Show Notes
On this Episode of the How to Hunt Turkeys Podcast it’s motivation time with Paul! As Turkey Seasons across the south reach the peak and the northern states slowly start to open, Paul breaks down the toughest opponent many hunters will face in the woods…Yourself. Turkey Season can be a mental test on the new and experienced hunter. Human nature is to form ideas about how we think any event in our lives should go. Nice and easy! Well, sometimes Turkey hunting isn’t like that. Most of the time Turkey hunting ain’t like that kids. When mother nature is beating you down and Turkeys are making a fool out of you…BURN THE BOATS!!! Story time with Paul leads to a couple of irrefutable laws of Turkey hunting. Buckle up folks. Turkey Season is gonna be a wild ride.
#BurnTheBoats
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Show Transcript
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Welcome to the How to Hunt Turkeys podcast. I'm Paul Campbell. Join me as we dive into the world at Turkey Hunt. Every episode we'll explore the minds the finest Turkey hunters around. We'll take a look at the people, the places, the tactics, the gear, and the culture that creates the mystique around America's favorite bird.
That's right, I said it. America's [00:01:00] favorite bird, the Wild Turkey. Throw on your Turkey vest. Grab your box, call. Let's talk some Turkey. The How To Hunt Purpose Podcast is brought to you by Go Wild Visit Time to go wild.com or download the app on iOS or. Go Wild has all the gear. The Wild Turkey hunter needs camo clothes, hats, vest, Turkey calls, decoys, and everything else.
Sign up for a free account today and get $10 off your first order. Time to go wild.com. Wicked North gear. Delivering the very best gear for a life well lived in the great outdoors. From field kits and DIY tax derby solutions to hats, hoodies, stickers, and more. Visit wicked north gear.com. What is up?
Welcome back to another episode of the How to Hunt Turkeys podcast. I'm your host, Paul Campbell. Thank you so much, uh, for clicking download for listening to this episode. Listen, episode [00:02:00] 13, lucky number 13, that's the episode that you're listening to today. Uh, really excited that, uh, that, that you guys are here.
So I wanna say thanks to our sponsors of this program. Uh, we've got go wild Time to go wild.com. You hear 'em in the intro. You got, uh, wicked North Gear. Wicked north gear.com. Uh, Two brands, those two people, the people behind those businesses, behind those organizations. I'm telling you, they're some of the best people that I've ever met in my life.
They are just wonderful stewards of the outdoors, stewards of, of what we love to do as hunters, uh, as, as conservationists. I couldn't be more proud to, to, to call them my friends. So time to go out Great social. Community platform. Check that out. They got a ton of stuff to get you ready for Turkey season.
If you're gonna be gut in turkeys, which that's the goal, right? We want to kill turkeys this year. Those Turkey kill kits, uh, from Wicked North Gear. They're awesome. I've, uh, been fortunate to use one, uh, so far this year. Grateful for, uh, for that opportunity. Uh, I also wanna say thanks to, uh, to a ood uh, company out there.
I've got two [00:03:00] of these blinds, newcomb hunting blinds. You can find those newcomb blinds on Turkey season.com. You can go to newcomb hunting uh.com and U K E M hunting.com. Check those out. Uh, they've got an XL and a standard. I've got a couple of each. Uh, If you are in a position, uh, in a, in a spot that you are hunting, that you need to have blinds, that you need to have cover, but you might wanna move around, uh, you know, keep, keep your options open.
These, these, these grab and go blinds from Newcomb. They are unbelievable. They're super light. The way that they break down is easy. They're easy to carry. They're easy to set up. Gray patterns, uh, available to the Turkey hunter. Regardless of what state or train you were hunting in, they're, they're gonna have something for you.
So check those out. Uh, Newcomb Hunting Blinds, you can find those on Turkey season.com. You heard me talk about that. Thanks for all the interactions on that, on that, uh, platform. On the social medias, I'm really happy, uh, w that, that, that you guys are enjoying this website. It's gonna continue to evolve.
There's something really neat on there. So if you click on, uh, state [00:04:00] Seasons at the top, go Turkey season.com, click on State Seasons. Justin and I we're working furiously to get this thing up and running, but it's a map of. All 49 states with turkeys. If you hover over 'em, you'll see some of the, some of the dates, the bag limits, uh, pop up the seasons, uh, when they start.
And, and we're gonna have some, some of the weird, uh, wildlife regulations that every state has, uh, in there. Try to try to demystify Turkey hunting regulations, uh, for you guys. So listen, right now, open. Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina. I'm sure I'm missing something else.
I don't know. I didn't have time to Google all that stuff. Those, those guys, man, you guys are killing some turkeys down there. I saw our, our, our buddy Hunter farrier, uh, is, is uh, is having a real fine season so far. Mississippi and Georgia Spring Legion boys are, are, are getting it done. So congratulations to them.
Uh, upcoming, we've got, uh, April 15th, Tennessee, Kentucky. Like I said, there might be something else opening. Google it. Get on Turkey season.com. You'll see it eventually. Uh, April 17th, Virginia, [00:05:00] uh, and West by God, Virginia. You guys are opening up my home state of Ohio. Uh, and our arch arrival to the north also open up, uh, together same day, April 22nd.
So lot going on, uh, in, in the Turkey woods. So be be prepared for that. And that's, that's kind of what we're talking about today. We are talking about the greatest adversary, uh, that we face in the woods as hunters. And so we've talked about, uh, Versus a cranky Tom. We talk about, uh, you know, us versus hens with Scott Elli.
Let's talk about Colin Hens. Uh, we've talked about, uh, dealing with, dealing with pressure, hunting, pressure. We've talked about us versus nature with Dave Owens and, and, and Michael Chamberlain. And Patrick Whiteman. So there, there's the greatest adversary. That you will face in the Turkey woods. Uh, a lot of you will face, uh, is yourself.
And it's, it's, it's a mindset, uh, during Turkey season. And so for, for a lot of you, you're gonna go out in the woods, [00:06:00] you're gonna yelp three or four times, you get scratching some leaves and you have a Turkey fly down, land in the field, gobble a couple times, come up to your deco and you're gonna shoot 'em, and you're gonna be in the woods for 25 minutes and.
That is awesome. I've got to experience that this year. It doesn't happen all the time. Um, but for, for, for most of you, you're gonna be hunting pressured turkeys, pressured birds, and that's what I hunt. I hunt a ton of public land. The, the, the private property that I, that I am fortunate to hunt, uh, not every year.
Uh, it, it's got hunters all around it. So pressure turkeys are, are, are, are different. A different breed. Right. And we, we've, we've talked about how pressure, uh, you know, manipulates the, the, the movements of, of turkeys. It's just like deer season if you're a deer hunter, you know, deer just doing their thing, man.
And then that hunting season opens up and there's, there's human scent flying all over the woods. And, and, and the patterns change almost overnight. And turkeys are very similar. And so when, when you get to that [00:07:00] point, In the season, if you're hunting public property and you've been listening to this podcast, you've been consuming the hunting public and Dave Owens, and you're listening and you're trying to learn, you're trying to become a better Turkey hunter, and you get your face kicked in.
I've been there one. Reach out to me, talk to me. I'm gonna walk you through it, man. I'm gonna help you get through this, but two, I want you. At that moment, I want, you know, when, when you're like, I hate this. I'm never doing this again. Why? Why am I, why am I doing this? Why am I here? I'm gonna be honest with you.
I get there every season, every Turkey season, I have this conversation with myself in the woods. I'm freaking out. I'm pissed off. Things aren't going the way that I want. I want you. I want you to think of the story. So this, this is, this is a, this is a really neat story I've, I've heard before in my life, and it's been, it's been some years since I've heard it.
And, and my buddy Clyde man, I love him to death. He's like a brother to me, man. We've been friends for decades. Uh, you know, he, he's the guy that got, he was sitting right next to me when I shot that o that Osceola, uh, just a couple of weeks ago. This is, you know, [00:08:00] right now I'm going through just a really tough.
Professionally and really tough time personally in my life. Uh, just, just grinding through man, just like the rest of you, just grinding through, trying to scratch out in existence. And I was talking to, I was talking to Clyde about some of the things that I've been working through and, you know, we, we had an awesome conversation, man.
He pulled me out of just my freaking Moy attitude. Pissing, moaning about, you know, the things that are going on in my life that, that I can't control. A couple hours later, he texted me and, and it was three words, and we're gonna get to those three words. But it's a, it's a story that I've heard and I want, I wanna tell it to you, and we're gonna relate this to, to more things than just Turkey hunting.
But this, this story relates to just your life in general, in my life and, and all of ours. Uh, and, and so in, in 1519, there was, there was a man there, there was a leader. And his mission was to travel from the shores of Cuba to the, to the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico. And so [00:09:00] he, he gathered an army, and with that, with that army, he had 500 soldiers.
He had a hundred sailors, he had 16 horses and 11 ships. That's all they had. And their mission was to go and, and take. The world's richest treasure at the time, and this treasure had had been guarded by the same army, been held by the same army, the same rulers for over 600 years. And so this leader, he, he had to gather an army that was made up of, of, of men whose level of commitment was greater than anyone else at the time.
Maybe a little reckless. And so, so this leader, he gathers 500 soldiers, a hundred sailors, 16 horses, 11 ships. That's all they have. And they set sail to the Yucatan Peninsula. They land on the peninsula. They're there, they're getting ready for the day of this battle. And, and, and, and the, and any good leader can sense the anxiety.
He can sense the fear. [00:10:00] And so as that, as the day the day was there, the day's there, the battle was there. The, the battle is upon him. Uh, you know, the story goes that the men were quiet, they were focused, they were anxious. The anticipation of this battle going up against an, an, an impossible enemy, uh, this leader, he, he said three words that, that changed everything for this, for the, for these men.
And those three words will burn the boats. If we're going home, we're going home on their boats. And so what that story means to me is that means that whatever I do in my life and whatever you do in your life, that you commit to it and you focus on what you need to do in front of you. And that failure is not an option.
Right. And I think with, with hunting, We have this idea that killing turkeys, killing big ass [00:11:00] deer, killing bears, whatever it is, that, that, that, that, that, the moment that we shoot that animal and we put our hands on it, that's the definition of success. And that's my definition of success. I'll be, I, I love the hunt.
I love the friends that I get to hang out with, the people that I meet. But damn it, I want to grab that freaking Turkey that's flopping on the ground. That's what I'm here for. That's what I freaking like doing. And I don't shy away from it. I like killing turkeys. I like pushing myself physically. I like pushing myself mentally.
I like hunting some of the nastiest public property that you can find, and it doesn't always end up with that definition of success. I've gone years. Without that success in my life and all I do is I hunt and I push myself. I push my friends, I push my son, I stress my family out, my job, that's all I do, and I will do it until the day that I die.
I have committed to that. In my life that I wanna be a Turkey hunter and I wanna be the best Turkey hunter that I can, and I want to enjoy every freaking second [00:12:00] that I get to spend in those spring woods. And I hope that you this year, if you've never Turkey hunted. I've had, I've had some awesome conversations with you guys and go wild and on Instagram about this is your first Turkey season.
A couple guys have already hit turkeys. Congratulations to you guys. Man, I'm so proud of you. I'm so happy for you. Those of you that, that, that you have struggled the last couple of years. You're just trying to get better. I want you to commit to yourself that moment that you're like, I hate this. Why am I doing this?
Have that conversation. Burn those boats. Get into it, man. I'm fired up. I'm ready. I just blew your ears out. I'm sorry. So that's, that's it, man. That's today's title I, I'm gonna call it Burn the Boats. That's the name of the of this episode. So commit to being a Turkey hunter. To staying true to yourself.
Commit to being patient, to being disciplined in the Turkey woods this year. You can do it. I have complete faith in you in that moment when you hit that wall and you can't fathom that. I'm gonna take another step in these woods. Have that conversation. [00:13:00] Burn those boats. Oh man. Got myself all fired up.
Take a drink of water here. All right, so here, here's, so this is, like I said, The greatest adversary that we face in the woods is ourself and, and all of that. It's just, it's just mental, right? Um, it's the way that we sleep the night before. It's the, the scouting. It's the inputs that we've given, the time that we've committed prior to the hunt.
So we're gonna talk a little bit today on the first half of this talk about. Checking the boxes and so checking all the boxes to have a successful hunt, a successful season. So really the, the, the, the first thing that we have to do, this is your first time hunting out of state, or this is your first time hunting, turkeys, your first time hunting in general.
Uh, we need to make sure that we are legal to hunt game in whatever state it is, uh, that, that we're at. So I cannot stress this enough. [00:14:00] Check. Know your rules boys. Okay? Know your rules. Know what, what permits you need. So get on your state agency's website and some of this, I, it, it, it drives me freaking nuts that our agency does this.
And if you work for a government agency and you're listening to this stop being so damn confusing with your regulations, okay, stop it. Stop it. Now, some of 'em are a little more clear cut than others, so check that out. Different states, if you're hunting public property, you have to have an access permit for national.
Forest, you have an acc, have to have an access for state owned WMAs or WMAs wildlife management areas. So look into that. Um, make sure that you have your appropriate tags. Some states you have to buy a tag for the year and you get one or two turkeys for the year. Some states, you know, if you get multiple turkeys, you have to buy a tag every time that, uh, that, that you want to, to, to kill a Turkey.
Make sure you've got the appropriate. Some states you buy a license, it runs for a calendar [00:15:00] year, Ohio, ours run, they have a, they have a beginning and an end, and it's regardless of what time of year you buy that tag or that license, rather, it will stop on this date every, you know, so, so keep make sure that your licenses are, uh, accurate and check in some, a lot of states have some weird regulations.
Some of those word regulations are, you can't use decoys, uh, on public property in the first part, you know, the first week of the season. Or you can't, uh, you know, public property is, is closed, but private property is open. Um, Keep that in mind. Some of those regulations, um, can get really confusing. So, you know, maybe you can only hunt until noon.
So if you so, so some of those states that you can only hunt till noon. You have to be out of the woods by noon, not walking back from your truck or from your hunting spot by noon. So keep that in mind, all of those. If you walk three hours into the woods in the morning, you better give yourself a little time to get, to get back to the truck.
So [00:16:00] I cannot stress enough. Know your state regulations, know what you are facing in regards to being legal, uh, and, and, and, and, and harvesting. Turkeys know when you have to check. There's time limits to check your turkeys by. Um, if it's on an app, if you know the, the tagging regulations, if I need to have a, a, an actual physical tag on this dead animal, Make sure you know all those, they're su they can, they can really be confusing.
So if you're new to this or if you're a veteran to this, guess what, if you've been doing this for a while, you can get hemmed up with a wildlife violation that that can happen. Because sometimes these states make it super confusing, uh, for, for, for hunters. So make sure you are legal. That's box number one.
Box number two. This is, this is so, so these are the what? What do I wanna call this? The irrefutable laws of Turkey season. Okay. These top two, they do not change. You must do them. Know your rules. Be legal. Two, pattern your shotgun. We've talked a little bit about [00:17:00] patterning your shotgun. There's a ton of video.
Excuse me. There's a ton of videos on YouTube that you can watch about patterning your shotgun. Do not be intimidated by this. All right? If you are intimidated, reach out to me. I'm gonna walk you through it as best as I can. Uh, and I've done that, uh, with, with a lot of guys, so, The first thing, make sure you have an extra full Turkey choke and that, so the extra full, so there's, there's, you buy an eight 70.
It comes with a, an improved cylinder, a modified, and full choke, right? The next step up is that is an extra full choke, so it's an even tighter constriction. And we'll talk about constrictions at some point. It can, it can be super confusing. We're gonna keep pretty basic here. Um, so you're, if, if you just go to, if you go to the go, go to your local store, go to your gun store, go to Cabela's, bass Pro shops, whatever it may be, they're gonna, they label 'em as Turkey chokes, right?
Everyone makes 'em drewlo, uh, pattern Master Jebs Carlson, all sorts of stuff. You can find the Turkey chokes. They're extra [00:18:00] full Turkey chokes. That's what they're called. Get. Uh, get the appropriate one for the threads on your shotgun. All right. And make sure you're shooting Turkey load. Don't hunt turkeys with the Turkey choke and tough loads.
Don't hunt turkeys with a Turkey choke and, uh, black storm by federal, or whatever the hell it is that they use for ducks. Don't do that. You need to buy Turkey loads. Okay, so those are very specific to the animals that, uh, that we're hunting. So with that being said, shoot your gun, shoot it a couple of times if you're shooting.
So if, if, if you. You've already patterned it last year. This is your second or third season. Shoot it again. Just make sure one that you are ready, two, that your gun's thrown right and clean. Um, so take the time to shoot your firearm before the season starts and don't do it the night before. All right.
Don't be that guy. All right. I've been that guy. I'll be honest with you, I've been that guy that has to go out to, you know, freaking Cabelas to buy a face mask cuz I can't fam my find, find my damn face mask the night before [00:19:00] Turkey season. So little preparation goes a long way. Little pr planning goes a long way and keeps you from being, uh, in, in, in a sticky situation.
So, uh, if you've got questions about patterning a shotgun, look 'em up on, look, the videos up on YouTube. There's a ton of really good content for that kind of stuff, so check that. Um, so those are the fir those are the two irrefutable laws of Turkey season. Okay. Illegal shoot shotgun before the season. So do that, uh, and, and, and you won't, uh, you won't regret it, and you don't, you don't need the Turkey patterns, all right.
Or the, you know, the, the papers that you shoot with the little Turkey heads on it. One time I drew a freaking Turkey, right? I like trace my left. And that was the head. And I even drew a little beard on it. I sh it was on a piece of cardboard. That's all I had. I just need to see where those beads were hitting, man.
Where those pelts are hitting. That's all you need. You don't need anything crazy. So are the splatter targets super cool to shoot? Yeah. Yeah, they're pretty sweet. I'm not gonna lie. I like shooting them, but this time of year, uh, if you are late to the game, you're [00:20:00] probably not gonna get some of those targets.
So keep that, uh, keep that in mind. So let's talk about game planning. For the opener. All right. And, and your opener doesn't necessarily have to be the opening day. Maybe you've gotta work, you've got family obligations, uh, or it's just piss and rain and it's cold and you don't wanna be on the woods. I get that.
So let's, let's talk about where, when, how we're gonna get there. So now, once again, sorry man, I, this cough, I'm still dealing with it going on three weeks now. Um,
If you're hunting like a family farm or you've got a lease and you know where the turkeys are, you've just never decided to hunt 'em on this, this conversation, this topic is definitely for you, right? Uh, it's, it's, it's for everyone. If you've only seen turkeys during deer season, Uh, when you were bow hunting or gun hunting, you saw flock and you ran into him, uh, and you're like, I'm a Turkey out this next spring, you started listening to this podcast.
Those turkeys [00:21:00] might not be in that area. Okay? Wintertime flocks, springtime flocks, summer flocks, they are, can be vastly different in terms of the location that those animals are living in. It's all based on food, right? So if, if, you know, during the fall and the winter, those turkeys are really concentrated on those food sources, just like deer hunters.
As the food sources open up, uh, and, and the flocks start to, to break up through the lacking cycle, uh, and, and they get into, they will get into different areas of, of the properties that you are hunting. You could have 500 turkeys on your property during deer season and in, in the springtime, they're two miles away.
On your neighbor's property. And so that gets really tricky and it gets frustrating when you're like, well, I saw these turkeys on my trail cam, now I don't hear a single gobble this Turkey hunt's bull crap. Burn the boats right? Burn the boats. We're gonna dive into that. So, uh, if you're hunting public property and, and, and you haven't scouted it yet, [00:22:00] finish this podcast.
Tell your wife or girlfriend and, and your job that you're gonna go do some Turkey scouting? Say, just like that. I'm gonna give, Paul said, I'm gonna, I need to do some Turkey scouting. Okay. I'll write a note for you if that, you know, like when you're, you know, you're a kid and you need like a doctor's excuse, just tell him that, that, uh, uncle Paul's gonna write a note for you.
So, so we need to find a spot. Where, where, where do we wanna hunt? So there, there are two things. If, if, or a couple things that I do. If I'm going into a new state that I've never haunted, I don't know where I want to go. So the, so what I do is I will get in and I will look at the previous two or three or four years, however much data is available from the state regulatory agencies.
And I will look at harvest totals for the county. So some of them, those county totals, like Alabama's really hard to find. Ohio makes it pretty easy. But if you just Google. West Virginia Turkey Harvest by County 2022. You'll get to see a breakdown and it's, and hopefully it's listed, you know, you know, top to, to [00:23:00] bottom.
Um, so I will look at those, those top couple of counties, and then I'll start doing my research. I'll start doing Google searches. I'll pull out OnX, I'll pull out Google Earth, and I'll start looking at public property within those top three or four counties now. So if there's a lot of public access, uh, In these top counties, in whatever state you're, you're scouting, trying to find areas to hunt.
What I like to do is I'll look at those, kind of like that second, that top level of the second tier of, of counties in hopes that there are public property. So it it, I know that those top reforming counties, what am I gonna have to deal with first? Right off the bat? If there's a ton of turkeys dying, there's a ton of hunters, right?
I love you guys. I don't wanna see you at five in the morning, two miles into the. I'll talk to you if you walk up to me, but if I see a headland, if I've walked two and a half miles, three miles into the woods, I'm all over these ridges. I'm getting to where I want to be, and someone else comes walking in, I'm like, oh God, I hate [00:24:00] this.
And then I have to have that conversation in my mind. About burning the boats. What am I gonna do from there? So look at that, kind of, that second tier. If you can find some, some, some areas that are producing good kill numbers, but those, they aren't the major draws. That's where I like to go, and I'll let you figure that out.
Where you want to go. You look on the maps, look on OnX, do your scouting. I I, I'll tell you what I. Google Earth for, for aerial scouting, more so than like OnX or HuntStand or any of these, uh, the, the, the images are just clearer in a lot of the areas that you look in. How, how matter you, when you're like, you're trying to look at terrain or whatever on, on one of the hunting apps.
And there's freaking trees in the area, and you're just like, dude, come on, man. I, this is 2023. Can we not take a picture with a satellite that doesn't have trees? Like can, can we take a wintertime picture and just put all those on the maps? All right. Lake Pickle, if you're listening from OnX, you're probably not.
See what you can do, man. Pull some, pull some strings. How about, uh, [00:25:00] leafless pictures on OnX, right. I pay more for that. I'm not gonna lie. I pay, I pay more for that. But if you check Google worth a lot of those ti, a lot of times, especially in the areas that I've been looking at, I get fortunate, uh, there's, there's some, some leafless uh, leafless areas, but the detail is really good.
They have a 3D. Button that you click on Google Earth and you can do this on your phone or laptop, and it is exceptional in the detail that it shows. Uh, and so, so you're gonna be able to pick some areas, you know, talk like DayOne and says, you know, get up high, call out. I'm looking, I don't wanna be super close to pressure.
You might have Turkey gobbling there from the, you know, if you're on public and you, and you go out and you scout and you hear a Turkey 200 yards, you know, off the road or off a parking spot, well guess. 15 other deer heard that same Turkey goblin. You're gonna have people all over you, so you're gonna have to put a little sweat equity, uh, into hunting pressured Turkey.
So where am I gonna go find those public land locations that you're looking for? You've got mo, you know, room to [00:26:00] move. You've got some options. And, and, and if I am in those areas, and I can tell you like if you're, if you're looking and you see parking spots, you know, on Google Earth or OnX, whatever you're using, um, You, you, there's a good chance that you're gonna have pressure, especially if you're in like really fairly popular like southeastern Ohio.
You're gonna have Turkey pun, you're gonna have Turkey hunters. That's just how, that's just how, it's just how it is. And so I know where I wanna hunt. Well, when do I wanna hunt? Do I wanna hunt if I can? If I'm only able to hunt on the weekends, when do I get to the woods? I've picked an area on the maps.
I've done a little boots on the ground scouting. I've got some areas. I've seen some sign, maybe heard some turkeys. When do I get in? I can tell you that I like to be in the spot that that I, that I wanna hunt, the area that I wanna hunt, where I think the turkeys are gonna be roosted, at least at a minimum, 45 minutes before sunrise.[00:27:00]
That's a minimum. That's a bare minimum if I'm hunting public birds. I wanna be there at least like an hour and a half before sunrise. Does that suck? Yeah. Yeah. That sucks, right? Burn the boats, man. Wake up a little earlier, right? Don't speed. Do the things. Get all your stuff. Put together the night before.
Get prepared. So all you have to do, make coffee, do what you do every morning. We all know what I'm talking about. Hit the road, right? So when, as early as you. Right. And I know there are things there, there are circumstances, family, kids, work comes up. You can't find your keys. All of these things. Dude, I've walked into the woods to Turkey on literally like 30 minutes after Turkey, like first light because I, I, stuff happens, man.
Life happens. It's not the end of the world. All right? If I wanna hunt that fly down, and that's that first, you know, when the attorneys are flying outta the ground, they're super active. A lot of times they're super active on the limb. They hit the ground, they're a little cranky. They've been henned up all night, you know?
Stuck on the tree, they might hit that ground and be ready to [00:28:00] go. That opening seasons the first part of those seasons when those turkeys hit the ground. This has been my experience, uh, a lot of years when those turkeys hit the ground, that first half of the season, you have a lot of head pressure. All right?
And those first couple days of the season, you're also gonna have a lot of hunter pressure. So if you've got turkeys, you've done everything right. You've got a Turkey goblin on the limb, you're five miles into the woods. Uh, and then there's someone else that's unhinged Turkey hunting like I am, and they're like, oh, I hear that Turkey, and you start moving to it, that's gonna happen.
All right. So how do you, how do you react to that? So there, there, there are two things that, that I like to do when I've got hemp pressure. And or hunting pressure because both of them are gonna wreck your hunt. All right? That's just can, both of them can wreck your hunt. So the two things that I like to do, if I know that I've got a lot of hens, it's that early season and I've, we had Jay Scott, um, talked about roosting turkeys.
I can't tell you how. [00:29:00] I dunno. It's just important of a move that is, is that, do you need to do it every time you hunt? No. But if you have limited time to hunt because of other commitments, and you can get out the night before and you can, and you can roost, you can, you can roost turkeys. Find where they're at.
Do it. That's my number one tip to you, if you will have limited time to hunt. Invest some of that time into scouting turkeys the night before is a, you know, roosted ain't roasted, that's the saying, right? But Roosted gets you a lot of times, gets you in the game. Uh, you know, the, the, the, the from the get-go.
So if I'm gonna go out and I'm gonna hunt the fly down, I'm want to, and I've got limited time, I'm going to hunt those birds. I'm gonna get as close to them as I possibly can in the morning. All right? And to do that, you wanna make sure it is pitch dark black. If there's a s a a a a bright moon, full moon, you're probably gonna get seen.
All right? So keep that in mind. That's knowing the woods, right? If there's a bright moon and you need to [00:30:00] get across an open field and you start walking across that field and you know that there are turkeys, maybe 40 yards into that, and you're making noise, you might be seen if they're awake. Uh, I don't know the sleeping habits of a Turkey, I really don't.
So just keep that in mind. Know the woods get in as tight as you comfortably can get there early if you gotta crawl to get real tight. All right. Uh, the second thing that I like to do, if I have limited time to hunt turkeys and I'm hunting pressure, turkeys, call it the second shift, right? Second shift, man.
Easy concept. I'm gonna sleep in, I'm gonna wake up. I don't have a full pot of coffee. I'm gonna do my thing. I'm gonna fry some eggs, maybe have some bacon, maybe some toast, maybe have a conversation with my wife on the couch. And then about eight o'clock I'll be like, kids, wife, I love you. Dad's going to.
And I'll take the hour drive to my public land spot and I'll pull into that spot. And all of those other guys that have been walking into the woods since 3:00 AM uh, are walking out with no turkeys because there's freaking [00:31:00] hens all over the place. They're whooped because they didn't bring any food, or they're fat, or they're outta shape or Yeah, they, whatever it is, they haunted hard and they're walking outta the woods and they're like, oh, what are you doing?
Uh, second shift, man, going Turkey hunting. I'm gonna get into the woods at 10 o'clock. Here, here, here's what's hap here. Here's what's happening during, at the woods, at at at 10 o'clock. And this, this isn't always right, but this is act. So those, those trees hit the ground, they're gobbling, they're freaking heads off those hens.
Throw out a little clock and I'm gonna tell you what, they sound pretty good. They're sleeping in the tree right next to the tom. They hook up. You are. You're done for, for all intents and purposes that that's the scenario that you're dealing with. Uh, you, you're gonna have a, a hard time. It can happen. Um, and, and, and we've talked with Scott Ellis about some of that, uh, you know, about how to pull hens or Tom's off of hens.
I did it down in Florida just a couple weeks ago, so it can happen. That second shift, here's what's happening. One, a lot of times those hens have been bred. They are on the nest. They are building a nest. They're incubating eggs, they are [00:32:00] resting, they are doing whatever the hell a hen does after, uh, after breeding time in the morning.
Uh, and those times, they're not resting. They've eaten a couple bugs. They've banged it out. They're ready to rock, man. They are ready to go. They're fired up. They may not be as vocal as they were. They might, you might rip one off, but they are really receptive to phone calls. And guess what? All those other hunters they were in the morning putting that pressure on.
They're headed to Denny's or Waffle House or some freaking gas station to eat slim gems and pound bang energy drinks, right? Because they're tired as hell. They're out. So that mid-morning hunt, that is a dynamite time to hunt, dynamite time. My favorite. So, uh, if, if I could only hunt my home state in Ohio, if I had five days to hunt, it's a 30, 30 day season.
I had five days to hunt, I'm gonna, The back half of that third week, that's what [00:33:00] I'm gonna take. Because all the hunters are, you know the deer hunters that love Turkey hunt, which some of you might be deer hunters be like, yeah, you know what? What the hell? I'm gonna give the Turkey hunting. I'm not insulting you, but the deer hunters that realize that they suck at Turkey hunting, they're out of the woods.
The Turkey killers have already killed their turkeys. They're out of the woods. And the other guys that just, you know, don't really care, they're out of the woods. But you have burned the boats. You have committed. You are in the game that latter half the season, and you're in the game the beginning of the season.
After everyone leaves the woods and, and biologically the turkeys have worked through what they need to do. All right, so those are my, those are some tips for you, uh, to, to keep you, keep you interested in Turkey hunting, to give you some time. Don't abandon a Turkey hunt at nine 30 cuz you didn't hear anything or nothing committed.
Uh, you know, Mike Chamberlain talked about, uh, he would have Turkey hunters that, that they would give, uh, GPS units to, and these Turkey hunters would interact with some turkeys in the. [00:34:00] And they would leave. They would move. They'd go do what we do. Run and gun. Right? That's the thing. I like to do it. You like to do it.
If you don't like to do it, you're probably gonna try it at some point. And you're chasing turkeys, you're bumping turkeys, you're doing all this dump stuff as hunters that we do. And Mike was able to look at the data and say, oh, these, these collared g p s track, turkeys. These GPS tracked hunters, the hundred left, but three hours after the hunter left, the turkeys had worked their way back to that area because they hurt heads there, so they just wanna go in and check.
That happens all the time. Turkeys are gonna do what they wanna do. All right, I've said this before. I'm gonna say it again. Turkey. A tur, a wild Turkey can exercise free will greater than any other animal on the face of the earth, right? Just because you're calling. They're like, nah, not gonna, not, I don't care.
I'll be back. I got business to do. I saw this field yesterday. I wanna go strutting around in it, see what I can give up. I'll come back and check on you later, girl. And that's what's happening. So if you think differently, all right. Apply some of the stuff that you've learned on this [00:35:00] proc or, you know, on this program.
You know, I really hope that, that you're gonna have a, a, a good Turkey hunting season this year. I really do. Uh, I'm rooting for you, pulling like hell. For every one of you listening to this, I wish you the absolute best in your Turkey hunting endeavors this year. When you reach that moment where you're like, what have I done?
Why did I decide to do this? It's hot. This freaking guy, Paul's always coughing on the radio. Telling me how to hunt turkeys. I'm never doing this again. I'm gonna go back and, and deer hunt, burn the boats, man. Commit to it. Commit to yourself. Commit to the process. All right. I've told you some. Sometimes I feel like I've got a, you know, when those Turkey seasons, and I've just now started just when the last couple years hunting multiple states, but you know, primarily it was just Ohio and there, there are those moments where I feel like that mother nature wants a pound of flesh before, you know, She gives up her treasures and, and those treasures are the wild Turkey, uh, that, that, that we love to [00:36:00] haunt the other treasure that mother nature doesn't give up easily during the spring as Morrell mushroom.
We ain't gonna talk about that cuz if you're not hot morrel mushrooms, I don't want you to start. So thank you so much for listening to this program. I appreciate each and every one of you. Turkey season.com is live. Check that out. Find me on Instagram, Paul Campbell. To, to find me on Go Wild Search Paul Campbell.
You can find Turkey season on Insta the Turkey season on Instagram. My TikTok, I've been putting some stuff up. It's Paul dot Turkey season. Uh, you see a theme here, Paul dot Turkey season. Some of those, those videos are freaking awesome, man. People, were loving 'em. Go check that out. Follow me on TikTok. If you listen to the show and you follow me on Instagram, TikTok, message me.
Reach out. I'd love to talk to you. Keep me posted on your successes. Keep me posted on your failure. My dear friend Ramel likes to call it Roses and Thorns. Keep me posted on your roses and thorns. Uh, be disciplined, be patient, be legal. Have a damn good hunting season this year. It's coming. It is here.
Burn the boats.[00:37:00]
