Calling VS Experience/Woodsmanship

[shaman]

Short answer: Woodsmanship.

Long answer:  I've been at this over 40 years. I make my own calls.  I pro-staffed for a call company. I'll be the first to tell you that calling is the least of my considerations. 

The only reason fellows seem to get wound up over calling is the same reason they get wound up over shotgun patterns.  You can do these things without an open season. 

BTW: I want to compliment you guys. I've been a lot places over the years where there was an argument when this topic was brought up-- not just one over the other, but the very definition of woodsmanship.  Me?  I see woodsmanship as anything you do in the field that isn't calling.


One thing I think gets left out. I'll leave it to y'all to put a name to it.  For 15 years, I've been going into the woods well before season starts and recording the birds.  I was inspired by the Spittin' Feathers series.  I make a few podcasts every year with the results of these recordings.

If you're interested, they're here: Podcasts

I considered myself a fair turkey hunter when I started.  I was already a pro-staffer.  However, I feel my education really started when I began making those podcasts.  Being out with the turkeys gave me a visceral understanding of them.  It is not something I can express.  It is something I've tried to write about and failed.  I certainly cannot teach it.

[eggshell]

I agree Shaman, I sit here at the house or work out in the garden and listen to turkey talk off and on all year long. I too have thought about how to descriptively explain a lot in writing and it's just a different language. Experience is the best teacher.

[silvestris]

I was extremely lucky to be mentored by two men.  One could not call that well, but was very good in navigating the forest.  He killed a lot of turkeys and chastised me severely when I snapped a twig while walking.  He taught me woodmanship.  The other was a master caller.  I only hunted with him on one occasion, but I spent oh so many nights with him and he taught me to call.

Woodmanship became a habit; something I rarely had to contemplate.  Now calling is a different animal.  What to say, when to say it, and the volume used to say it requires much contemplation, so for me, calling is everything. 

[nso123]

I hunt a mix of private agricultural land and some public WMA land. On the WMA it can be tough to spot the birds and pattern them enough to set up and wait on them to make a mistake, so good calling can be helpful. On the ag land it is very different. These birds can be patterned to a degree, but they don't respond much, if at all, to calling when they get in the fields. This is where woodsmanship seems to be a greater advantage to me. If I can only have one of the two, woodsmanship would be my choice, but I'm glad I don't have to choose between the two exclusively.

[Turkeyman]

A consistently successful turkey hunter will possess "turkey woodsmanship", and will also be a good caller. Perhaps not "contest quality", but at least good. Have that guy go out with the worst sounding call in his arsenal  and he's still going to kill turkeys.

[KYTurkey07]

The success I've had comes from picking a place turkeys tend to travel, setting up wisely, knowing when to use a handful of different calls for different situations and sounding realistic. The sounding realistic part come from practicing year round and knowing what to say when. I'd say woodsmanship is slightly more important than calling ability. We don't need to call fancy, just sound like a turkey and let curiosity get the best of them.