The jake came in shrieking, the stridency and urgency of his calling increasing with every step he took. I watched him come, the butt of the Winchester 1400 pulled tight against my shoulder, the fore-end over my knee and the muzzle pointed toward the sound. I called back to the bird, mimicking the jake's kee-runs on a single-reed diaphragm.

Other turkeys were beginning to reassemble, and I heard the sounds of running and calling turkeys behind me, off to my left and right. They were all coming closer, but I ignored them, concentrating instead on the jake out front. When he trotted to within 25 yards, the 2 3/4-inch magnum load of No. 5s dropped him in the leaves. I hustled over to the jake, which in his death throes was flopping and rolling down the steep western Virginia ridge at a rapid clip--but I caught up to him when his progress was stopped by a gnarled old stump. I picked up the 10-pounder, admired the beauty of him and placed my tag on his leg. As the sun slid behind the ridges to the west, I started down the mountain.

I've been chasing turkeys since I began hunting at age 12, and while I get a big thrill out of working a boss gobbler in the spring, the fall season is perhaps my favorite. For one thing, you can hunt all day--unlike in the spring, when, at least in the East, you have to quit around lunchtime.

The opportunity to hunt from sunup to sundown allows for a more relaxing and enjoyable hunt. Or, depending on how badly you have turkey fever, it gives you more time to scour the woods like a madman in an attempt to kill a bird. Fall hunting also permits a wider range of hunting options, from running and gunning for flocks to still-hunting along a ridge for a chance at both flocks and lone birds--maybe even an old gobbler.

FINDING BIRDS
During the fall, turkeys are gathered into flocks--typically made up of several hens and their broods from the current year's hatch. These mixed-family flocks can number from a dozen birds to several dozen, and flocks of 100 turkeys aren't unheard of in good habitat. Hunters may also encounter small bachelor flocks of gobblers, usually consisting of birds from the same year class. It's also possible to locate what may be perhaps the most challenging game animal of all: lone, boss gobblers that shun company altogether. Food is the turkey's primary motivator in the fall. To find birds, it's imperative to locate the right food sources. Because poults depend heavily on insects throughout the summer and into fall--and adult birds dine on them, too, for their high protein--grassy fields are one of the most reliable places to locate flocks up until the first hard frosts kill off grasshoppers, crickets and the like.

Driving back roads and glassing fields with binoculars will give you a good head start on finding birds. Of course, other people will have seen these turkeys, too, so a better bet may be to hike into remote forest openings, right-of-way strips created by power transmission lines and gas pipelines, and old, grown-over logging roads that no longer see vehicle traffic. Wild turkeys will use all these in their search for insects.

Turkeys scratch in leaf litter to find food, and these scratchings are one of the best and easiest-to-find indicators that birds are using the area.

Mature birds and the growing young of the year also feed heavily on hard mast (acorns, beechnuts) and soft mast (wild grapes, blackberries, cherries). Turkeys scratch constantly in leaf litter to uncover food, creating bowl-shaped depressions on the forest floor. At the back of each of these is a pile of leaves that appears almost rolled into place. It's possible to determine a turkey's direction of travel from scratchings by looking at where the leaves are piled; turkeys push the leaves behind them as they scratch.

It's fairly easy to discern fresh scratchings by a lack of leaves on the exposed ground and the moist appearance of the soil. During windy periods or heavy leaf drop, scratchings disappear quickly as leaves cover them. That's both a blessing and a curse because visible scratchings will likely be quite fresh, but it will be difficult to determine areas that turkeys that have been using during previous days or weeks.

Turkeys prefer to roost in large trees with thick limbs, and they like to stay out of the wind at night. So look for roost sites in protected hollows rather than on the tops of ridges. Preferred roost sites will reveal themselves by the concentrations of droppings on the leaves below. In inclement weather or extreme cold, head for stands of conifers such as hemlocks and pines, which provide protection from the elements.

Obviously, the best turkey hotspots will feature a mix of these ingredients in relative proximity. In other words, if you can find mast-producing trees in an area that features a reliable water source, some grassy openings and large trees for roosts, you can bet the turkeys will be there.

From breaking up flocks of young birds to sneaking to ridges in search of old gobblers, fall turkey season accommodates a variety of hunting styles.

Once your scouting has produced turkey sightings or sign, the next order of business is to bump into a flock. The goal is to get close enough to scatter the flock to the four winds (see accompanying sidebar). Then you situate yourself at the break-up point and call to the reassembling birds.

One of the best times to locate turkeys is right at daybreak. When a flock of turkeys--especially one that hasn't seen much pressure--wakes up in the morning, it makes a hell of a racket. The jennies whistle and whine, the jakes yelp and try to gobble, the older hens yelp loudly. It's a sound you won't soon forget, and it's one you can hear for a fairly long distance.

If you can reach such a flock before it gets too light, you can flush the turkeys from the trees. In the poor light of pre-dawn, you can get birds flying off separately to all points of the compass. That creates a good break and a solid chance to call one back and shoot it. Of course, you can also wait until the turkeys fly down and gather on the ground--then rush in and break them up.