By Tad Brown
Wild turkeys can walk and fly just about anywhere they want in their home ranges, even though sometimes they refuse to cross the smallest obstacles. With this frustrating habit in mind, here are a few proven tricks to pull them into your setup on a string.
Any of us that have chased turkeys long enough have encountered a situation when they are working a gobbler and suddenly, it just stops coming. The tom responded well and advanced, but suddenly stopped, often pacing back and forth and gobbling, but not getting any closer. Suddenly, he gets quiet, and you never hear from him again or he answers as he fades way in the direction that he originally came from. In most cases that gobbler encountered a barrier. Barriers are many — some quite subtle and some substantial. It’s always amazing how a smart old bird can become so ignorant at the slightest obstacle in his direction of travel.
BARRIERS
Barriers come in many shapes and sizes, from large to small. The barriers that we are talking about are any obstacle or slight terrain change that will halt an approaching turkey from reaching our desired calling setup. The most commonly encountered obstacles are fences and creeks. It’s crazy, but a turkey can easily cross under a fence and will readily do so most of the time as it travels, but when being called to your location — a fence can quickly spell defeat.
The same goes for a creek — it could be anything from a deep creek to a dry creek — again they could hop, wade or fly across it easily, except when being coaxed with a call. Other examples of barriers can include railroad tracks, gravel or paved roads, rivers and lakes. Even field and timber edges, when a turkey breaks clear of timber to a field edge or crosses a field to the edge of timber, are sometimes all it takes to halt that gobbler.
One time in Kansas while hunting with Dan Thurston of Lazy D Outfitters, the Drurys and I were filming for the “Longbeard Madness” video series. It was a late-morning striking session. Dan was taking us to a bunch of different locations where we would try to strike a bird by cutting and yelping. We were up on a high hill overlooking a huge bottom across a small creek. Finally, we had a bird gobble back, but unfortunately the bird was across the creek and not on our side.
We did the typical fire drill and frantically found our positions. Terry behind the gun, Mark behind the camera and me calling. Soon three longbeards came into view, they were coming good and gobbling aggressively. But knowing this situation well, Mark hissed at me to stop calling. They were gobbling their heads off at the silence, pacing up and down the creek like The Three Stooges. We were a good 100 yards uphill from them. Soon, they couldn’t take the silence any longer and one stepped into the creek, then one by one they waded across to our side. Once they were across Mark hissed, “Hit ’em Brown!” After crossing the creek and hearing that hen again they were on their way, and Terry filled his tag.
The combination of us being set up a good distance from the creek and the fact that I stopped calling gave them time to figure out they needed to cross the creek. Mark knew exactly how to handle the situation from similar past experiences.
BARRIER BUSTERS
Barriers can be overcome if we use a little common sense and read the situation and the terrain in advance. Most important is knowing the terrain in advance. Many times I have worked a turkey that has stopped and eventually walked off — only to later discover an old fence or creek bed that I didn’t realize was there. Turkey hunters are smart to remember those obstacles, and the next time working that turkey make sure to be on his side of the fence.
There are several other tactics that we can employ to help bust the barrier situation. Just like the situation in Kansas, the terrain dictated our stand and we were up on the hill a good 100 yards from the creek. It seems that if you are close to the creek, the toms will hold up indefinitely, but back off a ways from the creek and they are much more likely to cross and advance toward you. If you are tight to the creek, they seem to expect the hen to come to them. Unless you can set right on the creek bank and within lethal shooting distance, it is better to stay a distance away and let them cross the creek. And just like Mark coached me to stop calling when they approached the obstacle — to let them figure out that they needed to cross it. If a hunter keeps calling, the gobblers get all worked up and can’t seem to reason out their next move. It’s a strategic game just like chess. Survey the situation and play it out accordingly.
During another Missouri hunt I was on one of my best turkey farms but had not heard a gobble all morning. It was around 9:00 a.m. and I had already circled the entire 200-acre property, calling every 100 yards or so, and was a half-mile from my truck, yet I could see the paved state road 75-80 yards away and my truck parked up the highway on the next hill. I hit a box call and two birds answered, one across the road from my truck (the closest), and one straight across the highway from me about a mile. I was glad to hear the responses, but they were both across the highway on land that I didn’t have permission to access.
The close bird never gobbled again, but the distant bird started firing up, although far away and tough to hear, I could tell he was getting closer. I kept hitting him with the box call until I realized he was on his way. I quickly set out a decoy as the occasional car went by. I thought, This will never work. But I had nothing to lose by trying.
Soon the bird had advanced to the field edge across the road around 150 yards away, and I could tell by his gobble that he was in the field, but could not see him from the rise of the road between us. Traffic was still coming by, so I shut up to wait until the noise settled down. When I called again, he had moved down the field quite a bit and I thought he was leaving. I waited a minute and called again, he immediately answered and was much closer. He had walked down the field and flew across two fences and the highway to my side. I quickly shifted my gun 90 degrees just in time to see his fan coming over the rise and straight to the decoy. He weighed 24 pounds, had 1¼-inch spurs and just traveled a solid mile.
Admittedly, that bird was hot and the lay of the land forced me to set up in a perfect scenario, not too close to the barriers or within his sight. My lack of calling made him think about how to get to the hen, and once he crossed into my playing field it was game over! A good lesson learned.
BARRIER TACTICS DEFINED
1. Know your terrain. Nowadays with all of the geographic mapping and hunt apps there is no reason to not know your properties intimately. Locate the creeks, roads and fences with aerial maps and then walk the property and get to know these natural and man-made barriers. Use them to your advantage and make sure you either set up on the bird’s side, or back up far enough to help pull him past the obstacle.
2. When barriers present obstacles to turkeys, be sure to set up away from the barrier so that it does not appear that the hen (you) is right near it. I believe it is a psychological thing, or just how they are wired, but it seems to stack the odds in your favor if the obstacle is not near to their destination (you). So back away from the obstacle to make your calling setup.
3. When the bird is approaching the obstacle, stop calling and let the bird cross the obstacle before continuing to call. Again, not that that they have the intelligence to rationalize a situation, but continuing to call to them keeps them fired up and they don’t seem to think clearly. The sudden lack of communication sort of brings them out of their frenzy, and they reprogram and consider how to navigate the obstacle. Once you can see or hear them again and know they have come to your side of the obstacle, continue to call and fire them back up.
Here’s one last example of a barrier situation that taught me a very good lesson. While in Missouri one spring with my dear friend Dick Kirby, we had a major rainstorm the night before our hunt started. To get to our destination the next morning required crossing Mill Creek. Mill Creek was out of its banks, and we were wasting valuable time trying to find a way across. Dick finally said, “Tad, come on.” Then he waded off into the rushing, icy cold water.

Dick Kirby on the left and the author on the right, with a nice gobbler after a successful morning. Photo credit Tad Brown.
With his gun above his head, he crossed the creek with me reluctantly in tow. Once across, we finally made our way to the field where the local toms liked to strut. We quickly set out a jake and a hen decoy, as it was getting light soon. The combined sound of rushing water from the creek and the water running off of the bluffs was almost deafening, but we clearly heard a gobble across the field — and yes, back across the creek!
So I started calling back, with no response from the bird across the creek, but a second bird started gobbling at me from down the valley. Dick said to keep him gobbling and he’d sneak up on him. I asked about the turkey across the creek, but Dick said, “He ain’t coming since he only gobbled once.” I started calling and the bird Dick went after was tearing it up. Soon, I heard another gobble from the bird across the creek, and as I looked back in that direction, he flew across the creek and landed about 150 yards away out in the field. I thought, Oh crap now what? He immediately saw the decoys and came running up to them and flogged the jake, then started circling the hen decoy like a wagon train. I stopped calling, hoping that Dick would get the hint.
I was counting the revolutions that gobbler was making and on the 21st spin a shot rang out. The bird took off running but Dick rolled it with his second shot. The funny thing was that Dick was just about to pull the trigger on the other bird when I stopped calling, and Dick couldn’t locate him, wondering why I quit calling? In Dick’s own words he said he thought, OH NO!! He hurried back to our setup and said it looked like a 55-gallon drum.
In that particular case, being so far away from the creek, about 150 yards, and with the other turkey answering every call, it was more than the first gobbler could stand. Plus, the fact that the hen (my calling) was so far distant from him, and another turkey was responding to her, led to him flying across the creek. I often wonder if the gobbler could see the decoys, as that would have also helped out our setup.
The other gobbler was still across the creek, and Dick later ended up crossing that cold, raging creek four times that day. But that old tom had 1½-inch spurs, which warmed him up pretty quickly.