We are several weeks into the spring turkey hunting season, and while I’ve heard some great success stories, I’ve heard more laments of near misses, missed opportunities, and fruitless searches.
I enjoy talking turkey hunting with successful and unsuccessful hunters alike, but I frequently shake my head in disappointment when I hear stories from unsuccessful hunters who haven’t taken the necessary steps to improve their odds. In many cases, the hunters are entering the woods unprepared and without the tools needed for success.
Just as a quarterback would not step onto the football field for a big game without preparing, practicing, and strategizing, a hunter should not step into the woods without a game plan. Wild turkeys are wary prey, and they have the upper hand when a hunter enters their domain. To level the playing field, hunters need to take action long before the morning of a hunt.
Rather than entering the woods blindly in the pre-dawn hours hoping to walk into a turkey flock, turkey hunters should stick to a well-thought-out plan that draws upon pre-season and in-season scouting. Turkey hunting success rates greatly increase when hunters know where the birds roost, where they feed, where they strut, and how they travel between each area, so hunters should spend just as much time scouting as they do hunting. (In fact, much more time can be spent turkey scouting than hunting, since prepared turkey hunters can successfully end hunts mere minutes after legal shooting time.)
Turkeys’ habits change seasonally, but any amount of pre-season scouting can help locate turkey territories and food sources. These locations provide good starting points for in-season scouting, and with further probing, hunters can find spring roost trees and strutting areas that turkeys frequent. Targeting the roosting, strutting, and feeding locations is a tactic that leads to increased success.
Spending time in the woods listening and watching turkeys is another strategy for increasing harvest success. Many hunters enter the woods during turkey season with a vest full of turkey calls, but few know how to actually sound like hen turkeys. In most cases, turkey hens do not call incessantly, and they do more than yelp. In addition to basic yelps, hunters should learn how and when to make clucks, cuts, and purrs. Perhaps more importantly, they should know when to stop calling. Curious toms will gobble at various calls, but ultimately hunters want the birds to walk toward them or their decoys. Sometimes not calling, or calling softly, will entice a gobbler to close the distance.
Observing male turkeys is also important. It’s exhilarating to hear a giant tom gobble in response to calls, but he doesn’t always do so. In times of heavy hunting pressure or increased competition from other males, toms often gobble infrequently or remain silent as they walk toward calls or decoys. Hunters should be aware that even though a bird has stopped gobbling, he may still be interested in locating the source of the hen calls, and he may march within range silently.
Without fail, I hear at least one story per year of how an unfamiliar or improperly sighted-in gun led to a missed shot, a wounded but not retrieved bird, or multiple birds being dropped with a single shot. Planning and practice are absolutely imperative to prevent these mishaps. Hunters must be aware of their shotguns’ shot patterns with different ammunition and at different distances before they enter the woods. A little practice at the range can be the difference between a turkey dinner and a handful of feathers.