Calling all Turkeys
Massachusetts
I was thinking of this this AM after dropping the kids at school... It's two parts. Part 1 is a "dont" and part 2 is a "what's your style"...
1.) Dont call turkey's pre season just to hear them gobble, practice calling, locate etc. Doing some early/late day owl hooting, peacock calls, horn tooting etc, fine. But dont go out with turkey calls and try to call birds. It conditions them and educates them before you get a chance to hunt them... generally making calling tougher in season. It's fun as hell, so I get the draw... But wait another month.
2.) What's your style? I'm a gun guy who "run and guns". Almost never hunt fields, and mostly work areas of woods that are pretty big. It may be drive around and try to get a gobble in the distance to go set up on, or hike for miles in a real big area to see what I find. I like to hear gobbling. So, while I could be successful, maybe more so, by just sitting and calling blind when I know birds are around, I dont find it fun... Thus Ill move until I find a bird willing to play. I also prefer aggressive calling if possible. For example, bird hangs up, and instead of going quiet (though this can work awesome and I've killed birds doing it), I'd rather get supper loud. Do some fighting purrs, cackle and really raise the volume for a bit. It used to feel ridiculous, but it's killed a bunch of birds for me now so I've been conditioned.
Ill still occasionally go quiet for a while, and Ill admit that it probably works better. I just really love the interaction with the bird, hearing the gobbles etc. It's super fun... So I tend to angle that way.
How about you guys? How do you like to chase thunder chickens?
Oh man, I cheat my brains out. I usually start seeing them in the morning, usually in the next few weeks through November or so, on my way to work or to just where ever. I then make a mental note and Google Maps where I saw them, the topography, and see if I can get access to the area.
Then, the evening before the hunt I'll go to their roost, verify they're there, and then come back before morning. If I'm going gun, I'll just hide out, give a little box call just before the sun peaks over the horizon (I watch the sun as the light starts hitting the tops of trees). When they come down, they get the gun. If I go bow, which I typically like to do, then it's decoys and guile suit. I'll set up between the roost and water (thank you guys for that tip), usually about 60-100 yds away, and just box call just a little bit. After that it's about moving as slow as I can and staying out of sight. As long as they don't start with that "BOCK-BOCK-BOCK" call, I know I'm good. If I they make that noise, I know I'm busted.
A pic from last year wearing 3d gear.
A pic from last year wearing 3d gear.
Totally agree about no preseason calling, they will hear plenty when the season starts and get wary quick enough as it is. I'm more of an 80/20 guy, fields versus woods. I like hunting the woods but it's hard to find and setup up in areas that are clear enough in the Spring to give you decent shooting lanes. Field hunting does have long periods of dead times, but I'm using this time of year to scout and locate hot areas. I have five nice fields in mind now so I can rotate around a bit once the season opens. I know it's effective but have never had much luck locating roosts the night before, I just stick to areas I know are loaded with birds. Also, I almost always use a stool and try to sit in a scrubby spot with decent cover to breakup my silhouette and wear a 3d type camo suit.
Don't cut other hunters off when they are working birds!!!!! It's not ethical to the hunter working birds and also dangerous. Will you and I have the same style hunting strategy and that we like to run and gun. I don't like to sit in a blind to often but it can be effective with some decoys but more often than not I'm walking and talking. I'm a aggressive called when walking and talking till one fires off then I try to feel what kind of mood the birds in. If bird is responding well and slowly getting closer I do less calling. If bird is with hens the I aggressively try to call to the lead hen to get her to come check me out and hopefully have Tom in tow. If a hen talks back to you then mimic her as best you can.
No preseason calling here. I like to find them the night before, sneak in as close as possible, being super quiet In Complete darkness. Wait for them to sound off in the am, I never make a call until they’re gobblying on the roost. My go to spread is 2 hens and a strutter. Have the strutter facing towards where the birds are coming from, hens looking the other way. This tactic works for me more times than it doesnt
I mostly field hunt and with a shotgun. I set up with a Dakoda jake and 1 hen the toms love to beat it up. I might try the bow this year with a head chopper.
Deanman that's a great point about not cutting in on or off folks. Ill add to that with:
If you hear a hen ASSUME ITS ANOTHER HUNTER AND HAVE YOUR RADAR ON RED ALERT!
Love to hear the approaches you guys use and approaches. Very cool. Fran I'm with you. If I tried with a bow at this point, it would be a Bullhead/Guillotine style head aimed at head/neck above the feathers for sure.
I really enjoy turkey hunting because of the lack of pressure I feel to succeed. When I was young starting to deer hunt, I was mentored by my dad, uncles, grandfather. All these guys not only had thirty years age on me, but experiance as well. Put a young green teen in a group of guys who have harvested alot of deer and you will feel pressure to succeed even when your hunting alone. That was not the case with turkeys, no one I knew had much turkey experiance. I feel like the lack of pressure makes me more likely to try out side the box tacticks. I have really had some enjoyable mornings chasing birds around.
Last few years I have been doing a lot of filming and bowhunting . I primarily sit on fields and powerlines in a blind . It can get a little boring but its very successful. Once they gobble I let them know im there, do a fly down cackle and then shut up. Most of the time they are hung up, I shut up and works much better than aggressive calling. Make them think you left, especially if it is a late morning wanderer. I will agree when I used to hunt the VT big woods, run and gunning was much more fun. This year I might spend sometime running and gunning with the bow.
I had a ton of fun run and gunning with my bow last season. If I knew where they were roosted I'd slip in below them and call just enough so they'd know I was there. If I wasn't sure where they were I'd move often, calling alot until I heard a gobble, then I'd sneak in as close as I possibly could without being seen and call real aggressively. I noticed I had way more birds get hung up if I tried playing it safe and staying out 100-200 yards after hearing a gobble. They couldn't seem to resist coming in close to check it out if I could slip within 50 yards or even closer if the cover was right. And I'm pretty sure I suck at calling. This was almost always in fairly heavily wooded areas where they were forced to come in close to investigate after hearing the call, many times there wasn't even time to get a decoy setup.
I shot my first bird last year after three years of trying. I didn't have anyone to show me how to hunt birds since I don't know anyone else who hunts them so I had to figure it out all by myself. I got close a lot of times but I always managed to blow it somehow when they started moving towards me.
Well, I figured out a lot last year and I can't tell you how happy I was and how amazing the experience was when I harvested my first bird.
The problem with my area is there are a TON of guys in the fields calling birds. The turkeys would have to be pretty stupid to walk into the field near my house any day before noon during the season. I sat in the woods last year on opening day and listened for a while to all they guys calling. It sounded like a "learn to call turkeys" convention there were so many guys.
So most of the time I stick to the woods, not so much that I think that's where my best chance is, I just don't feel safe with all those guys in the field fighting over a few birds and all calling over each other.
I'm going to try to scout some new areas this year. Try to find some spots with less guys.
Also, I got a real nice AvianX decoy last year that I'm sure helped a lot over my foam Walmart jobby I was using before.
And most importantly, I would love to get my son and daughter a shot at a Tom this year. My son hunts with his shotgun but my daughter only has her bow since she has no FID card yet. Going to try to setup a blind and sit with my daughter when she can get out.
Nice Les! Shot my first bird last year also. My first couple years I was lucky to hear a single gobble all season.
Put up some wild turkey food pictures
Wild Turkey Chili. Delicious! So much so that people I work with often begging me to make a batch. This picture taken in the Moutains of NC cooked over an open fire!!
Only one I ever did whole. Tasted awesome - a butter ball with kinda tough legs. But the breast meat and what not were unreal. Once done, my wife boiled the carcass for 12 hrs and made bone broth from it - delicious!
Awesome guys! Mine was cut into strips, pounded with pointed side of meat mallet, sat in buttermilk overnight, seasoned battered and deep fried......came out great everyone loved it
I wrapped the breast in thick-cut bacon and put it on the grill till it reached 165 and it was amazing! Also put the legs and thighs in the oven but went a little long and they came out a bit tough but were good.
Only had picture of turkey salad Wich is great but turkey Cordon Bleu is amazing
I just wait for the turkeys to walk into my yd....way easier! Ha joke. I haven't seriously hunted them In probally 5 years.just always alot going in the spring and they get up sooo early!
Last year was my first-year turkey hunting. Was pretty busy and only made it out a handful of times.
All in all, learned a lot. Didn't have access to fields so I spent the time 'runnin and gunnin'. Blew a couple of chances on Toms I walked right up on who were silent beforehand. Learned how to call, to an extent, and also learned more about the area I hunt.
My major takeaway: Scout, scout, scout. Many times I needed more options or just proven locations to start my day. Rather than just walking into the area before sunrise and listening, I'm going to try to locate a handful of known roosting locations.
This year I have a lot more time away from school and hopefully, it will work out. I like to run and gun and being in the woods means it may be the only option. They seem to love the transition between clear cuts and wood lines where I hunt in Z11.
Like deer hunting was, I'm on my own with no one to mentor me. I think I prefer that.
Dinky - That was me. Be open to others. People helped me more than they know. Jrdeerslyr among others... like my high school fish and game club director. No one in my family hunted or fished. I went nuts on fishing, and could do that as a grade schooler or high schooler... but hunting, in that scenario, you cant do it until you are 15+ and it's a slower curve. It's not easy to "learn the ropes" so to speak!
Use vid's on YouTube, and read, read, read... This is a good venue too. Keep enjoying it!
Will- absolutely. I didn't mean to come off like I'm not open to other's advice. More like I enjoy figuring things out for myself when it comes to it. Stubborn and don't like to have my hand held, I suppose. I've read more and watched more videos on hunting than most would think healthy. But I am always open to listening.
Here's a question for ya'll. When do you start getting out and locating roosts/sign?
couple days before it opens I make a point to check all my usual locations, I will use binoculars from a far when ever possible so as to not spook birds. unless the birds are hanging around bird feeders in yards they tend to move week to week around hear
It was on today! Full strut, blue face. Boys getting restless.
I loosely keep an eye on things right up to the season and through it. My hunting becomes scouting and vice versa.
I dont call at all pre season, other than maybe a bit of owl hooting.
Birds change areas a bit seasonally, and then cycle a bit...roost there for a few days, then the next ridge over a few days. All basically the same area just shifting a bit every few days.. at least in my big woods haunts. All bets are off if u hunt suburbia! As a result, where I'm seeing them now, is pretty much where they will be in season.
Inside the blind
Inside the blind
I took in a tent blind last year and hated it. This year I put this up- maybe it will stay till next year if I’m lucky.
