Stay poised when you spot a gobbler out in the open. Observe all you can about its habits, and proceed more slowly than in wooded country.

Eventually, the dreariness of the morning overcame my host and me as we stood alone--or so we thought--on the chilly and damp South Dakota prairie. We'd gotten up early, driven far and thought we were in a pretty good spot by fly-down time. But nothing pitched down out of the trees we thought were roosts, so we had to go out and actually find a turkey, which, under the circumstances, was a drag.

We sloshed through several muddy miles of barren landscape without hearing or seeing a thing, then at about 10:30 we made the right choice. We took shelter beneath the only tree on the horizon and got goofy telling jokes, doing impressions and otherwise laughing into the face of a day we thought held no turkey-hunting promise whatsoever.

At one point, my partner, in mid-laughter, looked over my right shoulder and saw something in the gloomy distance. His expression, a mixture of shock and urgency, suggested I shut the heck up right now. He then dove on top of me in a very smothering kind of way.

"Stay down," he instructed me. And just as I started to wonder whether such a display of affection was at all appropriate right then and there, he explained the situation. "There are two birds coming right at us," he whispered hoarsely. "I'm pretty sure at least one of 'em's a gobbler."

We rolled around, got ourselves concealed behind that one tree out in the middle of nowhere, and I got to see for myself the unbelievable turn of events. They were indeed both gobblers, and they were coming at a brisk pace. They were no farther than 100 yards out, and on a course aimed straight at my muzzle. I held off for as long as I dared, then made good on an easy 30-yard shot. Just like that, a morning I'd given up on became extraordinary.

SLOW IT DOWN
For a sport that carries such a woodsy texture, so much of turkey hunting occurs on open ground. Depending on where you live, you're likely to encounter food plots, meadows, clearcuts, pastures or even entire valleys that will in some way impact your pursuit of a gobbler. Granted, there might be one or two occasions during a lifetime of turkey hunting that you'll spot a bird out in the open, sit down, and have it walk straight to you, but for the most part, you're going to earn any bird that's standing in plain view.

On many occasions, empty terrain will hinder you in one way or another. You've just got to accept that when a gobbler is out there in the open, it's using two primary strengths--its senses of sight and hearing--to its advantage. Any direct approach on a gobbler that has a hundred yards or so of flat, uncovered ground around it will be futile, and you're left with really only two viable schemes: You can back off the open ground and try to call him in to a spot of your choosing; or you're going to have to outflank the gobbler and set up along its travel route.

In either scenario, you'll find that dealing with an open-country gobbler is an entirely different discipline than working a bird in the woods. In a lot of ways, it's more deliberate than intense, but it's every bit as discriminate.

Brad Harris, who's as respected for his prowess as a turkey hunter as for his association with Lohman Game Calls, has hunted much of the same country I have, and he stresses the need to slow things down when you're on a bird that you've spotted out in the open. "In the big woods, you cover a lot of ground, and are always moving, and calling, and setting up," he says. "In the open, you're doing the same things, but you have to slow down 'cause you get busted more often."

When you consider that a turkey whose eyes and ears are unobstructed by any form of cover is going to entertain a certain sense of security, you don't want to upset that by letting it know you're there. Be patient to the extent that you remain totally concealed. And remember that when you're up against an open-country gobbler, time might be measured in days, not hours.

OBSERVE ALL YOU CAN
Once you've located a gobbler on a vacant patch of land, gather a quick read of what information is immediately available. Is the gobbler with a hen? Are there other birds nearby? Then whip out the binoculars and start getting patient. Study the gobbler's tendencies, and pay particular attention to when and where he enters and exits the field.

At the same time, you need to learn all you can about the terrain. Since staying concealed outranks any other requirement in your approach, determine what route you're going to have to use to get to your chosen set-up spot. Even if staying hidden means going miles out of your way, be willing to go the extra distance. Missourian Ray Eye, who's as impressive a turkey hunter as I've shared camp with, relies heavily on what he refers to as "turkey tunnels." His homeland features entire systems of eroded creek bottoms, and they often provide all the concealment he needs to slither into position. When he locates a gobbler, he starts thinking in terms of what tunnels he must follow to get as close as he can to the bird.

Those of us who are without an abundance of creek bottoms or ditches to crawl around in have to use whatever cover we have at our disposal: berms, ridges, treelines or even knee-high brush. Spotting a bird before it spots us offers such an advantage, but only when we can use it to full effect.

And even if things don't go exactly as hope on the first day, don't consider it time wasted. As Harris notes: "Even if you don't kill a bird, you can learn his patterns by watching him. That will help you make precise setups on day two or three."

CALLING STRATEGIES
Again, when you to call to a gobbler that's enjoying the comfort of a secure location, the last thing you want to do is make him nervous. Often, the easiest way to do that is to lack believability--call from where a hen wouldn't be, or in any other way come across as fake. Sometimes you can turn him off by being too aggressive, other times by being too timid. Eye tends to lean more heavily on the aggressive side, and it's fun to watch him work a bird. When he locates a strutting gobbler out in the open, he'll pick his path to it, and call hard up to within 100 yards of the gobbler.

"I want that gobbler to know I'm coming in after him," Eye says.

"Then I'll come right up under him."

Eye remains just as aggressive when he attempts to steal a gobbler away from a live hen by calling loud, hard and often. His theory is based on the premise that if he can sound like a hen that's more amorous than the one the gobbler's currently with, something positive might happen.

Harris, also a world-class caller, suggests experimenting with the various makes of calls. Volume is often going to be an issue in open country, since such terrain is so susceptible to sound-dampening wind.

The safest way to play it is to start out easy at first, then get progressively more aggressive until you start drawing the proper response. If you can spend enough time with the same batch of birds, you'll figure out how best to call to them.

Concealment gets scarce in certain regions of the country, but hunters have to use whatever's available to elude a turkey's remarkable eyesight.

Both Harris and Eye agree that a hunter's chances of calling in a bird are greatly increased when he has the opportunity to set up decoys. When you're calling to a gobbler in a field, you're so much more credible when he looks your way and sees, particularly, an arrangement of jake(s) and hens.

"Open-country birds rely more on eyesight, so if they look out and don't see what they want to see, they won't respond as well," Harris says.

Additionally, by exploiting a gobbler's breeding and territorial instincts, you don't have to be quite as concerned about the quality of your setup. When he has the opportunity to place decoys, Harris won't hesitate to position himself at the bend of a creek, along a fenceline or at some other such place he would never feel comfortable in if it weren't for the dekes.

"You can always get good setups in open country when you have the decoys out," he says.

But no matter what tricks you pull on a gobbler, give him time to work. There'll be occasions when the best efforts fail, but most of the time what should happen will. And there'll always be those rare occasions when you just get lucky.