Handling Heavy Hunter Pressure on Turkeys with Chris Kirby

Author’s note: Chris Kirby, the president of Quaker Boy Calls (http://www.quakerboy.com), has won every major turkey calling championship in the nation including the U.S. Open, the World-National, and Grand National Turkey Calling Championship. He is also the creator of the Mossy Oak Turkey THUGS (www.mossyoak.com) line of calls.

I live in New York State, and our turkeys get a lot of hunting pressure. But don’t forget a turkey only has 30 or 40 days out of the year to mate. During those 30 or 40 days, I’m convinced that any turkey will commit suicide and come running into a call. If you hunt those turkeys every day, there will be one or two days a turkey will come to a call. But you can’t hunt the same turkey the same way every day with the same calls. You’ve constantly got to change up your calls and your strategies, so the gobbler never knows where you’ll appear, when you’ll call, and which call you’ll use. If you go into the woods before daylight, use your owl hooter, crow call, slate call, diaphragm call, and box call. If you’ve been feeding him the same routine every day, you won’t be very successful.

Here are some tips to help you hunt high-pressure gobblers:

Call from different areas. Don’t always call from right in front of a gobbler’s roost tree. Get to the back side of his roost tree, or call from a different side of the tree.
Call a little, and wait a lot. Although I like to run and gun, cover territory, and do a lot of calling, when I hunt pressured turkeys I slow down. The turkey you’re trying to take will be extremely cautious. He probably has been spooked out of his roost tree and may have been shot at more than once.
Don’t hunt on the weekends. Hunt during the middle of the week when there’s the least amount of hunting pressure.
Go to a place where you know the turkey travels, make a good stand, and stay camouflaged wearing Mossy Oak. Plan to sit there several hours, whether you see a turkey or not. I like to let the turkey gobble on his own, and then may wait a while before answering him. I try not to pressure that turkey to gobble more than he wants to.

Another thing to remember is that hunters aren’t the only ones putting pressure on turkeys. Owls, coyotes, and foxes all enjoy turkey dinners. I was taking a writer hunting one day, and we were trying to get into calling position to call to a big gobbler out in the middle of a big field.

As we were watching the gobbler, a big hawk flew over, and its shadow passed over the gobbler. As soon as that tom saw that shadow, he took off running like his tail was on fire and moved into the thickest cover on the property. My writer moved into that thick cover and found a little opening where he could see 10 to 15 yards. I stayed behind the writer and called to the turkey. I couldn’t see the gobbler, but I could hear him strutting and drumming. In less than five minutes, I heard the shotgun report and the turkey flopping. Finally, my writer came out of the thicket with the big gobbler over his shoulder. If we hadn’t seen the shadow of the hawk pass over the gobbler, we wouldn’t have known what made him run into the thicket. Try to observe everything that’s happening in nature when you’re trying to call a turkey. You may be surprised at what those gobblers will do.

John E. Phillips

John, the 2008 Crossbow Communicator of the year and the 2007 Legendary Communicator chosen for induction into the National Fresh Water Hall of Fame, is a freelance writer (over 6,000 magazine articles for about 100 magazines and several thousand newspaper columns published), magazine editor, photographer for print media as well as industry catalogues (over 25,000 photos published), lecturer, outdoor consultant, marketing consultant, book author and daily internet content provider with an overview of the outdoors.

Phillips has been a contributor to many national magazines, has been affiliated with 27 radio stations across Alabama serving as their outdoor editor and wrote for a weekly syndicated column, "Alabama Outdoors," for 38-Alabama newspapers for more than 13 years. Phillips was Outdoor Editor for the "Birmingham Post-Herald" for 24 years. Phillips was also the executive editor for "Great Days Outdoors" magazine for 3 years.

The author of almost 30 books on the outdoors, Phillips is a founding member of the Professional Outdoor Media Association (POMA) and an active member of the Southeastern Outdoors Press Association (SEOPA). Phillips also is the owner of Night Hawk Publications, a marketing and publishing firm, and president of Creative Concepts, an outdoor consulting group.

Phillips conducts seminars across the nation at colleges in freelance writing, photography and outdoor education besides teaching courses in how to sell what you write to writers' groups. Phillips received his photography training as a still-lab photo specialist for six years in the Air Force. He was the chief photographer for Mannequins, Inc., a Birmingham modeling agency, for 11 years.

While serving as 2nd Vice President of the Alabama Wildlife Federation, Phillips was in charge of all press releases for the organization as well as serving as Chairman of Alabama's Big Buck Contest, which he founded more than 30 years ago. He also was president of the Alabama Sportsman's Association for three years.

Phillips is the recipient of a Certificate of Merit from the Governor of Alabama and the Department of Conservation for his work in the outdoor field. Phillips is vitally interested in the outdoors and travels the nation collecting personalities, stories and how-to information for his articles and features.

EDUCATION: B.S. degree from the University of West Alabama with a physical education major and a history minor.

EXPERIENCE: 10 years parttime and fulltime physical director for YMCAs and 34 years as a freelance writer, photographer, editor, book author, lecturer and daily-content provider for websites. Currently, Phillips is a field editor for Game and Fish Publications; serves on the editorial board of Grandview Media; is a regular contributor to 12 internet magazines and a daily content provider for 8 websites.

WRITING AWARDS: Runnerup - Best Outdoor Magazine Feature - 1981 - SEOPA; Certificate of Merit - Awarded by Alabama's Governor for writings on conservation; Most Outstanding Sports Writer in Southeast - 1983 & 1984; Best Outdoor Feature in Alabama, 1987 - Alabama Sportswriters' Association 3rd Place; Best Book of the Year - 1989 - SEOPA; 2007 - inducted into the National Fresh Water Fishing Hall of Fame as a Legendary Communicator; 2008 - received award naming him 2008 Crossbow Communicator of the Year from the Crossbow Manufacturers' Association; 2009 - GAMMA Honorable Mention for Consumer/Paid Best Essay for July/August 2008 in "Southern Sporting Journal."