The Turkey Hunter Podcast With Andy Gagliano | Turkey Hunting Tips, Strategies, And Stories

In part 1 of episode 025, Korby Taylor, host of the Wild Game Hunting Podcast, shares his secrets for success hunting lockjawed gobblers. Lockjawed gobblers are those turkeys that do not gobble, and they can make for a very tough hunt. A gobbling turkey makes our lives easier by giving away his location each and every time he gobbles. If a turkey is not gobbling, then he can hide from us much the same way most other game animals do and make us resort to hunting him the same way we have to hunt those other animals - sitting and waiting. Korby tells us how he got into turkey hunting, what a lockjawed gobbler is, why some turkeys get silent, strategies to help us fill a lockjawed gobbler tag, and calling strategies for those quiet birds. Be sure to listen to part 2 of episode 25 next week, when Korby shares the story of his most memorable turkey hunt with us. Korby is an excellent storyteller, and I'm sure you'll enjoy that part of the episode.

A brief summary of this episode

What could be more exciting and satisfying than calling in and killing a monster wild turkey with a turkey call that you made yourself? Jimi Lee discusses the wide range of products and supplies that Brookside Game Calls sells to its customers who want to build their own turkey calls.

Josh Carney, Son of the South, shares his turkey hunting schedule with us for this Spring as well as shows us his amazing talent. Awesome guy! Keep an eye out for him in an hour long interview on The Turkey Hunter Podcast coming soon!

Bobby Pinson with the World Turkey Hunting Championship tells us how the World Turkey Hunting Championship works. There are a lot of great turkey callers around this country, but being a great turkey caller does not necessarily put meat in your freezer.  The World Turkey Hunting Championship has hunters putting their money where their mouthcall is.

In part 2 of episode 23, Jerick Henley with Chain Ranch Outfitters shares the story of his most recent successful turkey hunt, 3 things we must do before booking our next outfitted turkey hunt, and how much we should tip our guides and camp cooks. This is information you must know before you plan your next turkey hunting adventure.  Also, as an added bonus for the listeners to this episode, I share how you can get my list of 45 questions that I use when interviewing outfitters for my turkey hunts. The list of questions is a great starting point when interviewing outfitters, and those questions can really help to shed light on exactly what you can expect when you arrive in camp after booking your hunt.

In episode 023, Jerick Henley with Chain Ranch Outfitters in Kansas and Oklahoma shares tips and tricks to have the most satisfaction with outfitted turkey hunts. Most of us do not have the luxury of traveling the country on all expenses paid turkey hunting adventures for the two and a half months of turkey season, but we still want to occasionally go on an out of state turkey hunt to attempt to complete our Grand Slam or just to look at some different trees and turkeys.  Hunting public land is not always the best option to maximize the opportunities available with time that we can allot towards a "turkey vacation." Booking an outfitted turkey hunt can often give us the best opportunity to harvest a wild turkey on a short trip to unfamiliar lands since the hunting is typically done on private, often less pressured, lands with someone who knows the habits and patterns of the birds residing on that property. The problem that most of us have when booking outfitted turkey hunts is that we don't know the best way

Click to download and subscribe to other episodes of The Turkey Hunter Podcast. In episode 022, Karen Lee, who is Vice President of Communications with the NWTF, gives us a preview of the 2015 NWTF Convention and Sports Show that will take place February 13 - 15 at the Gaylord Opryland Resort. The NWTF believes this year's show will be their biggest and best ever, and by looking at the event billing it certainly appears that it will be.  Karen tells us all about the calling contests, taxidermy contests, call making competitions, the exhibitors, the seminars, autograph sessions with pros and celebrities, and tons of activities for the kids as well. Tune in to this week's episode to learn why you can't afford to miss the convention and sports show this year and also to hear Karen and I practicing our team owl hooting/gobbling competition routine.  It is quite funny.

In this episode of The Turkey Hunter Podcast, Jay Scott shares a very cool story of a turkey hunting outing where he was not the only hunter who was hunting the turkeys. The turkeys' reaction to the other hunter is fascinating and completely different than I would have thought. Listen in as Jay tells the story of turkeys vs bobcat in this week's episode. Also, listen in to the very end of the show where I premiere a new segment of The Turkey Hunter Podcast called, "Fun with Editing" where I do just that.  I have fun playing with some of the audio snippets from the show with my audio editing software. I hope you enjoy the show and the new segment. Thanks for listening!

In part 2 of Episode 021, Jay Scott with The Big Buck Registry's Big Buck Podcast shares with us some of his field turkey hunting stories and strategies as well. Hunting field turkeys can be quite different than hunting turkeys that are hanging out in the woods.  Actually, most of the time, they are the same exact turkeys.  They just have dual personalities - a woods personality and a field personality, and we have to keep those differences in mind when we are chasing turkeys this spring. Listen to Jay and Andy share stories about calling turkeys across creeks, Jay's most recent successful turkey hunt, the advantages of hunting on Wednesday's, and his thoughts about using decoys, and the importance of knowing when to move on a turkey. Sit back, relax, and enjoy part 2 of Episode 021 of The Turkey Hunter Podcast - Hunting Field Turkeys with Jay Scott

Field turkeys and woods turkeys are generally the same exact turkeys, but turkeys do not act the same when they are in fields as they do when they are in the woods.  Therefore, we cannot use the same hunting strategies on turkeys that are in fields as we do with turkeys that are in the woods.   Jay Scott, with the Big Buck Registry's Big Buck Podcast, shares many different field turkey tactics with us in this episode.  In part 1 of the episode, Jay tells us the awesome and funny story of how he got into turkey hunting, and how patience is a must have virtue while we are hunting fields.  Be sure to listen to this week's episode of The Turkey Hunter Podcast and become a better field turkey hunter this spring.

In this episode of The Turkey Hunter Podcast, Bob Eriksen, who is a wildlife biologist with the NWTF, shares his knowledge of the breeding cycle of wild turkey hens and gobblers. Bob tells us what activities that we need to avoid on our properties while hens are nesting.  Many times, land owners and managers can destroy nests and even kill hens who are sitting on those nests by doing certain things when hens are nesting.  Oftentimes, hens that have their nests destroyed will renest, but that is not always successful for them.  He also shares the actions that we can take on our properties to improve nesting success.  Hens can nest almost anywhere; however, some habitats are better for nesting than others.  We, as land managers and owners, can perform certain management techniques that can actually enhance the nesting habitat.  Logging, burning, and other techniques can help improve the numbers of turkeys on our properties. Bob shares his knowledge of what makes certain habitats more suitable for brood rearing

Bob Eriksen has been a wildlife biologist with the NWTF for the past 13 years.  Bob has participated in many studies on wild turkeys over those years, and he has gained a tremendous amount of knowledge of the bird that he now spends his days studying.  In part 1of Episode 020, Bob helps us understand the breeding cycle of hens so we can learn more about the Spring habits of the wild turkey.  Here are some of the things you'll learn when you tune in to this episode of The Turkey Hunter Podcast: 1. How many eggs the average hen lays each day and each season. 2. How much the peak season varies from north to south. 3. What factor gets hens in the mood to mate. 4. Why jakes tend to group up with other jakes at the end of the season. 5. How much more likely a mature hen is to nest successfully than a juvenile.  6. Ideal nesting habitat. 7. When hens will start sitting on nests full time. 8. Why a hen only needs to be bred once to lay a clutch of 10 - 12 eggs. 9. How long it takes a hen to start laying eggs after sh

Turkey hunter, John Rowell, recounts the story of killing a once in a lifetime wild turkey in Missouri.  John tells the story of what starts out to be a tough hunt because of retaliation against his hunting party by the outfitter that John paid to hunt in Missouri. The owner mistakenly associated John with a hunter who had been to his operation in previous years and had killed more turkeys than he was allotted on the unguided hunts.  After that unethical "hunter" cleared the situation up with the outfitter and let him know that John and his group should not be punished because of his actions in years past, the outfitter opened up more ranches to John and his group, but time was against John at that point who had one day remaining on his out of state hunt. On the last morning of the hunt, John heard shots from all around the ranch he was hunting as his hunting partners were filling their tags, but John was not having any luck.  It looked like John was going to go home empty handed until a gobbling bird entered

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

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 gr

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.