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Fall Turkey Hunting On the Move: Sneak and Yelp

druryEditor’s note: Fall turkey expert Tom Carpenter offered this mobile strategy for autumn birds.

Whether you call it trolling or cutting and running, springtime has its own brand of on-the-move hunting. Fall also has a method for covering a lot of country fast and seeing if you can get birds talking. It’s called the sneak and yelp. The idea is this:

Move slowly through good turkey habit — woodlots, wooded hills, mixed farmland — without barging around or skylining yourself.

Stop and call at regular intervals — perhaps every 50 yards in thicker forest, every 100 yards or so in more open habitat.

Only call from places where you can drop to your butt and set up fast if you get an answer.

Make some lost yelps, regular yelps, kee-kees or other calls to let turkeys know you’re there. Try to get a response.

I’ve sneaked and yelped up many birds through the years. The first trick is finding birds and getting a response. That’s hard work but enjoyable in the fall woods. The second trick is closing the deal when you get a response. That’s where your fall calling skills come in. Take the temperature of talking turkeys on whether you should get bossy and yelpy or soft and clucky. Imitating what the other bird is doing is always a good plan. So is yelping to a kee-keeing bird or kee-keeing to a yelper.

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