Experienced turkey hunters have always advised beginners not to try to stalk a gobbler. The simple truth is that it is nearly impossible to do successfully.

It also is terribly dangerous — both to the would-be stalker and other hunters in the area. Many turkey hunting accidents occur because someone tried to stalk a gobbler and was either mistaken for or mistook another person for the bird. When moving about the turkey woods, walk out in the open — preferably on a trail — and display some fluorescent orange. Never carry a turkey decoy out in the open when walking through the woods.

"Mistaken for game" is a leading cause of all hunting accidents. Don't wear the gobbler-head colors of red, white or blue and don't try to signal another hunter with your turkey call or waving your hand. Speak out in a loud, clearly human voice before you make a single move.

Safe turkey hunting is as simple as "Be absolutely sure before you pull the trigger."

Don't "Stretch" Your Barrel — Myles Keller

When you hear a turkey hunting tale where the shooting range is 50 yards or more, you might want to take it with a grain of salt.

With today's super-tight turkey chokes and highly developed ammunition, we have added some reliable range to modern turkey hunting. Once, 30 yards or a bit more was considered the "average" practical limit for most guns and loads. Today, if you seriously pattern to find the right combination of choke and load, a reliable 40-yard turkey gun is quite possible.

However, most of even the best patterns begin to suffer at 45 yards and are skimpy at 50 — usually too skimpy to be really reliable for a clean kill. Of course, you will continue to hear of kills at 60 yards and beyond because one lucky pellet happened to hit in the right place. Don't count on that happening on a regular basis, but do count on wounding a lot of gobblers if you try to shoot too far.

Henned-up gobblers are one of the toughest challenges in turkey hunting. Hung-up gobblers are a close second. A gobbler with hens may answer your calling but will seldom leave them. Many times the hens will try to lead the gobbler away. When a gobbler answers but moves away, it indicates he is with hens.

A stationary gobbling bird that simply won't budge is truly hung up. Often he is across a creek or some other obstacle he doesn't want to cross. Sometimes he is in his favorite strutting area and doesn't want to leave. Frequently the hunter unknowingly encourages the gobbler to stay put by calling too much, convincing the gobbler the "hen" is on the way.

One strategy for versatile hunters is to change calls or style of calling. Another is to simply shut up and play hard to get right back. The third, and most risky, is to try to change calling positions to shake the hung-up gobbler loose.