Being a hunter first and fly fisherman seccond, I should have know about this site but I just found it looking for Turkey stuff. I went last week and had a good time.

I have good news and bad news. Long story made short. I shot two turkeys and only recovered one. I second LCW's note that these are tough birds.

Attached is a picture of a nice approx 20# bird with a 9 inch beard. The other bird, a Jake, is likely now in some coyotes belly.

Opening morning found us on land with three setups hunting within 400-500 yds of each other. All spread out in areas where we had seen the Toms strutting the days prior to opening. We could clearly hear 4 Gobblers gobbling their heads off. Well... just as predicted, the toms were unpredictable. They stayed in the roost for about 30 minutes after shooting time and then they disappeared to who knows where. We looked all over a good square mile with no sign nor sound. Came back that evening with a plan to cut them off on the way to the roost. It sorta worked. I called a group of approx 15 birds to circle my decoy. All hens with a couple Jakes and a Tom staying back in some thick brush. I finally got impatient and pulled the trigger on a Jake. The thing fell over, then stood back up, took to the air, I put more pellets in it to knock it sideways but it kept going. I never found it.
We rested the area the following day and then came back a day later. The place was nearly silent with one Gobbler speaking up but it had no intention of coming the call. We tried a pincher movement, but it disappeared somewhere between/below/above/under us. On other lands, we would find birds, but they were hened up with no intention of coming to our calls.

Finally on Tuesday (our last day) and only 2 hours before sunset we hit pay dirt. We found a big Tom in thick cover with hens. We had to get serious and come up with a plan to put a bird in the bag. I had previously blown/crippled my chance so I sent my partner quietly down a fire road with a good range of fire for my goal of pushing the big boy out of his thicket. I quietly went down another logging road with the goal to then make some noise and push the bird to him. I was just in position use a unique locator call as a signal to him that I was about to start the push when within 25 yds of me 5 huge birds appeared behind a tree. We all spooked each other. They started bumping into each other like Keystone cops and then tried unsuccessfully to fit behind a large tree. The biggest Tom stuck his head out for the last moments of his life and I then pulled the trigger with success.