The Reality
It's a fact, some days the birds gobble and some days they don't. I can't count the number of times I've talked to other hunters or experienced it myself where birds were scouted the week before the opener and found to be gobbling their heads off, only to have them go mute on the season's first day. Sometimes it's a drop in temperature, an increase in wind, a change in the barometer, a group of hens roosted within eyesight, the phase of the moon, you name it. Nobody is certain why turkeys get quiet on some days, though all of the above are suspect.

For some hunters able to hit their hunting grounds most every day during the season, they may just decide it's a good day to get into work early and come back when the birds are working better. But for most hunters, restricted to that Saturday hunt, the rare day off from work or on a limited-day hunt they are paying for, quitting is not an option-at least not a preferred one. And while some hunters I know, just about refuse to hunt when the birds aren't gobbling, the truth is, many of the birds in a season's total harvest are accounted for on days such as these.

Attitude Adjustment
Without a doubt, we all dream of those classic mornings where gobbles are hammering from the roost, and once the toms hit the ground, they keep the pace right up. It is unquestionably what draws most of us to turkey hunting. But when things go silent and we're reluctant to just give up, the first thing we'll need to do is adjust our attitude.

As mentioned above, a good number of hunters will generally opt to abandon the woods when nothing is gobbling. It definitely lacks the excitement of a good day. But don't let yourself get too down. This can actually play into your favor when hunting club or public property where you normally have to share the land with other hunters. Fewer hunters in the woods just leave more for you to hunt.

According to surveys conducted by the National Wild Turkey Federation, nearly 90 percent of its members and nearly that much of all turkey hunters, also deer hunt. For those hunters, the change in approach should be easy.

Most spend deer season after deer season perched silently in a stand, waiting for game to stroll by. Well, when the turkeys shut up, your approach is no different. It is time to start deer hunting for turkeys.

Know the Land
The first step in deer hunting for turkeys is knowing your land and the areas turkeys frequent. If you've done your preseason scouting, hunted the same land for years or had the opportunity to observe birds on other days during the season, then you'll have a good idea where birds can be found when they aren't vocal. After all, while turkeys will definitely roam about during the day, like the rest of us, they are creatures of habit. The bottom line is: They haven't gone anywhere. They're still around if they were around last week.

Key in on those areas where you've seen birds before such as fields where they will strut and feed; wooded ridges, swamps or creeks where they roost and will roam in the first hours of the day; and in agricultural areas that might provide food sources such as hay bales set out for cattle or fields where peanuts have been turned.

If you have the confidence to know birds are likely in the area, then you should have the confidence to set up and blindly call in the expectation of bringing one to you over time. Without that confidence, nobody could sit for long.

Choose Your Setup
So where should you go? The best setups in this situation are those that provide a good field of view. While a turkey may answer your call out of the blue, more often than not on these quiet days, they're going to approach you the same way, silently. If you're lucky, you might catch the sound of it's drumming or a single gobbler cluck to warn you of its approach.

Obvious places to setup include (at the top of the list) field edges where hens will feed and toms can strut, particularly on rainy days; open hardwood ridge tops, saddles between mountains, levees in river country and in any open area such as a logging road or old-growth timber that is wedged between areas of thick brush or grown up cutovers. Like other game, turkeys will funnel through these areas in their travels.

Hunting a silent swamp in Virginia, I once even noted how many tracks seemed pressed into the mud near a shallow crossing of a small creek. With nothing else working, I set a decoy out, gave a few soft yelps and, not 10 minutes later, had my crosshairs set on a young tom that had clucked once before strolling up to my fake hen.

My typical routine on quiet days will be to set a couple decoys out, and offer up a few yelps, cutts and purrs about every 15 to 20 minutes or so. I hang in that area no less than an hour and usually stay closer to two. It may take awhile for a turkey to work its way in. By moving a lot when gobblers are quiet will only add to the chances that you'll bump birds instead of locate them.

Typically sitting alongside a field, I use the decoys as visual beacons in case a turkey that hasn't heard my sparse calling strolls out and spots them. I also admittedly find these times on warm days great for naps and on two occasions have awoke to an additional bird standing where my dekes are set!

Comfort Is Key
While a deep sleep can definitely mess you up if you should wake up and move, spooking an approaching bird, the fact that a hunter can even fall asleep underscores another key aspect to the setup-comfort. You'll need to sit awhile, so make sure your turkey vest has a good fold-out seat and maybe even add to your comfort by getting one of the short, mesh turkey hunting chairs such as the NWTF's Lo-Boy Lite or Hunter's Specialties Turkey Seat. There are some other good seats on the market as well.

It's important to keep movement to a minimum, as you never know when a tom will come ghosting in. You may even want to try one of the many blinds available on the market. Whether you go with a full tent-style, pop-up camo blind (also great for rainy days) or a simple fold-out 2-foot high cloth fence blind any additional concealment you can employ to hide movement will help.

Nobody will ever declare that this style of turkey hunting beats the thrill of working a hot bird or the on-the-go action of a run-and-gun hunt. But at the end of the season, when hunters can compare what worked and what didn't, there is little doubt the stand hunting method of hunting deer will work just as well for tagging turkeys.