The thing with Dave is twofold. First, there are several spots that he's familiar with that he checks every year. I hunted up at Mulberry Fork for about 6 years... and I could go up there tomorrow morning and take you to some places where birds will be holding (providing timber hasn't changed substantially). Once you find those spots (and some of them are "killing spots"), you tuck them away in the back of your mind and always visit them during the season. Second, Dave's been hunting long enough that he knows where turkeys will (and will not) be found. If you give him an aerial map with topo lines on it and tell him to hunt a small section of it, I guarantee you that when he walks in the woods he's going to get onto sign pretty quickly... he just knows where birds will be at different times of the year. Plus, he knows where birds typically will roost and their behavior at different times in the season.

As someone mentioned above, it's mainly about one's drive to master this sport. Going back to Mulberry Fork, I'm not going to get up at 3 PM so I can drive up to the WMA and sit at a gate for an hour... and then hike in for at least a mile. I'm just not that mad at them any longer... and I have a family that's more important to me than birds.