Windy day turkeys
Even on those bad days, hearing and killing a turkey is still possible
By Steve BowmanTurkey hunting is a listening game. The very basis of the sport relies on the turkey hearing a hunter's call, then responding in a way the hunter can hear the response.
In other ways, hearing a turkey move, strut or drum can mean the difference between a hunter seeing a turkey or being seen too soon by one during the course of the cat-and-mouse game of calling and listening.
In that game, the turkey is the superior listener. Its ability to hear even the faintest of sounds is its biggest defense.
For the hunter, hearing well is essential. A turkey can gobble his head off, but if the hunter doesn't hear it, he may not have much chance of making a hunt out of the day. For those reasons, turkey hunters place a lot of stock on good places to listen from, and especially good days to do the listening.
Wind is one thing that can ruin a turkey hunter's day, often sending a hunter back to bed to try again on a calmer day.
Even on those bad days, hearing and killing a turkey is still possible.
The back-to-bed scenario occurs because a lot of people think turkeys refuse to gobble when the wind blows hard. But according to turkey hunters who stake their business on finding and working turkeys regardless of the weather, turkeys go to work every day.
Their point is that wind doesn't stop gobblers from doing what they need to do. They're out there gobbling. You just can't hear them.
Tack Robinson, who has hunted all over the country for a variety of clients is one of those hunters who knows the game is still on when the wind blows.
"You lose a big weapon when it's windy," Robinson said. "Your ability to hear things has been cut severely. You need to hear things that are happening hundreds of yards away, and if the wind is blowing there is simply no way."
But there are some things you can do to salvage the day.
Robinson relates a successful hunt in Florida. Robinson and a couple of friends were trying to locate an Osceola gobbler for a video. The wind had kept them from getting on a turkey early, and they were scheduled to leave at noon.
"The only thing we could do, was what I call a flash hunt," Robinson said. "We went to a pretty spot, where you just know a turkey should be. There was a lot of sign, and we set up and started throwing out everything we had."
Robinson said "everything" was all three of the party, working friction calls to produce as many yelps as possible.
"Twenty minutes later, a turkey gobbled," Robinson said. "I had thought I had heard a gobble before that but I couldn't be sure. The result was the big Osceola walked right up to us, and we had a good hunt."
Robinson said that might not always work.
"On windy days, sometimes you've just got to let it all hang out," Robinson said.
Things that will work include: louder calls, mainly paddle-box calls that carry further; when possible use decoys, besides taking attention away from the hunter, the wind puts life into a decoy, making the decoy more effective; and travel to open areas to find turkeys rather than trying to call them up in the woods.
"If you can spot a turkey, it increases your chances," Robinson said. "You can run yourself in the ground by staying in the woods."
A positive to a gusty day is wind will put the turkey in a position to be seen.
"When the wind blows real hard, the noise makes turkeys spookier than normal," Robinson said. "So they often move into more open terrain where they can see better. They don t want anything jumping on them."
If open areas are not common in your hunting region, David Hale of Knight and Hale Game Calls suggests a break from traditional calling and listening spots.
"A good place to get is the bottoms," Hale said. "You can hear twice as far in bottoms because the wind blows over the tops of the hills.
"Also, turkeys are more likely to be in the bottoms and hollows on windy days. They like to get somewhere that blocks that wind."
Hale's partner, Harold Knight, is also a believer in sticking to the low ground away from the wind. He advises "calling tactics should be changed by turning up the volume."
"This is one time you can call loud," Knight said. "You cannot call too loud on a windy day. I've always thought about getting one of those bullhorns and new set of batteries to use on windy days. The louder the sound you make, the more likely you are to get a turkey to shock gobble through a hard wind."
Knight and Hale both believe windy days can have positive impacts on hunting.
"One thing's for sure, I'm not going to let it keep me from hunting," Hale said. "If I miss a day, I can't get it back. But it keeps other hunters home and that's when I concentrate on the hard-hunted areas that are full of people when the weather is good.
"I know if I get a turkey to gobble, chances are I can work him. Because in bad weather, turkeys seem to want to be with other turkeys, and they will work faster."
Because of that, Hale said it is important to set up quickly if you hear a turkey.
"He can't be far, so you'd better be ready," Hale said.
