Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, May 5, 1994 TAG: 9405050032
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BILL COCHRAN
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The Roanoke hunter consistently kills limits of big, beefy birds, and this season is no exception: One of his toms weighed 23 pounds; the other 22 pounds, 12 ounces.
The 23-pounder, which sported an 11-inch beard and spurs that were about 1 1/2 inches, ranked second to the 24-pounder that won state competition for Dailey in 1982.
If you are looking for a trophy tom, here are some of his tips:
\ BE SELECTIVE: "I don't just shoot the first one that comes by," says Dailey, which means he applies a trophy deer-hunting principle to turkey hunting. In other words, if you are happy with a small buck, you aren't likely to come home with a wall-hanger. The same is true of turkeys.
Dailey has passed up shots at eight birds to kill his two trophies.
\ HUNT PRIVATE LAND: "You take a place that is heavily hunted, like the national forest, you don't hardly have a chance of killing a big gobbler," Dailey says. "You have to kill your big gobblers on private land."
\ MILK CONTACTS: Find places to hunt through business contacts, through friends - any way you can - says Dailey, who is in the roofing business.
"The first thing I ask people is if they need a roof put on," he says. "Then I offer them a turkey hunter's discount."
\ HUNT ALONE: "Most people I know let me hunt, because I hunt by myself," Dailey says. "You start taking people with you, a lot of times they will go back when you don't go, and that will mess up everything with the landowner."
\ BE FLEXIBLE: "The day I killed the 23-pounder, I was going into a place and somebody else was there," he says. "I walked right up on a guy. I told him, `You take care of this place; I'm going to another place.' "
Dailey drove 2 1/2 miles and set up where a friend had spotted turkeys. "If I had gone where I'd wanted to go, I'd never have killed that bird," he says. "You have to have luck, too."
\ BE PATIENT: During the early to middle part of the April 16-May 21 season, toms frequently are surrounded by hens. They will answer your call by gobbling on the roost a time or two, then fly down into hens and show little interest in what you have to offer.
When that happens, hunters often give up or try to stalk the tom. Both are mistakes, Dailey says.
"If he has answered my call, I will just stay where I am," he says. "Once the hens are bred, they will start sneaking off from him. The first thing he knows, he doesn't have any hens."
That's when the old tom is likely to come striding and strutting to the spot where you first called.
"If he has answered your call, he knows where you are," he says. "Where I used to make a mistake, I would move around the side of the mountain and he eventually would gobble back at the spot that I had left."
Dailey killed his 22-pound, 12-ounce turkey 10 minutes before the noon quiting time.
\ USE A VARIETY OF CALLS: Dailey doesn't consider himself a calling champion. "If that turkey is right and is looking for a hen and you can make a hen call, you can call him," he says.
It does pay to carry an assortment of calls - box, slate and mouth - because under certain conditions a little variation can lure a tom into shotgun range.
\ DON'T MOVE: Wear camouflage, especially on your hands and face, and don't move. Movement is the biggest mistake of the novice hunter.
"They start looking for the turkey, turning their head and pointing their gun here and yonder," Dailey says. "A turkey will come within 50 yards and you might not see anything, but he can see you. He is gone once he sees movement."
\ HUNT LATE IN THE SEASON: Look for some of the biggest birds to be killed late in the season, because that's when when the hens are nesting and the toms are searching for companionship. It's also a time when many hunters have given up.
by CNB