Fixing your tag into a spring gobbler has been described as one of the most difficult tasks in all of hunting, and with goodreason. The wary nature of the bird alone is the single most contributing factor, but if you consider all of the other variables; hens, weather, turkey talk, obstacles....you get the idea. It can become a very frustrating sport. Thiswill be the first in a three part series to help you get started on the right foot. I will cover the basics, as well as some in depth tactics to use when your out hunting this spring. We will focus on the gear thatyou will need in this issue, followed by scouting and finally with calling the bird in.

If you’re into gadgets, then you will feel right at home as a turkey hunter. If you take a look into any spring catalog, you will notice that there are hundreds of items related to turkey hunting. Camouflage is a must. Every single part of your body must be camouflaged or an approaching gobbler will pickyou out in an instant. There are several different patterns in the market. For early in the season, when the leaves have not yet appeared on the trees, a pattern like Realtree Extra Gray or Mossy Oak’s Breakup of Fall Foliage will do thetrick. Changing your upper body garments to a pattern with green shades as the woods bloom and the foliage comes out with help you blend in even better.

Camouflage gloves, hat and facemask will round out your clothing. A good vest is an essential part of your spring turkey gear. You can carry all of your calls and other gear in the vest. Decoys can be stuffed in the back compartment, and the foam seat that comes with the vest will allow you to sit comfortably for hours while working that old long beardin. What to put in your vest is a subject that can fill the pages of this entire magazine and that space wouldn’t be enough! There are a few must haveitems that the beginner shouldhave stuffed into their vest.

Locator calls are an invaluabletool, not only do they give away a gobblers location,but they can help you keep tabs on him in the event that you have to move to a better set up site. Owl hooters are a great way to get response from a rooster tom. The "who cooksforyou, who cooks for you all" call of a barred owl usually gets a tom going in the morning just as pink starts to appear in the eastern sky.There are several styles of owl hooters on the marketand they will all reproduce the owl’s hoots. Practice and become comfortable using one, it is the call that will get your morning off to a good start. Another must have locator call is a crow call. You can use a crow call from first light and right up until closing time at noon. While walking throughthe woods during scouting or on an actual hut, stop and listen as soon as you hear a crow, you will be amazed how many times a turkey will respond to the crows flying overhead. You mayonly hear a faint gobble from a distant tom, but that will be enough to allow you to move into position to try to call that bird in. When blowing your crow call, don’t be bashful with it! Blow it hard and loud. Imitate the three or four note caw-caw-caw of a real crow. When selectinga call, find one that will produce a sharp loud call, the more volume you can get out of it the better. Remember that you are trying to shock a gobble out of a tom, and rarely if ever will a tom respond to a timid series on the call.

Another super locator call that is used by only a handful of hunters, but is gaining in popularity, is a Pileated Woodpecker call. These calls work great latter in the morning and especially in heavily hunted areas.The woodpecker call has an extremely sharp tone to it that willget a pressured tom to gobble.

Loading your vest up with calls can drive you crazy and broke at the same time. There are so many calls out there that having all of them is impossible. You havethree basicchoices when it comes to selecting a turkey call. Diaphragms, frictioncalls, including box and slate calls. I would say first timers would learn to stroke out a yelp the fastest on a box call. Pickup an audio-cassette of turkeys in the wild at your local sporting goods store. You will hear all the sounds a wild turkey will make, and then you can practice your calling while you listento the tape. Slatecalls once meant exactly whatthe name implied,a piece of slateglued into a wooden or plastic pot. The downside to the slate is that they cannot be used in wet or verydamp weather, the moisture effects the tone. Thanks to today’s moderntechnology, other materials are being used in place of the slate. Aluminum, glass, stainless steel, crystal, there are a lot of choices to be made. Each one hasits pros and cons, but the softest sounds come fromthe slate calls. The aluminum slates that cam out a few years ago are dynamite. Theyhave a very sharp,high pitched sound that will get the most stubborn gobblers to sound off. I used an aluminum slate for the first time last year with a great success, it produces ear-ringing cuts and yelps that gobblers can’t stand not to answer. A glass slate will also give you a nice mellow tone, like the slate, and paired with a carbon or Plexiglas striker is nearly waterproof. They are not very difficult to learn or operate, and can duplicate almostall of the calls a turkey, with the exception of a gobble.

Diaphragms are the most difficult tolearntouse, but with a little bit of determined practice, can be mastered in no time. The diaphragms are a wonderful call to usebecause they leave your hands free, and that comes in handy for close in work on a hung up gobbler. There are also an astounding number of diaphragm calls available. The easiest to pick up and learn with would have to be a double or triple reed call. Save the four reed calls with cuts in them for when you havebecome comfortable with the basic two and three reed calls. Throw in a pair of compact binoculars, a jake and hen decoy, your trusty field knife, and your vest will be complete. It soundslike a lot of "stuff" to carry around, but I promise you, as you will see in the following articles, that you will use just about everything packed away in your vest.

Shotgun selection is a matter of personal preference.The only important factor to consider is that your shotgun has an extra full choke that throws a tight, even pattern out to 40yards. Spend some time at the range patterning your gun, experiment with different loads, and stick with the onethat puts most pellets into the turkeys head and neck area. As an example, my Remington 11-87 shoots 3 inch Federal4’s beautifully, shoot 5’sor 6’s out of it, and I could countonone hand the numberof pellets that hit the head neck area.Soyoucan see how important it is to spend some time withyour shotgun. You are not pointing yourshotgun as if you were bird hunting, but actually aiming it like a rifle. The head/neck area is the only way you will bring a 20plus pound bird down. A bodyshot willsend the turkey off running, never to be found.

Select the calls you feelmost comfortable with, pattern your gun, and next month we will be ready too have some fun with some hints on scouting and locating birds.