Turkey Strategy

Thomasc19

Thomasc19

5 year old buck +
I feel like we always hear about deer hunting strategy: hunt downwind of bedding areas, pinch points, etc etc etc, but we don't often talk about turkey strategy. I've only been able to kill two birds: one by dumb luck in Texas and the other calling in a mid-afternoon Tom that was so fired up anyone could've killed him.

Does anyone have any tactics they can share on killing a tom now that we're approaching the season? I'm ordering the tenth legion by Tom Kelly now so hopefully by the time I finish reading it I'll have something worthwhile to share 😂

Goodluck this spring
 
Listen in the evening to hear them when they go to roost. Find where they are wanting to go to strut or hens are feeding. Set up between and call if you have to.
 
In hilly/mountainous terrain, I have had much better luck calling them uphill than down. I agree with the above. Pre scout and know where he is going after flydown. Lot easier to call them in the direction they want to go. If he is with hens, be patient - when the hens leave him, a good chance he will come looking
 
My big thing is you have to be going to where they are going as opposed to where they’ve been. Especially in the mornings, it’s almost impossible to bring a bird back that has moved through an area.
Another thing I do, if I don’t get on bird off the roost, i generally just get to a good listening area and just chill. It’s soooooo easy to bump birds you had no idea were in the world by walking all over the place. Especially on small properties. Your day is over at that point. I’m very passive in my approach. Unless I’m on public ground I generally never just walk and call
 
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I only hunt on our farm, so not a lot of opportunities to run and gun. Basically have two strategies. Try to catch a gobble on roost and set up close. Or set up where I know they traditionally like to strut, wait to get visuals on them and call or let the decoys hopefully work. Our turkeys don't like to be pressured, and they will leave after getting messed with too much.
 
I'm a 9 AM guy. I like to ease into a good listening spot like Dawgs mentioned and hang out with the decoys where I want them. Hit a crow call or owl to see if I can get them to gobble. I like to do that so they don't try and sneak in to a hen call without gobbling first. I have had success hunting them where they have traveled through, but not right in by their roost.

We have some big field turkeys. I will setup in the field where they roost, but quite a ways away. I like to use a half strut jake decoy and a couple hens. I have had success calling to the dominant hen and try to move the entire flock toward my setup. Once the tom gets within a certain range he will NOT tolerate a jake that wont back down.
 
Start at 10am.

Run-n-gun.

Sneak slowly a little ways, put out decoys (jake mounting a hen). Hide and call. Daydream. Shoot bird if it has a long bushy beard or long spurs. If it doesn't then go crappie fishing or mushroom hunting.

Ask wife to check me REALLY GOOD for ticks.
 
Scouting is probably the best way to fill a turkey tag. Turkeys are extremely patternable, so if you can lay eyes on toms one day, there is a pretty good chance they will be near there the next day.

Patterns do switch up as the spring season progresses, so the favored strutting grounds might be a picked corn or bean field on opener and then drift over to the alfalfa field that is greening up a month later.
 
I love a midday hunt. I don’t use decoys so I like to just chill until I can hear one hopefully and make a move. If you can get a bird fired up after about 11 am you have a great chance and working that bird.
 
Besides everything that's been mentioned, which are a lot of macro moves, once I get a bird to gobble I get as close to him as I possibly can quickly. Unfortunately, knowing that distance can only come from experience. It's one of the biggest things beginners or inexperienced turkey hunters mess up. Then when I am calling, I am VERY patient with my calls. Don't overdue it. I will also typically scratch the leaves with one of my hands to simulate a feeding hen. I will also use a mouth call and slate call simultaneously to simulate more than one hen.

I am a run and gun kind of hunter. Too few birds and too expansive of a range around me to sit tight in any one spot for more than a minute or so.

Good luck.
 
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Native Hunter said:
Don't leave at 9:30 AM like most people do. McDonald's can wait.

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I’d rather leave from 30 minutes after fly down, go eat breakfast, and then come back and hunt the rest of the day than I would hunt until 9:30 and call it quits. It’s my experience that if you don’t get on a bird straight off the roost or so, it’s extremely tough until he’s breaks free of those hens midmorning.

And @Natty Bumppo good call on knowing distances. 10 yards can mean the difference between bumping him and setting up in his zone. Like you said, experience is the only teacher for that. Terrain, weather, foliage, all play a part in understanding where that gobble came from.
 
Thomasc19 said:
I feel like we always hear about deer hunting strategy: hunt downwind of bedding areas, pinch points, etc etc etc, but we don't often talk about turkey strategy. I've only been able to kill two birds: one by dumb luck in Texas and the other calling in a mid-afternoon Tom that was so fired up anyone could've killed him.

Does anyone have any tactics they can share on killing a tom now that we're approaching the season? I'm ordering the tenth legion by Tom Kelly now so hopefully by the time I finish reading it I'll have something worthwhile to share 😂

Goodluck this spring
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“Tom that was so fired up anyone could’ve killed him”
That’s the secret. A very good technique. I know guys that never hunt until late season and then they just hunt “slammers”. Find them anyway you can, Run and gun, scouting, hearsay! However you find them it makes turkey hunting so much easier. If you waste your time hunting a specific bird day after day and let them get into your head and it becomes personal, you have a sickness that can’t be cured. Don’t do it.
 
I get my turkey at Hy-Vee. It's really easy! and I can sleep in.
Got a guy that hunts turkeys on me. He's all charged up this year because his oldest son is finally old enough for his first hunt.
 
I had 3 nice toms walk in from my plots behind my house this morning. They were putting on a show strutting around and gobbling. Through my yard and across the road to my neighbors. I don't hunt them and I don't think the neighbor does either. Only toms, no hens.
 
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