Somebody tell me about turkey hunting

[BeastMan]

I?ve got 2 leases in Madison Co where turkeys have been seen. If I wanted to turkey hunt, what do I do? Buy a call and hunt from ground blinds? Use the call every 10 minutes? Afternoon or morning? Somebody school me

[LandDawg]

Stop the crazy thought and give up now. Its not worth the life altering that could possibly happen. I started turkey hunting in 2012, when I was 29, and now i would give up all other outdoor activities if I absolutely had to chose. I didnt really have a mentor. I picked the brain of a few good turkey hunters every now and then, but mostly learned from trial and error. The number 1 priority in turkey hunting is to have a property with turkeys. I know that sounds like a "duh" statement, but those places are becoming scarce. You have opened this can of worms, so Im probably about to go into way more detail than you want.

I dont have many great calling tips, because Im still learning in this dept. i can tell you...i feel its best to call less and listen more. The amount I call is dictated by the bird. Try to get efficient at using 2 different calls. It can be beneficial just to change it up every now and then. Im good with a slate and average with a mouth call. Working on my box call lately, but cant seem to get it. My 1 calling tip doesnt actually involve a turkey call. When you have a turkey coming in/hung up within a 100 yards, scratch the leaves. Just 3-4 quick scratched will imitate a turkey scratching. It has worked for me many times

My 3 greatest tips:
1) Be patient. This requires a good pad to sit on and patience. If your in an area with gobblers, but not hearing them, sit and call every 30 minutes or so. Start with low volume (in case one has snuck in quietly) Cluck/purrs and then a few yelps. If you have a bird gobbling but now coming in, be patient. Some of the similar call sequences I just described. I find gobblers like when you call sparingly and play hard-to-get. They get more curious. Your going to have the birds that gobble at every call you make and coming running the more you call, but I find that the exception more than the rule

2) learn to pattern/track turkeys. (woodsmanship) Know your properties well. Look for sign such as scratching in the woods, tracks on the road, dust bowls. Listen for turkeys gobbling on the roost right at dusk.

3) hunt mid day if you have the chance. Mid day hunting (10-2) has taught me more than I can ever explain. Typically, if you have a mid-day, gobbling turkey he is willing to play and more susceptible to calling. This is the time of day when hens go to nest and gobblers are searching for a mate.

[BeastMan]

Wow that’s great stuff. I’m not talking about trying to be a pro or anything, just get out there a little bit and not be a total idiot. The property I’m interested in trying out has a lake, a creek bed, and food plots. What would be the best idea?

[BrunswickDawg]

Turkey hunting - the golf of the hunting world. The most frustrating, wasteful, trick you into spending money on things that don't work, part of the hunting world. You go to some nice timberland with some swamps and a creek just to scout the land. And then, you see that big gobbler, and you get close but miss, and you know he is there. You just keep going back because you KNOW you can get him. And he leads you along all season, laughing at you from the trees. You try every time you can think of - Dusk, dawn, broad daylight. You buy and try 5 different calls because THIS one sounds more like him than the last one did. You camp for the weekend tracking him. You forget to eat. You pass out because your flask of bourbon is all the sustenance you have had in 3 days. You wake up to the call of that big gobbler and you see him, but you can't find your gun. And he laughs. And he laughs.

That is turkey hunting.

[WeWillScrewItUp]

Landdawg hit the nail on the head. Patience, patience, patience. Don’t over call is the key. It’s one of the easiest things to do wrong. I’m guilty of it al the time. If you get one to gobble after 10:00 sit down. He’s usually on his way. If given the chance listen to hens. They don’t sound near as good as you would think. In the past I have listened to podcasts and everything else some have solid advice and some not so much. Biggest thing to remember is battered and dropped in hot grease is the best way to eat it.

[Uncle Ruckus]

Don't listen to any of these guys. #1 most important thing about turkey hunting is to have a Thermacell.

[BeastMan]

Don't listen to any of these guys. #1 most important thing about turkey hunting is to have a Thermacell.

Haha noted. Any suggestions on an easy to use for beginners turkey call?

[TUSK]

Haha noted. Any suggestions on an easy to use for beginners turkey call?

I can show ya how to set up a Turkey Trotline....****

[LandDawg]

Haha I get fired up thinking about turkeys and get to deep.
Is the property thick timber or open? Your best bet is to probably 1) start the morning at highest point where you can hear the best. If he gobbles, then make a move.

2) get turkeys on trail cam or scout before season and pattern them. They can get into routine especially if with a large group of hens that tend to spend day in same area.

I use a cheap slate pot call about 75%. Can?t even remember brand. Slate came easiest to me and it?s very versatile. I also use diaphragm.

[Howboutdemdogs]

I have been hunting a turkeys for decades and it is too addictive. There has been some great advise here. For me, here are my standards:

1-if you are going to hunt in the morning, be at your chosen location way before first light. Slip in and get settled before they start to stir in the trees as not to spook them.

2-only use a locator call to do as it says, locate them. An owl call is not a turkey call. I hear so many sick owl and peacock calls in the AM over and over. Never knew we had so many peacocks in North Miss. An accidental door slam can make a turkey gobble.

3-call low and soft and very infrequently. If a Tom is interested in coming to you, let him come. Kinda play hard to get with him. Only get excited with cackles if he looses interest, and if you find him walking away from you. Clucks and purrs works best with me. Also, a well placed cackle after he gobbles can speed his trot to you. Maybe don't call between gobbles. Make him look for the hen.

4-don't be afraid to move or slip through the woods to "chase" turkey. I have found myself running to cut off a turkey if is necessary. (Never top a hill without peaking of the top first in a very low profile). There are no telling how many miles I walk during turkey season.

5- don't get discourage, they are very smart birds.

6-ALWAYS REMEMBER THAT THEY HAVE EXCELLENT EYE SIGHT. Camo up real good from the head to your boots (face and hands)..... if a bird is coming be absolutely still with your gun already in place to shoot.

7- finally a late afternoon hunt works great in locating birds. If you can possible follow a flock, do it or at least listen for them to fly up to roost. Kinda act like you are deer hunting. Keep the ears open. This might several attempts, but this will narrow your starting point for the next AM hunt.

After thought, make sure where you are stepping and especially sitting, the no shoulders are moving by April.

[Howboutdemdogs]

As for calls, I blown so much money on the latest and greatest. A cheap owl call works great. A slate and wooden striker is good. ( make sure you have steel wool or pad to keep it clean during the day). Slate calls will give you the volume and reach when needed on windy days. I like a raspy mouth call. This is my call of choice. I practice when I drive, so I don't drive the rest of the house crazy. That is it.

For a beginner, a push/pull box call is the easiest and works great. A slide box call, which is popular, can be a lot tougher to learn and control.

[Howboutdemdogs]

When I settle on a mouth call, I will actually own three of them. To keep the call from getting nasty, I keep them in the refrigerator at all times. Plus, I put just a few drops of mouth wash in the case too. Never keep them in a vehicle during the day, the heat will stretch the elastic. I learned on a mouth call with a starter kit from Primos. It has a CD and the calls had a secondary piece that rested against your roof of your mouth. It helped in learning the placement of the call in you mouth.

[Uncle Ruckus]

Haha noted. Any suggestions on an easy to use for beginners turkey call?
Preston Pittman black diamond mouth call. I started turkey hunting in HS and I would put a call in when I drove and practice and practice. Preston is a super dude and makes great calls.

[GreaterCowbell]

If he cuts your call off with a gooble (he’s coming To you) put down the call and get your gun ready. Additional calling at that point will just make him stare at the tree your against as he comes in thus he’s able to pick you out.

If he gobbles a few seconds after your call he’s telling you to come to him. Usually henned up. You’ll have to guess where there heading and try to cut him off.

Read the “tenth legion” by Tom Kelly. The best turkey hunting book of all time.

[BuckyIsAB****]

I?ve got 2 leases in Madison Co where turkeys have been seen. If I wanted to turkey hunt, what do I do? Buy a call and hunt from ground blinds? Use the call every 10 minutes? Afternoon or morning? Somebody school me

First off, you have to let me come with you before I say anything. Turkeys are the most frustrating but most fun I've ever had besides sex. Just being honest.

The first thing I would do if I was just starting is I would go with someone who has experience and sit and watch, listen, learn. Let the birds teach you. They can teach you more than anyone can.

But if you have no one, as far as equipment besides your gun and shells, I'd get a Primos Tru Double mouth call, A HS Strut lil deuce slate and A SHIT TON OF BUG SPRAY.

Daylight is the best time to hunt turkeys most of the time you're going to have them flopping by 7:30 or so.

Be patient, dont call too much, and be still. Like I said, watch, listen, learn.

Other than that the most important part of turkey hunting is knowing the ground and being a good woodsman. It can make all the difference trying to get one of the smartest wariest birds God ever made to defy nature and get within range of a shotgun.

Dont watch TV shows they are full of shit. Do all of that then you can get into the details of calling types of calling all that good shit. Good luck

[rolodawg]

If Turkeys could smell as well as a deer, you would never kill one.......

[starkvegasdawg]

Invest in snake boots.
Buy a vest with a chair frame in it
Accept the fact that an animal with a brain the size of a walnut will make you feel and look like an idiot more times than not.
For me, the easiest call to learn was a glass friction call. I?ve got one from Cody I love. The call less and listen more is the best advice you?ll ever get. Learn the cluck, yelp, and cut on whatever call you get. If your shotgun will shoot a 3.5? magnum shell then shoot it. It hurts like hell but I?d shoot a 4? if they made one. Once you decide on your ammo, see what your effective range is with that ammo in your gun. Not your friend?s gun that is just like yours. Your gun. Typically, your max range is when you consistently get around 10 pellets in the head and neck area.

Lastly, turkey hunting is more addictive than crack and meth combined.

[Randolph Dupree]

There’s some good advice in this thread. The advice of know the lay of the land you are hunting is key. A turkey is an odd and finicky bird and knowing the terrain will help you. As far as calling, every bird is a little different and you just kind of have to figure that out on the fly. In general less is more with the calling, but I’ve killed plenty of birds that required me to hammer on the call. Start subtle and quiet and work your way up from there. As far as which call to use, for a beginner I’d go with a slate until you are comfortable with a mouth call. The HS Strut Lil Duece (referenced above) is solid and so is the Black Magic (this one has a little more volume). Lastly, be patient. On a quiet day you can have success by just setting up and calling and just because you don’t get an answer doesn’t mean one isn’t coming. Worst thing you can do is walk down a road or ridge top and stop, call, listen, and move on until you get one to answer. You may have some success with this but you’ll end up scaring more birds than anything and it’s a good way to make your birds tight lipped early in the year.

Note that I had to quit turkey hunting 9 years ago. It was consuming too much of my life. So I didn’t go for several years. Now I have a two hunt maximum per year. Be carful it’s a hell of a drug.

[shoeless joe]

Also remember that if a place has turkeys it is getting hunted by somebody.

[BB30]

Ill throw my 2 cents in. Some good advice above...

Turkeys act and react-they aren't smart and can't reason(they don't have the ability to put two and two together). If you mess a bird up don't be afraid to try him again the next day. I have missed birds that I killed the next day. Some are just more instinctual than others.

Doesn't matter how your calling sounds. More importantly listen to live hens on youtube or some other form of media and mimic the cadence and rhythm of a live hen. As stated above, there are some atrocious sounding hens but they all have a fairly similar cadence and rhythm.

Another thing with calling that has landed me quite a few birds early in the year is don't be afraid to get in a shouting match with the dominant hen. If you hear a hen cutting and yelping, cut and yelp back at her. Piss her the hell off and she will come check you out usually bringing a gobbler right behind her. Remember we are trying to reverse nature. Usually a tom gobbles and the hens come to him, you are trying to get him to come to you. If he has hens it becomes exponentially tougher to call him off so call to the hens and get them to come. The boss or dominant hen is usually extremely aggressive and easily irritated any "hen" challenging her she will usually come and check out.

The single most important thing IMO is being a woodsman. Learning when you can and can't move on a bird. Where and how to setup. You want the turkey to feel as comfortable as he can with as little structure in between you and him. Turkeys have a knack for hanging up out of range from something as small as a blow down or creek that is 1' wide. Not saying they won't come around it or over it but they will hang up on just about anything in between you and him. Knowing the ground that you are hunting like the back of your hand.

Good luck and enjoy the disease. The best way to learn is get out there and screw it up a bunch and believe me you will. You will learn something new every single hunt. I have been hunting them for 23 years now(killed my first when I was 5) and I still learn something new every single time I am in the woods with them. We can tell you all sorts of stuff and very little of it will make sense until you actually get in the game and make your own decisions/mistakes.

As for things you can immediately do.. Get out and listen before season. Focus on what hens need -food, water, and cover to nest. As season progresses hens will leave the gobbler to nest and often times you can catch gobblers checking thicker cover or transition areas(pines to hardwoods) searching for nesting hens middle of the morning.

[BuckyIsAB****]

Ill throw my 2 cents in. Some good advice above...

Turkeys act and react-they aren't smart and can't reason(they don't have the ability to put two and two together). If you mess a bird up don't be afraid to try him again the next day. I have missed birds that I killed the next day. Some are just more instinctual than others.

Doesn't matter how your calling sounds. More importantly listen to live hens on youtube or some other form of media and mimic the cadence and rhythm of a live hen. As stated above, there are some atrocious sounding hens but they all have a fairly similar cadence and rhythm.

Another thing with calling that has landed me quite a few birds early in the year is don't be afraid to get in a shouting match with the dominant hen. If you hear a hen cutting and yelping, cut and yelp back at her. Piss her the hell off and she will come check you out usually bringing a gobbler right behind her. Remember we are trying to reverse nature. Usually a tom gobbles and the hens come to him, you are trying to get him to come to you. If he has hens it becomes exponentially tougher to call him off so call to the hens and get them to come. The boss or dominant hen is usually extremely aggressive and easily irritated any "hen" challenging her she will usually come and check out.

The single most important thing IMO is being a woodsman. Learning when you can and can't move on a bird. Where and how to setup. You want the turkey to feel as comfortable as he can with as little structure in between you and him. Turkeys have a knack for hanging up out of range from something as small as a blow down or creek that is 1' wide. Not saying they won't come around it or over it but they will hang up on just about anything in between you and him. Knowing the ground that you are hunting like the back of your hand.

Good luck and enjoy the disease. The best way to learn is get out there and screw it up a bunch and believe me you will. You will learn something new every single hunt. I have been hunting them for 23 years now(killed my first when I was 5) and I still learn something new every single time I am in the woods with them. We can tell you all sorts of stuff and very little of it will make sense until you actually get in the game and make your own decisions/mistakes.

As for things you can immediately do.. Get out and listen before season. Focus on what hens need -food, water, and cover to nest. As season progresses hens will leave the gobbler to nest and often times you can catch gobblers checking thicker cover or transition areas(pines to hardwoods) searching for nesting hens middle of the morning.

If you think turkeys arent smart and cant put 2 and 2 together, and think that it dont matter how your calling sounds, you aint hunting the same birds I am haha

[BB30]

So you think turkeys have the ability to reason. IE I yelp a turkey up he realizes something isn't right so now he correlates that with a human? Negative, otherwise you would never kill a turkey you busted or missed previously. All that happened was he got into a situation and instinct told him eh something isn't right(he never knew what wasn't right or had the ability to say oh look that has to be a human over there making those turkey sounds).

Some are naturally more wary than others but they have zero ability to correlate 1+1=2. Otherwise every turkey on public land wouldn't breed due to being scared to death of any hen sound, they would immediately run the other direction. Turkeys cannot reason therefore I don't consider them smart, I consider them instinctual. It may just be terminology differences we are having. Again they act and react to their surroundings.

I consider the ability to reason with being "smart". No doubt turkeys are very wary and in higher pressured areas are tougher to hunt. But anything with a brain the size of a walnut isn't smart they simply act and react with natural instincts God gave them.

[BuckyIsAB****]

So you think turkeys have the ability to reason. IE I yelp a turkey up he realizes something isn't right so now he correlates that with a human? Negative, otherwise you would never kill a turkey you busted or missed previously. All that happened was he got into a situation and instinct told him eh something isn't right(he never knew what wasn't right or had the ability to say oh look that has to be a human over there making those turkey sounds).

Some are naturally more wary than others but they have zero ability to correlate 1+1=2. Otherwise every turkey on public land wouldn't breed due to being scared to death of any hen sound, they would immediately run the other direction. Turkeys cannot reason therefore I don't consider them smart, I consider them instinctual. It may just be terminology differences we are having. Again they act and react to their surroundings.

I consider the ability to reason with being "smart". No doubt turkeys are very wary and in higher pressured areas are tougher to hunt. But anything with a brain the size of a walnut isn't smart they simply act and react with natural instincts God gave them.

Some validity to that. I agree but I think they are really insanely smart and have seen them do things that no other critter in the woods would do. I have also seen them do really stupid things but like they say, every turkey has his day.

I think they learn over time as the season goes on the difference in people calling vs the real thing and then in turn haul ass the oppo direction of you calling. Esp if you sound like shit.

We can both agree God made a wonderful bird for us to enjoy. Honestly I think the kill is prolly my least favorite part of turkey hunting. I read a quote somewhere saying If I could breathe life back into him right after I shot him I would do it. I really feel that way