Here’s another awesome fall hunting instructional from the great folks at Best Turkey Decoy!
Fall Turkeys Fight!
Fall turkeys are an irritable lot, and they always seems to be fighting. I used to think they didn’t like each other, but I now believe they just like to fight. It’s how they sort out the ever-changing pecking order within that group of birds. The part we can take advantage of is that when two birds square off, the entire group gets fired up and wants to join in. If we can be the two birds who start the fight, we can often bring the whole bunch rolling right in to join the action.
The Sounds When Fall Turkeys Fight
The obvious sound to mimic is the aggravated sequence of fighting purrs the bunch is making. The best way to mimic the mutliple fighting purrs is with a pair of push-button calls. Get one in each hand, and go to town to create the realistic sounds of several aggravated toms and or jakes duking it out. Another obvious but less-often replicated sound is made with an actual turkey wing. People laughed when Primos introduced a turkeys wing as a calling tool, but these types of noises are very effective in the turkey woods. We wear cotton, wool and fleece in the woods to try eliminate unnatural sounds, and the more real animal noise we can make, the better. A turkey’s wings are used extensively during the fight, and we need to incorporate those sounds into our sequence.
Where You Gonna Have That Fight?
Near a roost area in the evening is a tremendous spot to pick a fight with a flock. We realize rattling for deer is effective near a bedding area, and it works on turkeys, too. Turkeys always seem especially spunky and love to battle when heading toward the roost. Maybe they are tired and grumpy, and we can take advantage of this by picking the fight in a place and at the time they typically rumble. You can challenge groups of toms in fall at any spot they frequent daily, and wherever you choose to set up, the odds of a confrontation are always higher if you can get in front of the group and be in their way rather than trying to pull them away from their chosen routine.
Your final piece of the puzzle will be an arrogant jake positioned where they can see it. Our Bestturkeydecoy, with its arrogant head tilt, is golden in this situation, and it’s best to have a jake decoy that is at least semi-strut. You want your decoy to pose a challenge without scaring off the flock. He is a new bird in their area, and if turkeys know they can win the fight, they are all in. It’s every bit as exciting as a good spring hunt.