94 Mississippi Sportsman^ | April 2015
second and take off running while sounding the alarm to its
flockmates.
Invariably, I find that a small bit of my hunter-orange vest was
hanging out of my pocket.
Turkey’s see color, folks. And they don’t stick around to sec-
ond-guess what that strange
color means. So full camou-
flage is even more important
when turkey hunting than
when deer hunting.
“You can use what you
already own for deer hunting,
but you need to have every-
thing camouflaged, includ-
ing hands and face,” Loupe
said. “Since turkey season in
Louisiana begins in March
and ends in April, the woods
and temperatures will change
significantly during that time,
and many hunters like to
match their camo with their
surroundings, be they early
season grays and browns or
late-season greens.”4) Decoys — Sure, some
gobblers will come straight
on in to a calling hunter, but
those are usually the young,
inexperienced birds. Old
veterans, however, can often
hang up out of range — and
decoys can be the one thing
that convinces these toms to
close the distance.
“Some hunters don’t use a
decoy, but my experience is
that the majority of them do,”
Loupe said. “I certainly use
them — usually a hen and
j a k e .”
If he has to pick only one, he
goes with the hen every time.
Decoys start in the $20
range, but move up in price
depending on the realisticfield notes