Any good turkey hunting tips?

[swab1985]

Anybody have any good spring turkey hunting tips for a novice??? Is there a reason more people apply for the first and last week of spring turkey? Do the turkey pattern their movements during certain times of spring ( possibly the reason for all the lottery requests for the first and last week?)


I have never been turkey hunting and would love to give it shot, provided I get the lottery. Any tips would be much appreciated

[Makoman]

It is difficult to predict when the best week will be. Each year it varies but nobody seems to know exactly why. Best tip I can give is to get out and do some scouting. DO NOT use a turkey call. Use an owl hooter or any other loud pitched call. Best time is early in the morning before the gobblers leave the roost. You can also try just before dark. If and when you locate a gobbler(s), mark his position as best as possible and try to get fairly close to him in the morning before it gets light. Then, listen for him to gobble on the roost. If he does, and you are close enough, you can give a very soft "tree" call which is just a couple of soft clucks and yelps. If he doesn't gobble, try to locate him with your owl hooter. If you get him to gobble, again, try some very soft ''tree" calls. If he answers, stop calling and wait for him to fly down. Sometimes they will fly right to your position. Others, you will hear them fly down but may not see them. If this happens, wait a few minutes they try some yelps and clucks and see if you get a reply. If you do, you have to play it by ear as to whether to continure calling or just sit and wait. A decoy is very helpful. I suggest you either attend a turkey hunting seminar or, at the least, pick up a cd or cassette tape about turkey calls. They are very informative. Once you start gobbler hunting you are hooked. Good luck.

[swab1985]

What kind of terrain or land do they prefer?Swamps, hardwoods, pines, or do live just about anywhere? What about decoys? Does anybody know of any good books on turkey hunting?

[Setterman]

It's sometimes hit or miss which week to pick. I've been lucky in the first week as well as the last week. Weather has a habit of playing against your luck and changing birds' intentions. Your luck will always improve provided you've scouted as many areas as possible and know where concentrations of birds are and learning their patterns. Get some tapes or CD's to see how the "experts" set up and use different tactics and you'll get some ideas. Start practicing at home with a variety of calls after learning how to use them and what sounds you are trying to mimic. Get out in the woods now and start spending as much time scouting.

[Makoman]

Turkeys normally prefer more open woods. Hardwoods are a favorite since they feed on acorns, beechnuts and wild cherries. Pre-season scouting is critical to success. They start gobbling well before the season opens.

[swab1985]

I've had them walk up on me while deer hunting, but I was on the edge of swamp that borders up to mostly hardwoods.(oddly enough, I ve only seen them out there that one time, and I hunt that area pretty often) Anyway, what calls do you prefer, brands and or models?

[ridgerunnerron]

The first three weeks are usually the best. Personally I had success every week of the season, some easy ones right in the last week, right up to the last day one year. But I prefer the third and forth week of April, some years that is the first and second weeks of the season or other yrs it's the second and third weeks. Any week hunting is better than sitting in the house!
You should concentrate in the mature open hardwoods. Get high every morning on the ridges to hear the best. Good Luck. You will get hooked on spring gobbler hunting.

[Makoman]

A good starter is a Lynch Easy Yelper. All of the mouth calls are good. You need to start with a single reed and learn to work that properly. Then you can try the ones with multiple reeds. A slate is also a good call to carry and relatively easy to use. Again, get to a turkey hunting seminar and buy some tapes to listen to. You will gain a great deal of knowledge.

[Bird Boy]

i picked this tip up from the guy who i go out turkey hunting with. if you do decide to get a mouth call when you blow to call try to say "Q" and adjust how you are saying "Q" to make a good call. and practice this, not outside but in your basement or car or somethin like that.:thup:

[VaGuttPyle]

The best way I've found to hunt turkeys: Find out where they are roosting in the evening. Go there with a pocket full of buckshot shells. Wait for them to get settled in and dark enough to where they ain't gonna fly off. Let em have it. I can usually get my years worth in one or two nights. Oh, remember to take your shot gun, to work with the shells, hate when that happens.

Just kidden, I've had the worse luck when it comes to hunting them giant chickens.

Famous last words of a redneck "ya'll watch this"

[swab1985]

Any thoughts on a hen decoy? And what kinda range can you take these birds at?

[Makoman]

Decoys work great. They are especially useful in keeping the toms eyes off you when they get in close. Depending on how good your gun shoots, I would say that 40 yds is the maximum range to take a shot. Ideally, you should be shooting within 25 yds.

[ridgerunnerron]

Sometimes a decoy will help ya, and the gobbler will walk right to it! Sometimes a gobbler will stop when he sees it expecting the hen to come to him, and could end up out of gun range. Each time is diff, there are no absolutes.
As far as shooting range, depends on your particular gun. You better spend some time checking diff loads, etc. with your gun checking your patterns.
#6 shot will give ya denser patterns (more pellets per shell) than #4's. But 6's have less energy so keep you shots at 35 yds max. I personally like to pull the gobblers to under 25 yds. I have taken home 83 gobblers with 6's, but it's sad to say I lost another 5 or 6.
Good luck.

[RUSS0079]

[quote=swab1985;18094]What kind of terrain or land do they prefer?Swamps, hardwoods, pines, or do live just about anywhere?

Swab,
You'll find more opinions on turkeys then anyother game. I have killed turkeys in all three of the area's you mention. Like Makoman said get out and scout. I've killed turkeys in the first week and most of my big gobblers have been killed in the last week of the PA season, on state lands. My best tip I can give you is this. After you have become decent at calling. If you get a bird working don't call to much. It is un natural, for a hen bird to be yelping her head off. Smart gobblers will pick that up and move on. Think about it, what's your top turkey killer in NJ. Coyotes! Yelp like a nut and that hen won't last. Soft yelps once and a while will bring in a reluctant bird. Also sit tight. If you get a bird fired up, but he's with hens and moves off. SIT THERE until he comes back. The hens will nest up and he'll come back to that hen that was on the ridge earlier! Get ME? I have called in birds from far distances not because I'm a world class caller, but because I act like a bird. If I get a gobbler hung up at 300 yards, I might make a move to him or to his right or left or even away. Depending on the terrian. That's what turkeys do. Little things like that will help you bag the long beards, instead of Jakes. Although I do like a nice Jake for Thanksgiving dinner, they taste soooo Good. Hope some of that helps and sorry for being long winded, but I do like chasing Turkeys. Sad to hear you can't hunt the whole season in NJ. We got a whole month here in PA. Wish it was longer.
Russ

[swab1985]

[quote=swab1985;18094]What kind of terrain or land do they prefer?Swamps, hardwoods, pines, or do live just about anywhere?

Swab,
You'll find more opinions on turkeys then anyother game. I have killed turkeys in all three of the area's you mention. Like Makoman said get out and scout. I've killed turkeys in the first week and most of my big gobblers have been killed in the last week of the PA season, on state lands. My best tip I can give you is this. After you have become decent at calling. If you get a bird working don't call to much. It is un natural, for a hen bird to be yelping her head off. Smart gobblers will pick that up and move on. Think about it, what's your top turkey killer in NJ. Coyotes! Yelp like a nut and that hen won't last. Soft yelps once and a while will bring in a reluctant bird. Also sit tight. If you get a bird fired up, but he's with hens and moves off. SIT THERE until he comes back. The hens will nest up and he'll come back to that hen that was on the ridge earlier! Get ME? I have called in birds from far distances not because I'm a world class caller, but because I act like a bird. If I get a gobbler hung up at 300 yards, I might make a move to him or to his right or left or even away. Depending on the terrian. That's what turkeys do. Little things like that will help you bag the long beards, instead of Jakes. Although I do like a nice Jake for Thanksgiving dinner, they taste soooo Good. Hope some of that helps and sorry for being long winded, but I do like chasing Turkeys. Sad to hear you can't hunt the whole season in NJ. We got a whole month here in PA. Wish it was longer.
Russ

Thanks. Do turkeys routinely roost in the same trees for days, weeks or years? If I find them In one place, will they be in the same place, or will they move off?

[bassassassin8]

[quote=RUSS0079;18579]

Thanks. Do turkeys routinely roost in the same trees for days, weeks or years? If I find them In one place, will they be in the same place, or will they move off?

Russ, they'll usually roost in the same vicinity throughout the season.. It's just a matter of finding where that place is.. The closer you wanna get to them, the earlier you gotta get in the woods so you won't spook them out of the trees early. Then watch them glide on down! Look for big oaks and big cedars with droppings, feathers, etc.. Tall tale signs of turkey activity :)

[RUSS0079]

Turkeys move alot. They are constantly looking for food, thus they don't always roost in the same trees. You'll will find trees that the birds favor though. You can tell by the amount of droppings down the trunk of the tree. good hunting.
Russ

[ACEarcher]

When your working a bird and you think you've sat long enough sit for another half hour. You wouldn't believe the amount of birds I lost cause I didn't sit long enough.

When you start to work a bird stop calling. If you get him to excited he may hang up. In real life the hen goes to the gobbler. Your trying to reverse the role.

[RUSS0079]

[quote=swab1985;18584]

Russ, they'll usually roost in the same vicinity throughout the season.. It's just a matter of finding where that place is.. The closer you wanna get to them, the earlier you gotta get in the woods so you won't spook them out of the trees early. Then watch them glide on down! Look for big oaks and big cedars with droppings, feathers, etc.. Tall tale signs of turkey activity :)

They may roost in the same vicinity through out the season, but in the BIG WOODS, they travel long distances. They may not make it back to the same area for a week. Now I have seen Flocks that hang in an oak stand for a good bit when the acorns are plenty or also near large fields during times of rain, but given normal weather, the birds I've hunted in areas of over 10 to 15,000 acres will go where they want when they want, unless you bust up the flock. Also early in the season, it will be hard to compete with flock of hens that a gobbler can see, with one or two he can't see(you and buddy). I concentrate on finding the birds around 800AM and try to stay in touch with the flock until about 1000 am. When the hens go to sit in their nests, the big boy comes around looking for love..... I've hunted birds on farms and it seems to me a bit easier to zero in on where they will go. Mountain birds usually do the exact opposite if I try to plan them. Only thing I know I have in favor in the BIG WOODS, is that when I get two to three miles back, the birds won't be pressured by other hunters. Below is a pic of a State Land Bird I shot. He was the Boss Gobbler for the area I was hunting. Struck him up around 830 am, killed him at 1000 am during the last week of turkey season. Not a huge bird, only 17 lbs, but 9 3/4 inch beard, 3/4 spurs. Biggest sucess was I called him in from over 300 yards of bottoms, swamp and hardwoods, to his death.

[bassassassin8]

[quote=bassassassin8;18613]

They may roost in the same vicinity through out the season, but in the BIG WOODS, they travel long distances. They may not make it back to the same area for a week. Now I have seen Flocks that hang in an oak stand for a good bit when the acorns are plenty or also near large fields during times of rain, but given normal weather, the birds I've hunted in areas of over 10 to 15,000 acres will go where they want when they want, unless you bust up the flock. Also early in the season, it will be hard to compete with flock of hens that a gobbler can see, with one or two he can't see(you and buddy). I concentrate on finding the birds around 800AM and try to stay in touch with the flock until about 1000 am. When the hens go to sit in their nests, the big boy comes around looking for love..... I've hunted birds on farms and it seems to me a bit easier to zero in on where they will go. Mountain birds usually do the exact opposite if I try to plan them. Only thing I know I have in favor in the BIG WOODS, is that when I get two to three miles back, the birds won't be pressured by other hunters. Below is a pic of a State Land Bird I shot. He was the Boss Gobbler for the area I was hunting. Struck him up around 830 am, killed him at 1000 am during the last week of turkey season. Not a huge bird, only 17 lbs, but 9 3/4 inch beard, 3/4 spurs. Biggest sucess was I called him in from over 300 yards of bottoms, swamp and hardwoods, to his death.

I'll remember that if I have to hunt public land this spring thanks:thup:

I normally hunted a couple private places..200+ or - acres & we always knew where they roosted but never came to our setup :huh: They almost always went the opposite way

[al-thumbs up]

Sometimes to me Turkey hunting is a lot like fishing. When you find a good spot gobblin' or not just sit down and call. Call every 10-15 minutes.........not a lot of calling. Turkeys with in ear shot will do their thing and eventually show up to your area. Do this for about one hour if they do not show up move to a new spot. When I hunt New Jersy I am not a big "run and gunner" and I have gotten many this way. I once refered to it like this .......that 1951 song from the Dominos "60 minute man"........."15 minutes kissing,15 minutes hugging,15 minutes sqeezing, and 15 minutes blowing his top." They will often show up in the last 15 minutes, thats the blowing his top part. Wow it must be late.

More tips:
>make sure to place your calls down after calling sessions, so to prevent you from calling too much.
>clear away the leaves to the bare ground b4 you sit to limit noise.
>lay out all the calls you plan to use.
>sit on the shady side of the tree.
>be patient,alert and safe and when your day comes you will be hooked.

Good luck.

[TroutSlayer]

First thing u should do is pattern your gun!! U will be suprised at the results. Try using different choke tubes and shell combos. My other advice would be to invest in a pop up blind. Being new to turkey hunting it will hide your movements. Then by the wife roses because once you hear that gobbler u are hooked my man!!!!!

[Houndog]

My best advise is don't take BigWalt with you. He's to damn big to hide and his legs fall asleep when he sits to long. But he can call a turkey without a call. He sounds just like a turkey, it's scary.