Smarter Turkey Hunting

By Stu Bristol

 

 

 

 

If you have not nailed down at least half a dozen prime turkey hunting locations by now, you’ll need to get a bit smarter in your preseason scouting techniques. Finding a longbeard in the spring can be as easy as watching the back fields, power lines and railroad tracks, but finding one that other hunters don’t know about is another matter.

There is one common question turkey hunters ask me. “How do you keep coming up with giant longbeards, year after year?” That’s like asking Larry Benoit or Hal Blood how they track down giant bucks every year. The answer is that they work hard at their sport and they work even smarter than the average hunter. Same goes for me.

Let me run you through my average preseason turkey scouting routine. Believe it or not, I have no starting nor stopping point in scouting wild turkeys, especially big ones. My scouting is nearly every day of the year. I keep my eyes open and risk the scorn of my wife who constantly reminds me to keep my eyes on the road.

By now, all but the novice wild turkey hunter is versed in the lifestyle and seasonal movements of turkey flocks. One of my early mentors back in the 1970s drilled it into my head that the best time to begin learning turkey movements and vocalizations is in mid-June, right after the spring mating season.

Nest Tending

The hens will tend the nest and throughout the summer they will tend the broods. The older gobblers will head off on their own, no longer interested in breeding, sometimes joined by the more mature jakes. They will not rejoin and interact with the flocks until late summer or early fall, at which time the pushing and shoving and fighting will begin in earnest, re-establishing flock dominance.

During the winter the flocks depend upon each other for safety and finding food. This is when hunter should be carrying strong binoculars and taking notes on where the exceptional longbeards are hanging out. Of course, the location will change when early spring comes around. By mid-March the serious dominance fights take pace and the “boss” gobblers will give up plenty of breast feathers to proclaim dominance of their intended harem of hens.

If you haven’t narrowed your hunting strategies by this time, you are seriously behind the 8-ball so to speak. Instead of scanning fields looking for gobblers you’d like to kill, begin scouring the deeper woodlots where you will find the limb hangers of your dreams.

You will need a 7.5 minute top map of each area you are searching. I use My Top digital maps and OnX mapping on my cellphone. Over the years I have over a dozen early spring scouting “turkey woods” I visit, each within half an hour drive of each other.

Dominant Gobbler

My goal is simply to hear a dominant gobbler. I don’t need to see him. I can tell by the sound of his gobbles that he is worthy of my time. Jakes gobble three or four times and, if you are close enough you will hear a cluck or yelp or two before and after the gobbles.

I will stop alongside the highway or gravel road, walk a few yards away from my vehicle at dawn and again at dusk and sound off with a barred owl series of calls. Jakes will usually answer first but what I am waiting for is the older gobbler to shut them up with a long-winded serious gobble. If that gobble sounds prehistoric, then that’s one bird to put near the top of the list.

In the woods, I seek out sandy spots or mud, looking for turkey tracks. I shouldn’t have to tell you when you’ve seen a boss gobbler track. It is deep in soft sand, snow or mud and 5-6 inches long. Once you find tracks, look for roosting trees, near water or possible feeding areas. Carry a flashlight or headlamp and stay in those woods for at least an hour after dark callin with owl hoots. You need to know where the big guy is roosting, the close r you come to hunting time.

Big gobblers will chase down hens that stick to open meadows and fields but for me the biggest of the bogs never come close to an open field. That trait along gives me the upper hand. In the fields, hunters  resort to decoys or ambush to get close for a kill. That’s the main reason for the newer tungsten long distance shot pellets and in some states, the use of rifles.

I rely on setups where the gobbler must come over a small hill or around a game funnel to get to where I am calling. I’ve killed a few in fields but that’s where you will encounter the most interference from other hunters and live hens.

Final bit of advice you already know but is worth repeating. Select at least half a dozen locations you have scouted. On hunting days, get in early at least an hour before first light. Any later and you may find another hunter has your spot or worse, a group of hens has roosted between you and the gobbler. Move on to the next location and so on until you can find a hot gobbler.

Whenever you make a call and the gobbler, not jakes cut you off before your series has completed, that bird is killable. If it takes all morning and half the afternoon, stick with him unless you are interfered with. Hard work and “hunting smarter” is a year round project.

 

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