As with most outdoor sports, turkey hunting has its own jargon or slang that only hunters know. How knowledgeable are you about talkin’ turkey? Take our 10-question quiz and find out. We’ll begin with a few easier questions and then get harder as we go. The answers are at the end, but no peeking (we’ll know)!
Jake:
a. A juvenile male turkey
b. A juvenile female turkey
c. A juvenile male or female turkey
Jenny:
a. A juvenile male turkey
b. A juvenile female turkey
c. A juvenile male or female turkey
Poult:
a. A young male turkey
b. A young female turkey
c. A young male or female turkey
Longbeard:
a. An adult male turkey
b. An adult female turkey with a beard
c. An adult male turkey with multiple beards
Limb-hanger:
a. A trophy turkey with spurs so long and curved that the bird can be hung upside down on a tree limb by his spurs
b. A turkey that stays on the roost an unusually long time in the morning before flying down
c. A female turkey that won’t leave the roost in the morning until the gobblers do
Putt:
a. A turkey alarm call
b. A turkey mating call
c. A turkey that needs to lay off the beans and bran muffins
Spur:
a. A hard, pointed projection on a male turkey’s leg
b. Something a cowboy wears on the back of his boot
c. Both A and B
Hang-up:
a. A turkey that begins coming to your calling position, but then stops just out of gun range
b. A turkey that has just flown up to roost
c. The end of legal hunting hours for the day
Snood:
a. The fleshy, worm-like appendage that hangs down from a turkey’s forehead onto its bill
b. A special sound a turkey makes only during mating season
c. A turkey that's incubating eggs
Pot Call:
a. Another name for a slate call
b. The last call a hunter makes that brings a turkey into gun range
c. Another name for a box call
Answers:
Jake: A
Jenny: B
Poult: C
Longbeard: A
Limb-hanger: A
Putt: A
Spur: C
Hang-up: A
Snood: A
Pot Call: A
Scorecard:
Well, how did you do? The following answer chart will give you an idea of how you stack up against other turkey hunters.
- 8 to 10 correct: Master Turkey Hunter (Great job!)
- 5 to 7 correct: Intermediate Turkey Hunter (Pretty good, but better study some more.)
- 0 to 4 correct: Beginning Turkey Hunter (You need a few more years in the turkey woods.)