Carry something to sit on -- a cushion or one of those low-lying, metal-framed turkey-hunting seats. Where legal and practical, set up a portable camouflage blind. You don’t have to worry about approaching birds seeing you move and you can stretch out for a nap when things are really slow.

One season, my buddy, Ed, located a gobbler that would show up in a field every morning between 9 and 11 a.m. Ed never could figure out where this bird roosted, but he could always count on the tom showing up in this particular alfalfa field.

For three days, Ed got to the field ahead of the gobbler, set up his decoys and called. The tom never showed any interest and always stayed out of shotgun range. Finally, on the fourth day, Ed took out a portable blind, set it up about five yards back into the woods from the field edge, crawled inside and waited quietly. He didn’t put out a decoy and he never made a call. That day, Ed bagged the bird.

DOUBLE UP
In my opinion, there is no better time of day to employ the two-man setup than in mid- to late morning. That’s because there are sure to be several gobblers out there that are still looking for love. After those toms have been courting their ladies all morning, they seem to be easier to talk into shotgun range.

In the two-man setup, there’s a caller and a shooter. Once a gobbling bird is located, the shooter sets up to kill the turkey and the caller slips 40 to 50 yards behind that spot. When the shooter is ready, the caller should go into his best routine to get the gobbler fired up.

Here’s where it helps to have the caller and the shooter separated. Every turkey hunter has experienced “hang-ups.” You know the situation. A tom gobbles and gobbles, strutting back and forth, but he reaches a certain point in the distance and he decides he’s coming no closer. Again, this goes back to the biology of the turkey’s spring courtship ritual. The gobbler wants the hen to come to him, not vice versa.

If you aren’t able to track a specific flock, find out where the preferred midmorning hangouts are for the turkeys in your hunting area.

If you are calling for yourself, that gobbler knows by sound exactly where you are in the woods. He’s apt to stop approaching and start strutting and gobbling in one spot in an attempt to get you to go to him. Now you’re in a stalemate. However, by having a separate caller, that person can move away from you if the gobbler hangs up. Fearing that he might be losing a prospective date, the gobbler is likely to run after the caller -- and right down your gun barrel.

One reason I suspect the two-man setup works so well later in the morning, as opposed to shortly after first light, is you’re less likely to get interference from live hens. Early in the morning, a gobbler knows that all he has to do is gobble and a hen will show up. Come mid- to late morning, most of the local hens either have gone off to their nests or they’re hanging with their boyfriends for the day. Either way, a midmorning tom walking around the woods without hens in tow is ripe for the taking.