I took my wife Misty to High Cotton Hunting, a 10,000-acre tract of land in west Tennessee that was set-up as a quail preserve but homed plenty of deer and turkey. The first turkeys we set-up to call were gobbling really well. When the turkeys flew-down, they continued to gobble, but they gobbled going-away from us. These gobblers obviously had a group of hens moving with them and couldn’t care less about my calling. The situation was made even worse when the birds started leaving the property where we had permission to hunt. On the morning of our hunt, we heard a turkey gobbling from a roost a long distance away from us. Since the birds already had left, we decided to go to the bird we’d heard at first light. We waited to hear him gobble again before we left the area, and finally at about 8:30 am, he cranked-up and started gobbling. Because he started gobbling at 8:30 am, I knew he was by himself and didn’t have hens with him. We took-off running toward that tom.

 Misty liked to shoot her 20-gauge CVA Optima Elite, and I had my 12-gauge Optima Elite. This gobbler was in a strut zone. We got down in a dry creek, and using that creek bank to keep the turkey from seeing us, we moved as close as we could to that turkey. The turkey was gobbling from some open timber, so we stopped about 200-yards short of where we thought the turkey was located. We came out of the creek bottom and sat-down right on the edge of the creek bottom. A drainage ditch was about 45-yards out in front of us. I’d never before hunted this piece of ground, but I was confident that we could call the turkey from across that ditch. I knew that if the turkey hung-up on the other side of the drainage ditch, he’d be too far for Misty to make a shot with that 20 gauge. Well, that’s exactly what the bird did.

 Once we set-up and started calling, I gave the turkey some excited cutting and yelping calls. As soon as I hit the turkey with those excited calls, he broke-out of strut and started running straight toward us. I could hear the turkey gobbling as he ran the 200 yards to reach the ditch. When the turkey reached 46-yards away from us, he stopped and started to strut and gobble. That bird strutted and gobbled his head off for 20 minutes. Because the bird was so close, I couldn’t do very-much calling. I did a little purring and soft yelping to make the turkey think I was further away than I really was and to encourage him to walk across that ditch. Finally, after about 30 minutes of strutting and gobbling, he dropped his strut and started walking toward the ditch. Once the turkey walked to the ditch, he vanished, which told me that the ditch was much deeper than I’d thought. When the turkey came across the ditch and reached our side, he was in clean, open woods at about 36-yards from us. For the gun Misty was shooting, I preferred to have the turkey within 30 yards, so this was further than I wanted her to shoot.

 The bird looked around for about 20 seconds, and when he didn’t see that hen, he knew something was wrong and gave an alarm putt. Misty and I were backed-up against a giant red oak. I know the turkey couldn’t see us, but he spotted something he didn’t like. When he gave the alarm putt and started making those quick steps to get away from us, I gave Misty the signal to shoot. Even though the bird was about 5-yards further away than I wanted Misty to shoot, I felt confident that she could make the shot. But when she fired, the shot didn’t come close to that turkey. It didn’t even pepper him. She didn’t throw-up dirt in front of or behind the turkey. She didn’t even get close to him. The turkey made one more putt and then walked out of our lives.

 Although we didn’t harvest a turkey that morning we had a great hunt. Misty hasn’t stopped talking about that bird since that day. I remember the turkeys I’ve missed much-more vividly than the turkeys I’ve taken. If you enjoy turkey hunting, even if the hunt doesn’t end with a bird on your shoulder or in your turkey vest, you still can have a great day of turkey hunting.

 To learn more about High Cotton Hunting, visit www.highcottonhunting.com.

Editor’s Note: CVA Pro Tony Smotherman of Tennessee, nationally–known hunter and TV personality, has had a phenomenal turkey season during the spring of 2011 and explains why he likes to hunt turkeys with his family.

 I enjoyed hunting with my sons on the fourth weekend of turkey season at a farm about 1/2-mile from my front door in Arrington, Tennessee. My youngest son Alex already had taken a turkey, and it was 13-year-old Andrew’s chance to take his turkey. I took my first turkey 15-years ago at this same farm. Although this 150-acre farm doesn’t produce whitetails, the habitat is ideal for turkeys with excellent hardwood timber and a number of open cow pastures. The farmer feeds his cattle grain, which goes through those cows and is deposited in their manure in the fields. Turkeys here in Tennessee love to pick grain out of cow patties. Every spring, the turkeys come here to feed on that undigested grain in these pastures.

 Fifteen-years ago, there weren’t any turkeys in my area of Tennessee, but for some reason, there were some on this farm. The first wild turkey gobble I ever heard was on this farm. Every year since then, my family and I have taken one to six gobblers off this same piece of property. Besides the cow patties, the cattle graze the grass down, which keeps the vegetation low in these pastures, making them ideal places for turkeys to strut. When I took my son Andrew turkey hunting, because the turkeys roosted at the same roost site every year, I knew where the turkeys would be located.

 The turkeys generally roosted high on one particular ridge on the farm. We reached the farm before daylight, and when Andrew and I got within 300 to 400 yards of this roost site, I blew an owl hooter to locate the turkeys. A gobbler immediately gobbled not 20-yards away. He was so close that he almost blew-off my cap. This turkey kind of scared Andrew, because we had no idea the turkey was that close. When we hooted at 20-yards from the bird, the turkey knew something wasn’t right. When he flew-off the roost, he shifted into high gear and got as far as he could away from us.

 I know this land, so I realized there were two pinch points between two large pastures. The turkeys would strut from one pasture to the next all day. Instead of trying to chase the turkey we’d spooked or attempting to find another gobbler that didn’t have hens with him, Andrew and I just went to the pinch point. Being only 13-years old, Andrew wasn’t wired for sitting for long periods, but then again, neither was I. We stayed at the pinch point until 11:45 am. I knew the turkeys would be there, because I had put-out Moultrie trail cameras before the season and photographed the turkeys going back and forth through that pinch point each day. Although most hunters knew how to use trail cameras to scout for deer, many wouldn’t realize that those same trail cameras could be used to pinpoint turkeys’ locations and to determine when they’d show-up and where. From the information from my trail cameras, I knew those turkeys eventually had to come through that pinch point. Not surprisingly, we saw the same turkey we’d spooked at daylight coming toward the pinch point. The longbeard was strutting behind three jakes and one hen. The gobbler was at 45 yards when I told Andrew to take the shot with my 12-gauge CVA Optima Elite.

 Most of the time when people think about turkey hunting, they envision a person sitting on the ground, blowing a turkey call and waiting on the gobbler to come to him. That’s my favorite way to hunt, but sometimes knowing where the turkey wants to be, you can take him without ever pulling-out your turkey call. That’s exactly what happened on this hunt.

 Many hunters would think that a 41-yard shot was a long shot, especially for a 13-year old. However, Andrew was shooting some blended shotshells that were a combination of No. 5, No. 6 and No. 7 shots. On the front of my Optima Elite, I had a Rhino .670-2-inch choke. I’d patterned this gun shooting this choke and shotshell out to 70 yards, and you wouldn’t believe the pattern it produced. So, I didn’t hesitate to tell Andrew to take that 40-yard shot. At 40 yards, it patterned really tight, and you almost were too close. This was the best turkey shotgun, choke and shell combination I’d ever used in 15 years of turkey hunting.

 If you want a turkey gun that will reach-out at distances that most people won’t even consider shooting, you should use the CVA Apex interchangeable rifle system with the 12-gauge shotgun barrel. The CVA Optima Elite is no longer available, but it CVA has replaced it with the CVA Apex and this model is even better than the Optima Elite.

Editor’s Note: CVA Pro Tony Smotherman, co-host of “Moultrie’s Hit List” on the Outdoor Channel, has had a phenomenal turkey season this year. “This has been my best turkey season ever, even though we’ve had a lot of rain in the South,” Smotherman says. This week, Smotherman will share the tactics he used at the 10th Annual Tennessee Governor’s One Shot Turkey Hunt to take turkeys with his 12-gauge CVA Optima Elite.  

 Each year, I host the Annual Tennessee Governor’s One Shot Turkey Hunt in Pulaski, Tennessee, held during the early season, when taking a tom is tough, because the gobblers still are with hens. Even though I host the hunt, I also get to hunt with local guides in the area. The hunt’s generally held the second weekend of Tennessee’s turkey season, usually the first weekend of April. Seventy-five hunters participated in this year’s hunt. There are always three of us on the hunt – me, a sponsor and a local guide who knows the land and can show us where to hunt. Having to hunt with this number of people makes hiding and being stealthful much-more difficult.

 This year we’d roosted birds the night before we’d planned to hunt and returned to this same spot the next day before daylight. So-many hens were in the region that when the gobblers flew from the roost, they went in the opposite direction from us with the hens. We had to be back to check-in by 5:00 pm, so we hunted most of the day. Every turkey we tried to hunt would give us a courtesy gobble when we called to them but then would move-off with hens. However, at 3:00 pm, we went to a new section of land where there were a number of hens and used our Alpen binoculars to search for the turkeys. As we drove through the property, we saw strutting gobblers everywhere, but they all had hens with them. So, we went through the timber to prevent the turkeys from seeing us and reached a spot where the timber grew out into the hayfield. When we reached the edge where the timber met the hayfield, we started calling to the gobblers we could see. I used a Knight & Hale Ol’ Yeller Sla-Tek friction call. Our game plan was to try not to call the gobblers, but instead to call the hens to us, hoping they’d bring the gobblers with them. The group of turkeys we were calling-to had five hens and four longbeards. After an hour of calling, we got two hens to come out of the flock and walk 250 yards to us. They passed out of sight, so, we started cutting and yelping loudly. Then two of the gobblers started coming toward us. Before we started calling, we put-out a Knight & Hale Pretty Boy and Pretty Girl decoy. To reach us, the two gobblers had to come over a rise, and we were down the hill from this rise. We watched the gobblers’ tail feathers coming over the hill, before we saw the gobblers. As soon as the gobblers topped the hill and spotted our decoy in full strut and the hen sitting beside it, they dropped their struts and came running, shoulder to shoulder, as hard as they could straight to us. The turkeys ran so hard and fast that they came to within 10 yards before the sponsor and I touched our triggers. Both those turkeys folded like envelopes. These 2-1/2-year-old birds had 10-1/2-inch beards and about 1-inch-long spurs, and probably were hatched from the same nest.

 I’ve seen television shows before where toms came-in and jumped-on the decoy, trying to tear it up, and I’ve been on hunts where gobblers have seen my decoys and come to them. But this is the first time I’d ever seen two gobblers running full-out across 150 yards as hard as they could to reach the decoy and attack him. I was amazed at how fast those turkeys could run and how effective those decoys were at bringing-in the turkeys. I learned from this hunt that knowing how to call turkeys was important, but to be successful, you had to understand how to set-up on turkeys, so they would come to you. I learned that when the gobblers wouldn’t come-in to you, if you could call-in the hens, you’d have a much-better chance of calling-in the gobblers. I also learned that decoys out in front of you meant that as soon as you saw that the turkeys would come-in to you, you needed to get-up your gun as those turkeys would come-in fast. When you’re shooting the 12-gauge CVA Optima Elite, you quickly and effectively can put-down a turkey.

Editor’s Note: CVA makes a variety of muzzleloading rifles and barrels for hunting bears besides the conventional Bergara barrels. Wayne Carlton, nationally-known hunter from Montrose, Colorado, tells us to call bears for the most success in hunting them.

Question: Wayne, what’s the secret to taking bears in the West in the spring?

Carlton: To take bears in the West during the spring, you’ll need the patience and the stamina to call-in bears. Cold calling – when you don’t see a bear but assume from bear sign that a bear’s in the area – is one of the toughest bear-hunting situations. To broadcast the call and have the chance to call-in a bear, you have to call continuously for 15 or 20 minutes, and then change calls and call from an additional 15 or 20 minutes. But most people don’t have the patience or the stamina to blow a call for that amount of time.

For instance, last year, I hunted in an area in Mexico where I knew there were a number of bears, and within 2 hours, I’d called-in four-different bears. With the set-up I used on this hunt, I called-in one bear that came-in from the left, one from the right, one from downwind and the other from upwind. The bears that came-in from upwind and downwind reached me at the same time. Not only does this prove the power of calling bears, but it also makes a strong case for using scent-elimination products. A bear doesn’t have very-good eyesight, but he has an extremely-keen nose. When you can call-in a bear from downwind of you without the bear’s smelling you, you’ve accomplished a great feat. When the two bears came-in, one of them was noticeably smaller than the other one. But when the smaller bear saw the big bear, he left, and the big bear came to within 5 feet of us. Bear season wasn’t in, so we didn’t take the shot, but by using my Wayne Carlton Bear Call, we learned where the bears were located.

Question: What’s another secret to taking bears in the spring?

Carlton: You have to be where the bear wants to be – just like with any game you want to hunt. In the spring of the year, bears will be feeding on tender, green grass that often appears first around the creek and the canyon bottoms, and they’ll be feeding where you find winter kills of elk, deer and other animals. You’ll also find bears where you’ll find old mast crops that still have acorns. When bears come-out of hibernation, they haven’t eaten all winter. So, the first thing on their agendas when they come out of their dens is to find something to eat. If you can identify the areas where the bears want to be and start calling from those places, more than likely a bear will come to you. When you buy the Hunter’s Specialties’ Wayne Carlton Bear Call, you’ll also get the “Call’n Bears – They Come To Eat” DVD that shows you how to use the call to call-in bears. This call has an exposed Mylar reed that’s built into a tube, and it requires a lot of wind to blow. Blow this call as long and as hard as you can in the same way as if you’re using the wobble and the screaming calls. After you’ve blown it as hard and as loudly as you can for as long as you can, then use a softer, easier call like a mouth predator call or a rabbit-in-distress electronic call. These calls are much easier to blow and will give you a chance to rest while still calling. After you’ve rested, you can pick-up the bear caller again and start blowing it. You also can use a mouth caller when you’re resting from using the bear call. Last year, I set-up in a canyon where I saw some old bear sign. I called for about 10 or 15 minutes. I thought to myself, “Wouldn’t it be nice if a bear came-down this road and walked-around this pond.” Within 30 seconds, a bear came up the road and right to the call. Then I switched calls and began using a softer call. That bear continued to come-in to the softer call. That bear was only about 35-yards away from us, but as the bear was coming around to us, he spotted my hunter drawing his bow and took off. We didn’t get the shot.

 Question: Is sitting still another key to taking a bear?

Carlton: Yes, it is. Although bears don’t see color, they can pick-up movement. If you sit still enough, you’ll be surprised by how close you can get those bears. Once again, this is another case of how critical using scent-elimination products and wearing scent-elimination clothing is to a successful bear hunt. Too, remember that if you move in preparation for the shot, and sunlight reflects off any of your equipment, you may spook a bear. So, if you’re not totally camouflaged with camo head net, hat, gloves, pants, shirt and boots, you may spook the bear you’re trying to take. Hunting bear in the spring requires just as much stealth and camouflage as hunting gobblers in the spring does.

Editor’s Note: Wayne Carlton of Montrose, Colorado, hunts eastern wild turkeys, Osceola wild turkeys and Merriam’s turkeys. This week, he’ll tell us about hunting the Merriam’s gobbler in the mountains in the West.

Question: Wayne, what’s the difference in hunting a Merriam’s turkey and an eastern or an Osceola turkey?
Carlton: The biggest difference is the Merriam’s turkey can hear and be heard from a much-greater distance than those turkeys east of the Mississippi River. If you’re hunting the Osceola turkey in the swamps of Florida or the eastern turkey in the thick woods of the East, you’ll notice that their sounds are muffled by the foliage in those areas. But in the West where I hunt, I can hear a Merriam’s turkey 1-mile away. Early in the morning, just before the sun rises, a turkey in these mountains may be across a canyon several-thousand-feet deep that you’ll have to cross and climb-up to reach him. When I hear a turkey like this, I usually say to myself, “Gosh, isn’t there a turkey closer than that one?”

Question: Is that turkey callable?
Carlton: Yes, he is. This is another difference between calling turkeys east of the Mississippi River and calling turkeys in the West. The Merriam’s turkey can hear a call from a long distance away and will come to that call. I’ve set-up to call Merriam’s turkeys 1/4- to 1/2-mile away and had them run-in to me. When you’re calling a turkey that far away, give the bird time to reach you. Most eastern hunters live by a clock. They want everything to happen quickly. They’re accustomed to getting-in close to a turkey and hoping he’ll show-up in 20 or 30 minutes. But if a Merriam’s turkey that has short legs has to walk 1/2-mile over a couple of mountains, it may take him awhile to reach you. Many eastern hunters will get-up and leave that turkey.

Question: Can you call-in Merriam’s turkeys later in the morning?
Carlton: Merriam’s turkeys will gobble all day, and you can call them in all day. By using a diaphragm call or box call, you can get a Merriam’s turkey to come from 1/2-mile away in possibly 15 minutes at any time of the day. When these turkeys are excited, they’ll run-in to the call. Our Western territory is so open that you may spot a turkey with binoculars but not be able to see him with your eyes. But, you can call to that gobbler and have him come to you.

Question: Do you call aggressively or moderately to those turkeys?
Carlton: I generally start with aggressive calls to get a Merriam’s to gobble. I’ll call loudly and aggressively to broadcast that call as far away as I can. Then, I try to listen for the furthest gobble I possibly can hear. I recently took a woman who manufactures camouflage clothing for women turkey hunting with me. I used a friction call and called from the rim of a canyon. I heard a very subtle “oble-oble-oble.” Western turkeys “oble” instead of gobble like eastern turkeys do. When I asked my hunting companion if she heard the turkey gobble, she said no. I called again, and she still didn’t hear the turkey. Finally, I walked about 50- or 60-yards away from her and called again with the friction call. This time, she heard the turkey gobble. Sometimes a caller can be so into their own calling that he or she can’t hear that long-distance gobble.

Question: How do the Merriam’s come to you?
Carlton: You occasionally can get a Merriam’s to fly-across a canyon or walk from the bottom of a canyon up to the top of the ridge where you’re calling. However, most of the time if I hear a turkey on the other side of a canyon or a big draw, I try to reach the gobbler on the same level. I don’t want to make a turkey go uphill or downhill to reach my location. Rather, I want the turkey to come straight to me. I have to admit that one of the prettiest sights I’ve ever seen is a gobbler flying across a canyon coming toward me. To call a Merriam’s turkey across a canyon is as difficult as trying to get a gobbler to fly across a river in the East. But when you see that picture, you’ll know that you’ve made the right sound on your turkey call, the gobbler’s in the right mood, and you’ve set-up to call in the right place.

CVA is introducing a new Bergara barrel to fit the CVA Apex rifle that’s 3-1/2-inches and shoots 3-1/2-inch shotgun shells. You mount that barrel on your CVA Apex rifle to hunt turkeys.