One of the most exciting parts of turkey hunting is the interactive nature of the experience.
The style of hunting needed to be successful and the timing of the spring season means that turkey hunters must proactively mimic the sounds of female turkeys in order to entice a big gobbler to come close enough for a shot.
Often times a direct conversation between an old dirty bird and a hunter mimicking a hen often unfold for hours in the woods.
Given that wild turkey are a popular prey species, that also means other animals in the woods have been known to use turkey vocalizations as part of their hunting strategies too.
Many turkey hunters have stories of predators like coyotes, foxes, and black bears being curious about their decoys or closely approaching the source of the sounds while hunting for their next meal.
While those predators pose a minimal legitimate threat to humans, a hungry mountain lion expecting a turkey dinner only to walk upon a person sitting on the ground is a far scarier scenario. If it’s 3 mountain lions that’s even more terrifying, but that’s just the situation that Janis Putelis from MeatEater recently experienced for himself.
He was able to catch 2 of the 3 big cats on camera and now has a crazy hunting story to remember for the rest of his life.
Mission accomplished.
Janis detailed the experience in the latest episode of The MeatEater podcast:
