Photo by D. Toby Thompson.

"I don't fall turkey hunt because gobblers don't gobble in the fall," the pipe-smoking, overall-clad farmer said. Another sage of the hunt scooted his ladder-back chair a bit closer to the potbelly stove that stoically served as the gathering place for locals at the dilapidated, old country store. He stretched his hands slowly toward the glow of the stove, both to gather its warmth and to signal his comrades that he had words of wisdom to impart about the subject at hand. He spit a slug of tobacco into the crusty bucket in the corner.

"The onlyest way a feller cin git 'imself a fall turkey ista walk the leather offn his bootsoles 'n scear the livin' daylights outa the whole durn bunch, when and if'n he happens upon 'em. Then it's a matter of waitin' fer the old hen to call 'em poults back to that verie spot. One can hep 'er out by a scratchin a few wailin' calls like a lost youngun on his gunstock with a little cedar box. Them little birds eats mighty fine. But killin' a big, ol' gobbler is kinda like killin' a ghost. If'n a man says he did sich a thing, well, you'd best scratch your head twice."

Perhaps the legendary Mark Twain said it best, even though his comments did add to the myth and mystery of hunting fall turkeys. He spoke of a hen turkey being immoral and deceitful. Twain referred, of course, to the hen turkey's feigning injury to lead intruders away from her nest or poults.

"When a person is ignorant and confiding, this immoral device can have tiresome results. I followed an ostensibly lame turkey over a considerable part of the United States one morning, because I believed her and could not think she would deceive a boy, and one who was trusting her and considering her honest," Twain wrote.

We can laugh at Twain's interpretation of his hunt, but modern-day turkey hunters continue to wallow in old myths, those traditional stories of unknown authorship serving to explain some phenomenon of fall turkey hunting.

As late as 1998, the author of a well-known book on turkey hunting wrote of fall gobblers: "Fall gobbler hunting has won a well-deserved reputation as the ultimate exercise in frustration. Mature male turkeys rarely respond to calling in the fall and are often almost impossible to influence in any way. This is why most turkey hunters forget about mature gobblers in the fall and use the autumn turkey season to concentrate on young, tender poults, which eagerly respond to calling."

It is no myth that far more hunters participate in the spring gobbler season in Missouri than do during the month-long fall season when birds of either sex are legal. Longstanding myths are largely responsible for the easy acceptance of defeat by so many hunters. However, there are those accomplished turkey hunters who have refused to be duped by myth and old legends. Turkey hunters would do well to listen to those who have become so adept at fall turkey hunting that they, themselves, have become living legends -- Legends of the Fall.

"Aggressive clucking and putting will often stir up the gobblers in the fall." -- Alex Rutledge

Knight and Hale Pro Staffer and Ultimate Hunting Team member Keith Wahling of Villa Ridge is no newcomer to fall turkey hunting. He addressed the myth of having to walk your shoe soles off to find fall turkeys.

"One of the toughest things about fall turkey hunting for many people is finding the birds," he began. "The biggest mistake hunters can make is to wait until opening day to begin looking for birds. Fall birds flock together and it is going to take a lot of food to feed the flock. Those birds are going to concentrate on a food source, whether it is waste grain in crop fields or on a ridgetop that has an abundance of acorns. Find the food, find the turkeys. However, waiting until opening day to find those food sources is a waste of valuable hunting time. I love to squirrel hunt. I make those enjoyable trips into places where I often turkey hunt. I can tell in September where the food sources are going to be come October. Squirrels love acorns and will concentrate on them before they begin falling to the ground. But once those nuts begin falling to the ground, the turkeys will find them, too. Using my squirrel hunting adventures as turkey scouting trips has paid big dividends for me over the years, and definitely saves on the shoe leather."

Also, Wahling believes in being in the woods well before daylight. "Gobblers flock up in the fall, too, separate from the hens, poults and jakes. Gobblers are very territorial. Early scouting efforts will help locate where gobblers roost. Once a hunter locates a roost, he can slip in quietly, well before first light and get set up. Slow, coarse yelps, repeated in sequences of five to six calls per sequence, is often the magic tune that brings the whole flock looking for you. A box call is super for this exercise. Many hunters overlook the box call in the fall."

Wahling has hunted fall turkeys in dozens of locations. He highly recommends the Deer Ridge Conservation Area west of Hannibal.