On my bird, a trio of mature toms came in gobbling, strutting, spitting and drumming all the way up to the Pretty Boy and Pretty Girl decoy system. We had them five yards from the blind, and the toms could have cared less. Slipping a Gold Tip arrow through the biggest bird, the tom went 10 yards and fell over. Before we could get out of the blind, four more toms came in to the decoy, and the two birds that were with the one I'd just arrowed, also came back.

In experimenting with decoy sets, keep an open mind. What works one time may not work the next. Over the past two seasons, I've had my best success with the Pretty Boy and Pretty Girl system, as I've never had a mature tom see them and not come in. This may not be the case for everyone, but it's what I've observed and explains why I invested in three sets of these decoys.

If you can, situate the decoys so approaching toms first see the backside of a strutting tom. This sends the message that he's courting a hen. When the approaching birds get closer, they'll see the submissive or feeding hen facing away from the tom, and often circle around in front to get her attention. They will also approach the tom, and once they start strutting and pirouetting, they'll usually provide the perfect shot opportunity, especially for archers.

6. Use Optics
The first time I hosted a hunting buddy on a turkey hunt from the flatlands back East, he was blown away by the size of the country we were going to hunt. He had trouble reasoning that Rios actually lived in these rugged mountains. When I pointed out that these were gentle hills, not mountains, and that the habitat contained everything the birds needed to survive, he knew I was serious about the hunt.

When I broke out the spotting scope, you should have seen the priceless look he shot my way.

"What the heck is that for?" he said.

Once I centered a pair of toms on high power, I let him slip into the scope. He looked up at me like I'd lost my mind.

"Do you see them?" I smiled.

"Uh, yeah," he said.

"What do you think we should do?" I asked.

"We're not going after them, are we?" he said.

"Nope," I grinned.

"Good, they're way too far," he sighed.

"Oh, that's not the reason we're letting them go," I said. "Look closer. They're both young toms."

He must have known it was going to be a long day.

Truth is, if we had looked at those birds through just binoculars, we couldn't have seen how big they were. If we had have taken the time to walk the mile of hilly ground to see what they were, we'd have wasted valuable hunting time.

As in big-game hunting, spotting scopes have saved me countless hours of false stalks over the years in the turkey hills. When you know you're going to be hunting open, rolling hills, take along a spotting scope, especially if you're after a mature tom. When boss toms aren't talking this time of year, you'll likely see more birds than you actually hear. For this reason, packing a spotting scope can save time and help to accurately judge the size of distant toms.

Late-season toms can be tough to outwit, but once you figure out how to get on them, hunting success rates will rise. Study the birds you hunt. Learn the terrain and why mature toms behave the way they do this time of year in that setting. Once you start outthinking these big hammerheads, your addiction to late-season turkey hunting will skyrocket.