Ryan Barnes for SPLIT REED
Turkey hunting seems to take a grip on people and it won’t let go. There are lifelong waterfowl hunters that look forward to shooting a big tom turkey more than a limit of honkers or a trophy duck. The thrill of killing a turkey is something that keeps people awake at night with anticipation. The feeling of getting turkeys in close, seeing them fan out, and then pulling the trigger to give them a dirt nap- it all seems to be a driving force to give turkey hunters a year-long itch to get out and chase these wily birds.
But there’s more than one way to kill a turkey. Most people know turkey hunting as a form of locating the bird, setting up a decoy scenario, and then calling in the tom. That’s most common. However, for some people, they take a different approach. reaping.
Reaping is known by a few different names: spot n’ stalk, run n’ gun, scoot n’ shoot. You get the idea. It’s the method of moving towards the birds without being detected or using a decoy (like the MOJO Scoot n’ Shoot) to cover yourself up, and then getting into shooting range. Some still use calls while they do it, others stay quiet and try not to bring any attention to themselves; unless you’re using a decoy as cover, in that case, you’re masking yourself by trying to convince the turkeys that you’re a real bird trying to invade their territory. Much like stalking big game, it’s just a matter of staying out of sight, staying quiet, and not blowing the birds out until you get the chance to shoot your bird of choice.
There isn’t any reason you have to choose one method of hunting. Whether that be calling the birds into you, or going out and reaping the birds. It all depends on personal preference. Both are good tactics to be able to know how to do. In the early spring if the birds are responding well to calling, bringing them into you, and watching them fight the decoy, then hitting them in the face with a pattern of lead can be as much of an adrenaline rush as having a wad of snow geese circling the spread. But in those late months of the season, when the birds don’t seem to respond to the calling and seem to already have gotten their breeding needs out of their system, it might be time to consider going out and reaping a bird.
If you are running into a scenario where you think you might need to consider reaping a bird, take a pair of binoculars with you. Whether it’s a small pair or a pair that you can keep in a harness. Just something that you can keep out of the way as you try to stalk in on the birds. Having a pair of binos will allow you to locate the birds when they’ve decided to shut up and stop gobbling. You have to remember, you’re treating this like a Western big game hunt. With that in mind, it means that scouting comes into play even more than before. Scouting is a crucial part of turkey hunting for any type of hunting scenario, but if you plan to go out and reap turkeys, you need to know where they’re feeding, where they go to shade, where they go for water, etc. When you call them in, you can scout to locate where they are, where they are feeding, but at the end of the day, you’re bringing them to you.
Calling birds definitely brings with it the thrill of watching the birds respond to the call, all the while fanning out and working their way into your decoys. It gets the blood pumping and the adrenaline rushing as you try to keep steady to fire off a lethal shot. Reaping is a different type of adrenaline rush while you try to stalk in on the turkeys to get close into range to get off a shot.
Either method can be successful. It’s just a matter of which one gets you most excited about killing turkeys, and which method you find the most success. It’s never a bad idea to be proficient in multiple hunting methods. Just like there are multiple ways to hunt waterfowl, there are different ways to hunt and be successful in hunting turkeys. It’s just a matter of which ways work for you.
