Recent Fowl Articles

RESULTS 1-10 of 92

Sort By Most Recentsort icon
Bizzare Mexico
Before the echo of my shotgun's report collapsed, Mencho was off, sprinting into the jungle and disappearing behind a burqa of green. Birds, monkeys and the last of the coatimundi troop scrambled for cover in the wake of his movements. With that flurry of activity bloomed Mencho's excitement at finding the evening's meal. I smiled and remained on the trail, knowing that my attempts to find Mencho would only lead to my getting lost."Hombre, bueno," he congratulated as he exited the thick and handed me the coatimundi by the tail.

Hide And Shoot
It was just about a year ago that I found myself in Florida chasing turkeys for the Benelli On Assignment TV show. I pulled the long straw for a change and was designated first shooter.  As a result, I was awarded the honor of being the first person to take a turkey with Benelli's then-new Vinci shotgun. This story isn't about the Vinci however; it's about the load. Federal really put the odds in the hunter's favor with its Mag-Shok Heavyweight Turkey load.

The Right Call
While I dedicate a lot of time to chasing whitetails and other antlered monsters, spring turkey hunting is still one of my favorite pursuits. It's a great time to be in the woods, you don't have to freeze your butt off, and best of all, I can do most of it right near my home in Georgia.I grew up hunting ol' Booger Bottom right behind where my daddy still lives today, and I look forward to taking time off from my hectic traveling schedule every year to return there and hunt.

First-Shot Strategies
Nothing is quite so surprising as the thundering flush of a cackling ringneck, the explosion of a covey of bobwhites or trying to get on target on a flock of teal or pintails as they flash by the blind. Perhaps we connect on the second or third shot, but why not on the first?

Ghost Gobblers
My wife Vikki, and I moved toward the gobbler for the third time that morning. We were not smiling; the gobbler had already beaten us twice before. You see, this eastern turkey was like some you've probably faced. He's always there, somewhere close by, but always invisible. It seems that he waits on you to make a mistake. Veteran hunters call them "ghost gobblers."I define a ghost gobbler simply as one that will let you know he is there but will not show himself. There are two types. One is very leery.

Setting Up Tom Turkey
A deep-chested gobble from the nearby knob cracked the silence of the Catskills like a hammer shattering glass. My partner yelped, and again the tom's call rumbled through the woods. In spite of the auspicious start, I had a few misgivings about our prospects as we walked single file through the gray woods toward our quarry. For starters, we were on hard-hunted public land. We were also near a county road. Furthermore, neither of us had ever hunted there before.We did have a few things in our favor, though. We were able to scout briefly the day before to get the lay of the land.

Wild Gobbler Round-Up
Turkey hunting deservingly enjoys a certain quirky cult status among a select breed of hunters in just about all of the bird's extensive range. Trophy gobblers most often possess an uncanny survival instinct and wariness simply mind-boggling for a critter owning a brain no larger than your average dry-roasted peanut.

Taking Charge of Gobblers
It's a long way from Montana to Missouri. I was on the last leg of a very long turkey hunt that had brought me to several states, and I was in the throes of late-season exhaustion that only a dedicated turkey hunter can fully understand. By the time I got to camp, I was in no mood to be manipulated by "guide speak."Most guides must have studied the same playbook. You can predict what they are going to tell you before you even get your gear unpacked. They always have some giant, horny tom roosted all by himself--no hens within a three-county radius.

Rios on the Umpqua
With a decoy placed just so, pumpguns loaded and headnets pulled up around our ears, Andy McCormick let go with a series of putts and yelps. Before the box call quit resonating, the tom offered its spine-tingling reply. Almost as quickly, any poise I had mustered up was gone. And somehow, call it hunter's intuition, I knew things were about to get worse before they got a whole lot better...We were turkey hunting along the Umpqua River in Douglas County, Oregon, with Alvin Kesterson, proprietor of the Big K Guest Ranch.

Get-Smart Gobblers
I can't begin to tell you how many tom turkeys I've taught a thing or two during the past 25 years. Consider one gobbling bird my wife and I went after last spring. Just a little closer, I thought, as we carefully inched forward to find a suitable place to set up. Then I spotted the perfect tree only 30 yards ahead. We never got there. Instead we heard the dreaded "flap-flap-flap" sound of a turkey beating a hasty retreat. Not only had the turkey spotted us trying to make that last move, we'd "educated" him in the process.Don't get me wrong. I don't believe a gobbler is capable of reason.

Sort By Most Recentsort icon
RESULTS 1-10 of 92