EP292 How To Hunt Turkeys In The Rain

How do you hunt turkeys in the rain? Is it even worth your time to try? On this episode I talk about how rain impacts turkey behavior and I work to help you determine if and how hunting turkeys in the rain could work for you.

Rain significantly impacts turkey behavior, however, that does not mean you cannot hunt them. In fact, you can use their change in behavior to your advantage if you plan well and have the right kinds of hunting habitat available to you.

While neither turkeys nor much else moves in heavy rain, they will move in light to moderate rain, and of course all heavy rain eventually ends. If the weather is very bad, birds may not leave the roost, or if they have already flown down, they may hunker down in thick cover if the storm is bad enough. But once the weather breaks, they will begin to move again, looking for food and company.

The rain creates a lot of noise and reduces the effectiveness of a turkey’s hearing to keep it safe. So, the birds often move to larger open areas where they can see for long distances in order to detect predators by sight. And after the rain ends, the trees still drip so turkeys will move into open areas to begin drying out faster. These could be fields, clearings, burned areas, gas line roads, food plots, etc.

So, you want to try and identify these areas that the birds will move to and get their first if possible or arrive just before the rain lets up. The good news is that if the weather is very bad, you can arrive in the woods hours later and be present when the birds begin moving mid-day. 

People often assume hunting blinds are the answer for poor weather. These have pros and cons. Yes, a pop-up blind can keep you dry and comfortable and keep your calls and gear dry and effective. That is great. But blinds are most often placed in areas that are good turkey hunting spots for fair weather. Often these are not very productive foul weather spots. So, while the blind is a great resource, if the rain turns a good location into a bad location, then you may be better off just staying home or moving out on foot.

Personally, I do not like to hunt rainy days because of the extra gear challenges that rain causes for turkey hunting. But if it’s a Saturday I will still likely go out because those days are fixed, I only have so many weekends in any given turkey season. However, if I am taking time off work and it’s raining, I may reschedule my day off for better weather. If I can shift the day easily, it can be more enjoyable to hunt a nice weather day.

Ultimately you need to decide for yourself if going out on a rainy day is a good idea for you and your hunting style. Listen to the full episode to hear all the details!

 

EP291 How To Scout Turkeys With Maps & Apps

Maps and apps are all the rage but how you can effectively use them to scout for turkey hunting? The unavoidable truth is you must put boots on the ground to scout for turkeys effectively. But these tools can help you focus your time on the most promising areas. On this episode I talk about how to read maps and find the ideal landmarks that signify good spots to go and check out.

The single most important part of turkey hunting is picking an area that holds turkeys. If there are no turkeys nearby then it doesn’t matter how good your gear is, how expensive your TSS ammo may be, or how skilled of a caller you are, you will not be taking any turkeys. They must be there. And using maps and apps can help you save time. In truth nothing about this is new, it’s just done digitally vs. on paper. Old time turkey hunters used these same tactics to find good hunting spots. 

Using maps and apps for scouting turkeys is all about knowing what to look for, or rather what can be seen from a satellite photo or topography lines. Understanding how to read a map is critical to doing this but this podcast episode is not on the subject of map reading but rather using the knowledge gleaned from the map.

In order to locate ideal turkey hunting habitat, you must look for numerous features that intersect in close proximity. The first thing I look for is clearings. Turkeys like open spaces in the spring, natural or man-made. They want to be able to see each other and see predators at a distance and often they will spend a portion of the day in these open spaces. They prefer full clearings but will settle for open spaces in the woods, such as under mature oak trees.

Once I find open spaces, I begin looking for water. Turkeys do need to drink periodically but the bigger reason I want to find water is because soft wet ground holds turkey tracks and makes their presence easier to detect. Streams and possibly even better, muddy puddles, make it easy to see turkey tracks, which can give you a very important indicator that they are in the area. And if they are in the area, you can hunt them. You can also setup trail cameras around tracks to get more information about how often and when they are in the area. This intel can help you pick and prioritize spots. 

Streams and clearings are easy to see from satellite images, and often map apps will overlay stream info onto these images to make it easier to see them. To hear about the other things you want to look for, listen to the full podcast episode.

 

EP290 Good Bye Self-Righteous Turkey Hunting Culture!

Turkey hunting today is plagued with opinionated self-righteous snobbery about what is right, what is ethical, and what is fun. But there is nothing objective to it. It is just a cauldron of bubbling highbrow tradition, group think, and mythology stirred together. On this episode I cut through the junk that is destroying our sport to help people break away from the judgmental constrictions of our culture. 

There are legal boundaries that frame the sport of turkey hunting, established by experts who have the birds’ best interests in mind. That gives us a strong framework to guide our hunting. Furthermore, we have some ethics established to help minimize animal suffering, maximize hunter safety, and ensure fair chase. But many of things people claim to be ethics are not, they are just simple opinions based on what they like, how they prefer to hunt, and how they want other people to follow their own protocols to make things better for them. 

Sometimes people are just plain selfish and try to pressure others to abide by regulations that limit them so the selfish hunter doesn’t have to work as hard, or they can hunt in ways that would normally not be effective.  Sometimes people have just been doing something a certain way for so long, they don’t want to see change. Other times new innovations come along, like TSS ammunition and people resist the innovation and the new capabilities that come with it and try to malign early adopters. They don’t want to hunt with tungsten ammo so no one should. And all of this gets pass off as “what makes a real turkey hunter”, or what is ethical, or perhaps unfounded rumors are started to dissuade people from experimenting with other strategies. 

No matter how it happens, many people are ostracized, especially on the internet, when they don’t conform to the snobbish cultural turkey hunting norms.  This podcast episode tackles this nonsense head on. I cover topics like how far is it ethical to shoot a turkey? Is TSS ammo wounding birds? Is it wrong to get pellets in the breast meat of a turkey? Is long range shooting really not fun? And why people think 101 things should be outlawed when it comes to turkey hunting.

Some of these things are simply senseless fabrications, others have data we point to in order to find clarity, and some are just garden variety opinions that have no merit and not of importance to anyone else. We need to stop shaming turkey hunters for having fun and hunting in the way they find most fun. 

 

EP289 How To Set A Realistic Annual Hunting Budget

If there is one sure thing about hunting, is it that you are going to spend money. It is best to acknowledge that from the beginning, to count the cost, and to plan for the expense, and then stick to that budget. On this episode I talk about how to set a realistic yearly hunting budget no matter what your income. This is for new hunters, lifelong hunters, and everyone in between.

When I first started hunting, I had no idea what I was getting into financially. It took me years to begin to even think about the annual costs, let alone start to budget for them. But of course, there is more to the cost of hunting than just that. There are two primary types of expenses when it comes to hunting, the fixed costs needed just to go into the woods and take game every year, and then the discretionary costs of everything else we buy.

Lots of things contribute to the cost of hunting, depending on the game we are after. If you are hunting deer, you will likely use a tree stand or a hunting blind of some sort, those have costs and don’t last forever. Maybe you need to replace them every 3-5 years, maybe every 5-10 years, but you will need new ones at some point. When it comes to waterfowl hunting, waders and decoys are the same way, when it comes to turkey hunting you have calls and vest that wear out.

No matter what you hunt, you will have clothing and other standard gear that will wear out and need replaced eventually. Many of these things you can plan for, accrue for, so you are not caught off guard. And there all the new shiny things that you must have, this is where costs can quickly multiply. So how do you budget for the necessities and the nice to haves in a way that makes sense for your level of hunting devotion and your income?

In this podcast episode I get into the nitty gritty details of how to take all of these things into account and build a smart sustainable annual hunting budget that will enable you to pay for the things needed to hunt, set aside funds for things that need replaced, and put some money away so you can buy upgrades and new fun things from time to time. The biggest trick to all of it is counting the costs, being realistic, and sticking to your budget without steeling from other areas of your life to buy more and more stuff.

It took me a few years to even begin to realize how much money I was pouring into hunting. I did not understand all of the costs or all of the things I chose to add on because I was not paying attention to the expenses, or where the funds came from that I used for hunting equipment. 

If you’ve never had a hunting budget, you may be surprised to learn that you can end up spending a lot less money by setting aside money for hunting. How can this be? Listen to the whole podcast episode to find out!

Let me also say, I am not an accountant or a financial planner. I am just a regular guy who has learned some simple financial principles over the years that anyone can put into practice to help set and keep to a reasonable budget that can cover all of your hunting costs and expenses from the must haves to the nice to haves. All it takes is a little bit of focus and discipline and you can both save money and be relieved to never need to think about where you’ll pull the money for your general hunting expenses again. 

EP288 How To Get & Keep Kids Interested In Hunting

How can you compete with all the noise out there today to capture the attention of children around hunting and keep them interested in the sport? In this episode I interview Jack Armstrong, a lifelong hunter, pastor, author, and speaker who has dedicated himself to the cause of inspiring children to embrace the outdoors, hunt, and grow closer to family. 

Here are the links mentioned in the show: Mystery In The Marsh Book | Barracuda Bombshell | Jacks YouTube | Jacks email: [email protected]

So what do you need to do in order to Get & Keep Kids Interested In Hunting

  1. Inspire Them – To want to hunt, to go outside, to have adventure. Reading to your kids is one of the best possible ways you can do this year-round. And not reading just anything but books designed to cultivate imagination and a desire for hunting. Books about strong values, character building, and hunting deer, turkey, waterfowl, elk, fishing and more. 
  2. Modeling – You need to model or demonstrate the pursuit for them to see and value. But just leaving for a week every fall to go to deer camp doesn’t do it. You need to bring them in deep enough so they can really see some things. Maybe they aren’t ready to come to deer camp, but maybe they can go with you for a work day at deer camp.
  3. Involve them in all aspects of the hunt – Scouting, shed hunting, working the land, building blinds or hanging stands, cutting trail, checking cameras, studying the weather, planning and packing the gear, etc. There are year round opportunities to cultivate relationships with the child and engage them around the bigger pursuit.
  4. Equip Them For Success – They don’t need SITKA gear but if you are cozy in your down jacket and they are shivering, they won’t be able to enjoy the hunt. You can get great used gear on places like Facebook marketplace from kids that outgrew it. You buy it, use it for 2 seasons, and then sell it and get them the next size up. Consider other things too like getting them a trail camera for their birthday that they can setup anywhere they want, make it fun, engage them in all kinds of ways.
  5. Pick The Right Hunts – Not all 10-year-olds are ready for a 12-hour deer hunt, maybe they aren’t suited for deer at all yet. Maybe squirrel hunting is a better place to start, turkeys, ducks, pheasants, doves, etc, are a better place for them to start hunting, or are more active pursuits that will help hold their interest.
  6. Recalibrate Your Expectations – Redefine success. Taking a deer or a 12-hour sit can’t be the goal. The goal has to change. Maybe it is seeing a deer, or hearing a turkey, maybe its lasting an hour. Maybe it’s the kid wanting to come back. This is a long-term investment, the goal is helping the child, not just pulling a trigger.
  7. Periodically Give Them The steering Wheel – Let them make decisions, what to shoot, where to hunt, what to hunt, how to do it. Maybe you hunt by sitting but they want to hunt on foot. Maybe you prefer rifle but they want to use a bow. Maybe you have strong proven strategies but they want to try something weird. Go with it. Give them space to stretch their wings, to experiment, to fail, and to have fun.

Some people will feel like they won’t be able to hunt anymore if they do all this. Maybe don’t take your kid to your best tree strand that is a 10 out of 10, you save that for you and your solo hunts. Instead, maybe you work with the kid to build a blind in a spot that is a 5 out of 10 for hunting a but it’s better for them because it gives them cover to fidget, it’s easier to get into, has a comfier chair, and they can see a lot of does passing in the distance. Its ok to keep things for yourself, but when it’s for them, let go of yourself and freely invest in them at those times.

Some additional authors in this space putting out great books are Lane Walker and Kevin Lovegreen. Their stuff is also outstanding.

EP287 3 Tips For Hunting Crows In Timber

People often make crow hunting harder than it needs to be. They try to go straight to a massive professional hunt where the goal is to down hundreds of crows. That is both unrealistic and unreasonable for most hunters. Most hunters should go into the woods with first time goals of a shooting a crow or a couple of crows. In this episode I talk about one of the easier ways to hunt crows in the woods with minimal gear and expense. 

Often when people hunt in timber their goal is to get the crows to land in a clearing or shoot them as they circle overhead. Both of these approaches work and can be fun and effective. But they require more work, ideal conditions, the right setup and a fair amount of skill and/or experience to pull it off well. A much easier plan is to find a fair spot and try to get the crows to land in the treetops and then pick them off.

Doing this drastically increases your chances of getting crows and minimizes many of the weaknesses of new hunters or new crow hunters. You get to observe the birds, better understand them and how they work, and take shots that are much easier and realistic than trying to take down fast moving birds are variable ranges. I have done it the hard way and the easy way, and I wish someone would have gotten me started hunting crows this way. 

Now it is true that your total number of crows taken will likely be less using this strategy than many of the professional setups, but those professional setups only work if you have a truck full of decoys, the perfect farm to hunt, and a perfectly brushed in hunting blind. Very few new hunters have all or any of those things. And very few crow hunters ever will. 

This podcast episode talks about the various strategies and approaches for hunting crows like this and how you can much more easily get into the woods with the land available to you and take your first couple of crows. 

EP286 Should You Be Afraid When Hunting Predators?

There is something about being in the woods with predators that can make your pulse race a little bit. However, every time you are in the woods, you are there with predators, so what makes this different? On this episode I dig into the fear of predators, where it comes from, why it comes, what to do about it, and when extra precautions really should be taken when hunting. 

Fear is irrational by nature. The dark can make us afraid, the woods at night can make us doubly afraid, and predators in dark woods can be enough to paralyze some people with fear. But the truth is, darkness cannot hurt us, darkness in the woods is no more dangerous than darkness in your bedroom, and if there are predators in the woods, there are there day and night, whether you are hunting predators or not. But when we are hunting animals with sharp teeth or claws, we are more aware of them, and it weighs on us more.

Most predators are more afraid of us than we will ever understand. We have to work hard, do everything right, hide, and work to draw predators into gun range, hoping they do not detect us before we can pull the trigger. The moment they sense our presence, they often flea. So why would we be afraid of them? That occurs with far more animals than most people realize as well.

There are only a handful of north American forest animals that post any significant threat to hunters. You are more likely to be injured falling, cutting yourself with your own knife, or getting in a car accident on the way to the woods than being attacked by a predator in the woods. With rare exceptions, you do not need to carry a sidearm for protection from animals.  Other hunters, maybe, but animals, almost never.

However, one of the best things you can do is gain all the knowledge possible and then contact your local game commission and local hunting guides, where every you plan to hunt, and ask them about what the local risk factors are during the time of year you plan to hunt there. There is no substitute for this because there are so many variables in different ranges and seasons, that only true focused locals will know what dangerous and when in their area.  

In some areas, brown bears may pose a significant danger to deer hunters, in other areas allegators may be a threat to duck hunters. But the only way to know for sure is to contact local officials and follow their guidelines to stay safe when you are hunting. There is always some risk, but the kinds of things that most people fear are irrational and unrealistic. And the things that do merit some concern are often nowhere close to them. 

In this podcast episode I go deep into the different predators most people hunt or are likely to encounter and talk about the risks and risk levels posed by each. This episode focuses on north American animals, yet many of the principles apply far beyond this region as well. 

EP285 Five Lies About Sub Zero Hunting

There are a lot of myths and misconceptions when it comes to cold weather hunting, especially subzero hunting. The word alone invokes powerful images of punishing cold and impossibilities. But the truth is, you can hunt lots of game very effectively when it’s cold, from deer to goose. On this episode I get into debunking some of the lies surrounding late season cold. 

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Hunting below 0 degrees Fahrenheit comes with numerous challenges and obstacles to overcome. Some are technical, some are physical, and some are simply made up. For some reason mystical qualities are applied to cold weather hunting. The simple truth is that there are people in different parts of the world who live, work, and hunt at temperatures below zero for weeks if not months out of the year. Many people see zero as warmer than usual.

But for those who live in warmer climates, this number is seen as some very important threshold and many myths have crept up around it. But the reality is that nothing magical happens at 0 degrees. The animals keep moving, equipment keeps working, and hunting is very possible. But cold weather hunting is more difficult and requires some special strategies for dealing with the cold across all levels.

You need to make sure your gear is fully operational and winterized. You have to be dressed for the cold, and that means more than just wearing super expensive brands. You also need to be sure you are in proper physical condition or take steps to mitigate your shortcomings, so you are not hindered by the difficulties that come with cold weather hunts.

There are some pros to late season artic weather as well. It simplifies hunting some. Where animals go becomes more focused and predictable. There are fewer options on how and where you can hunt. And while it does become harder, some of it becomes simpler as well. Deer patterns change, goose patterns become more predictable, and small game is easier to spot much of the time.

What you wear matters a lot, but it is more about finding the right types of layers than the right brands. Different materials and garments serve different roles and as long as you have those roles covered, you can hunt very effectively even in cold weather, snow, and powerful wind chills.

In this podcast episode I dive into examine five lies about subzero hunting and how you can overcome all of the legitimate challenges to be successful in the woods.

EP284 Is It Worth Hunting Ducks In The Late Season?

When the winter sets in, is it really worth the time and effort to go waterfowl hunting? Can you really be successful? The answer to those questions may surprise you, however there is not a blanket one-size-fits-all answer either. But there are principles I provide in this episode that can help you answer that question no matter where you are or where you hunt. 

There is a very important and often overlooked truth when it comes to late season duck hunting, and it is this. In most places, not all of the ducks leave for the winter. Now in Alaska, yes, the ducks are gone. But in New York and Pennsylvania and Indiana, and many other northern states, there are birds there year-round. If you can’t find any ducks that does not mean there aren’t any ducks.

The single biggest indicator of ducks is open water. If you can find water that has not frozen, be it lakes, streams, creeks, or rivers, you will find ducks. Or rather ducks can and do live there year-round. Some people have their best hunting in the winter because it concentrates where the ducks are and can hang out.

Another very often overlooked element is the concept of a fluid migration. Ducks do not just fly dead south until they hit the Gulf of Mexico and perch on the shore all winter. Many fly south until they find more comfortable weather, and when there are warm weeks they will drift back north some. They may be pushed further south again by a cold front, but birds move a lot. A duck may fly 100 miles for breakfast. They are very capable and mobile creatures. If you do not see birds in your area in the late season, just wait. Cold or warm weather could bring birds in from different directions.

The biggest consideration of late season hunting is safety. Falling in a stream when its 70 degrees outside is inconvenient. If it’s 20 degrees, that can be life threatening. You need very safe strategies to set up decoys and recover birds if you are hunting around water. Having gear that is up to the task is also important. You need to be able to stay warm and dry even in harsh weather conditions. High wind is much more common this time of year as well. But I think this can be a very effective time of year for most hunters. 

Late season hunting can be very good hunting, some of the best of the year, but it takes a little different approach.

Listen to the full podcast episode to hear all of the details. 

 

EP283 Is It Worth Hunting Deer In The Late Season?

Is it really even worth your time and energy to hunt deer in the late season? The most direct answer I can give is, sometimes. But it depends more on your willingness to learn and adapt than any particular hunting skill. On this episode I talk about the differences of late season hunting and how you need to change your strategy in order to find consistent success. Anyone can do it, if you have the drive to do it right. 

The biggest problem with hunting in the late season is people have less drive and motivation to put in the effort needed to hunt successfully. They don’t realize the late season is different than the early season or the rut. They don’t realize the deer behave differently, use the land differently, and move to different locations.

If you want to be successful in the late season you need to scout for the late season, prepare for it, and establish hunting spots for it. You almost need to treat it like a unique game/season altogether.  The same spots, tactics, and timing of the early season rarely works here. And the only time you can effectively scout for the late season is during the late season. So very few people have the best hunt they can have at this time of year because do not go to the ends needed to make it work well. But you absolutely can.

People tend to get busier with holidays, family, and work. Also, the excitement of early season and rut hunting wears off, so it becomes doubly hard to muster the motivation to scout and prepare. Weather and gear become an obstacle too. But you can extend the capabilities of your gear with a few tricks and tips I mention in this episode. 

The biggest thing hunters must have is the will to hunt this season. If you can muster that, you can be very successful. There also some significant advantages to hunting in the late season as well. In fact, you can accomplish a lot with minimal time hunting, if you put in all the work needed up front.

The single best piece of advice I can give you is to scout the late season on years when you are not hunting it. When you learn how deer use the land one year, they will very likely use it in similar ways the following years. So scouting when your tags are full is a great way to help you prepare for hunting next year. Time invested now can pay off in future seasons.

Listen to this whole podcast episode to hear all the details strategies about late season deer hunting. 

 

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