Interview with Mike Joyner – 5 Random Questions with the Turkey Man
Megan Plete Postol 10.27.23
Award-winning author Mike Joyner has a big passion for turkey hunting. He has spent the better part of the last three decades in the woods pursuing the birds with the big gobble. He has written numerous books about the subject and mentored new turkey hunters. He also owns his own publishing company, Joyner Outdoor Media.
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We (AO) chatted with him (MJ) about his life, projects, and of course, turkey hunting.
AO: Tell our readers about yourself
MJ: I’m a technology guy via my career, an outdoorsman, an outdoor writer, at times I was an athlete and did triathlons, I go through phases of doing things. I’ve been an outdoorsman since my mid-twenties when I got into hunting. When my dad quit hunting when he went in the Navy and had to sell his guns to make ends meet, so while I fished with my father, but I never got to hunt with him.
I have a wide variety of interests. I grew up on encyclopedias, which was our paper internet back in the day. I tend to look at things in depth, which sometimes leads to other things.
AO: You’re the turkey guy. Tell us what got you into turkey hunting.
MJ: It was a very cold day, late season deer hunting, and I was on the property across from the property I now own. It has a very large u-shaped bowl in the back twenty out of the eight acres I hunt. Incoming deer from the neighbor’s property down below were coming through and that had disrupted a flock of gobblers. Being that it was so still out, once the gobblers started gobbling continuously for twenty minutes it was magnified by the natural shape of the bowl, or holler, people call it different things. It made it much bigger in life than it might be otherwise. I had seen some of that on TV, but I had never even thought about turkey hunting. It got me thinking I really wanted to understand how this stuff sounded in the spring.
The first time I actually hunted turkey, the whole thing only took about twenty minutes. I got there, did a whole bunch of really stupid stuff on my part, overcalled, not careful with my movements, etc. but it just so happened that I walked in on a bird that was what we call a “kamikaze bird.” It’s a two-year old gobbler that just wants to be with the ladies and doesn’t care about all the danger signs presented to him. He’s on a mission and puts the blinders on and just goes. That was the first bird I ever pursued. He came off the roost and it was just a matter of seconds after that, and I was a successful turkey hunter.
The second bird took a lot longer. That was about three weeks’ worth of effort and I made a lot of the same mistakes as the first time. Once that happened, it’s kind of like a bird dog that is successful, and it changes the dog and then its absolutely crazy about hunting. I kind of just fell into it and never looked back.
AO: What is it that you love about turkey hunting that keeps you coming back?
MJ: It’s not really any one particular thing. I’ve come to a point where I’m successful in filling a tag isn’t necessarily the goal. Getting out there is the first priority, just watching the sun come up. That’s usually my time when I have my talk with God. I get my thoughts together and think about whatever is going on in my life at the time. It can be anywhere from twenty minutes to any hour waiting from the pitch black to when it gets light enough for when birds start gobbling and you start thinking about the mechanics of the hunt itself. So that in between time is my alone time to clear my mind and get some clarity.
I also love when I get to take a new person out. Turkey hunting is an activity that is nearly the same when you take someone else out as when you go alone. You get 99 percent of the hunt without having to worry about carrying a gun or the mechanics of the shot. You do all the things; the calling, the positioning, reading the birds behavior; you do all that whether you are the shooter or not. I get a lot out of guiding or accompanying somebody turkey hunting. That’s something I like a lot.
AO: Do you have any tips for beginner turkey hunters?
MJ: Do your scouting. Learn where they roost. Learn where they like to strut. Learn where they like to dust their feathers mid-day. Look for tracks and scat. In the fall season, learn what they are eating, whether its mast crops, such as hickory, acorns, beechnuts, or grasshoppers, crickets, etc. Usually, the first or second frost puts a stop to that.
Don’t overcall. Don’t call like you’re at a sports show. Turkeys do not call perfectly in the woods. Most turkeys would not win a turkey calling contest. Their tone and pitch is all over. Some of the worst calls I’ve ever heard, I thought they were coming from a box call, but turned out to be feathered and walking.
Be patient, which is good advice in anything, but especially in turkey hunting, be patient. Be patient, and if you’re not sure, be patient.
AO: Tell us about your books and what inspired you to write
MJ: A good friend of mine and another outdoor writer, Tim Herald, wrote a book titled “Gobblers I Have Known.” The way he wrote it, and what appealed to me, was in the way we talk at the diner, or when we’ve got out elbows up on the pickup, or at the trailhead; it was written in that vibe. We’re always telling stories. That’s one of those things I really love about turkey hunting, that exchange between all of us. It’s running into another person in head-to-toe camo at the Piggly Wiggly and a twenty-minute trip turns into an hour and half.
When I read his book I thought that was something I really wanted to do.
Author’s note: Joyner has several books published, including Hills of Truxton, Grand Days in the Turkey Woods, Tales From the Turkey Woods, Ten to Life, and more. He also has several projects in development.
