Charlene and I married two days before the turkey season opener in 1995. The ribbings I took from my hunting buddies for missing my first turkey season opener in twenty-five years paid off handsomely. Charlene quickly adapted to my outdoor lifestyle. She grew up on the crystal clear Dry Creek in the Missouri Ozarks. However, she had never been turkey hunting. 

Charlene, like so many ladies who do not have the opportunity, was anxious to go after an Eastern wild turkey gobbler. We shared several training sessions and a few short scouting trips to prepare her for the excitement that lay ahead of us.

Keeping introductory scouting and hunting trips short is an important element when introducing the lady in your life to the world of turkey hunting. Most ladies, at first, will not want to spend long hours afield. However, with appropriate patience and demeanor on your part, your lady may surprise you. Charlene quickly began to want to hunt all morning with me. Of course, those fine outdoor lunches I cooked for her didn’t hurt matters!

After Charlene became comfortable with shooting, I surprised her with a Remington 870 shotgun of her own. We practiced shooting together. Shooting at targets in the woods helped her to estimate distances, and a few rounds of clays built her confidence and stemmed an interest in wing shooting.

Comfortable camo clothing, boots and gloves are another important element of attracting your lady to the world of turkey hunting. Her equipment should be every bit as good as yours. Charlene and I have a great deal of fun shopping for turkey hunting gear. Bass Pro Shop in Springfield, Missouri is our favorite place to look for the latest equipment. We often spend the weekend, which also includes dinner at the fabulous Hemingway’s Restaurant inside Bass Pro.

A great way to entice your lady on a multi-day hunt is to make plans together. She becomes co-owner of the trip. There definitely should be plans for an evening in the best restaurant available. Many charming spots can be found near hunting areas, if you do your homework.

A surprise bouquet of flowers in the camper or motel room goes a long way towards enhancing a lady’s enjoyment of a turkey hunting trip as well. Don’t forget, this lady is the person with whom you want to share the rest of your life. The investments are worth the effort. Memories are made that will last a lifetime.

Videos are another great way to teach your lady about turkey hunting. A good turkey hunting video allows her to sit in the comfort of her home and learn many of the ins and outs of turkey hunting from the best pros in the country. Now, Charlene brings home the videos!

Your lady may need to take a hunter education course. Do the leg work and check it out for her. Call your state wildlife agency. Most agencies give hunter education courses a month or so before turkey season, as well as other times throughout the year. If possible, take the course with her. The process will make the two of you a better hunting team.
 

Ticks, chiggers, and sometimes mosquitoes, can be a real nuisance on a turkey hunting trip. Blousing pant legs can help keep the critters out. Blousing bands can be bought at military surplus stores.

A variety of sprays are available to deter insects. Rub spray on exposed skin areas and spray all clothing openings - sleeves, neck lines, and waist lines. One of my favorite insect repellents is Skin-So-Soft by Avon. Charlene taught me that trick.

Instruct your lady to hunt defensively. Spring turkey hunting is one of the most dangerous hunting sports. Hunters are usually in full camo, and many states do not require hunter orange during turkey season.

The two of you should practice the following scenarios that could occur in the turkey woods. Shout to an approaching hunter. Do not wave your arms. Leave the area if another hunter is answering your calls and stalking you. Do not wear colors that are found on a turkey’s head - red, white, and blue.

Practice setting up decoys, if they are legal in your state. Make sure both of you know your zone of fire. Place your decoy in a manner that will keep both of you out of the zone of fire of any hunter that might stalk your decoy.

Above all, be safe yourselves. Always assume that every firearm is loaded. Keep the muzzle pointed in a safe direction. And always positively identify your target before pulling the trigger.

Leave a note with a friend or family member to let them know where the two of you will be hunting and when to expect you back. Doing so makes the ladies a bit more secure.

Write down emergency numbers and carry them with you. Include the sheriff’s department of the county you are planning to hunt, as well as ambulance and hospital numbers. Carry a small first aid kit. Talk about what steps each of you should take in the case of an emergency.

I always carry maps of the areas we hunt and a compass. Charlene and I study our maps often. She understands where we are and how to get out. Too, we often find interesting features such as caves, springs, bluffs, and creeks on our maps. Often these features are the objectives of side trips. Maps are a great place to make notes too, which helps us to remember details about specific trips.

The possibilities for attracting your lady to turkey hunting are as extensive as your imagination. Add a bit of your personal flare and the romance of turkey hunting is sure to take on additional meaning. The fact of the matter is, the two of you will become a better team for life because of the time spent together preparing for and enjoying turkey hunting trips together.

The gobbler Charlene and I heard that cool April morning had sounded off when I slammed the car door. "An old Indian trick," I advised. "Yeah, right," Charlene ribbed as she shouldered her 870 and headed into the darkness.

The cold morning air began to burn our lungs quickly. Two hundred yards down the ridge pasture, we stopped. "Let’s listen for a minute to see if we can get a better fix on this gobbler," I huffed.

Digging into my pockets for an owl hooter gave us the much needed minutes to catch our breath. My first blast on the Knight and Hale Owl Hooter went unheeded. The second series of owl hoots brought a challenging gobble, then a second, far beyond the first.

Less than ten minutes later, Charlene and I crossed a small creek, and carefully negotiated the wood line along a small field. We paused to owl hoot again. The hair on my neck stood up when the gobbler double-gobbled less than one hundred fifty yards away!

Damp leaves muffled our footsteps as we eased into the timber. I pointed to a large white oak tree. Charlene moved ahead and took up a position with her back against the big oak. I set up fifteen yards behind her and slightly to one side.

As I cautiously raked leaves from the base of my tree, I noticed a slight movement in a sprawling white oak ninety yards away. I had our tom spotted!

As soon as Charlene was comfortably settled against her tree, I began a series of soft tree yelps. The lusty gobbler boomed his gratitude immediately, almost as if it knew I wanted a gobbler to perform for my lady.

The tom’s dark silhouette resembled that of a dancer on a darkened stage as the bird waltzed up and down the roost limb, alternately puffing up and folding its feathers gracefully, much like the moves of a trained ballerina. That tom had practiced its exquisite morning drama many, many times!

I normally don’t call much to a roosted tom, especially when it is so close. However, this bird obviously was going to cooperate and I wanted to put on the best show possible for Charlene.

A couple of soft yelps and whines on my Walter Parrott diaphragm brought the tom to an immediate double-gobbling frenzy. I raked a stick on the bark of the tree to resemble the sound of another turkey taking a stretch on the roost. The tom gobbled. My soft leaf raking elicited yet another gobble.

I turned my head away from the gobbler and blew a few soft notes on my owl hooter. The gobbler responded again. The show was just too good to be true.

Slowly, I dug my Lohman Thunder Dome slate call, my Knight and Hale Silver Queen aluminum call, a Bass Pro walnut box call and a half dozen more diaphragm calls from my pockets. I used every one of them, sometimes two at the same time. That old gobbler thought he was in hen heaven!

I ceased calling. Within two minutes, the gobbler sounded off again, attempting to re-establish the conversation with the hens he thought were nearby. Reluctantly, I held my calls and allowed the silence of the woods to work its intriguing magic on the ego of the old gobbler.

A couple of minutes later, I marveled at the beauty of the wild turkey gobbler as it strutted on the roost limb one more time and pitched off the roost to the forest floor that was so familiar to the monarch.

The gobbler landed sixty yards out and slightly to the right of Charlene’s position, but masked by underbrush. Charlene wisely shifted her position as soon as the gobbler hit the ground. She cradled her 870 over her knees and leaned into the gun, ready for the approaching tom.

The gobbler answered a crisp cackle from my diaphragm call before I completed the series of excited notes. Two minutes later, I yelped again. I calculated correctly by thinking that my calling was over for the day.

I had heard the sounds many times on previous turkey hunts. However, the unmistakable rattle of leaves, created by a strutting gobbler advancing through the woods, caught me a bit by surprise. I had made my last call only a couple of minutes previously. The gobbler had covered the open woods quickly, keeping a slight rise between himself and our location. Charlene’s ever-so-slow movements for directional adjustment queued me to the fact that she knew that it was her gobbler making the leaf raking sounds.

Shiny, black feathers and a red, white, and blue head flashed as the brash old gobbler strode into view. My chest hurt because my heart pounded violently. I could only guess what Charlene was experiencing as she witnessed her first wild gobbler spit and drum valiantly to attract hens.

Charlene adjusted her 870 slowly to the left as the gobbler cleared a high point in front of her. The splendid tom was less than twenty yards away!

Charlene didn’t shoot. I could have killed the gobbler a half dozen times from my position, but that bird was hers. My brain cells were about to explode from trying to figure out why she wasn’t pulling the trigger on that big bird.

The gobbler maintained its full strut posture as it waltzed back and forth in front of Charlene. Her cool patience under pressure was killing me!

Ten minutes into the standoff a hen clucked down the hollow behind me. My heart rate picked up a few more beats. I whispered to Charlene, "Shoot."

The hen was closing the gap quickly, but as I later discovered, Charlene couldn’t hear it. The hen walked by me less than ten yards away. The gobbler held tight to his strutting zone. I knew if something didn’t happen soon, the hen would steal Charlene’s gobbler.

When the hen was halfway between Charlene and me, and only twenty yards from the gobbler, I whispered again, "Charlene, shoot." She slowly turned her head in my direction and raised her eyebrows, threateningly, indicating that she could handle the situation. Charlene saw the hen. She coolly refocused on the gobbler, which had been strutting in front of us for fifteen minutes, settled on her 870 and fired when the hen was five yards from the gobbler.

Charlene was up and running to her prize shouting, "I got him! I got him!" before I recovered from the sound of the shot. The magnificent tom weighed twenty-two pounds and carried a thick ten and one-half inch beard and 1 inch spurs.

Charlene had handled the pressure like a pro. From her position, she did not have a killing shot until the hen closed in, coaxing the gobbler from behind a small sprout that protected the gobbler’s vital head and neck area.

We danced momentarily in the woods. Another advantage of taking your lady turkey hunting. Charlene summed the whole event up - "Honey, that gobbler was a great first anniversary gift - even if it was two days late!"

Charlene Cooper is the JAKES (Juniors Acquiring Knowledge, Ethics & Sportsmanship) Coordinator for the Missouri State Chapter of the National Wild Turkey Federation. She has served two terms on the MONWTF state board. She and her husband, Bill, are the directors of the MONWTF JAKES Hunter Apprentice School. Bill and Charlene received the Conservation Federation of Missouri’s Conservation Educators of the Year Award for 2000.
 
 
 
 

brcooper@fidnet.com

James M Smith
Foristell, Mo