ROAD HUNTER
Turkeys like being in flocks throughout the fall and winter months, so once your dog busts up a flock and sends them into the trees, you can set up a short distance away and call them back in.
HUNTING FALL TURKEYS WITH A DOG
Legal in most states with an autumn season, here are strategies for bagging the big birds with your pup. STORY AND PHOTOS BY SCOTT HAUGEN
he whites of Echo’s eyes rolled to the left as she tracked movement, but I dared not move. Eight paces in front of us stood a hen turkey that responded to a series of kee-kee calls, as I’d hoped. What I didn’t anticipate was how effective the plan would be. Echo, my pudelpointer, and I sat against the base of a fat Douglas fir tree. Fifteen minutes prior, I’d sent Echo to flush a large flock of turkeys, more than 150
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yards away. The flock was feeding into a strip of open meadow, bordered on both sides by fir trees. The plan was to send Echo in to bust up the flock, call her back to me, then go back in together and call the flock to us using assembly calls. What I didn’t plan on was so many turkeys coming in. When I saw Echo’s eyes roll to the left, I knew more turkeys were approaching. Echo held solid, not so much as moving her head or lifting an ear. When a pair of jakes strode into view 15 yards away, I prepared to shoot once they were in front of us. Then
they paused. I didn’t want to swing on them and shoot over Echo’s head, so I waited. The alert hen, still 8 yards away, hadn’t budged. I let out some soft yelps with a diaphragm call, and a hen behind us replied with a crisp kee-kee. Then the woods came alive. From all directions, the flock started talking in their reassembly chatter. Some birds started dropping from the trees, headed our way. There were nearly 50 turkeys around us. Surrounded by so many birds, I wasn’t sure how long Echo could maintain her composure. As I nestled americanshootingjournal.com 39
