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So what are you guys doing to get on birds in the spring? Any particular features in fields, clear cuts, or maybe wooded areas you key in on? Favorable roosting habitat? Calls you find most effective?

I also dabbled with that scoot n shoot thing. It worked. Me and my buddy crawled across a field behind that thing and killed 2 birds. Really fun! I love turkey season just gotta be hunting where there are turkeys! Good luck man.

If you're bow hunting, get a blind. Their eyesight is crazy good so gillie suits aren't going to do anything for you, the can see your eyes blink.

If you decide to go with a mouth call, a lot of hunters try and perfect their clucking, but try using it in the field too early. You have to be REALLY good at clucking with a mouth call otherwise you sound like your barking of sorts (it's the only way I have to describe the sound), you make a "POCK-POCK" sound. Which...is incredibly similar to an actual call that turkeys make that is a warning. Loosely translated it means "GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE! WHATEVER IS HERE IS BAD!! RUN AWAY!!!"

So there's that. Like Moons recommended, I would get a slate and or box call. They're easy to use. Anyhow, if they bust you, give them a day or two and they'll be right back to what they were doing (paths they were taking) before.

Finally, I can't recommend decoys enough. Tom's are f-ing hilarious when they're hitting on a hen decoy. You can hear them all "Hey girl! Wus up! You hang out around here? I just got back from the gym and was gonna go grab a latte. You in?!" Conversely when they're pissed at a Tom decoy, it's equally hilarious "What's up BRO!! YOU WANT SOME OF THIS.....BRO!!!! I will F you up!! My dad owns a dealership BRO!!"

It's fun, finding them is literally 90% of it. They're so easy to pattern.

If you have trouble finding them, ask around, there's always someone who has a flock coming through their yard twice a day, and I guarantee that homeowner wants them dead.

But, what's cool, and this is the deer like part... They will be in a certain clump of trees every day for a week or close to that, then they move and may be .25 miles away on the other side of the land. I see that all the time, they cycle from one section to another over the course of a few weeks.

Get up early the week or two pre season a few times a week, and owl hoot about 50-30' prior to sunrise (avoid turkey calls so you are not educating birds) in many locations. You will hear gobbles in response and can note rough locations. You can bet those birds will be pretty close to there on the opener.

Ill agree on the slate like calls. My preference is a glass call (a "slate" looking call using glass vs slate). Learn to use that, and maybe get a diaphragm too, but expect to need lots of practice with the mouth call. Primos used to make a glass call which strapped to your thigh, it's my favorite call and on my leg for every hunt. If you can find one, get it. You can use it when in position for a shot, with minimal motion which is huge.

Set up with a tree as wide as you behind you if at all possible for safety. If you use dekes, set em up facing you or slightly angled to the side. Birds like to come in behind the dekes or from the sides. But this helps you see anyone stalking.

That device Moons noted looks cool as hell, but feels like a great way to get #6's to the face to. I just have trust issues I guess :). My suggestion there would be only using that if you KNOW the area is all you and no other hunters are anywhere near by.

Try as hard as you can to set up slightly down hill or level to birds if on a hill. I have no idea why, but it seems harder to call birds up hill than down or across.

Try to anticipate the landscape - for example, turkey's will walk down along a stone wall 80 yds to a gap, cross, then walk back up to where they were but 4 feet over, on the other side of the wall. it's crazy. But, look at where you are, and if there is a funnel via terrain or walls etc, expect the birds to use it.

Do not overcall. It's just experience, to feel out what turkeys moods are and match your calling to them. But you generally are better calling to little than to much. Sometimes ill literally use a timer on a watch to intentionally call no more often than every 10 or 20'. It's brutal... but works.

Do not expect them to gobble the whole way in... sometimes they will gobble a few times, then you wont hear em again, they just appear in front of you.

If you are not bowhunting, cover ground looking for hot birds. Dont get married to a spot, move until you are on em.

Assume any hen you hear calling is a hunter until you visually see the hen. Safety first.

this is a topic that you could go on and on with. If you are bowhunting em, i hope Jrdeerslayer or taz see this, those guys have shot LOTS of turkeys with a bow from a blind (and with guns as well)...

Moons, the two calls makes alot of sense. If I were going to a party I'd prefer there to be more than one girl there also;)

Jeb, that's hilarious.

I had no idea they keyed in on high spots like that. I've got a few spots already coming to mind. And I'll be out there with the bow. I used a couple different mouth calls last year. I kept them in my car for a couple months prior to the season opening and would practice whenever I was in the car. Not sure if I was good, but I had one come in on a string while hunting "run n' gun" style with the bow on opening day. He gobbled every 15 seconds for a few minutes coming up over this hill. I scrambled to get myself hidden in some brush. I had just had my bow restrung for the first time and like an idiot I assumed it would shoot the same. He popped out at 20 yards and I got all feathers. I'm definitely going to get out to locate some birds prior to the season. I have a crow call will that work as a locator?

I've heard of folks using dog whistles with good luck... And a few times, when my truck door closed to hard, that did the trick as well! Ha ha ha!

I thought they we so sharp on vision that any movement screwed ya?

I'm thinking, that Ungie and Spike think of run and gun as I do.

You know where you are likely to start hunting on a given day. That may be due to roosting birds the night prior or just knowing the area - for me it's always the latter, I dont have time to get out the night prior to often.

Now you go to that spot in the AM. In many areas, I wont unpack gear. Ill just park, get out of the truck, and listen for 5-10' (pending how late in the AM it is - I like starting 1hr prior to sunrise) If I dont hear any gobbles, Ill owl hoot. If I get a gobble in a huntable area, I move on it and try to set up and hunt the bird. If not, I drive off and try the next spot. Park, owl hoot. Same process is followed if I hear a gobble or not. Ill do that until I get a gobble.

If I dont, and I feel like walking, Ill park in an area I know has several groups of birds and Ill start walking. Every .25 miles or so Ill hoot if it's close to sunrise or cackle if it's later. If I get a response (gobble) Ill move to a good set up and hunt the bird.

Here is an example from a few years ago.

I parked at one spot anticipating birds roosted NE of me on a ridge. I close the truck door only to discover they roosted over the parking spot and flew off in the gloaming light. Crap. I drove to spot 2, got a bird going in a tough area. Didnt have confidence I could pull him off this area based on past experience, but he was hot to trot so gave I tried. Worked him for about 75' and experience told me to bail and try one more spot. I took a tip from JRdeerslayer, checked a spot I'd not hunted yet that year, got a gobble, but with no parking. Drove a half mile to legal land, parked. Literally ran up the hill (it's a long triangle of DCR land) until I felt I was in the area. Called lightly, turkey gobbled, I cautiously tweaked position and 5' later killed a bird.

So, it's not that you are walking around, almost stalking. That to me is dangerous with turkey hunting. I just have zero fun doing the "sit and call whether you have gobbles or not" approach. It's the gobbling and a hot bird that I love. So... Effective as other approaches or not, it's the style that I've grown into and enjoy.

Some days I may walk several miles of woods rather than driving all over. Some days I may do both. Some days I may barely walk at all, drive, bird, walk 300yds into the woods to set up, bird comes in or not, I leave :).

I know a lot of guys who kill more birds than I do with a lot of attention to roosting em the night prior, super early in the dark set ups etc... I'm confident that's likely the best way. I do enough of that level of effort deer hunting :). Turkeys are just more relaxed and fun for me... Plus, when you hike all over creation, it's awesome scouting for next fall.

Last year I walked in from my truck and busted a flock.. looked like some jakes and hens, but couldn't tell. I went up above and away from where they went several hundred yards.. calling all the way. Nothing... I got up above a field on the mountain side and called and had an instant gobble down below me from where I came from. I set up a couple of times in the woods. The tom was hot and hammering back to every call I made. He was in the field. I was in the woods. I did a slight adjustment to my set up very stealth like very quietly and shut up.. 5' later, here came.... looking for me.. and that's all she wrote.. so you never know.

All kinds of moving. Ungie is SOOOOOO right. If you work a bird and it doesnt work, and you have the time, try moving. Often times calling from a different spot works for them and they come right in.

Oh, one weird observation... I've come to the conclusion that there are 3 types of turkeys. 1.) Birds that are so hot to go, that you could just speak the word yelp a few times and they would literally RUN to you. Ok, you might need a turkey call, but it's borderline. Those are some exciting hunts!

2.) Birds super hot, but with a hen. In which case move, give up and try to find option 1 above, or, move on to bird type 3 approach.

3.) Brids hot, but just seems unwilling to come in, and you dont know why. Others correct this or please add to it - I'd love more ideas. My experience seems to say that if this happens, either there is a hen with the tom moving away so he just follows and does not care about you; or for got knows what reason, there is a specific route he wants to take and you are not along it. For example he wants to work a certain ridge line down to a valley, and you are at the base of the hill, vs down in the valley - he will gobble all the way there and never come in. I'm assuming he know's there are hens there or something, but the key point here is that if you want to have a shot at this bird, you have to try and move to where you think he wants to go.

I fail at that spectacularly quite often :) Will

I scouted throughout Feb & March and had them pin pointed. Made a nice natural ground blind where they were walking everyday a month before the season. Opening day, 60 minutes before first light I get into my beautiful ground blind and started calling with a slate, a box and a couple of mouth calls. I got hens coming in, had jakes circle around behind me even had one hop across my leg. Those jakes came by 4 or 5 times. Around 10 finally get some Tom's gobbling but they wouldn't come in. I low-crawled through the woods and up a rise to behind a big white oak. They were 20 yards away, three Toms, some jakes (maybe the same ones as earlier) and a bunch of hens. Got up on a knee behind the tree and took the biggest Tom. This stuff is addictive.

I had my 8 year old out with her 410. We wound up running & gunning most times and 3 times she crawled within 25 yards of jakes and Tom's but held her shot. She's hooked too.

favorite calls, double frame diaphragm with cut reeds, quakerboy boat paddle, home made glass call, occasionally just a lump of slate cupped in my hand and a hand whittled striker. all depends on mood.

what calls I like, tree yelp, tree gobble, fly-down cackle, regular yelp, cackle, purr, and very occasionally mouth gobble with a diaphragm.

Above everything else, patience and knowing when to move/call/draw is the most important. Ie...the BEST bow setup is a nesting hen or jake deke, facing directly at you. A gobbler will likely get in there face strutting, thereby blocking it's vision of you with its tailfan. That's when you move/draw.

1.) If you suspect fly down is about to happen in the AM, take your cap off and flap it against your thigh hard several times in a flapping rhythm then smack the ground 3-4 times. Think "bird flying down and landing taking several fast steps to slow momentum". I've had gobblers stuck on roost literally fly to me when I did this - no additional calling needed.

2.) Always have a stick handy that's about a foot long and maybe an inch ish around. if a bird hangs up just out of sight, you can scratch the leaves - trying to sound like a hen scratching and it works. just a scratch scratch, 3-4 seconds of nothing, scratch scratch. repeat for 5-10 sets of scratching. Birds that are totally stuck have come to me many times when I included this tactic.

I gots a question for ya... the later part of the season after a couple weeks of public land pressure. Will survivors retreat to deeper woods ?

In my experience, they definitely get more call shy. Well, I perceive that. The reality is that the most turned on birds or birds with personalities which are very responsive to calls get killed fast. All that's left are birds that are naturally not real interested in coming to a call, and birds that have been spooked and are call shy.

So deeper? Not in my experience... But rare have been the times when I found a bird that was fired up like crazy on week 4. Week 3 is a little better...

Come to think of it, even in big woods spots I mostly hunt they seem to relate more closely to houses than woods if pressured. There could be 5 miles of woods in one direction and they will go to a house to strut in the yard...

heck 5 years ago, I was surrounded by a flock of 15 turkey during deer season (the weekend before fall turkey started). now I only see the maybe 4 a season. habitat loss, coyote boom, change in climate...I dunno