Far Afield
Common courtesy among turkeys
With Oak Duke

Oak Duke, publisher of the Wellsville Daily Reporter, writes frequently about the outdoors.

Rarely, do most of us have the chance to hunt gobblers in a vacuum. Most of the time other turkey hunters are in the woods at firstlight too and they also hear that old bird sound off.

We like to imagine that our turkey hunt will put us one-on-one with Mr. Tom. But the reality is that there are few places to hunt, especially in the early part of the season, where we don't have other camouflaged gobbler seekers coming in from the other side of the hill or woodlot.

Gobbles carry a long way in the early part of the season before leaf-out.

And they call other hunters in from afar.

And when one "gets going," that is gobbling and gobbling, you can bet your last face mask on a real buggy day, someone else is working him.

What should we do?

Is it ethical to move in on someone else and try to call the bird away? Is that part of the sport? Or should we bail out, go off over the ridge or into the next stretch of woods and try to get another one going?

First of all, it is easy to get fooled thinking that every time we hear a call and a gobbler answers, it's another hunter.

Occasionally, what sounds like another hunter is actually a real hen, yelping to a tom. Some real hens have bad calls. Like they say, a real hen turkey couldn't win a Turkey Calling Championship. They don't sound real enough, ironic as that may be.

So, when we hear a call, the first thing is to access the situation and then move to an adjacent calling location until it is determined that actually another hunter is dueling with a gobbler and it's not a hen.

If it is a hunter, and it is open or state land, there is nothing wrong with throwing a call out. It lets everyone in the immediate area know you are there.

But setting up and working a bird that someone else is set up and calling to, is a recipe for a problem with a shot of danger mixed in, literally.

It is human nature to get nervous when we perceive that somebody is moving in on "our bird."

And nervousness and competition stirred into the emotional soup of the adrenaline charged moment of a gobbler strutting into gun range is not good.

For one thing, the odds of getting a shot at the bird goes down in direct proportion to the more it is called to by different hunters.

But secondly, I've been shot while calling a tom and it is no fun.

A pair of rookie turkey hunters, a father and son, were trying to sneak in and bushwhack a tom I was calling.

Luckily for this turkey hunter (and the gobbler) they were not aware of their shotgun's effective range and starting blasting away at about 70 yards out.

After the shooting stopped, we were all scared.

So after testing the water, so to speak, back off and live to hunt another day.

A few years ago I was calling to a tom down in a steep hollow on State land, with two buddies. The bird was with hens and would only sporadically answer when I hit just the right tone or cadence. But most of the time, I recall, he had lockjaw.

All of a sudden, from behind us, the sound of crashing brush and breaking branches, broke our attention away from the turkeys down in front.

Three camo-ed turkey hunters on almost a run, or at least a forced march, broke through the thick brush behind and stopped when they saw us sitting there.

One said, "Boy you sound good. We thought it was a flock of hens."

And then added, "Sorry...," and left embarrassed and without another word.

We couldn't believe it!

First of all, never, ever, ever, come in on a turkey caller. It is a good way to get shot. That's how accidents happen in the woods.

And second of all: why were those hunters coming in to hen calls? Just because there are "hens" (actually me) calling does not necessarily mean that there are gobblers there.

When we are fly fishing for trout on the Genesee River, I was taught that the courteous thing, the best example of sportsmanship, when coming upon another fly fisherman was walk around him and fish the next pool or riffle. There is plenty of space and plenty of water and plenty of rising trout for both of us.

And when bass fishing and someone is working a weedbed, out on a point near a cove, get on your trolling motor and go to the next piece of structure.

Sportsmen give each other space.

Part of the experience of hunting and fishing is the desire to discover that space where we can do our own thing, one-on-one with nature.

And leaving a gobbling tom to another hunter who was working him first is not only the ethical and right thing to do, it is the safe thing to do.

Call it sportsmanship, when hunting high-pressure toms.