Well, here it is, in my opinion, the PERFECT turkey hunt.

The hunt has to take place early in the year before any foliage or leaves are present and it must be on a mature hardwood ridge with very little, if any, undergrowth. It has to happen, oh, about 30-45 minutes after sunrise so that magical “golden glow” is working. So that means it’s got to be a clear morning. There can’t be any wind so the microphone can pick up every songbird singing and, of course, the hard gobbling of a big strutter approaching. That means that there can’t be any road noise either (harder to come by than you think).

Now, the cameraman has to be set up 15-20 feet behind the hunter who is sitting at the base of a big oak tree and is turned 45 degrees to the camera so when he looks down the barrel of his shotgun, the camera lens can look right down the barrel as well.

And by the way, there can’t be a decoy involved in the hunt. We want this old bird to take his time and really put on a show gobbling and strutting as he inches his way toward the camera and the hunter who is calling very seductively. Once a lonely gobbler sees a decoy, he’s gets all flustered, rushing things along.

Obviously, the sun has to be at the cameraman’s back. (Boy, it’s a good thing turkeys don’t smell then we’d have to worry about thermals and wind drifts, but remember it can’t be windy.)

Now, here’s the hard part. The tom has to gobble a lot in the bottom before he commits to come up on the ridge with the hunter and cameraman, and when he finally decides to appear, it is the tip of his tail fan that you first see as he struts up on the ridge in full view, 60 yards away from the hunter.

And the sun has to light him when he appears.

Did I mention that he has to be by himself? It’s just more dramatic that way. Plus, a 4-year-old gobbler doesn’t hang around with a bunch of youngsters anyway.

Now all the turkey has to do is parade right down the gun barrel in full view until he is shot at a distance of 16 yards as he comes out of strut for the first time to see where that ‘ol hen is.

The entire time, however, the cameraman has to have been slowly, very slowly, zooming into and back from the gobbler, revealing the hunter and the bird in the same frame several times during the hunt, especially at the time of the shot, which HAS to be a perfect head shot.

Of course, the camera work has to be flawless and captured on a broadcast quality, professional grade, three-chip camera so the color saturation is brilliant. And the tripod has to be stable enough so there is no shake at all, not to mention the footage has to be sharply focused.

I almost forgot, Merriam’s and Rio’s need not apply! The turkey has to be a big Eastern bird (An Osceola would be fine, but there would be no big hardwood ridge).
Why Easterns? They’re smarter.