Tips Archive
Making a Turkey Cape
Looking for a great way to show off that tom? Try a wild turkey cape instead of an expensive mount.
Top Ten Tips for Better Outdoor Photography
Making a Feather Wreath
Making a feather wreath with the kids is a great indoor activity for when the weather is bad.
Fall Turkey Hunting: Think Safety, Hunt Safely
In Pennsylvania, fall turkey hunting is just as important as spring gobbler hunting. Bob Kasun with the NWTF's Pennsylvania State Chapter wrote this story to remind hunters that fall turkey hunting has its own issues and safety is everyone's business.
Staying Scent Free
Create a Hunter for Life
The Perfect Zero
Sight your rifle in the correct way with these tips from the NWTF.
Six Tips for Growing Food Plot Grasses
Planting native grasses in your food plot provides many advantages to turkeys and other wildlife using your land. These hints from the NWTF's wildlife biologists will help you get the most out of your planting.
Landowner Appreciation
As summer slowly turns to fall and a hunter's mind drifts back to the woods, it is important not to forget the people who make days afield possible for many of us--landowners on whose property we hunt.
Get the News Out
Promoting your event is easier that it looks.
Misconceptions of Wild Turkey Management
Take into consideration a few misconcieved ideas the next time you set out to do some wild turkey land management. You could be doing more harm than good.
Cleaning Your Wild Turkey
If you're a turkey hunter, you're used to making decisions. And, after choosing the right turkey loads, camouflage, decoys and calls before entering the spring woods, it's a relief when the final decision of the hunt is how to care for and cook your bird.
Choosing the Right Shotgun this Turkey Season
The level of sophistication in firearms available to the turkey hunter has followed the same path as turkey calls. As more hunters have joined the sport, manufacturers have responded to their needs by making shotguns with features ideally matched to the turkey woods.
Hunters: STAY FIT
While hunting is about having fun, keep your health in mind with these tips for staying healthy this spring.
Tube Calls - Give them a Try
The tube call is a popular caller for many of the nation's top turkey hunters. With it, a hunter can make virtually every sound in a turkey's vocabulary from yelps to purrs to gobbles. Using a tube call takes practice and patience.
Turkey Hunter’s Checklist
While you will not need every item on this list to kill a turkey, any given situation can make you wish you had packed your bag a little more completely. The following turkey hunter's checklist will help you prepare for the most rugged to the simplest of adventures.
Fading Out?
Does your camo lose its color after a few washings? Follow these tips from Rob Keck and Jim Crumley and blend in better in the woods!
Public Land Paradise
Turkey hunting season is fast approaching, and it's time to make plans for that spring hunt. And, what better - and inexpensive - way to kill that gobbler than on the thousands of acres of public hunting land across the nation?
Hunters: Get Fit
It's time to think about getting in shape for the spring season. Check out these tips to get yourself healthy for turkey season.
Hunting Merriam’s Wild Turkeys
Defensive Turkey Hunting Tactics
A safe turkey hunter, like a safe driver, is defensive minded. Below are tips one should consider.
NWTF's Dress for Success Rules
Decoy Safety
While decoys increase chances, they can also increase danger. Today's decoys are very real looking and can draw fire from unknowing hunters.
Proper Firearm Handling
Bagging Birds with Your Bow
Bowhunting for wild turkeys takes patience and skill that often deters many hunters. But, it's nothing you can't handle. If you prefer big game hunting, think of a wild turkey bowhunt as spring training. Following are some helpful tips from avid bowhunter and Turkey Call magazine editor, Jason Gilbertson:
A Turkey Hunter’s Code of Conduct
Fall turkey season is here! Some states' seasons have already begun; most of the others open in the next couple of months. Before you start searching for a flock to bust, review the NWTF's Turkey Hunter's Code of Conduct.
ATV Tips for Hunters!
Try these tips from the National Off-Highway Vehicle Conservation Council (www.nohvcc.org) to keep your next outing fun and safe.
Help Stop Poaching!
Help law enforcement officers keep poachers from taking turkeys and other game species out of season by following these tips from Wade Spence, the NWTF's Kansas Wildlife Officer of the Year.
Going Buggy?
Keep your beard, cape and fan collections free of those pesky moths and carpet beetles with Rob Keck's trophy care tips.
Caring for Your Taxidermy
A little care goes a long way toward protecting those valuable trophies.
Make a Spur Necklace
Show off those long spurs by wearing them as a necklace or stringing them around your favorite wide-brimmed hat!
Quiet Time Strategy
Don't give up when the gobblers quiet down! Changing your tactics as the season progresses will keep you in the woods longer and increase your chances of success!
Slate Call Maintenance
Pot and peg calls, also known as slate calls because of the primary material they were once made of, now come in a variety of surfaces. Whether your call is made of glass, aluminum, slate or some other material, using some general maintenance rules can make them last for many hunting seasons.
Box Call Maintenance
A good box call is one of the most costly calls to buy, but proper care in the field and regular maintenance will turn that crafted piece of wood into a loyal companion in the turkey woods for many years.
Mouth Call Maintenance
As the season comes to a close, one way to get a jump on next year is to make sure you keep your calls in good working order. This is particularly true of your mouth calls, which can dry out if not properly stored.
Finding Public Hunting Grounds
It's one of the greatest challenges facing every hunter. No, it's not calling in that longbeard or figuring out how to get the tightest pattern out of your shotgun. It's finding a good place to hunt. While a small handful of hunters own their own land and even more are able to join hunt clubs and leases, many others search every year for that perfect spot. And for a lot of these hunters, it means finding good public land.
Hunting Osceola Wild Turkeys
The green, palmetto-choked landscape of central and southern Florida is home to the Osceola wild turkey. But like in any turkey hunt, success begins with lots of planning.
Protecting Our Hunting Heritage
Dedicated to the conservation of the wild turkey and the preservation of our hunting heritage.
Hunting Gould's Wild Turkeys
Probably some of the most unique turkey hunting in the world can be found in the northern and central parts of Mexico where the Gould's wild turkey lives and thrives.
Learn the Breeding Cycle of a Wild Turkey
Let's face it, we will never know exactly what a gobbler is thinking. However, we have a good idea of what his motives are during the spring.
Helping Your Local Conservation Law Enforcement Officer
Many hunters are only too eager to assist wildlife law enforcement officers in their efforts to arrest poachers, stop trespassers and prevent polluters from dumping trash. After all, every one of us cares about and wants to protect our natural resources. But few hunters realize the single most important tool in assisting these officers just might be their cell phone.
What You Need for Muzzleloading
Caring for a black-powder shotgun is fairly simple. All you really need are percussion caps, powder, wads and shot, and a way to carry it to the field.
Pecking Order: Recognizing the Dominant Gobbler
Most of us would like to shoot the biggest, oldest gobbler on our property. The problem is that it can be hard to tell which gobbler this is until you actually have him in hand.
The Hardy One
The American wild turkey is an extremely hardy bird, having great resistance to the elements. It is able to withstand low temperatures and periods of fasting.
Quick Targets
Small farms near each other can be productive as they provide a hunter with pockets of land over a wider area. Nonetheless, the same principle behind quick hitting small properties can work on big ones as well.
Jot It Down
Some hunters are content to simply spend a day in the big hardwoods, while others hope to bring home a longbeard. Unfortunately, methods that produced during the spring may be worthless in the fall. Successful methods vary between the two seasons.
Open Places
Openings and fields are important to wild turkeys. In the summer, the majority of the turkey's food sources are found in open, sunny places.
Fall Safety
With the air cool and crisp and the color of leaves changing to brilliant reds, oranges and yellows, autumn is a great time to be outdoors. But just like spring, safety is always a top priority when hunting. The fall season demands a few special precautions.
Going for the Gould’s
The Gould's wild turkey is the largest of the five subspecies and somewhat resembles the Merriam's due to its white tail feathers. They have longer legs, larger feet and larger center tail feathers than any other type of wild turkey.
Sighting In
Prior to the start of hunting season, many hunters head to the range, set up a turkey target at 40 yards, pull the trigger and are satisfied that their pattern is more than adequate. So they put their shotgun back in its case until opening morning.
Turkey Fan Mounting
Taxidermy is a great way to show off a trophy harvest, but it sometimes can get expensive. Check out our comprehensive tips on preparing a fan mount.
Cleaning Your Bird
Turkey hunting is tough enough, but what are you planning to do with that bird once you harvest it? Find out all the secrets of going from field to table with wild turkey.
Making A Wingbone Call
More than 40 years ago, it was said the wing bone call and its variations were one of the most widely used turkey calls found. Though it became no less effective, a number of different, easier-to-use calls later grew in popularity to meet the demands of sportsmen rushing to join the growing turkey hunting ranks.
