Skip to main content

County resident says turkey hunting truly is a unique sport

National Wild Turkey Federation (NWTF) Indiana State Board Member and Flint Springs Chapter President Steve Nevius shows off three of his various turkey hunting trophies at his home on Nov. 22.
National Wild Turkey Federation (NWTF) Indiana State Board Member and Flint Springs Chapter President Steve Nevius shows off three of his various turkey hunting trophies at his home on Nov. 22. Photo by Joni Knott.

Originally published Nov. 27, 2014.

Turkey hunting is a unique sport, says Huntington County resident Steve Nevius.

Unlike the hunts for other creatures, hunting turkeys involves a high level of hunter-game interaction while requiring the hunter to remain quite still, he says.

“They have excellent eyesight,” says Nevius. “If turkeys could smell like a deer, we’d never be able to hunt them because we wouldn’t be able to get near them. As it is, the older the bird, the more difficult they are.”

It’s not likely that the turkey on the Thanksgiving table is a fresh trophy — turkey season in Indiana is primarily confined to the spring, with limited hunting allowed in the fall, says Nevius.

Nevius  is into turkey hunting in a big way. He’s president of the local Flint Springs Chapter of the  National Wild Turkey Federation and a board member of the state NWTF organization.

In order to successfully hunt turkeys, he says, it’s important to set up on the ground before dawn, be completely camouflaged and engage in only minimal or necessary movement.

“If you know where the roosting areas are for the hens on the ground,” says Nevius, “you want to set up somewhere near there.”

In the early morning, the female and male turkeys call out to each other from the trees. When they can see whether or not the grounds are safe, they all pitch out. Once on the ground, the toms strut, gobble and work to court the hens.

“The ideal hunting situation is if you can find the toms away from the hens and you imitate the hen,” Nevius says. “When you’re hunting turkeys, what you want to do is imitate a female or a hen bird and hopefully call the gobbler within shooting distance.”

Nevius says there are a variety of calls a hunter can use to appeal to gobbling toms.

“There are so many different types of calls you can use,” he says. “Most of them are friction calls. There’s box calls, slate calls and glass calls, but those require movement. Diaphragm calls are nice because you don’t have to move.”

Another tool that turkey hunters may choose to use to attract their game is decoy birds. These decoys are usually in the form of hens and can be found at most sporting goods stores.  

“I have a taxidermist friend who mounted a hen and will take it out and use it because it’s more lifelike,” says Nevius, “but the sporting industry is like anything else and the decoys have gotten pretty close to looking like the real thing.”

Weaponry of choice for turkey hunting is usually a shotgun, he says, but bows and arrows can be used as well.

“I’ve gotten them with a shotgun primarily,” he says. “Ideally, you want to get them inside of 50 yards to make the shot, but I’ve killed some with archery. That’s a bigger challenge, too, because you have to get them to come in closer.”

There are six different world subspecies of turkeys: Eastern Wild Turkey, Osceola Wild Turkey or Florida Wild Turkey, the Rio Grande Wild Turkey, Merriam’s Wild Turkey, Gould’s Wild Turkey and the South Mexican Wild Turkey. The goal of the avid turkey sportsman is to have a trophy of each subspecies.  

“If you’ve accomplished taking all six subspecies, it is what they call a world slam,” Nevius said. “I’ve got a royal slam, which includes the Gould’s and the other four subspecies in the United States. A grand slam is just the four subspecies found in the United States.”

Once the hunt is over and the prize bird has been won, there are two options for hunters: The bird can be prepared for cooking or for being sent to a taxidermist.

“If you do decide you want to mount a turkey,” says Nevius, “you just freeze the whole carcass and send them in. You’re not going to get your meat and they can’t use it either. It just ends up getting thrown away.”

However, the preserved beauty of the bird and the permanent reminder of the hunt make trophies appealing to many sportsmen.

Preparation for cooking, however, depends entirely on the manner in which you want the bird to appear on the table, Nevius says. here are a variety of different soups, the option of deep frying the bird or roasting it and even just using the breast.

“I can fix you a wild turkey on Thanksgiving Day and you won’t be able to tell it from a domestic one,” he says. “If the good Lord said that I could only hunt one thing, I would hunt turkeys.”