Turkey Hunting

Turkey hunting is like golf. It's impossible to master. And even hard to get good at it. Most peopl spend a lifetime and end up just as frustated at the end as at the beginning.

My only advice would be to leave the Run and Gun to the experienced hunters. Start your morning out at daylight by settting up against a big tree at a woods road intersection. Get the sun behind you. Get comforable. Scratch out a few calls on a box or a slate every 10 or 15 minutes.

The guy who taught me to hunt turkeys told me to use a slate to start with. Because there's not a single noise you can make on a slate that isn't a turkey noise.

Just be patient and enjoy time in the woods. See what happens. Beats watching TV on a pretty day.

Best advice I’ve ever heard:

When you park the truck, make sure to poop because the urge is guaranteed to hit you while you’re waiting on him to come in.

It’s a bad time to get into turkey hunting. Not nearly the birds there used to be.

quote:

---

Turkey hunting is like golf. It's impossible to master. And even hard to get good at it. Most peopl spend a lifetime and end up just as frustated at the end as at the beginning.

---

I’m in a similar position as the OP. I don’t know a thing about turkey hunting. However, I have some calls, a decoy, and a vest that I bought to hunt a friends place, but we never went.
I would bet paychecks against the above statement however. I see a bunch of guys kill turkeys year after year, yet they can’t kill quality whitetail bucks. I’ll report back, but it seems like a pretty easy task to accomplish, if I can leave the bass alone long enough.

Wait 15 more minutes before getting up to leave.

If he answers your call, he knows the exact tree you’re sitting on and if you give him enough time, he will eventually show up.

His time ain’t like your time. He has no watch so don’t put too much into setting a time limit for him to show up.

Don’t over call. If you’re patient, you don’t need to do a lot of calling.

Pattern your gun.

Know the lay of the land. Even the best callers aren’t as successful as an average caller who knows the ground.

In the woods, forget about the decoys…unless the understory is super open.

If he’s gobbling on the roost, get to him as quickly as you can without getting too close. Yea, that’s one of those things you can’t learn from a book or YouTube.

Realize that eastern turkeys will sometimes fly down, gather hens and not move more than 30 yards for hours, especially early in the season.

I’ve been doing it for 25 years and each passing season I realize more than the season before that turkey hunting is hard and I am not nearly as good at it as I used to think I was. The best advice I can give is figure out where the turkeys are and get in a spot nearby where you can see but you are hidden. Go out right at dusk and carefully walk woods roads or trails and use an owl hoot. Sometimes this will get a gobbler to gobble back on the roost. Once he does, figure out the best you can where he is and shut up and quietly leave. Most of the time all you will do is get real owls to hoot. When you figure out the spot you need to be in, get there quietly and with no white flashlight well before dawn. Hide. I think camo and a headnet are important but being against a tree and with something in front of you that breaks your outline is more important. And being perfectly still and silent is even more important. Being comfortable like on one of those padded or webbed turkey seats will help you be still longer. As a beginner you probably don’t want to call at all unless you hear a gobble. When you do call use a pot or slate call and keep it to a simple three note yelp. Then shut up. Sometimes they come in gobbling. Sometimes they come in silent. Usually they don’t come at all or stop too far away to shoot. Accept that even the best turkey hunters fail more often than succeed. Do not yelp every time he gobbles if he gobbles. Maybe yelp 15 minutes apart for a bird that seems interested and is gobbling but doesn’t seem to be getting closer. If and when you know a Tom is coming, shut up, don’t call. He knows where the yelp came from. All you will probably do by continuing to call is spook the bird by movement or by making a bad sound. Try to have your gun in a ready position across a knee before the bird gets within sight. You don’t want it leaning against the tree or laying on the ground. And realize that even if he comes within range he is just as likely to sneak up behind you. That’s just how it is. Final words- be where the turkeys are and be still. The rest is subordinate.

True, there may be certain populations in areas that are up. But as a whole across the country, they are down big time. I’ve hunted them from South Dakota to South Florida. The numbers are way down!

A few counties in Alabama are holding strong. Statewide populations are declining. Fortunately I hunt in an area where numbers are good and recent hatches have fared well. And I am not putting any appreciable dent in those numbers. I miss the March 15 opening but I understand why it has been pushed back.

Turkey hunting is actually very easy

Be where that turkey wants to be before he gets there and you will kill it every time

But a turkey wakes up in a different world every day