Deception crucial in the turkey hunt

Hunters assemble decoys to help take advantage of the birds' strong vision

By MICHAEL R. SHEA
mshea@modbee.com

last updated: May 07, 2008 04:20:26 PM

BURSON -- Turkeys are nervous birds.

They twitch and gobble and have 10-power vision. They see well, hear well, and old hunters like to say if wild turkeys could smell, people would never see them, let alone get close enough to shoot.

But an hour or two after first sun on a recent spring morning southeast of Camanche Reservoir, a big tom turkey with a 9.5-inch beard and 1-inch spurs didn't seem nervous. He seemed mad as heck and ready for a fight. He seemed unaware of four hunters sitting in a brush pile with masks, calls and shotguns.

The big tom, Big Tom, had reason to be distracted.

Jake Diede, 32, of Lodi had set up B. Mobile, a decoy, in the early morning dark. Verisimilitude is important, what with a turkey's vision. So last year, Diede and hunting partners Jason Harcourt, 22, and Mikey Mattheus, 22, both of Galt, hot-glued a real fan tail, real wings and a real beard to the fake plastic hull. A turkey's beard doesn't grow on its chin -- it's modified feathers that get long on the chest with age and have become the way hunters measure birds, like antlers on a deer.

An inflatable hen decoy was planted near B. Mobile, and plastic young male turkeys, or jakes, were posted to the ground a few yards away.

As the sun slowly turned on, Harcourt and Mattheus hid in brush 40 yards behind Diede and his friend and shooter, Mike King, 37, of Denair. With strips of plastic and metal pressed into the roofs of their mouths, Harcourt, Mattheus and Diede yelped and cackled and clucked and purred and gobbled. Diede and King crawled into the middle of a brush pile blind, the sticks arranged to provide cover but with enough opening to shoot through.

Duck hunters play off duck instincts to huddle in larger and larger groups. Turkey hunters play off toms' dominant nature and willingness to fight. Turkeys are territorial. Dominant toms seek out others to force into submission -- to take their females and amass the biggest flock of hens. So hunters post dominant-looking tom decoys, such as B. Mobile, with a hen or two for added effect.

"They say turkeys have 10 times our vision, so if you're using 10-power binoculars, that's what vision they have," Diede said. "They're super-aware of their surroundings. They pay attention, and they spook real easily."

After an hour or two, the yelps, cackles, clucks, purrs and gobbles were answered. Big Tom charged over a hill and stopped; he seemed to take in B. Mobile with his binocular eyes.

"Right there. Right there. See him? Left. On the hill. See him? Right there," Diede whispered intensely. "Right there. See him?"

Big Tom walked down the hill, across a creek and seemed to disappear in a golden-grassed culvert.

"Where is he?" the visitor asked in a rushed whisper.

"There he is. There he is. Left," Diede said.

The Big Tom charged in. It was a 100-yard run. Diede, Harcourt and Mattheus called, and the bird didn't stop running. Twenty feet from B. Mobile, Big Tom flexed his tail feathers and puffed his chest. He seemed to double in size, fan tail up, wings out and dragging on the ground.

"Put the gun on your knee, Mike," Diede said.

"OK," said King, frozen still.

"Put the gun on your knee, Mike."

"OK," King said, moving his Browning Gold.

Big Tom moved in sideways at B. Mobile.

"When he gets to that decoy, I'm gonna shoot," King told the visitor, his voice, arms and gun shaking like a leaf.

"Not yet," the visitor whispered. "Let him get in close."

Diede, Harcourt and Mattheus began videotaping their hunts this season. The cameras, King said later, made him a little twitchy. He breathed hard, the gun muzzle shaking. King was ripe with turkey fever.

"I'm going to shoot him."

"Not yet," said the visitor.

"I'm going to shoot him."

"OK."

Big Tom crossed in front of B. Mobile when the Browning Gold rattled off a round of No. 2 HEVI-Shot. Big Tom hit the ground flapping, but he didn't flap long.

Diede and King jumped out of the blind. Harcourt and Mattheus came running. High-fives went around. They'd all get three birds, the limit, this spring shotgun season, which ended last weekend. Archers have another two weeks to get a Big Tom all their own.

"This is what we love to do," Diede said. "Hot and heavy, they come in wanting to fight. That's the game."

Bee staff writer Michael R. Shea can be reached at mshea@modbee.com or 578-2391.

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