ROADHUNTER: HUNTING FALL TURKEYS WITH A DOG

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

The 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 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

my cheek into the shotgun, ready to pull the trigger on a jake, a big tom came striding out of the timber. At 35 yards, the tom crumpled and we had our Thanksgiving dinner.

The experience marked one of my most memorable turkey hunts, and not because I filled a tag, but because of how well Echo performed. Since then I’ve taken my two pudelpointers on numerous fall turkey hunts, and there’s a reason it’s one of my favorite bird hunts.

THE BEGINNING I was first introduced to turkey hunting with a dog on a November day in Montana. Six inches of snow covered the ground and it was cold. When my buddy’s Brittany locked on point, I figured she had a rooster pinned down. But as I got closer, I saw turkey tracks leading into a pile of tall grass bent over from the weight of the snow.

“Get ready, it’s going to explode,” smiled my partner. I was two steps from where I thought the turkey to be, but couldn’t see the bird. About the time I gave up, the cover erupted in a flurry of white. It was so loud, and visibility instantly so limited, I couldn’t see to get a shot. Quickly, I stepped to the side, got a clearing as the tom flew between some Russian olives, and got lucky. It was then, over 15 years ago, that I vowed to one day have my own dogs that I could turkey hunt with.

FLUSH OR HOLD During the past six falls, I’ve learned a lot through personal trial and error when it comes to turkey hunting with my dogs. Foremost has been to trust the dogs, for the scent laid down by a turkey is so far beyond that of any quail or pheasant.

Second, I’ve learned to try not to control the dogs, because it’s ultimately the turkeys that dictate what the dogs will do. Case in point: My favorite way to hunt fall turkeys with a dog is to spot a distant flock, wait for them to start moving uphill toward thick cover and trees, then send a dog in for the flush. Turkeys have a hard time flying uphill, but if there are nearby trees, often they’ll hop into them and stay there until you arrive for the shot or until you set up to call them in.

Two falls ago, my wife Tiffany and I were hunting with Echo on Halloween day. We watched a flock of turkeys plucking insects and grass seeds from the dry grass. Once the flock turned and started uphill on a game trail, we turned Echo loose. The flock had no idea we were there, nor did they see Echo coming due to high-growing briars that covered her approach. Echo nearly caught the last bird in the flock before

As with any upland bird, hunt into the wind so your dog can pick up a turkey’s scent. Turkeys leave a lot of scent on the ground and they can hold very tight when pressed by a dog.

they scattered, and the final thing we saw was Echo fast on their tail.

Tiffany and I covered the 175 yards uphill as quickly as we could, but when we got to where we’d last seen Echo and the birds, they weren’t there. Fearing that Echo had gone on a long-distance chase, we waited and listened. Then we heard an alarm putt 20 yards in front of us, followed by another putt immediately to our left. We worked around a 30-yard patch of thick briars to find Echo on point on the opposite side. When I approached Echo, a turkey wildly flushed and I shot it, then the whole brush patch erupted. Tiffany filled her tag on a bird that tried escaping out the back. Echo retrieved both birds to hand.

At 15 months of age, Kona, our male pudelpointer, went on his first solo turkey hunt. A flock of birds fed out of a thicket and into a stretch of open grass and low-growing brush along a powerline right-of-way. We watched from across a ravine and when they started heading into the trees, I sent Kona on his way.

Kona covered more than 100 yards on a full sprint and birds scattered in every direction. I called Kona back to me, then we circled downwind of the birds. Kona began quartering into the wind and soon picked up fresh scent. He moved fast, nose in the air, right to a small patch of tall grass and sparse scrub. When I closed in and three birds flushed, I dropped a jake, which Kona promptly retrieved.

Using your dog to break up turkey flocks is much more efficient than trying to do it yourself. Dogs move faster than we can, thereby getting a good, solid busting up of the birds. This gives you the option of moving in on a point, picking birds from a tree, or setting up and reassembling the flock through calls. Kee-kees, soft yelps and purrs have brought me the most success when calling in fall birds after they’ve been scattered.

One of the rewards of turkey hunting with your dog is an impressive retrieve. Here, author Scott Haugen’s 63-pound pudelpointer Kona brings in a tom he pointed, one of many fall turkeys he’s retrieved in the past five years.

When calling to a flock of fall turkeys your dog has busted up, keeping still is essential. This is where proper training as a puppy pays off, for a dog can’t move a muscle or make a sound, something that requires great discipline and restraint as turkeys approach. You may want your dog to lay down beside you to achieve a lower profile. THE POINT While watching a flock of turkeys and waiting for them to get into position to send in the dog for a flush is thrilling, blindly hunting turkeys can be equally rewarding. The challenge here comes in running across a bird in the right habitat so it holds rather than flushes. To best achieve this, the element of surprise is the ticket.

If a turkey or flock of turkeys sees a dog coming from a distance, they’ll

A hen decoy can be used to reassemble a flock of fall turkeys your dog has broken up, as the author used here with his dog Kona.

have time to run and take wing. But if there’s enough cover to hide an approaching dog, allowing it to get close, turkeys will often hold on the spot, just like quail.

Two falls ago, I began catching a lone tom on trail camera. Every day for three days, he walked a deer trail between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. The next day I took Kona to the place, but we never found the tom; nor did we see it the next day, or the next. On day four, plans came together.

We worked into the wind along the base of some rolling hills. Timber and hardwoods dominated the upper hillside habitat, while we hunted through dry grass meadows laden with 3-foot-tall briar patches. The briars were sparse enough to weave our way through and offered enough cover to hide Kona.

We walked a quarter-mile without so much as a sniff. As we worked onto the back side of a hill, Kona paused, his nose stuck to the ground. Soon, his tail started wagging and he was on the track. He ran as fast as his nose would allow, never leaving the scent trail.

I lost sight of Kona, and when I eventually caught up with him, he was stiff, hindquarters shaking with intensity, tail in the air, holding a perfect point. Slowly I worked behind Kona, searching for a turkey. The briars were less than 2 feet tall, and the grass was sparse. Finally, I found what I was looking for: a lone tom, neck stretched out, body as flat to the ground as possible. I’ve seen this many times over the years, where a surprised tom will immediately hunker down, rather than run or fly.

As I moved around for a clear shot, Kona stood firm. When the tom made a run for it, I dropped him. Kona nabbed the 18-pound bird once it quit kicking and delivered it to hand.

Whether you’re looking to hunt fall turkeys with your dog by pointing them or flushing and calling them back in, the options are there. If you’re lucky, the state you hunt offers multiple turkey tags in the fall, because the more proficient your dog becomes at it, the more turkey hunting both of you will want to do.  Editor’s note: For signed copies of Scott’s best-selling book, Western Turkey Hunting: Strategies for All Levels, visit scotthaugen.com. Follow Scott’s adventures on Instagram and Facebook.