how to think about getting into turkey hunting

First have a really successful last fall whitetail deer hunting. I shot 3 deer with a bow, and that was my first year trying. That’s like stupid lucky.

Then ride that wave of loving being in the woods into the winter and take up snowshoe hare hunting.

Have immediate success with that, because your best friend is a wizard in the woods.

More details on snowshoe hare hunting in a separate blog post.

So back to Turkey hunting, contemplating, turkey hunting.

Have a neighborhood where there are turkeys everywhere.

The turkeys are so dense in my neighborhood in the cities that traffic is regularly stopped by them.

Dogs bark their heads off as they filter through the block.

Think, well if they are this plentiful in my neighborhood they must be this easy to find out in the woods.

Know deep down it won’t be that easy, but get superficially convinced of that notion every time you have to stop in traffic because a group of turkeys are lazily walking the streets. Like not even crossing the street, just hanging out in the street. These turkeys don’t give a fuck. They just go where they want, when they want. And everyone stops for them.

While having decreasing success at snowshoe hare hunting, flush a turkey from 50 yards away.

Watch the snow disappear across your hunting areas that you can drive to within 3 hours of your house.

See more ads on instagram for turkey hunting gear.

Get excited because researching and acquiring gear is almost if not more fun than the hobbies themselves.

Realize that turkey hunting requires wearing full camo, which seems bad-ass.

Also realize that turkey hunting requires sitting perfectly still on the ground, which makes it harder.

Realize that turkey hunting on the ground in a blind while wearing full camo, is pretty much exactly what my whitetail deer hunting experience has been.

Go out one last time in a rain storm trying to find snowshoe hares. Realize boots are no longer water proof. Step in boggy marshy areas that used to be frozen and now aren’t frozen. Get water inside your boots after sinking in past your ankles. Realize it wouldn’t matter if boots were water proof when the puddles and swampy sections are deeper than your calves.

Realize that muck boots have a purpose for the first time, after thinking they were stupid.

Buy muck boots, camo muck boots, camo muck boots in a spring/early fall camo pattern.

Realize that your state is closed to all other sorts of hunting that you are interested in until September.

Realize it’s turkey hunting or nothing.