Terry Dorschner isn’t exactly sure how many turkeys he’s shot over the years, but he hasn’t shot any since 2015.
It’s not that his luck has run out. Quite the contrary. He just gets more fun out of helping others bag a big tom.
He’s shot plenty of big gobblers, including one that weighed 30 pounds. The record he’s most proud of is taking 113 hunters — mostly first-timers and many young or physically challenged — and helping them bag 103 birds.
“I’m the most excited one there,” said Dorschner, a New London resident and avid member of the Little Wolf Gobblers chapter of the National Wild Turkey Federation in Marion. “I have succeeded in all my work when they succeed.”
The semi-retired owner of Dorschner Excavating Co. in New London has an arsenal of gear for his hunts: a variety of slate, box and mouth calls, locator calls, binoculars, mosquito spray and of course lots of camouflage clothing. But when young hunters are involved, comfort is king. His secret weapon when hunting with neighbor Autumn? Kit Kat bars.
Autumn, 16, has killed six turkeys in four years while hunting under Dorschner’s tutelage. When birds or even bucks won’t show, their luck seems to change for the better when the Kit Kats come out, she said.
“I think it was way more fun than deer hunting,” Autumn said, explaining that she started hunting with Dorschner at age 12, after completing a four-hour Learn to Hunt course.
She and Dorschner recounted many of their fun and humorous hunts, including the time she shot a tom at 57 yards with her teacher’s 12-gauge Remington 870 pump shotgun and 3-inch magnum 5 shot. That’s a stiff gun for a 12-year-old, but Dorschner said the kids never feel the recoil when they are focused on the bird. That long shot earned her the nickname “Autumn Oakley.”
Turkey decoys also are in his equipment bag. Leading the way in fooling boss toms is Gobblin’ George, a real turkey skin with full tail feathers that a friend tanned with borax and stretched over a decoy for him.
Many of Dorschner’s young hunters or veterans with injuries participate in the Learn to Hunt program. A special weekend hunt for these first-time hunters is held a week prior to the two-day youth hunt.
There is no minimum age to participate in a Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources Learn to Hunt program, and no hunter safety certificate is needed, although a harvest authorization is required. Go here for more information: https://dnr.wisconsin.gov/Education/OutdoorSkills/lth
While he’s found many of his charges through Little Wolf Gobblers-organized Learn to Hunt events as well as through Challenge the Outdoors, a Green Bay-based service group that helps the physically challenged to hunt, Dorschner now also seeks out new hunters on his own.
“I see someone at Fleet Farm in a wheelchair and ask them if they’ve ever been turkey hunting,” he explained. “If they say no and want to go, I tell them, ‘You get the license and camo clothes and I’ll take care of the rest.’” He then hands them a business card. About 20% call him back to book a hunt.
His hunters all go first class, with comfortable blinds equipped with heaters and of course plenty of gear, including Dorschner’s wide array of slate, box and mouth calls. Depending on the wind and weather, he may use some or all of them. Box calls are the loudest and work best on windy days. Mouth calls can be used with no hand movement and are usually used for the final few yards of coaxing before the fatal shot. Slates offer finesse and sometimes bring in the birds when the others won’t.
“A lot of people call too much,” he noted.
Most hunters think they are calling in the toms, and that’s true when a gobbler’s traveling alone, but when the tom’s with hens, “you are really calling in the hens,” he explained.
“If you are at a party with 25 girls and a girl calls you on the phone and asks if you want to come over, do you go? It’s the same with turkeys,” he said.
He believes in using hen and jake turkeys, believing some gobblers don’t want to tangle with a boss tom. He does use Gobblin’ George, a decoy covered with the stretched skin of a real tom that adds realism to his spread. Gobblin’ George looks a little scruffier the past few years, since Autumn accidentally shot him on one of her successful hunts.
Dorschner has had many successes in his hunting career, including bagging a 30-pound gobbler that was certified the 72nd highest-scoring tom in Waupaca County (he thought it would place much higher, but it only had one beard). He’s also bagged some exceptional whitetail bucks and even a few bull elk from hunts in Colorado.
It’s clear from the smile on his face and the kitchen table full of photos, thank-you notes, certificates of appreciation and other mementos from his years of mentoring that his real passion is introducing rookies to the joys of springtime turkey hunting.
Ross Bielema is a freelance writer from New London and owner of Wolf River Concealed Carry LLC. Contact him at ross@wolfriverccw.com.
Turkey hunter now mentors kids and veterans
