Keep in mind this is coming from my experience hunting turkey in Ontario. Full body camouflage, a ghillie suit or a blind helps, but the best thing you can know how to do as a turkey hunter is be comfortable being uncomfortable. Once a bird is nearby you have to call and shoot without moving, well without them seeing you move anyway. This might mean being in an awkward position for a long period of time as they work in. This is especially true if if you have been surprised. Sometimes a bird will just appear with no indication of direction of travel nor a single peep. Turkey have amazing eyesight, they can see colour and are terribly paranoid. The moment they think something is up; they're gone.
I like a slate pot call for purrs and a crystal call for loud yelps. I have never been able to work a mouth call consistently so I don't use them. If you can learn to use one, they are awesome for calling with a gun in hand. Turkey's have great hearing so you don't need to call as loud or often as you think. It's better to call less than more as this will intrigue the tom and hopefully get him to come in.
Decoys are not required but the times I have killed a turkey were times that they came running into the decoy's looking to fight. I like to use a hen in the breeding position with a small looking jake decoy about to mount her. I also have a real turkey fan that I have mounted to a rod which I put behind him so it looks like he is strutting. I only use it on private land for safety reasons.
I've always used a shotgun for spring turkey and this was my first year hunting turkey in the fall. I bought a bow for deer hunting so it seemed like a good idea to get the fall tag as the seasons over lap in Ontario. Be sure to know your effective range and the pattern of your shotgun at known ranges. You are aiming for the head with a shotgun so you want to be sure to know what the shot column is doing at the range your target is at. Most people miss at close range because they have a very tight choke. I have a 20 gauge SX3 that I used for turkey for a few seasons but now I use a 12 gauge Francotte SxS made in 1936. It points more or less like a rifle at the ranges I am shooting turkey. With the chokes that are in that gun, I have a 0 - 20 yard barrel and a 20 - 40 yard barrel. This spring I accidentally used the 20 - 40 yard barrel at 7 yards and removed the bulk of the turkeys head/neck area. I'm lucky to have hit him as the pattern is around an two inches at that range.
This will sound obvious, but the thing you need to do is go to areas which might hold birds and see if they do. I like to go to an area that looks 'birdy' well before dawn and just listen as the sun raises. Hens make specific locator calls which you can hear if you listen. Toms and jakes will often gobble around first light but they seem to gobble less as the day progresses. I spend weeks patterning the birds so I have an idea where they might be at a given time. For example, I knew the tom that I killed this spring walks by a specific area between 1700h and 1900h. I setup with my decoys and call about an hour prior to his suspected arrival. I shot him at 1723h as he ran in to fight my little jake decoy.
That's some information, I am sure others will chime in. I don't have any experience hunting them in BC so all of this comes from experiences in Ontario.
