Mock dusting sites?
Turkey
Anybody ever made a dusting site? I found an area durin deer season where there were numerous dusting sites in a fairly small area. I'll be putting a camera and blind there next month. It got me to thinking about making some sites myself in areas I like to hunt. It'd be easy to do with a hard tooth rake. Maybe even enhance it with some good fill dirt if needed? I found birds dusting in an old saw dust pile years ago, hunted it like a scrape and killed several birds there.
I think this is a reach as far as a legitimate technique. So many other ways to hunt gobblers in the spring. I could be wrong; may be if you did it and set up and cluck and purr a bit.
Too much work when I can move to natural dusting areas and strut zones.
Sure if you build it they will come..... But not any the frequent level your good idea fairy is hoping. I'd spend your time figuring out the dusting spots/ strut zones they use now and have been using in that area for years and hunt that. It's bred into their dna sorta speak where there daily circle route will take them..... So if your "new" dust spot is not already in a current highly visited spot it won't be used that much. Just my .02 . Good luck this spring!
I'll add one thing if it is in an already used spot and you're gonna give it a go... Add sand before saw dust... The highly used dust spots I find have more dry sand in the soil then wood products.
Yes yes YES. Next level thinking right out of the box
At least where soil conditions dictates
Here with the clay loam soils a sandy gravelly site is a turkey magnet
They come from far and wide to visit what they naturally need but can't find elsewhere
Dust up the feathers and pick up some coarse stone for the gizzard
You wouldn't see this alternative tactic revealed anywheres but on
hardcore BOWSITE
It's all in the details
Although I think it's a reach, ultimately I agree with Huntcell. You are thinking outside of the box and its this type of thinking that leads to new techniques and big developments.
Put it this way, I bet no one has tried this because they all think it will not work. If it does, you are a genius. No harm in trying either way. Please report back with findings.
Next people will be baiting Turkeys with Gold Bond...
Where I am from this is out of the box.
Birds in my yard will use the ashes where I burn tree limbs and brush. They've done it for the last 6 yrs.
OkieJ called it...burn pile will do the trick
I found a little sand pack that was about 12" x16" a turkey used. I when back with a grub-hoe and removed the sod to leave 3 6'x6' very sandy patches. That was 5-6 years ago. All of them are now used regularly.
Next year we will see camouflage bags of sandy dirt for sale in sporting good shops marked up 10 times the cost of a bag of sandy dirt. Manufactures are running out of ideas and this will be the next must-have accessory. Next, they will make a bigger turkey vest to carry the dirt in. Add a collapsible rake and sell it as the ultimate gobbler stopper.
I hunt National forrest ground, after a burn it is very common to find dusting sights in the burn area. Taking the advise of "build it and they will come" I'd go with ashes but I'd think you'd need a truck load to keep the sight fresh and dry.
Jasper, how about making one, then putting a trail camera on it and keeping us updated, please?
Kinda like a turkey scrape.
Doing just that next week in several areas writer. Will report back later with pics. Thanks
Huntcell, my wife thinks most of my thinking is outside the box with all the crazy (her words) ideas I come up with and contraptions I build! Lol I really think this will work. Will keep y'all informed. Thanks
Dust bowls are easy to identify and make great places to sit, call sparingly and wait. Wild turkeys dust themselves to rid their skin and feathers of parasites. By repeatedly dusting themselves in the same site, the birds create a shallow depression, or bowl, in the soil. Wild turkeys dust themselves frequently.
Jasper,
With turkey season on the horizon I wanted to revisit this thread. Did you ever make a dust bowl and put a camera up next to it? If so, can you report the results to us?
I am thinking about making a couple this year by tilling a spot really well and then mixing in a bunch of sand so it will drain/dry easily.
Dusting spots are great ambush areas, If you can make one and they come to it all the better. Another good ambush area is a hay drop where we feed cows, they love to scratch for bugs under the old hay. Turkeys show up every day at our hay drop.
DD: Well done! If you need some arrows let me know:)
I few years back I found a single small dusting bowl at the north end of an 20 acre opening. Later I went there with a Grub Hoe, removed the sod to expose the sand under it. It wasn't long the turkey took to it. Now (5 years later?) I call it the community bowl. It is about 20' x 30' and is just torn up. Last spring I counted 19 bowls in it.
About 15 years ago one spring morning not a turkey was to be heard I was with my ex father-in-law working a ridge prospecting and came across a dusting site. I just read in a magazine that turks visit these everyday.
Since it was very early in the morning and zero gobbling at this point, We decided to set up on the bowl and call sparingly.
After about a hour, I could hear something coming up the hill towards us. It turned out to be a good gobbler. 19# 1-1/8" and three beards 10", 8" and 3.5".
Ex-father-in-law...who got to keep the turkey hunting spot?
A friend has her lawyer write, in the terms of the divorce, that her ex was not allowed to back to any of her hunting spots, since she was the original one to get permission.
I may put a video trail cam on a mock dusting area. Could be neat.
Writer It was on his land....guess who is not hunting there anymore.
Next level.....you should build a roof over the mock dusting site so it stays nice and dry and dusty.
