How can you not love spring in the forest? I love the colors, and just walking through the woods in the springtime will always lift my spirits. As everything greens up, we get purple and white blossoms in the trees and multicolored wildflowers on the forest floor. It is quite a magical time. As it starts to warm up, I cannot wait for spring turkey season.
I will never forget the first time I went turkey hunting in Southern Missouri with my father. At that point I had already harvested a few deer and plenty of squirrels and rabbits, but that was all I really knew about hunting. We set up next to a big oak tree in full camo and listened. It was pitch black, but you could feel the wilderness coming alive to see the sunrise. Then I heard it! An eerie but confident gobble from a few hollers over. Then, I heard another and another in different locations as the sun started to peek over the horizon.
It felt like the turkeys were all around us. My dad got out his old wooden box call and yelped a few times. I thought to myself, “there is no way that is going to work”. Almost immediately two turkeys responded. It was a whole new level of excitement for me. The idea that I could talk to my prey and possibly lure them in was a challenge I could get behind.
At that moment, I thought I had turkey hunting figured out. How wrong I was. I can say that I always enjoy the nice warm weather after nearly getting frostbite during deer season. It’s a good thing too because I come home empty-handed a lot during turkey season. It is nothing like deer season when I can almost always bag a deer on opening morning. Turkey hunting is about patience and about the art of the call. It is about planning and adjusting your plan as you go. If deer hunting is checkers, then turkey hunting is chess.
Successful or not, it is great just being out in nature during this time of the year. As I have gotten older and more skilled with hunting, I have become more drawn to spring turkey season. It is now a big part of every year so I actually bought my father and I matching Franchi turkey guns for his retirement present. It also gave me an excuse to get myself a toy, so it worked out. In this article, we will discuss the challenges of turkey hunting and how you can give yourself the best odds of success.
Do Your Research
Lots of turkey hunters head into the woods at dawn and just try to listen for where the turkeys are hanging out. While this can work and you can get lucky, it eliminates a huge opportunity. Just randomly picking a spot on the edge of a field to post up and hope for turkeys will always reduce your odds of success. You really need to start your hunt before sunrise, and it needs to be near a roost tree.
Roost trees are locations where turkeys will sleep every night. Most turkeys return to the same roost tree every evening and fly up right before dark. They perch on the branches to sleep, and sometimes several turkeys will roost on the same tree. If you get out before turkey season starts and do some research, you can figure out where the roost trees are located.
To do this you will want either an owl call or a crow call. These are mouth calls that imitate these birds. If you use a call that sounds like a turkey, often it will draw the turkey to you. When they see a person, they can get spooked and may change roost trees. You do not want to draw the turkey to your location. However, turkeys will respond to owl and crow calls without changing their location. It is just a reflex for a gobbler.
Head out just before dark and get to a high point where sound will carry. Use your call a bit and wait for a response. When you hear a gobbler, try to move closer to their location. Then, when they fly up to the roost you will hear them. Turkeys have large wings that make lots of noise when they take off. With the last few minutes of daylight or with a flashlight if needed, try to determine the exact tree in which the turkey is roosting. If you cannot pinpoint the tree, just pick a landmark so you can find that spot when you hunt.
When you head out opening morning, set up 20-50 yards from your landmark or roost tree and place your decoys. There are times you will be able to call a turkey to your location from the roost. They will actually fly towards you when they come down. If this happens and they see your decoys, you are probably going to get a good shot at a gobbler.
Calling in Turkeys
If you want to bag gobblers, you must be good at calling. This is the key to the whole process. You cannot just post up in a tree and hope they walk by like you may do during deer season. You must bring the turkeys to you. Most people use calls to sound like a hen turkey. Spring is mating season, so gobblers and jakes are all about mating and fighting. When they hear a female, they often come running.
You have several different options for these calls. I have primarily used a box call and it remains my preference. This is simply a wooden box with a wooden lid attached by a single screw. The screw allows the lid to rotate. When you rub the lid across the opening of the box, it projects a yelp sound similar to a female turkey. I still have a box call that my grandfather made from hand when he was a boy. The downsides are that they don’t work well when wet, and they really require both hands. In theory you could operate a box call one-handed, but it would be very difficult. This means that you would have to set down your call to pick up your shotgun for your shot.
Another popular option is a slate call. My father uses this option which is just a piece of slate similar to a small chalkboard and a peg. You rub or dig the peg into the slate to make turkey sounds. They make glass plate calls that work the same way. Again, these calls don’t do well when wet, but you can operate a slate with one hand if you practice. After my first turkey season, I tried to switch to a mouth call. This is an artificial reed-based mouthpiece that can call turkeys and keep both hands completely free. I got to the point that I could get by with a mouth call, but in the end I felt the box call sounded more realistic and switched back.
Be aware that calling turkeys is not just as simple as making turkey noises. These birds have better hearing than us. They can pinpoint your distance and your bearing down to five or ten feet just by the sound of your call and movement. They can also distinguish between turkeys and lousy imitations. You need to practice your call using recordings of actual hen turkeys. Until you feel like you can sound like the recording, you probably aren’t ready to hit the woods.
You should also move around a bit when calling in a turkey so they think you are a hen walking around looking for food. In addition, try not to overcall. If you don’t listen for 10 to 20 minutes between calls, you will not sound realistic to any gobblers listening. Be sure to break up your calls into yelps and chirps so there is a little variety. When you listen to a recording of a hen, you will know what I mean. Finally, you can also use gobbler calls to try and egg on aggressive turkeys looking for a fight. Sometimes mature males will come running when they hear a gobble from another bird.
Decoy Selection and Placement
In addition to having incredible hearing, turkeys also have great eyesight as most birds do. I have seen turkeys spot a decoy at over 100 yards and close that distance like a running back headed for the endzone. However, there is a right way and a wrong way to use a decoy. When a turkey hears your call, they will identify your location. Then without any visual, they will start walking towards that location. As they get closer, they usually expect visual confirmation of another bird before they get too close. If they get that visual from a decoy, they will often abandon any concerns they may have had.
Generally, you should keep your decoys in a highly visible spot. I like to have mine on top of a slight hill so that it can be seen from 360 degrees at long distances. This also gives it a profile against the sky that is easy for a gobbler to identify. The decoys should be close enough that you can take a reasonable shot before the turkey actually gets to the decoy.
You have the options of different types of 2D and 3D jakes, hens, and gobblers to purchase. I like you use a couple of hens and a single jake. I know plenty of hunters that go with a gobbler and gobble call to try and pick a fight. You just have to decide which strategy works best for you. You can spend a great deal on super-realistic decoys, or you can go the budget route. They even have 2D and 3D decoys that can be held in front of you so you can belly crawl closer to your target.
Camo and Ground Blinds
Unlike deer, turkeys can see hunter orange just fine. In addition to their eyesight being better, they can see almost 360 degrees because of their eyes being on the sides of their heads. For turkey hunting, you want camo from head to toe. You need to back up to something solid like a tree trunk so you do not show your profile. You also need to sit incredibly still as they can spot movement at 100 yards. If this is a concern, you may want to build or buy a partial or full ground blind to hide your movement.
Running and Gunning
While the ideal scenario for spring turkey hunting is setting up your decoys before sunrise and then calling a turkey to your location, it does not always work that way. Sometimes turkeys are stubborn and just will not move. This could be because they are spooked, or it could just be the nature of the bird. If you hear a bird close by and you get responses to your calls, do not give up. Just because the bird is not coming closer does not mean you are out of options.
You can carefully pick up your decoys and shotgun and try to sneak closer to the sound of their gobbles. I have seen people belly crawl within 10 yards of a gobbler without spooking it. You just have to be very slow and deliberate with your movements. You also need some really good camo. If you run into a rut and no turkeys are gobbling close by, you can always pack up and relocate towards the closest one you hear. Just use the same tactics as you approach.
Over the years, the turkey population has declined a bit on the land we hunt. However, the experience is still just as fun. We may not get to fill the freezer quite like deer season, but the process is the reward. Just take the time to do your research and pay attention to the details. Tighten up your camo. Be sure your calls are on point. Find that perfect roost tree before opening morning. When you take these extra steps, you will drastically improve your odds of bagging a big bird.