The Turkey Hunter Podcast with Andy Gagliano & Cameron Weddington | Turkey Hunting Tips, Strategies, and Stories

I venture to say that 80% of whether you are going to be successful on your next turkey hunt depends on where you sit down to call that turkey to you.  You would never charge through the woods at a gobbling turkey in an attempt to kill him, and setting up in the wrong location can have the exact same end result... a light walk back to the pickup truck.

Several factors need to be considered before your hunting spot is selected.  Sometimes we have plenty of time to choose where we want to sit and other times we have mere seconds to make that decision.  The sun, ants, water, the openness of the woods, creeks, valleys, roads, etc are all factors that we turkey hunters have to give thought to before we sit down to call to a turkey.

In this episode of The Turkey Hunter Podcast, I share with you 8 keys to a proper turkey hunting set up.  You'll also hear short stories about how fire ants darn near ruined a hunt for me and how the sun did ruin a hunt for a friend of mine. 

Sit back and enjoy this short episode of The Turkey Hunter Podcast and hopefully you'll think about these 8 keys to a proper turkey hunting set up the next time you are in the turkey woods trying to fill your tag and your freezer.

This is the story of the Whiskey Turkey, who was a turkey that absolutely haunted my good friend Eric for an entire season.  This turkey was a wise old bird, and always seemed to out maneuver and out think Eric.  Eric was possessed by this bird to the point where he was skipping work to go after him.  Finally, one day, Eric devised a plan to kill the Whiskey Turkey.  The plan was executed on a weekend when I happened to be hunting with Eric, and the plan was executed perfectly... well, almost perfectly.  

There was one kink in the plan that neither Eric, or I, accounted for prior to venturing out into the woods that morning.  That was a kink in our armor, not the Whiskey Turkey's armor.  

Listen in and laugh along as Eric tells the story of the Whiskey Turkey.

In Episode 016c: 3 Strategies for Afternoon Turkey Hunting, I discuss the sit and wait method of afternoon turkey hunting.

For many diehard turkey hunters sitting still in one spot waiting on a longbeard to happen by can be shear torture. I know this to be true because I'm one of those hunters who hates to sit still for a turkey. Setting up in the right spot can increase your odds of success tenfold.

In this episode, I share some likely places where turkeys hang out in the afternoons as well as some tips on what to do when you find that spot where the turkeys like to loaf around.

I hope you enjoy the episode.

The spot and stalk method of turkey hunting can be a very effective method for filling a turkey tag while hunting in the afternoon.  In the afternoons, turkeys can often be spotted in crop or fallow fields, food plots, and openings in the timber from hilltops, roads, or just slipping up to the edge of a field.  Once spotted, the next step is to put together a plan of approach for that turkey.

There are certain tips that can help you to be successful in these situations, like using the wind to your advantage, getting ahead of the turkeys, and adjusting your calling strategies to the situation, that can help you to be more successful.  I cover these tips in this episode so that you can have more success in the turkey woods this Spring. 

I hope you enjoy part 2 of Episode 016.  Please tune in next week for part 3 of Episode 016, where I will discuss another effective method of killing a turkey in the afternoon which is to sit and wait.

In Episode 016a, I share the first of 3 strategies for filling a turkey tag while hunting in the afternoons. 

Hunting turkeys in the afternoon can often provide an exciting, productive hunt.  Many times, a gobbler is alone and looking for company during the latter part of the day before he heads back to roost.  If you can find that lonely, normally quiet, gobbler and get him interested, you'll have a pretty decent chance of eating turkey for dinner instead of the tag soup that you had for lunch that day.  Of course, all of this depends on whether or not afternoon hunting in your state is legal as there are still several states that do not allow turkey hunting in the afternoons.

The first strategy that I'm going to share with you is the Run n Gun.  The Run n Gun strategy for an afternoon hunt is slightly different than it is for a morning hunt where you can afford to be a bit more aggressive since gobblers are more responsive in the mornings.  Afternoon Run n Gun hunting typically involves covering a lot of ground in order to find a responsive bird.  If you don't have a lot of ground available to cover for an afternoon Run n Gun, then you'll want to slow down and do a good deal more looking and listening and walking and calling than running and gunning.

Listen in for some great turkey hunting tips to help you have a little more success with your afternoon Run n Gun hunt.  Thanks for listening and be sure to tune in next week when I share with you strategies #2 and #3.

Here is a simple tip to help you sight in your turkey shotgun before turkey season starts in your neck of the woods so you can be sure not to wound a bird due to a poor shooting gun. 

Steve Hickoff is an author of several books and too many magazine articles to count.  Steve hunts turkeys 8 to 9 months out of each year, and he particularly enjoys taking his turkey dogs out into the Fall turkey woods in pursuit of a great hunt after a successful turkey flock bust.

In this episode, Steve Hickoff, shares Fall turkey hunting tips with us so that we can have more successful turkey hunts.  Steve shares his thoughts on using decoys in the Fall, what to do if you get a bad bust on a flock of Fall wild turkeys, and his most recent successful turkey hunt and the one or two keys for success to that hunt.

If you want more Fall turkey hunting tips, then please purchase a copy of Steve's book titled, Fall and Winter Turkey Hunter's Handbook.  The book can be found on Amazon.

In this part of the episode, outdoor writer and author, Steve Hickoff, shares his passion for Fall turkey hunting.  Steve also shares how he was introduced to the sport, information about turkey dogging, his thoughts as to why Fall turkey hunting is not as popular as Spring turkey hunting, and some tips for having more success in the Fall turkey woods.

Steve is an excellent turkey hunter who spends months each year traveling the country hunting wild turkeys.  Be sure to listen in and use some of these Fall turkey hunting tips to help put that fresh wild turkey on your Thanksgiving table.

A very good friend of mine, Todd, shares a hilarious turkey hunting story of a hunt he took his nephew, Ethan, on this past spring. Ethan was fortunate enough to have taken a bird on this particular day. The events leading up to the hunt are just as exciting as most other turkey hunts we have all been on, but the events after the trigger was squeezed make this story quite entertaining. 

For those of you who have young children or grandchildren who hunt, fish, and enjoy the outdoors with you, you will thoroughly enjoy this turkey hunting story. Hunts like this one are the ones that hook kids on our favorite sport forever. 

Listen along as Todd takes you on another hilarious turkey hunting trip with the story of Ethan's 2014 turkey.

Here are 5 tips to help you have more success hunting those roosted wild turkey gobblers.  

Remember... Roosted Ain't Roasted!  But these tips can help to even the odds a bit in your favor.  Learn mistakes to avoid as well while hunting those early morning wild turkeys and put these tips to good use to maximize your chances of filling your turkey tags this season.