How early to show up to the Turkey woods

[iamcorey]

How early do you guys show up to beat other to your spot? I’m planning on getting there ridiculously early Saturday to stake my claim. I’m thinking 0400. It’s almost an experiment to me because this spot only has one access point along a fence line and if you see a truck there you know someone is in there. I passed on it all last season because I didn’t want to mess anyone up and there is limited space between the fence and the river to the south. East to west there is maybe .75 miles. North south is less than that.

Not sure what the Turkey courtesy is, but I feel like that small of an area is good for 1 Hunter to chase birds.

Thoughts? I plan on leaving some orange on the path so there is no confusion of where I am.


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[Tjraley2]

Depends. If you’re in my area, my advice is sleep in, take your time.

On a serious note, I got to a spot last year at 3:30 just to beat other guys and because I was headed into a field within the turkeys line of sight on the roost.

Just before fly down, a guy ignores my truck, walks right on in. The turkeys stopped gobbling and pitched down into the woods and never came to the field. Some folks will just not give a rip.

 

[Bigterp]

Depends. If you’re in my area, my advice is sleep in, take your time.

On a serious note, I got to a spot last year at 3:30 just to beat other guys and because I was headed into a field within the turkeys line of sight on the roost.

Just before fly down, a guy ignores my truck, walks right on in. The turkeys stopped gobbling and pitched down into the woods and never came to the field. Some folks will just not give a rip.

Exactly this!!! You can be as early as you want but some guys are just gonna sneak in on any roost gobbling anyway....... but 4 isn’t too early.

 

[Loopwing]

Yeah, public land is a crap shoot. I have found most guys are going to hunt where they want to hunt no matter how many trucks are there.
As far as how early. I like to get into my spot at LEAST an hour before legal shooting time. If sunrise is 6:30, I can shoot at 6, so I will be done walking and sitting in my spot by 5 at the latest. I also try my best not to use any lights. That is public or private.

I can't tell you the amount of times I have been working a bird on public land, only to have some guy come running to the gobbles or my hen calls. Literally running through the woods.

 

[BCHunter]

Sleep in, eat some breakfast, then head out. It's way more effective to scare turkeys away from other guys at fly down and then make a move

Haha, J/K, but there's no way I'm going to be in the woods at 4 a.m., Thankfully Michigan has some great turkey hunting and I don't have to deal with that.

 

[Bwhana]

Roost them in the evening, then use a good flashlight (plenty of threads on good ones on here) and shoot one in the tree an hour after dark to beat the crowd! jk. I have beat the crowd into local public only to come back to the parking lot to find 12+ trucks after seeing or hearing many hunters for the first hours of light, so here, there is no such thing as moving to another area, they are all covered too (usually worse for turkey than deer here for some reason, especially in covid). I stopped worrying about setting up on specific roosts and spend the early hours in travel routes the other hunters may push the birds through, such as a saddle on a steep ridge. Calling works much better from 10am-2pm when everyone is gone then.

 

[ImThere]

I’m in my spot way before seeing light. 4 am isn’t early. Keep you legs / feet dry and have a seat and wait. Do not make them roost gobble on public land. IMHO it’s counter productive


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[Vtbow]

setup and sitting at least hour before light in the spring. Fall is run and gun....

 

[dalton916]

Depends on what time I wake up.

 

[10essee]

At least an hour before shooting light. Then once they start gobbling I decide where need to move on them or wait it out. I prefer to roost them then get close without a flashlight and hope they wanna love me first

 

[Bwhana]

Depends on what time I wake up.

Wikd Turkey is involved when that happens too!

 

[Spence71]

Apparently April is too early for me. Followed closely by May. Hahaha


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[useyourbow]

If you think 4:00 is early you should try duck hunting. You’ll be the last one in the water.

 

[dalton916]

Got that right.

 

[DMTJAGER]

I am extremely fortunate that the public land turkey spots by my home are all draw only and allow only low hunter numbers so if I have roosted a bird or birds the night before I WILL be set up about 90 minutes before any hint of sun up. I like to set up 50-70 yards from a roosted Tom or Toms so once I get about 100-125 yards from where I plan to set up I literally move at a crawl carefully taking one step at a time I also have been using folding turkey chairs for the last 5-6 seasons for my sons and I so they allow us to set up anywhere we need to or wish to in considerable comfort I will not even consider hunting without my Browning folding turkey chairs. Not only are they very comfortable thay allow you to sit knees up with little if any effort allowing you to rest you gun across your knees and cradle your shotgun while working a friction call they make remaining rock set in concrete still nearly effortless

 

[ericabbott]

I’ve killed most of my birds between 9:30 and 11:30, so I don’t sweat it too much if I don’t get one off the roost. Opening day is always special though so I’ll probably be out there at least an hour before shooting time, since I won’t be able to sleep anyway.

 

[swampdonkey]

I go in about 0900 as everyone is walking out after chasing each others yelps all morning. Literally noone in the woods midday and i almost always see turkeys hunting this way.

Im a laid back turkey hunter though and consider it just killing time until bowhunting opens up in the Fall so there is that.

 

[Ontariofarmer]

Killed him at 5:15 pm yesterday. Hunted in the morning earlier. I heard turkeys and saw none in the morning.
This guy came strutting to a Jake and hen decoy after a few clucks. Walking in I spooked a hen where I set up. I seem to kill all mine late afternoon.


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[Hall17]

That is a great question. Public land even if you are the first one in the parking lot that means nothing. People hear one on the roost and move in on you. I agree with hunting them later in the morning on public land. Less pressure in the woods later in the day. My experience with public here in PA is that it gets hammered HARD opening morning. For me its better to sleep in and go out later. I also hunt some non-public land with plenty of birds and less pressure. When I hunt there I am in the woods around 5am and they typically start making noise around 5:30-5:45. Most guys where I hunt are leaving around 9am. Good time to get where they historically have been and set up and wait. I used to run and gun but have become much more patient in my turkey hunting. Its tough because you can easily get up and walk unlike being up in a tree deer hunting but it pays to be patient.

 

[Tjraley2]

Got to a spot last week at 3:45 am. On the way in, had a guy flashing his light at me. 2 full hours before legal shooting light!