If you will be conducting the turkey hunts in a windy state, you should learn how to use the wind in your advantage. The strong winds will increase the difficulty of the hunts because neither you or the turkey will hear as well as you do in a non-windy situation. What you must do is try to find areas that are out of the wind but if you don’t find a location like this you should use very loud, high-pitched box calls and glass/aluminum friction calls that can be heard even in windy situations. We advise you to attempt setting up and calling in an upwind position of where you think that there might be some birds so that when you make the sound, it will go downwind to them.

We advise you not to attempt shooting a strutting gobbler. If you have the possibility, wait for the moment when the gobbler will come out of the strut and extend his neck. If this won’t happen you should give him 1-2 “clucks” which in most cases is enough for the turkey to come out of strut and raise his head in a curious way to see who is there. When the bird extends his neck, a shotgun pattern is most efficient in this situation.

One of the most overlooked aspects regarding wild turkey hunting is patience because not many hunters have the ability to sit still and wait out a turkey. When you can’t stand anymore in the same position and you consider that is time to move to a different location, try standing there for another 15 minutes, you never know what might happen.

A valuable piece of advice: when you observe a hunter that is approaching you, never make any turkey sounds or move. What you must do is call out his name ( if you know it ) or just say “hello”. The voice of a human will safely alert the incoming hunter that other hunters are in that area.