Create a Wild Turkey Shooting Lane
Since the Wild Turkey is a such a formidable prey the typical deer hunting techniques will often not work on them. Their eyesight and hearing is so good that you must put yourself into an ideal situation to bag them.
Do Your Homework
The first and most important part of creating a wild turkey shooting lane is to pattern your birds. Find out 1) what they do; 2) when they do it; 3) why they do it! This information is critical so that you will be able to place yourself into a proper ambush situation.
When you find out their traveling paths and the directions they travel you will be able to pick the ideal spot for you to set up.The next consideration is finding a place to conceal yourself. It is imperative that you are hidden from view and that the slight movements of your body will not be picked up by the Wild Turkey's razor sharp vision. To do this you will need to blend into the surroundings by using full camouflage, using a good natural backdrop of foliage or terrain to stand in front of, and a sight blocking obstacle between you and your prey so that you will be able to move into a shooting position without being seen.
Hide Yourself
Look for an ideal spot along the travel path of the birds. Something that works particularly well is an old evergreen or fir tree. Often they are loose enough that you can trim a few limbs with a pruning shears and actually insert yourself into the tree like a blind. If possible leave a stub of a branch at the proper height for you to use as a gun rest or bow hanger. You will want to have it so your weapon is already facing the direction that you think your shot will go. This decreases the amount of movement you will require to get to a shooting position.
Another way to hide yourself is to look for a large tree with a good sized bush growing next to it. You could place yourself between the tree trunk and the bush or just sit or stand close to the tree trunk with the bush at your back. You need the bush so that your silhouette is not visible against the backdrop or skyline. Remember that a Wild Turkey is looking at the world from the height of about three feet and will almost always be looking up at you.
The Sight Blocker
Another necessary item for your ambush spot is a sight blocker. You want to have some kind of an obstacle to be between you and the Turkey to block the sight line of the Turkey for a short time.
Here is how you want it to work:
The sight block that you are looking for can be almost any naturally occurring object. You could use a tree trunk, a large rock or boulder, a mound of dirt, a bush, a fallen tree. Anything that will block the turkey's line of sight long enough for you to move your weapon into shooting position without the movement being picked up by the bird.
This is the ideal Wild Turkey hunting situation and one that is difficult to achieve but if you know what type of situation you are looking for you are much more likely to find it.
This article was written by Jeff Seley.
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