Brenda Valentine, one of the nation’s leading female hunters, loves the wild turkey and shares her passion and tactics.
Brenda Valentine has hunted and taken almost every big-game species in North America, along with many African species, and she has appeared on many television shows and conducted seminars as a spokesperson for Bass Pro Shops, Mossy Oak and the National Wild Turkey Federation.
She knows a thing or two about turkey hunting, even though there weren’t enough turkeys to have a season when she first started hunting. When that changed, she wanted to get in on that action, too.
“I didn’t know how to hunt turkeys but figured that I could learn, so I went out and bought a box call,” Valentine said. “It had a little piece of paper that said, ‘Yelp three times and wait 20 minutes,’ so that’s just what I did. I sat down and yelped and waited 20 minutes, and it got to be like taking medicine. It didn’t work too well for me at first.”
Valentine knew the ways of the woods and where to find turkeys, so she devised a plan.
“I knew I was deadly with a bow, so I found some dustbowls where the turkeys were dusting on an old logging road, and I climbed up high in a tree and waited for them,” she said. “I hunted with a whitetail hunter’s mentality, and when they came walking underneath my stand, I just shot straight down, and it went through the turkey and pinned it to the ground. It might have been unconventional, but it worked for me.”
Later on, Valentine got a shotgun and became proficient with it and she quickly mastered the art of calling turkeys.
“When I first started turkey hunting, nobody around knew how to turkey hunt or what to do,” she said. “There probably weren’t two turkey hunters in the entire county.
“I didn’t know the basics at first, but I just grew into it. As the turkey population increased, so did my experience;
“I learned on my own through trial and error. We didn’t have any teaching books on the subject and certainly no television shows or internet. We had to get it on our own.”
Key points
Valentine learned very quickly that there was more to hunting turkeys than just being a good caller.
“We thought only really good callers could call a turkey, but we found out that you don’t have to be an expert caller to call a turkey in,” Valentine said. “Every time I went out, I learned something new. You’re going to need woodsmanship skills, knowledge and determination, if you want to be a successful turkey hunter.”
Scouting an area is first on her list.
“For 20 years, I was filming turkey shows and going into areas cold; we had to get there early, be quiet and hope something opened its mouth,” Valentine said.
“Knowing the terrain, landmarks and lay of the land is first and foremost. If I’m hunting an area I’m familiar with, then I want to know where they roost. I’ll owl hoot a time or two if I don’t hear one gobble early, but if they’re there, you’ll usually hear one in a few minutes at dawn. If not, there’s probably not one there, so I’ll move on to another spot.”
If she hears a gobbler, she’ll set up quickly and begin calling.
Favorite calls
“I like to carry two box calls: a short, single-sided box and a two-sided box as a backup,” Valentine said. “I always carry some mouth calls, but they’re not my favorite calls.
“I use a wing bone a lot, and it comes fairly easy to me, although it is hard for some people,” she said. “It sounds different than most other calls, and most of the time I’ll get a response. When I go different places, I’ll also carry a few coffee stirs with me and teach kids how to use them too.”
Basic necessities
“Permethrin spray is a must to keep ticks and the diseases they can carry away from me,” Valentine said. “I’ll spray a perimeter around where I’m set up and going to hunt to keep them at bay and spray all my clothes as well.”
Valentine carries a black, plastic garbage bag to carry any turkey she kills, she makes sure she has extra shells, and small, compact binoculars help her tell turkeys apart and determine which one has the long beard she wants to harvest.
Valentine’s favorite gun is a 12-gauge shotgun with an Indian Creek choke.
While Valentine likes a 12-gauge, she said that most women are more comfortable shooting a 20-gauge, and that’s all the gun they’ll need.
“They need to know how to handle a gun,” she said. “Let them shoot light loads — not turkey loads — to begin with, and when they’re comfortable shooting the gun, you can move them up with the turkey loads. I like No. 5 and No. 6 shot sizes.”
Find a mentor
Valentine recommends women and other aspiring hunters find a mentor if they can
“Nothing beats a patient mentor,” Valentine said. “Getting a dad or grandad to take kids or ladies is really what they need.”
But if you can’t find one and still want to hunt, then by all means, go and start learning on your own.
“Sometimes, I can go in the afternoon and see a flock of turkeys, and it’s been a success to me,” Valentine said. “I’ll get an old decoy and sit by a tree and set that decoy out and just start calling.
“I believe you’ve gotta be motivated and want to go, and if you really want it, you’ll figure out a way to do it. The state has a lot of hunting lands and Wildlife Management Areas available to hunt, and there are hunting groups you can join.”
Valentine also pointed to the many instructional calling and hunting videos that are available. She said they have helped equalize hunting opportunities between men and women.
“Not a lot separates us in the woods between men and women,” Valentine said. “Women have just as much a chance at calling up a gobbler as a man.”
Concealment counts
“Ground blinds have changed the complexion of new hunters,” Valentine said. “Blinds can help them be concealed, because they don’t know how to be quiet and still. The blinds can help anybody stay concealed and learn turkey habits just by watching them from the blind.”
“It’s just easier to put them in a ground blind to start out. The more restrictions you put on a young hunter, the more they’re not going to like it, and they may quit before they really get started.”
Valentine also takes a lot of handicapped people hunting and said they do much better in ground blinds. It gives them an opportunity to experience what other hunters see and do while helping make up for their limitations.
“After I get my limit, I’ll spend the rest of the season taking photos of wildlife from a ground blind,” Valentine saids. “It gives me an opportunity to stay with the wildlife and observe their behavior and shoot more with my camera.”
Afternoon hunting
Valentine prefers hunting in the morning, when gobblers are coming off the roost, but she has had plenty of successful hunts during the afternoon.
Her father, David Johnson, was her biggest mentor and influence on her outdoors life, and what he taught her during her formative years shaped her and led to a career that few women, or men could have imagined.
“My dad died during turkey season one year, and I had several stressful days,” Valentine said. “On the eve of the burial, you just feel worn out. Too many people, flowers and other details to deal with will leave you washed out.”
After the funeral, Valentine’s husband, Barney, asked a question that set the stage for her recovery.
“What are you going to do now?” asked Barney.
“I’m going to the woods,” she said. “I just walked over the woods reflecting and thinking about my life with dad. After a while, a turkey gobbled way off. Then, it kept getting closer. I called, and he gobbled, and it went back and forth for a while.
“I kept calling and it wasn’t long before he marched right up to me, and I shot him,” she said. “It was like a revelation — a gift. It was kind of like my dad was saying to me, ‘Everything is going to be all right.’ That turkey was bound and determined to come up to me, and it really made my day.”
Brenda Valentine fact sheet:
- Bass Pro Shops television host and pro-staff team member for 23 years;
- National spokesperson for the National Wild Turkey Federation for 11 years;
- National pro-staff member for Mossy Oak for 16 years;
- First woman inducted into the Legends of the Outdoors Hall of Fame;
- Inducted into the Tennessee Turkey Hunter’s Hall of Fame;
- Ran and produced Whitetail Adventure television show and hosted many others for more than 25 years.
- Won Golden Moose Award.
Brenda Valentine’s turkey hunting statistics:
- Longest beard: Several in excess of 12 inches;
- Heaviest gobbler: 32 pounds, Tennessee;
- Grand slams: Too many to count, including two in one year;
- Favorite hunting area: Her farm in Tennessee;
- Favorite bird to hunt: Merriams because they are breathtakingly beautiful;
- Toughest to harvest: Osceola, because they are in a limited location and hard to access. They’re also challenging to hunt like the eastern.
- Favorite shotgun: Browning or Winchester 12-gauge;
- Favorite shells: Winchester;
- Recommended shotgun for ladies or youngsters: 20 gauge.
