and have no barring near the tip.

Of course, any tom turkey is a prize, and the opportunity to watch and hunt these fascinating birds is one of the most exciting outdoor activities of spring.

Outdoor Hub, The Outdoor Information Engine - How To Age Spring Tom Turkeys

One of my favorite people to hunt with is Al Mattox of Tuscaloosa, Alabama. I’ve known Mattox for more than two decades, and he’s the type of fellow you enjoy spending time with in the woods. Mattox and I strategize together when we hear a turkey gobble, and we’ll have a good time whether we take a turkey or not. But we’ll usually get our bird. Mattox just returned from Iraq where he ran the explosives lab that blew up IEDs (improvised explosive devices) discovered by the troops. Mattox explains, “We’d take the IEDs apart to look for fingerprints to try to determine who made the IED, and who placed it where our troops might encounter it.” Mattox’s first deployment in Iraq was after 9/11. His favorite thing to do is hunt wild turkeys.

Question: Al, tell us about the toughest turkey you’ve ever hunted.

Mattox: A henned-up turkey that won’t gobble and stays out in the field all day is hard to take.

Question: How do you take that turkey?

Mattox: You’ve got to learn the turkey’s daily routine. He’ll develop his pattern, depending on what those hens do every day. So, you have to determine what the hens will do, and then get to a place where you can call the hens to you. Wherever the hens go, that gobbler will follow. If you can get the hens to walk past you, they’ll drag that tough ol’ gobbler to you.

Question: What’s another turkey that’s tough for you to hunt?

Mattox: A turkey that lives on public land that’s been hunted by several different hunters.

Question: How do you take that turkey, Al?

Mattox: You can’t do a lot of calling. You have to first look for signs of that particular turkey where he’s scratched in the leaves or along the hillside. Find out where that turkey is gobbling. If he’s not gobbling once he hits the ground, learn where he’s roosting by going early in the morning and listening to him gobble or late in the afternoon and trying to hear him fly up to roost. Then when you decide to hunt that turkey, get him as close to you as you can without spooking him. Barely cluck, purr and scratch in the leaves like a hen that’s feeding near him. I’ve found that scratching in the leaves to sound like a feeding hen is one of the deadliest tactics and calls I can use.

Question: How long have you turkey hunted?

Mattox: I’ve hunted turkeys for 28 years.

Question: What’s the funniest thing that’s ever happened when you were hunting with a client?

Mattox: A hunter from Birmingham, Alabama, hunted a gobbler with me at White Oak Plantation in Tuskegee, Ala. This gobbler with dark feathers had nine hens with him, and he was strutting just over a ridge from where the hunter and I was set up. He was out in the field, working his way toward the shade of the trees on the edge of the field, because those dark feathers soak up a lot of heat. We were sitting near the shade where the turkey was coming. My hunter would have had an easy shot in the shade. While we were waiting on the turkey to show up, a copperhead (snake) came into the sun to warm itself only a few feet from my hunter. Now, the turkey was coming, and we were within 5 minutes of shooting the gobbler. When my hunter saw the snake, he turned toward me and said, rather loudly, “That’s it. I’m going home.” That snake scared him, and he just got up and walked off.

For more turkey hunting tips, check out my interview with expert turkey caller Chris Parrish here. To read the second part of my interview with Al, click here.

Outdoor Hub, The Outdoor Information Engine - Hunting Turkeys with an American Warrior

It’s pretty simple on paper: Get between the dominant gobbler and hens and you can sometimes close the deal.

In this kind of situation, you need to rise earlier than ever, and slip into the woods toward roosted turkeys that you’ve located. You should know the number of hens and gobblers in the group if possible. You should know where they like to fly down before gathering and moving off. You should know where they are positioned the evening before the morning you hunt them.

Then get in tight, between the dominant spring gobbler and the hens, and let the show begin.

Sometimes you can time it so that you hear him gobble early—especially if the light is just coming on in the morning. If so, slowly rise, and ease in his direction, knowing you might be walking right past a hen or two.

Use terrain if it helps your approach, then sit tight: quietly waiting for the woods to wake up.

For tips on how to avoid hand movements and get the longbeard in range, please visit – http://www.yamaha-motor.com/outdoor/events/dynamicevent/2/1623/yamaha_outdoors_tips_-_sit_between_the_gobbler_and_hens.aspx. 

Outdoor Hub, The Outdoor Information Engine - Yamaha Outdoors Tip of the Week: Sit Between the Gobbler and the Hens