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Turkey Scouting

bigcat93

bigcat93

Well-Known Member
SH Member
Joined
Jul 15, 2015
Messages
977
Location
NJ
Well with deer season coming to an end, turkeys will now fill the void. At least for me. However this is only my second year hunting them. Last year I had come across a farm in my town where they roosted on the field edges. On my last day of the second week I had a shot at two toms, and shot between them.. I was super excited and it was the first time I was actually hunting out of my blind.

My question is: When to start scouting for them? If i start now will they be likely to move and begin roosting elsewhere or will they stay in the same vicinity?
 
Others may disagree, but what I see in my area is that they change locations fairly often anyway. They are probably still nearby, but I never find them in the same tree or stand of trees for very long. Now that could very well be because of me coming and going throughout the year.I rarely go more than a few days without doing something in the woods around the house , be it hunting, camping out, working on trees either planting, trimming, or cutting, or spreading seeds or just stump shooting. So I could be the reason, but I can usually find them before a few days pass because they've not gone far.

Shaun
 
I usually start scouting for turkeys over the next few weeks depending on the weather. With the snow go I expect to start seeing them in the areas I will hunt them pretty soon. I scout for them in 3 ways. I go out and listen in the evenings to find where they roost, I go out and listen in early mornings to hear them on the roost, and I walk around during the mornings prior to season to look for sign, i.e. feathers, tracks, poop and dust bowls.
 
I usually will go out about 2 weeks before the season in the afternoon to locate some birds. Then narrow down to my first choice and the night before i hunt i locate them watch em roost then set up on em the next mornin

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The turkeys in my area roost in the same general area for a few days, then move along to another area for a few days, eventually winding back up where they started. They seem to have a little circuit going. I've also noticed in the winter that they don't move very far throughout the day. That may change once the weather warms up, but they move far less distance-wise than I thought. Several times now I've seen the same group of 6 gobblers right off the roost only move a few hundred yards throughout the course of an entire day. I know this because I see them throughout the entire day in the same general area. Once they start looking for hens, this will obviously change a bit.

To me the best way to scout for birds is roosting them in the afternoon. Remember, they generally like to roost near water so they can get a drink first thing in the morning.
 
g2outdoors said:
Remember, they generally like to roost near water
Click to expand...

I think it was Tom Kelley in The 10th Legion who said something like: "Nothing makes an old Tom happier than when he can hear his poop hit the water from his roost."

Best roost spot I ever hunted was a break in a tree line at a flooded swamp. It formed a funnel for the birds to fly into the open field (where they can see there are no predators). Fish in a barrel - 9 turkeys killed in 11 hunts. One of those hunts resulted in two of the birds.

While I don't claim to have interviewed any turkeys, I actually think the reason isn't because of the am drink. I believe it is safety. They have one direction that they could hear any predator come from.

While you will often find turkeys around water they don't really need it. They don't have to drink for most of the Spring. They get most of the moisture they need from what they eat. That said, creek bottoms and edges of water area always the most fertile and first to pop up new sprouts. They are also rich in insects and salamanders, etc... So you often see turkeys follow along streams.
 
I completely agree about water and safety for turkeys.

One of their main predators is bobcats. Cats notoriously don't like water.
 
Also bigger trees on hill sides with an area uphill to land when fllying from the roost preferably into a field

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Watched the flock all fall -
About 20 birds running around now. Big tom in the area runs them all off come spring.

He's on the list to liberate the area hahaha.

64da98ff998a4f596256c1b824f50887.jpg



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Finally got to scout the property i have permission to turkey hunt, which is the one i hunted last year.. and NO sign of them. Going to check back in a couple weeks since my tags don't start until may 9th. Am working on getting another property that i know has them, and scouting two more.

Are they likely to come back to the area they were at last spring?
 
I'm seeing lots of gobblers strutting around my neighbor hood the past few days.
 
The gobblers are going off up here in Northern NY. Every morning on my drive to work they are answering my calls from my truck. I pull into the parking lot surrounded by big stands of maple trees and hit my box call. The woods come alive. They're strutting all over the road. The bad news is our season doesn't come in until 1 May! I'm afraid they're going to be all gobbled out.
 
Scouting for turkeys? I guess if your in a big area that might not have birds, you would want to do that. Birds flock up over the winter and disperse in the spring. I know my good areas dont get birds till later in the spring, nothing around right now. Ive learned that from trial and error. My go to spot has birds in the early season and I dont scout. I go out and listen, then move as needed. I dont think Ive ever killed one right off the roost, and since I dont know which way they want to head, Im not positioned to capitalize on that. Ill let them know where im at, but if they dont come my way I dont keep pounding the call. Ill move around after I know birds are down and run and gun so to speak. If the birds are active, Ill get one.
 
bigcat93 said:
Finally got to scout the property i have permission to turkey hunt, which is the one i hunted last year.. and NO sign of them. Going to check back in a couple weeks since my tags don't start until may 9th. Am working on getting another property that i know has them, and scouting two more.

Are they likely to come back to the area they were at last spring?
Click to expand...

Yes. Their Spring and Fall routines can and often are completely different... I hunted with a club down in NC. We had 1500 acres. All Fall the turkeys would hang on the back of the property. Come Spring all the guys who thought it was easy to kill a turkey would come down on opening day. The two of us who did all the scouting and hunting would say "we'll take last pic, we will be back next weekend." They would all go to the back of the property just knowing they almost always saw turkeys in the morning from "that spot". By the time the first them got back to camp with a report of "I heard one a long way off." We were typically eating breakfast with our bird's tail fans drying.

Don't be discouraged because you didn't see any sign this early. If you don't start for another 5 weeks and you have had birds there before in the Spring... there is a chance you are near a strutting or nesting area. Or a travel way between the two. The hens haven't moved there yet. If you don't see them two weeks before the season starts, then you may be in trouble. The seasons are typically set so that the breeding is well under way two or three weeks out.

Shoot 'em in da face!
 
I might quit turkey hunTing. If I decide to keep doing it, then I'm definitely gonna have to go farther away from Home than I can go on my feet.
I've shot one turkey in the last four years. I can find them here, I can get them respond to my calls.
But I'm not coming close to bow range, especially Since I hung up my compound bows.

I have never used a decoy, so I gUess I gotta try that before I get too upset. It's just that hunTing has always been right here, and all I had to do was move silently and then sit quiet and motionless. I've tainted my property, I gUess, with all my year round camping and cutting and planting and climbing and playing in the creek. Of course, there are kids in the neighborhood who also venture into the woods surrounding us, but they don't do much of that, as I've only seen them a handful of times on my trail cameras.
I suppose I'm gonna have to try public land hunting sometime in the next couple years, but half the reason I enjoy hunting is because I'm hanGing out on MY property where nobody else is ever supposed to be. ..

Ok. That was my rant.
I feel better now

Shaun.
 
My neighborhood is covered up in them.
The trick though is being there at the right time.

I have woken up in the morning with as many as 15 turkey in my back yard.
Other days, none...sometimes one or two.

I got a shot at one last week and missed high (kneeling behind a bush with a Longbow at 20 yards).
Clipped off a couple of feathers.
Hopefully I'll get another opportunity.
 
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