Four Of A Kind

From callers to crawlers, the spring gobbler woods are full of characters.

- Will Brantley

TO SEE A spectacle of ineptitude, take a pair of proven turkey killers with different hunting styles and ask them to hit the woods together, unfilled tags, fully blaming the other for the day’s failure: Moron. I don’t see how he’s ever killed a turkey, carrying on like that.

Turkey hunting is split into cliques. Though there are many ways to kill a turkey, ardent adherents of particular hunting styles are all convinced that there is only one correct way: their way. When the true believers bump heads, power struggles form and stereotypes harden.

These characters all have one thing in common, though. They know how to fill tags on their terms. For open-minded hunters like you and me, there’s something to be learned from each of them.

THE SAGE

He was around for the wild turkey restoration, and he’ll tell anyone who’ll listen all about it. Back in those days, he had to make every gobble count. That’s why he’s such a killer now.

The faded camouflage on his boonie hat matches the gray in his beard. He keeps a copy of Tenth Legion in his vest and can quote from it on command. He wears a hatband made of turkey spurs, and a wingbone yelper on a leather lanyard around his neck. Because the wingbone sounds like crap, he does all of his actual turkey calling with a two-sided paddle box. His A-5 has a fixed Full-choke barrel and is wrapped in Trebark tape.