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

Turkey Hunting Solo Turkey hunting solo can be a rather intimidating thought for newer turkey hunters who are afraid to fail in the turkey woods. Many new hunters will not take to the woods by themselves for fear of frustration of not knowing the sport. Today, I tackle the subject of turkey hunting solo, and I offer a few helpful hints to newer turkey hunters to hopefully provide a little self confidence before they head to the woods alone. The main takeaway from today's show is that new turkey hunters should get in the turkey woods, have fun, make smart decisions, embrace mistakes, and learn from those mistakes.

Cooking Wild Turkey with Scott Leysath This week I'm talking about cooking wild turkey with Scott Leysath, The Sporting Chef. We discuss how to remove that tough silver sinew that surrounds each wild turkey breast. We talk about brining to enhance the flavor of any bird we want to cook, and how we can season our brine to add even more flavor to our turkeys. Scott shares some recipes for preparing and cooking wild turkeys that will make your mouth water as well as which herbs and spices seem to always go well with wild turkey. Scott also tells us the best way to prepare wild turkey thighs so that the meat falls off of the bone and is mouth watering tender after it is cooked. We talk about making stock with the legs, and we also talk about the goodness of bone broth.

Getting Permission to Turkey Hunt Private Land For those of us who only hunt public land, getting permission to turkey hunt private land can turn our success level around so that we are consistently filling tags each season because private land turkeys are often less pressured than public land wild turkeys are. The problem with getting access to hunt private land is getting access to hunt private land. Most of us don't know where to start to gain access to some private land hunting honey holds. That is exactly what we are talking about in this week's episode. I discuss how to find those private land parcels that will most likely give us the best opportunity for success, and I talk about some do's and don'ts when we approach the land owners to ask for access. Listen in!

Traveling with Your Own Firearm to Turkey Hunt Traveling and turkey hunting are both very exciting activities by themselves. However, when we combine those two activities into one, there are not many things we do that can rival the fun we can have while enjoying both at the same time. Traveling with your own firearm to turkey hunt can make our travels a little bit more stressful than say a normal family vacation may be. There are so many rules and regulations of the travel carriers that we need to keep in mind when preparing for our trip as well as the laws and regulations governing firearms put in place by our local and state governments. In today's episode of The Turkey Hunter, I cover some considerations we need to keep in mind when traveling with your own firearm to turkey hunt. So, listen in as we talk about firearms and ammunition on planes, trains, and automobiles. https://www.nraila.org/articles/20150101/guide-to-the-interstate-transportation https://www.amtrak.com/firearms-in-checked-baggage https://www.tsa.gov/travel/transporting-firearms-and-ammunition

What Makes a Shotgun a Turkey Hunting Shotgun This week, I'm discussing what makes a shotgun a "turkey hunting shotgun." Any shotgun can kill a turkey when shooting the right shells, at the right point of aim, at a turkey at the proper distance. However, there are certain things that we need to know about guns in order for us to have any sort of success in the turkey woods. To make any shotgun into a turkey hunting shotgun, there are certain things that we need to look for in a gun that we are going to use for hunting wild turkeys. 1. Bore or Gauge - we want to be sure we are shooting a gun that we can handle. Some gauges are just too heavy and have too much recoil for some shooters. 2. Chamber Length - having the proper chamber length for our gauge and what we intend to hunt with the turkeys is important to ensuring our success when the opportunity arises. 3. Action - the type of the action of the gun may seem insignificant, but shooting a gun with the type of action best suited for real life hunting scenarios is very important. 4. Fit - a gun that fits properly is a gun that will miss less frequently and will result in a much more happy hunting experience. 5. Length of the Barrel - Years ago, the thought process with shotgun barrels was the longer the barrel the better the shot and shotgun. That is not the case today. With today's aggressive choke tubes, a short barrel with the correct choke tube in it will shoot just as well as a long barrel shotgun. 6. Sights - Front bead, front and rear bead, Rifle Sights, holographic sights, and scopes are all sight options for our turkey hunting shotguns. 7. Recoil Pads - a great recoil pad on a turkey hunting shotgun can mean the difference in a lower recoil and fewer pulled shots and more accurate followup shots. 8. Gunsmithed Modifications - Back boring, Lengthening the bore, and porting are modifications that need to be made by a gunsmith to help our guns shoot better. But do those modifications really work that well? 9. Looks - The more camouflage we can make our guns the less chance we have of being seen by a wild turkey. Listen in to this week's show to hear more about what makes a shotgun a turkey hunting shotgun.

Interviewing a Turkey Hunting Outfitter This week I interview a turkey hunting outfitter to question him about his services and accommodations. This past spring, my turkey hunting buddies and I chose to hunt in Idaho and Washington for our 2018 out of state spring turkey hunt. We also decided that hunting with an outfitter is how we need to tackle the states that are so far from home due to time constraints and the fact that we need to kill 8 turkeys in approximately 6 days of hunting. That is a tall enough task when a turkey hunter has an outfitter who knows where the birds are and what they do during the day, but it is an extremely tough task when trying to accomplish that feat on public land that turkey hunter has never been on before. So, the process of interviewing outfitters started, and I've recorded one of those initial interviews that I had with an outfitter for today's show. I don't get too terribly in depth with my questioning at this point in the process because I'm taking a list of about 10 outfitters and trying to weed that down to about 3 or 4 outfitters who will move on to the next round of interviewing. The next round of interviewing is where I'll dig into more detail about hunting style as well as details about accommodations. Listen in to this week's interview and see if there is any information you can gleen from it. Also, you will learn how to get my list of 45 questions to ask a turkey hunting outfitter at the end of the episode.

Habitat Management for Wild Turkeys with Grant Woods This week I discuss habitat management for wild turkeys with Grant Woods with www.GrowingDeer.TV. Grant is a wildlife biologist who specializes in habitat management planning for landowners around the US. He also hosts a weekly show on his website where he shares some of the management techniques that he uses on his own property, called The Proving Grounds. Grant's videos are very well produced and put together and chocked full of great information that any turkey hunter can use to improve his/her hunting land - whether that is public hunting land or private ground. Grant and I discuss what a wild turkey might consider to be the perfect blend of forest land and fields. We also talk about how much of those fields we need to turn into nesting habitat and brood rearing habitat. We talk a good bit about how prescribed fire can be used to improve our hunting property and how Grant uses it to manage his nesting and brood rearing areas as well. Finally, we talk about the best forage crops we can plant for our wild turkeys and Grant shares with us his secret about planting amazing food plots without using any fertilizer. Listen in this week and let Grant help you with habitat management for wild turkeys on your property.

Turkey Hunting Small Parcels In this week's episode, I discuss a few of the things that I learned turkey hunting small parcels of land this past turkey season. I own almost 24 acres of land in central Alabama, and I spent several days turkey hunting that parcel this past season in search of a tom. I made several mistakes while hunting this small parcel, and I share those experiences so we can all learn from them. Turkey hunting small parcels is a topic that was suggested by Tracy Long, a listener to the show. Listen in to this week's episode!

Protecting Your Public Land Access This week, I'm interviewing Andrew Maxwell regarding Backcountry Hunters and Anglers. Backcountry Hunters and Anglers is a non profit organization which seeks to ensure North America's outdoor heritage of hunting and fishing in a natural setting, through education and work on behalf of wild public lands and waters. Listen in and see if BHA may be an organization that you are interested in supporting.

Turkey Men with Thomas Pero In this week's episode, I interview Thomas Pero with Wild River Press about his new book, Turkey Men. Turkey Men is a book about the men who have accomplished the goal of killing a turkey in all 49 states that have wild turkeys in them. We learn about Thomas' motivation for writing the book as well as how long it took him to track down the hunters that he interviewed for the book. We also learn what one common trait that Thomas saw in each of the men that he interviewed that he feels make them so good at what they do. The interview with Thomas is fun and informative. The book, Turkey Men, is a very well put together piece that I feel like any "died in the wool" turkey hunter will want to read and add to his/her library. Listen in!

Handling the Disappointment of Turkey Hunting We turkey hunters often spend a great deal of time, effort, and money in preparing for turkey season and for turkey hunting trips out of state or out of the country. We spend money on gasoline, groceries, licenses and tags, calls, clothing, guns, shotgun shells, hunting club dues, planting and maintaining food plots, just to name a few expenses. In doing all of our preparations, we often visualize ourselves and how we will react after we fill a tag with a big tom. These visualizations often turn into expectations, and that is where we can sometimes have the wrong attitude about our successes or failures in the turkey woods. In this episode, Robbie Kroger shares with us the experience of his recent trip to Mexico to hunt the Ocellated turkey. Robbie went to Mexico almost expecting to harvest a turkey, but what happened after he arrived turned those expectations into frustration. Listen in as Robbie shares his story of his Ocellated turkey hunt in Mexico, and how he has managed to deal with the outcome of that trip.

Tungsten Super Shot (TSS) and Wild Turkeys with Nick Charney This week I interview Nick Charney with Apex Ammunition to discuss Tungsten Super Shot and its performance for hunting turkeys. I ask Nick what the benefits of Tungsten Super Shot are over basic lead shot and even the other shot options which are more dense than lead when turkey hunting. I ask if we can use a smaller shot size in TSS than the customary #4, #5, or #6 shot sizes in lead. We discuss how some states are not allowing lead shot to be used any longer for hunting on any public lands and how TSS overcomes that environmental issue. We discuss why shooting shorter length shells in TSS can often yield the same, if not better, results than longer (heavier recoiled) lead loads. We also discuss why shooting a smaller/lighter gauge shotgun with TSS can yield the same, if not better, results than a heavier gauge gun. We also discuss the availability of Tungsten Super Shot in the United States, and why it costs more than lead shot does. Listen in and learn why your old lead shotgun shells may be causing you to carry more weight around in the woods and causing you to deal with more recoil when shooting than you really need to. Resources: https://apexmunition.com/ https://www.facebook.com/apexammuntion/

2017 Turkey Hunting Season Recap and Lessons Learned Cameron joins me this week to recap our 2017 turkey hunting seasons and to talk about the lessons we learned and re-learned this season. We talk about the differences between turkey hunting in Alabama and in other states. We also share the stories of our most exciting hunts from the season. We discuss our recent turkey hunting trip to North Carolina where Cameron fired a warning shot at a public land turkey. Listen in as we share some laughs, stories, and some tips as well.

Late Season Turkey Hunting Tips Late season turkey hunting can be difficult at times as toms often find themselves being without female company for long periods of times for the first time in months. Many times we can go days on end without hearing a turkey gobble, and then the next day the turkeys are gobbling to beat the band. There are some things that we can do to help increase our chances of being successful in filling that last tag or two on a late season tom. Here are some late season turkey hunting tips to help you when the going gets tough.

This week I answer several questions from listeners to the show. From "Help me kill this turkey" to "What does a cluck and purr really mean in turkey talk?" I cover a lot of topics and try to help some of you guys to kill another turkey or two this season.

Etiquette and Safety for Turkey Hunting Public Land This week, I speak with Corporal Dave Painter with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources about etiquette and safety for turkey hunting public land. Corporal Painter has been a conservation officer with the state of Michigan for over 20 years, and he has hands on experience in dealing with lots of hunters on lots of public land and dealing with issues that arise in those situations. We discuss 1. having other hunters come into the area you are hunting while you are working turkeys and how you should handle that situation. 2. how to handle the situation when you arrive at your public land hunting spot and someone else is in the area. 3. the issues that walk-in hunting areas can present for us as we often don't have vehicles parked in a specific area to let others know we are hunting there. 4. confronting someone who is doing something unethical on public land. 5. confronting someone who is doing something illegal on public land. 6. first hand accounts of situations that have arisen in the past between hunters on public land, and 7. the story of his most recent successful turkey hunt and the one or two things that made that hunt a success. In addition to the interview with Corporal Painter, I share the lost interview from the NWTF Convention and Sports Show in Nashville from this past February. To subscribe to The Turkey Hunter podcast premium content, please click the following link and submit your payment, create a username and password, and use those to log into the Podbean app on your mobile device or at www.theturkeyhunterpodcast.com. To subscribe to premium content, please click this link: https://www.podbean.com/premium-signup/qqm4i-18c9a5/The+Turkey+Hunter+Podcast+with+Andy+Gagliano+%7C+Turkey+Hunting+Tips%2C+Strategies%2C+and+Stories

The Struggles of a Turkey Hunter This week, I interview a listener, Joe Kosalko, who emailed me to ask for some help in figuring out what is going on with the turkeys where he hunts in New Mexico. Joe struggles with turkeys that will gobble a few times on the roost, fly down and not say a word for the rest of the day. We discuss what the possible problems could be and what he can do to overcome those issues and hopefully fill a tag or two this spring. Joe's season starts April 15, and he's ready to get out into the woods to try his luck with those New Mexico Merriam's turkeys.

Understanding the Body Language of Wild Turkeys with Phillip Vanderpool Phillip Vanderpool with The Virtue TV joins me this week to help with understanding the body language of wild turkeys. Learn the signs of what to look for in a nervous turkey, and how to calm that nervous bird back down. Learn the signs of what to look for in a bird that is content and is coming to your setup. Learn what the colors the gobbler displays in his head, neck, and waddles mean and how to interpret what the gobbler's emotions are when those colors change.

Scouting Advice from Turkey Hunting Pros This week Cameron and I have some scouting advice from turkey hunting pros for your listening pleasure. In fact, Cameron brings the majority of this week's show to you as I vacation at the beach before turkey season starts. Cameron interviews Preston Pittman, Chris Parrish, Jimmy Primos, Harold Knight, Eddie Salter, and Tony Reynolds. He asks them 3 questions about scouting public land because Cameron is having difficulty locating turkeys on some of the public land around Birmingham, Alabama. Listen in and hear what advice some of the turkey hunting pros have to offer Cameron in this week's episode.

Dissecting A Box Call with Bob Fulcher This week, we are dissecting a box call with Bob Fulcher with Shadetree Callers. Tune in to learn how the thickness of the walls and bottom of a call affect the sound of the call. We also talk about tuning box calls with a pocket knife, and the difference between a one piece box call and a laminate call. We talk about how the density of the wood affects the sound of a box call and whether or not we want a box call that is made 100% of the same type of wood. After we talk box calls and listen to the difference in some of the box calls that Bob makes at Shadetree Callers, we get to hear the story of Bob's most recent successful turkey hunt and one or two of the things that made that hunt a success. Listen in and learn about box calls when we start dissecting a box call.

Early Season Turkey Hunting Strategies with Ernie Calandrelli Ernie Calandrelli joins me this week to discuss early season turkey hunting strategies. Early season in the turkey woods can be a tale of two seasons. The big dominant Toms are busy tending to their harem of hens; and, in doing so, more often than not are unwilling to respond and come into our calling. The subordinate, or satellite Toms, are looking for love in all the wrong places, and they will often run over us to get to that “hen” that they think is begging for attention. In saying that, for us hunters, early season turkey hunting consists of days that are really good and days that are really bad, with the majority of our days being the latter. When dealing with early season turkeys, we can do certain things to increase the odds of being successful. One of those strategies we can try is to mock the boss hen and try to get her angry enough to come into our setup to fight that hen that is trying to tell her and the other turkeys in the area what to do. Ernie and I discuss that strategy as well as other early season turkey hunting strategies in this week’s episode. Listen in and be sure to leave a comment to let me know what your favorite, and most successful, early season turkey hunting strategy is.

In this episode of The Turkey Hunter, I conduct the 1 question interviews with turkey hunting pros at the NWTF Convention and Sports Show in Nashville. Hear the 1 thing that increased the turkey hunting success rates around for guys like Preston Pittman, Eddie Salter, Ernie Calandrelli, Ray Eye, Harold Knight, Chris Parrish, Trent Masterson, Matt Morrett, and Jimmy Primos. I guarantee you will learn something about turkey hunting in this week’s show. Listen in and enjoy.

2017 NWTF Convention Recap In this week's episode, I recap the 2017 NWTF Convention and Sports Show that took place in Nashville, TN. With what is sure to be a record breaking crowd in attendance over the weekend, thousands of people enjoyed seminars, calling contests, and an exhibition hall full of vendor booths selling anything from shotguns to turkey calls to facemasks to cover a turkey hunter's face. While all of this excitement was going on in the convention and sports show, I was wandering around recruiting people to let me record an interview with them. This interview was one with a twist - it consisted of one question. The real trick to the one question is that there really was not one answer, and there certainly was not one right answer. I strictly wanted to know "What is the one thing that elevated your success level in the turkey woods from that of being a beginner to where you are consistently killing turkeys year in and year out?" That is it! That is the one question from the one question interview. I got some really good answers, and I share those with you in this week's episode. Listen in and enjoy the 2017 NWTF Convention Recap and my one question interviews with attendees of the convention.

Part 2 of Advanced Trapping Sets for Wild Turkey Predators with Trent Masterson In this week's episode I continue the conversation with Trent Masterson about some advanced trapping sets for wild turkey predators - adult and poult wild turkey predators mostly. Coyotes are extremely wary, and they are quick to catch on to trapping in their home area. When they catch on, they get more and more difficult to trap and remove from the area. Trent gives some tips on how we can catch more of those wary coyotes before they catch our nesting hens and vulnerable poults. Trent also discusses how to catch the best hunters in the woods - bobcats. Their inquisitive nature makes them easier to trap than coyotes, but there are some techniques that we can use to increase our odds of success when seeking these turkey killers. Foxes are also a predator that will destroy a nest of eggs or catch our poults and nesting hens, and we need to remove as many foxes as we can to help our turkey population too. Trent and I discuss the main differences in coyote trap sets and fox trap sets. Lastly, we discuss how to dispatch the animals we have in our traps effectively and humanely. Trent also gives us some information on the National Trapper's Association and how we can get involved with that organization, even if we do not trap since the animal rights groups are coming after trappers as well as hunters.

Trent Masterson joins me this week to discuss advanced trapping sets for wild turkey predators. If you want to have more turkeys to observe and hunt on your property, there are 2 main things that you can do to really help to increase your population. One of those is to improve the habitat that the turkeys have. The second activity is to trap predators. More often than not, those predators that have seen, heard, and smelled other predators caught in traps get wary and hard to catch. That is exactly what we are discussing in this episode - advanced trapping sets for wild turkey predators. Because this interview with Trent ran almost 2 hours, I've split the interview into 2 parts. In this part of the interview, Trent and I discuss advanced trapping sets for nest predators of wild turkeys, so we talk coons, skunks, and possums. Listen in as we discuss what we need to know to catch these more wary wild turkey predators.

Preston Pittman with Pittman Game Calls and Longleaf Camo joins me today to discuss pre season scouting for wild turkeys. We talk about when we need to start our pre season scouting for wild turkeys, what we need to be looking for when we scout, when we should stop our scouting for turkeys, and some of the most common mistakes we make when scouting. In addition to learning some tips to scout your hunting property before turkey season starts, we also get to hear some great turkey hunting stories from Preston as well.

I received a show suggestion from Friend of the Show, Griff Baute, to do a show on turkey hunting gear, so today I'm sharing with you what I carry in my turkey hunting vest. I'm going to give you the list of what I keep in my turkey hunting vest 24/7, what I rotate in and out of my turkey hunting vest, and what I need to put in my turkey hunting vest before this season starts. After listening to the show, send me an email with the 1 thing that you will not go into the turkey woods without being in your vest.

Join me as I interview Tim Knight and Corey New about bowhunting turkeys without a blind. A wild turkey's eyesight is undoubtedly the best of any big game species in North America. They have an uncanny ability to pick out any type of movement or something that is just not right in the woods. Because of their incredible eyesight, bowhunting turkeys without a blind may seem like it is an impossible feat, but it is not. As of today's date, Tim Knight has killed 84 turkeys with a bow and without a blind, and in this episode I pick his brain about how he is so successful doing it. We talk bow setup, shot placement, camouflage, decoys, and ideal range for a bow shot. In addition, we share some hunting stories, and Tim even shares a recipe or three with us. This episode is a new one on my favorite episode list because I got so much more out of Tim than I had planned and because I had a great time conducting the interview. Be sure to listen in to this episode to learn all you can about bowhunting turkeys without a blind, hear some great hunting stories, and laugh along with us as well.

Join Pete Muller, Public Relations Specialist with the National Wild Turkey Federation, and I as we talk about the upcoming NWTF Convention and Sports Show in Nashville. The NWTF Convention and Sports Show is the premiere turkey hunting and outdoor show held in the Southeast. The show consist of over 600 exhibitors, taxidermy contests, turkey call contests, turkey calling contests, seminars, live auctions, parties, and live entertainment. This year's show will be held at the Opryland Hotel in Nashville in February, and it truly is an event that you won't want to miss. Listen in to this week's episode to learn more about the 2017 NWTF Convention and Sports Show.

In this episode, I share a conversation that I had with Josh Pollock, who is a wildlife biologist in Utah, where I discuss turkey populations and my best chance for success on my upcoming hunt there. I want to be sure I am setting myself and my hunting buddies up for the best chance for success, especially when preparing for a public land hunt. One of the best ways to do that is to ask the people who know the most about the land you'll be hunting where you can find huntable birds. That is exactly what I do in this week's episode. Early in the conversation with Josh Pollock, I ask what the chances of success are in Southern Utah, and the next thing I know he is telling me exactly where I should start in my search for birds. This type of assistance is exactly what we all are looking for when we are preparing for a public land hunt. Listen in to hear some of the questions I ask Josh so you can write them down and ask the biologist or game warden who is over your favorite public hunting lands the same questions. I also briefly discuss the upcoming NWTF Convention and Sports Show and my request for show topic ideas as well as the ongoing listener survey.

In this episode, I ask you to help me help you be a better turkey hunter in 2017. You can help me help you in 2 ways. First, email me at andy at iamturkeyhunting with one idea or suggestion for a show topic. Your suggestion can be very specific or very general. It doesn't matter. Your suggestion should be what you want or need help with or want to learn more about that will help you to be a better turkey hunter this coming season. The second favor is to complete a short survey for me. You can access the survey by texting "helpandy" to 44222. Once you do this, you will receive a text asking you to reply with only your email address. After you reply with your email address, you will receive an email from me containing the link to the survey. Answer the quick 10 question survey, and then you are done. The survey will help me to get to know you better by asking what I can do to help you more and to improve the show as well. Your participation in the survey will be greatly appreciated. The only other thing I ask of you in this week's episode is to have a safe and happy New Year!

This week, I have another followup interview with a guest who has been on the show before. Jenna Barron joins us to give us an update on how her fall turkey season went and an update on Ms. Jeffrey, her farm turkey who had quite the following on Facebook. Jenna shares a story on how she was able to acquire access to some private property for turkey hunting and that the opportunity to hunt that property really paid off for her and her husband.

Some interviews that I do spark quite a few questions by listeners, and I thought that doing follow-up interviews with those same guests would be a great idea. This week, I have the first follow-up interview for you guys, and it is with Dave Owens who you probably recognize from Episode 053 where we talked about how to choose public land hunting spots. Dave is back on this week to answer some of the questions you guys have asked me about him and to give us an update on the status of his US Super Slam.

Roger Shields with the Florida Fish and Wild Game Conservation Commission is on the show to talk about Osceola wild turkeys. The Osceola wild turkey is great fun to hunt. Their habitat is some of the harshest in the country, and Osceola's have an amazing ability to disappear into nowhere. With plenty of public and private land to hunt in Osceola range, there are no shortages of opportunities to harvest an Osceola wild turkey to complete your Grand Slam.

In this week's episode, an experienced hunter shares the story of his recent hunting accident and shares a gun safety reminder with us. Most of us, at one time or another, have a lapse of judgement when handling a firearm. Fortunately, most of the time, nothing bad or harmful happens and we often don't even realize what we just got away with because nothing negative happened. A friend of mine recently shot himself in the hand while hunting because he committed two firearm safety sins on one hunt. Today, he shares the story of how the accident happened as a reminder for us to slow down and think before we make a big mistake when handling guns.

Happy Thanksgiving!

In preparation for Thanksgiving dinner, here are 3 quick and easy wild turkey recipes. First up, we have wild turkey poppers. I think they are called poppers because they are so good they'll make your eyes will pop out of your head. Second, we have a wild turkey thigh and leg wild rice soup. This soup is delicious and simple to make. And, last but not least, is wild turkey steaks. This very easy recipe is one of my favorites because it is absolutely delicious. Listen in and pick a recipe to prepare some wild turkey for your family this Thanksgiving. Even if you don't have enough wild turkey to feed everyone, you can make a great first course or appetizer with 1/2 of a turkey breast. Also, if you have a favorite wild turkey recipe, please send it to me. I'll try it, of course, but I'll also share it with The Turkey Hunter family as well. Listen in to this week's episode. I hope you enjoy it, and I wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving!

In this episode I take you on a little field trip to the shooting range to pattern my new turkey hunting shotgun. I shoot 3 different chokes and two different shotgun shells through each choke tube to see which choke and shotgun shell patterns the best.

My birthday has come and gone, and my new turkey hunting shotgun has been tricked out with all of my birthday gifts from my family members. I've gotten it ready to take to the range, and I'll be doing that this coming weekend. I'll also be recording that sighting/shooting session for future playback on the show. In addition to all of this gun talk, I also have more gun talk for you in this week's episode as I answer questions about shotguns from a listener and relative newbie to the sport of turkey hunting. Listen in!

Today I have a quick tip for our new turkey hunters, and that is to try to start thinking more like a turkey when hunting. We can never know what a turkey is thinking with 100% certainty, but I can with 100% certainty tell you that it is related to at least one thing. That one thing is either food/water, shelter/cover, safety, and the need to breed. If we start out knowing what the turkeys want is that simple, then we can start to pay more attention to our surroundings and the woods that we are hunting in to find more turkeys. If we can think more like a turkey, then we should be able to find more turkeys. If we can find more turkeys, then we should be able to tag more turkeys.

I recently bought a new shotgun, and I'm now ready to turn that new shotgun into a new turkey hunting shotgun. There are some very simple and inexpensive modifications that one can make to a shotgun to turn it into a dedicated turkey hunting shotgun. Some of the modifications I am making to this gun are replacing the wooden stock with a lightweight synthetic stock, adding rifle sights to the barrel, adding spacers to the stock for proper fit, a new recoil pad, sling swivel tube cap, a neoprene sling, and of course a turkey choke. Listen in as I talk about the upcoming modifications and my reasons for making those mods. This will be an ongoing short term project, and I will be recording follow up episodes to cover new information as I weed through shotgun shell and turkey choke combinations to find the perfect shooting one for this gun.

Scott Lerich, Regional Biologist with the NWTF, and I discuss Merriam's wild turkeys in this week's episode. We talk about the extensive travel by the Merriam's turkeys, their vocal nature, where to find them in the fall and spring, and what makes them unique and their own subspecies of wild turkeys. Listen in and get some tips on where you can find birds in the fall and spring, and hopefully this episode will help you to put a tag on a bird this coming season.

A replay of one of my favorite episodes of the show where I have my buddy, John, on the show to tell the story of The Texas Decoy Massacre. I also have some wild turkey news bites for you as well.

Finding wild turkeys in the fall can be fairly difficult because as turkey flocks get larger for the winter there are fewer flocks of turkeys to locate. Obviously, if you can't find turkeys, then you can't kill turkeys. So, in this week I talk about finding wild turkeys in the fall by looking for their food sources and water sources as well. Wild turkeys concentrate primarily on preparing for what can be a long hard winter by eating foods high in protein and fats. These foods can be found in fields and in the woods, and the turkeys know exactly where to locate those food sources. The key to finding success in the fall turkey woods is for you to know exactly where to locate those food sources as well. Water can be another great place to locate turkeys in the fall for areas that get little rainfall that time of year. Wild turkeys must have water to survive. When a drought comes along and causes the mud puddles and small ditches and creeks to dry up, the turkeys will start traveling to find water or traveling to find larger water sources that haven't (or won't) go dry. Also, in this week's episode, I share some turkey hunting news from around the United States. As fall seasons begin in many areas, opportunities to hunt turkeys this fall are extremely plentiful if you are willing to travel to take advantage of them. I share news on NY, WV, NE, and Ontario, Canada this week.

Episode 100 of The Turkey Hunter podcast is kind of a big deal, so we are doing something a little unique to celebrate. This week the tables are turned, and Cameron (The Turkey Hunter podcast intern) is interviewing me (The Turkey Hunter podcast host) in this episode. Listen in as I tackle the Rapid Fire Q&A and answer several other questions that Cameron has written to ask me.

This week I'm going to cover a turkey hunting strategy for spring and fall. Try this strategy during both seasons when things aren't quite going your way, and see if this unconventional trick may help you to fill a tag.

In this episode, I bust 3 more turkey hunting myths. 1. Turkeys won't go downhill. 2. A spooked turkey equals a ruined hunt. 3. Calling is everything. Newbie turkey hunters are often turned away from turkey hunting because they feel like there is just too much to the sport to learn and master. They hear us experienced turkey hunters say turkeys won't do this and turkeys don't do that. The truth of the matter is that turkeys are wild animals and they will do whatever they feel like doing at the time. Let's face it, that is why we turkey hunt to start with.

In this week's episode of The Turkey Hunter, I share a quick PSA regarding the Under Armor Hunt and Sarah Bowmar break up.

In this episode, Mike Schiavone with the New York DEC discusses the science behind setting turkey hunting seasons and bag limits. With turkey populations on the decline in many parts of the country, our state wildlife biologists and game and fish department officials have a difficult task of setting the length of our turkey hunting seasons and setting our bag limits as well. The difficulty comes in when trying to manage the population of the animals and keeping hunters happy as well. Mike Schiavone is one of the people tasked with that difficult assignment in the state of New York, and he shares the factors that go into setting turkey hunting season length and bag limits. Mike also shares the reasons he thinks turkey populations are on the decline in many parts of the state of NY, and he leaves us with some opportunities that we hunters can take advantage of to help our game and fish departments better do their jobs. Listen in and enjoy episode 096 - The Science Behind Setting Turkey Hunting Seasons and Bag Limits.

In this week's episode, I speak with Jenna Barron to hear and answer the story of and questions from a newbie turkey hunter. Jenna has never hunted before, and she has a burning desire to get into the woods to turkey hunt this fall. I asked Jenna to come on to the show to share her story as to why she wants to start hunting at this point in her life, and to see if I can help to get her a little higher up that learning curve that all of us turkey hunters have experienced in our turkey hunting careers. Tags: Turkey Hunting, Turkey Hunter, Wild turkeys, turkey hunting Washington, the turkey hunter podcast, fall turkey hunting, beginner turkey hunter