Ep. 763: Foundations - How to Hunt Pressured Long Beards

I'm going to give you this week. Now, if you're feeling a strong desire to go out and shoot a tom in the face of your twelve gage, or maybe try to run an arrow through his midsection, feel free to head on over to the meteater dot com to check out a bunch of other turkey hunting content, or take advantage of our Turkey Week sale that is going on. You're gonna find steep discounts on a ton of good stuff. But also see that that's going to end real soon, so if you want some new gear, you better get

over there now, all right. This podcast is a fun one for me, and I hope you enjoy it too. I think that there is such a variability and the difficulty of hunting different creatures that it pays to seek out something that is closely related to your reality, if that makes any sense at all. Well, when it comes to spring turkeys, the whole thing often looks so easy because it often is. Turkeys are dumb and unpressured turkeys are dumber than dumb. They're wonderful to hunt because they

act like we hope turkeys will act. But there are also birds that just know how to survive due to hunting pressure, and while they don't act like dumb birds, they do have plenty of weaknesses you can exploit. That's what this episode is all about. So here we go.

The weirdest thing that exists, at least in my opinion, in hunting, is the general belief that most of us are good at this stuff, or I guess you know, to put it in another way, there doesn't seem to be a general understanding of the talent differential in hunting that there are in so many other pursuits. I'm sure you have all met someone who is naturally athletically gifted Some people just are, and they excel through their careers until they start to meet more and more people who

share their gift. Then it boils down to discipline, to have hard work ethic that you know it's going to help you outshine the rest of the talent pool. We accept that in football and baseball and hockey and basketball and cricket and probably golf and a whole bunch of other sports. We accept it in academics too. Some people have a brain for maths and some people have, you know, a brain for not math, like me. Some people have

a gift with words, others it's music. I've been playing guitar for like thirty years at this point in my life, and I can watch ten year olds on YouTube who are way better than me. Life isn't fair in this way, but I guess since there is always someone better than us at everything, maybe it is fair. Since almost every one of us isn't all that exceptional at any one task. But that's okay. Though. We don't need to be Tom

Brady level good at something like hunting. We just need to recognize what we're dealing with, and if it bothers us, try to figure out how to get better. It doesn't do us any good to focus on someone else's success when all that brain power could go toward elevating ourselves. Now, this is going to make me sound real cringey, as my daughters would say, but it's true. For some reason, I just gotta have a natural gift for killing turkeys. I always have, and I promise you it is not genetic.

Because my father probably holds the record for the most unfilled turkey tags. Ever. He started applying for tags in Minnesota when the seasons first opened up, like back in the eighties I think late eighties anyway, and he hunted them pretty hard for a lot of years. He traveled to Missouri to hunt them, too, and he almost never ever killed one. Part of his problem is a lot of hearing damage and the reality that he can't tell

where a bird gobbles. Ever, as a counterpoint, my hearing sucks too, But I still managed to kill a lot of toms anyway. Ever since I drew my first tag at fourteen, I've pretty consistently stacked up turkeys, spring birds with a shotgun, no problem. When I figured out the archery thing, no problem, fall birds, ah, no problem. And now that you know how awesome I am. Let me tell you something, I kind of believed I was truly

gifted at turkey hunting for a long time. The more time I spent hunting really pressured birds, which came from a lot of public land hunting and from hunting places where generational pressure stacked up over years as hunting spring birds exploded in popularity, it made me realize that I can be humbled pretty quickly out there in the spring woods. The more I traveled and the more ways I try to challenge myself at turkey hunting, the more I realized, oh,

this is just like deer hunting. The more pressure on the birds, the harder they are to kill. It's just a simple equation, and it dominates hunting throughout our country and i'd guess probably the world. Now. I don't think turkeys are as smart as deer, but I do think they can be generally more cautious. They don't have the curious thing that deer do, even mature bucks, and that saves a hell of a lot of birds from dying.

They also generally have more predators than deer, which means they might find themselves a dish on the old menu at any given point in their lives. Deer experienced this too, but it's less consistent if you consider a lot of mature deer don't have much to fear aside from coyotes and people in an awful lot of places. Turkeys have more to fear out there, and it's reflected in their behavior. This is a good point to parallel this to deer hunting one more time. To drive this whole thing home.

The truth is that if you hunt really pressure turkeys the way conventional turkey hunting advice tells you to hunt, you're going to mostly fail, just like you'll fail by going out on public land in Pennsylvania or Mississippi during the heart of the rut, rattling every ten minutes. Pressure turkeys are certainly callable and certainly killable, but they won't be called in and killed the same way birds on unpressured ground will be. Well, that's not entirely true, but

it kind of is. While you might just post up on a pitcornfield on private and call birds into your decoys, that same kind of open field on public dirt might be a total loss cause just to the concentration of pressure around openings that our turkeys might be using Here's the deal. If you happen to hunt birds that get hunted a lot, your first and best choice is to

differentiate yourself from the competition. Look at it this way, what are most people most likely to do, Say, on a chunk public land in southern Wisconsin, if they want to shoot a tom for starters, They're mostly going to be running and gunning with a shotgun. They'll be out there at first light when the birds are most likely to gobble off the roost. Since they're going to be running and gunning, they might have a decoy or two.

They are very likely to try to get close to a bird on the roost if they are lucky enough to hear one, and that is a great way to spook a certain amount of birds off the roost. They are also most likely to get antsy if their original plan doesn't work out. They'll either sit for a short time and then move, or not sit at all while they sneak around trying to get a bird to sound off. They're going to have a big presence in the woods and most likely not kill a bird while letting lots

of birds know they are around. There will be far more of them on the first day of the season than the last, and far more of them on a Saturday than a Tuesday. They'll be there before work and after, but not as much in the middle of the day. If it's snowy, windy, super rainy, cold, there will be

fewer of them out. I think this would be true for hunters in every state, and that means the opportunity to be different and capitalize on what the birds don't expect you to do is kind of universal when it comes to pressure turkeys. Now are there differences in this when it comes to subspecies. Sort of, Easterns seem to be the most susceptible to changing their behavior due to pressure,

but that just might be my bias. It might also be because some of the states with Easterns have been hunting turkeys a hell of a lot longer and with more intensity than some places with Rios or Miriams. I can't really speak to Osiola's on that front because I've never hunted them, so I guess my point is this, if you hunt where lots of people hunt, don't hunt

in scout like lots of people hunting scout. That's the secret to whitetails too, but it's still hard enough, where folks keep looking for a magic bullet they can buy or some kind of revolutionary strategy they can adopt. I don't think either exists really, So let's take pressure turkeys and look at what they are most likely to do. They are going to be quieter than unpressure turkeys. This is just like public land over the counter elk. The more you make noise and predators come running, the less

likely you are to keep making lots of noise. This goes for bull elk as well as tom turkeys and hens. There is subtlety to turkey language on pressure properties that cannot be ignored. This seems to be heightened around times of mass movement, like during the first two hours of the morning and the last two hours of the evening. The more the birds have to move across the landscape to get where they plan to feed, the more likely they are to try to be quiet when they do it.

They are also more likely to approach slowly and quietly. This is where a lot of hunters fail. On one hand, you have a tom that might go check out a Hennyhear's, which might be you. But if he takes his time to get there, say forty five minutes he doesn't gobble on the way in, how likely are you to be there and not moving when he shows up? To get a visual, Pressured birds require patience, and that's really hard

when they don't talk, but it is the truth. They also often require library voices when you're calling to them. One of the things I've noticed on public land birds in multiple states is that I have pretty good success ratio of calling them in versus blanking on a setup, but that they almost always end up close without me knowing. Rarely do you get that bird that gobbles with every step and just has to commit suicide by running in

with zero caution. They almost always end up really committing to my decoys when I see them too, and I think this speaks to good decoys, but also them just seeing what they expect to see. It can be fun to run a gun without decoys, but if you are struggling on pressure birds, sometimes more is better when it

comes to decoys. Now, again, I can't prove this, but I think this has to do with the fact that most folks aren't running a big spread when they run a gun, if they are running any decoys at all. I think that the other aspect of this is that it's often far easier to call in birds in the woods when they are pressured. They like the cover, and because of the cover, they tend to need to get

closer to see what's going on. If they come in silent and see a few hens and a jake in the spot they heard calling, they are seeing what they expect to see and where they expect to see it. They are also seeing something that a lot of hunters won't do because it's kind of a pain in the ass. What they will see though, if you're not careful, is you This is a big one for hunting pressure birds.

But the truth is got to hide yourself. Simply leaning up next to the trunk of a tree and hoping the birds will ignore you is a low pressure turkey hunting strategy. Can it be done, sure, but mostly you're going to get picked off enough to convince the birds to stay out of range. Dead Falls, brush piles, the depth of shadows, and some cover in front of you and behind you are the key to the whole thing. I like to always try to tuck into down trees somehow so that if I need to reach for my

slate call or make some kind of movement. I can do it behind the trunk of a dead tree. It is that simple. It's also important to give yourself the option to be comfortable. You know, the right cushion goes a long ways here. Clearing out a little spot to sit if you can, and then assessing your ability to sit there still for two hours is really important. Discomfort amongst hunters saves an awful lot of animals every year.

Really hiding yourself while staying comfortable and then setting decoys far enough away to draw attention well away from yourself just a good idea. When I'm hunting really pressure birds, I kind of stick to like the twenty five to thirty yard range out there, especially if I'm running and gunning.

It feels too far when you're setting those decoys up, but when a bird does commit, it feels like a really nice distance for having a little leeway with movement but still being able to harness the full potential of your turkey loads. So in other words, when they get into the spread, they are almost always dead, dead dead. It also seems to be consistent that pressure birds are most likely to respond to calling in the middle of

the day. I have experienced this a lot and it's almost to the point where I wonder why I bust my ass to get out there before first light when I know I probably won't be in the game until lunchtime. If you don't believe this, give it a real try. You will hear more birds at sunrise, but you will call in more birds at noon. This is often true on lightly pressure birds as well. But when you have a lot of competition, you can take advantage of the windows of time during the day when most folks bow

out and go eat some pancakes take a nap. Sounds a little like public deer hunting, doesn't it. Here's another thing that parallels deer hunting. If you're going to hunt pressure birds and you have all day to hunt, plan to hunt all day. That can be tough when the daylight is like sixteen hours long. But the truth is that when you're out there, you have a chance. If you plan to go home mid morning, you know it's

easy to call it early. If you don't commit to the hunt, the odds are sticking around long enough for something to happen. It's kind of low. This lesson was drilled home to me over and over and over. When I really started traveling to hunt public land turkeys in various states. Since I didn't have anything else to do but go back to camp and sit around, and since you're always in the game with turkeys even when it feels like you're not, it was easy ish to stay

out all day. The birds that I had killed often were the first birds I heard or saw, you know, hours into the day already, But they eventually worked into the calls and ended up getting slung over my shoulder for the walk home, which in heavily transfers you know, a few ticks from them to me and almost always covers my camel pants and blood from the bird's head wapping into my ass in the back of my legs the whole way back to the truck. Being out there

for more hours also does something else. It clues you into the birds that aren't coming into your calling. Some birds have a very specific strutting zone, and they keep you know, pretty tight hours of operation. Even pressured toms might end up on a specific ridge at midday to flaunt their stuff. And while it might seem random to watch one you know or hear one in a specific spot, it's probably not random. If you can hear a bird,

you have something to work with. If you can see a bird, even hens, you really have something to work with. Turkeys often do the same thing day after day until the weather or the predators convince them to alter their routine. Watching a silent tom follow hens through a wood lot today means you might want to get out there tomorrow

at about noon and just sit tight. Now. There are no guarantees, of course, kind of like when you see a buck do something during the rut, but that intel matters, even if it doesn't immediately help you fill a tag. Turkeys are the same way, and the best way I found to get clued into them when they've been pressured is by getting out there and spending as much time as possible with them while trying to keep my presence

or my felt presence to an absolute minimum. Keep that in mind the spring come back next week because I'm going to get back into the world of white tails. Now. That really is it for this week. That was a lot of episodes, a lot of stuff to drop on you. But I hope you learned something about turkeys. You know, maybe you went over to the mediater dot com and you, you know, listen to a few podcasts checked out some articles,

maybe bought yourself some new calls or something. Whatever, This Turkey Week campaign is almost over, so if you want to take advantage of those discounts going on over there, you better get over there now. And as always, thank you so much for listening and for all your support. Can't tell you how much it means to us here at Meat Eater. We are nothing without you guys, so thank you so much for that. We truly appreciate it.