Turkey Hunting Tips | Wild Turkey Hunting Strategies, Techniques & Guides

Turkey hunting can be very exciting and fruitful almost the whole year round, but there is something special about spring hunting. Why is turkey hunting more popular during the spring? There are many reasons why you want to prepare for turkey hunting during the spring season. Here is a brief overview of why spring is the best time of the year to plan your turkey hunting.

Spring – The Time of Wild Turkey Courtships

The primary reason why spring is prime season for turkey hunting is that this is the time of year when wild turkey courtship activities take place. During the majority of the winter season, most of the mature male turkeys, known as gobblers or toms, spend there time in a common flock. Flocks of gobblers begin to disperse as the cold recedes and the snow melts. During this period, the flocks of gobblers also begin to fight for dominance. It is during this period in which they begin to gobble and make displays in an effort to attract mature female turkeys, or hens. In general, a male turkey will try to mate with as many hens as possible. The juvenile male turkeys will also make an effort to mate with hens, but they may be much less successful. In general, juvenile male turkeys, known as jakes, will strut and gobble in an effort to attract hens. But they will not be as successful as older male turkeys, unless there happens to be a much lower ratio of toms to hens. Yearling hens will typically mate and nest during their first season. This is especially true of the Rio Grande subspecies. Many hens will mate with a gobbler more than once. However, all a hen’s eggs may become fertilized in just a single copulation. This may last through a re-nesting attempt. In general, a yearling hen can retain viable sperm for as long as 56 days after the initial breeding.

The Post-Mating Period

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Turkeys are notoriously hard animals to hunt. They scatter at the slightest noise, and they can move surprisingly fast. If you want to take down a turkey, you need a shot that is doesn’t spray outwards and that instead delivers a tight concentration of buckshot to the turkey’s head. To make sure your shotgun is delivering the right goods for the kill during a turkey hunt, you will need the right choke tube for the job. Without a decent choke tube on your gun, your turkey hunting is destined to end in disappointment and frustration.

For the uninitiated, a choke tube is a piece of metal that is attached to the end of a shotgun. It is used to reign in the pellets of a shotgun shot so that they are dispersed in a more concentrated format. Choke tubes are almost always used on shotguns these days, even by law enforcement, but hunters especially make use of choke tube to make killing their prey easier. Choke tubes come in a variety of different lengths and widths, each of which offer a different level of concentration of the pellets upon firing. Choke tubes can be changed on shotguns as needed.

Choke tubes are especially important in turkey hunting for the reasons mentioned above. Not every shotgun is ideal for turkey hunting, and in fact, without a choke tube, most are not up to the task. With the right choke tube in place, however, you can make most guns do the trick.

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Hunting in fall versus hunting in spring is a whole different issue. While in spring, the turkey is preoccupied on his sex drive and the taking of hens. In fall, other things trigger the turkey’s natural behavior. Since the turkey is not busy with the courtship of hens, he is more concentrated on the surroundings and may be harder to hunt. In the fall, in contrast to spring, hunters are allowed in many states to shoot all the turkeys, not only the male ones. In this season, turkeys are preoccupied with safety, food and their social ranking. While in spring hunting, strategies are related to breeding. In fall, other strategies have to be used.

In the fall, turkeys are all about the food. It stands to reason that if the hunter finds the food source, he should be able to bag a turkey and take it home. For birds that do not travel south just like many other animals, which endure the winter, building a fat reserve is what they need to survive. Greens and bugs in meadows, as well as other fields and the harvested grain fields attract turkeys. Turkeys love to eat corn, wheat, sunflower seeds, barley and soybeans. Even after those fields are tilled and turned, there is food for turkeys such as worms and other ground insects. In a remote area where there are no fields nearby, turkeys rely on other food sources such as hard mast. Hard mast can include acorns, hickory, chestnuts and many other available nuts.

Since turkeys will most likely be where the food is, the best way to find the turkey is to know about the birds feeding habits and the places that turkeys feed. In some years, when nuts and acorns are plentiful, hunting is much harder than in years when the harvest is scarcer. With acorns falling from every tree, a hunter cannot predict where the gobbler might be, but in rare years, there area limited places that the gobbler can find food. These are also the places the hunter must find to catch and harvest the bird. Besides the above mentioned, turkeys will also enjoy eating berries, apples, persimmons and other available fruits.

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Common Sense Turkey Hunting Tips for the Autumn Season

For most turkey hunters, springtime hunting is where it is. Autumn is a busy time for hunters – it is deer season, upland hunting season, waterfowl hunting season – the list goes on and on. For that reason, most hunters put off the turkey hunting until the spring, but this fact can make autumn turkey hunting very satisfying. Hunting turkeys during the fall is less crowded, and you’ll have less competition for the birds. Add to that the fact that autumn tends to be turkey eating seasons, and you can see how forgoing the deer hunting for a little turkey hunting in the fall can be a very good thing.

Turkey hunting in the fall is an altogether different beast than spring turkey hunting, and it can be quite a bit more challenging. In the spring, the male turkeys are on the prowl, looking for a hen, so it can be fairly easy to lure one away from the pack by making hen calls. In the fall, the male turkeys aren’t so interested in the hens and instead tend to roam around in packs together (likewise for the hens, of course, but hunting mature male turkeys is preferable). Separating these groups can be a little bit more difficult and requires a different approach than spring turkey hunting.

When you are hunting in the autumn, it is best to stick to a certain progression of activities. The ideal situation is to stumble upon a pack of male turkeys and take position hidden from view. When you are out of eyeshot of the turkeys, preferably at least 100 yards away from them start trying to call them in to you. Now, it is important here to not make hen calls as you would in spring hunting. You instead want to make the kinds of gobbles that male turkeys make – these gobbles are usually slower and lower pitched than the hen gobbles. What you want to do here is lure on turkey away from the pack. Sometimes, however, this plan backfires. You may end up luring the entire pack, which is not ideal for taking a clean shot, and sometimes you may end up luring in a hen. If you bring in a hen, run her away. If you bring in the entire pack, you will need to take a different tact.

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Do you need to get your turkey set up for that perfect shot, but you are not sure how? When it comes to successful turkey hunting skills, finding the perfect turkey set-up is key to being a successful hunter. There are many small considerations when it comes to finding and maintaining the perfect turkey set-up. Here are some important tips for improving your turkey set-up so that you can improve your success in the woods.

Tips on Preparing for the Perfect Turkey Set-Up

Part of establishing the perfect turkey set-up is doing your homework. In fact, if you take the time to research and scout before the big day of the hunt, you will find that this small bit of preparation can make all the difference. The day before the big hunt, take the time to scout out of the location where you will be hunting and shooting. Spend the afternoon before you go hunting to check out the location. Late afternoon is the best time to go scouting.

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Turkey hunting is an old tradition in the United States. Many of the Americans love turkey in their Thanksgiving feast. The Thanksgiving feast is even better if a turkey is dished up that is actually hunted by the head of the household. To make such a wonderful sport safe and fun for everybody, there are many things that have to be considered before going out hunting for turkeys.

One of the decisions that have to be made is whether or not a decoy is used for hunting these wonderful birds. Not every hunter likes to use decoys, but decoys do have their advantages when it comes to turkey hunting. A decoy arouses the suspicion of other turkeys and therefore if set in an open area, such as the edge of a field or beneath a mature oak forest, these decoys essentially are a visual call for other birds. Decoys are especially effective when calling the birds with turkey calls every once in a while.

Even though some of the more experienced hunters prefer not to use decoys, they are great assets when dealing with young inexperienced hunters such as children or a person with a disability. The decoy draws the attention on itself and therefore less attention to the hunter and the set up of the hunting gear.

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As any turkey hunter can tell you, turkeys can move a lot quicker (and a lot smarter) than many people give them credit for. Any a “perfect shot” has been lost when a hunter tries to move in on a turkey at the wrong moment or when the hunter tries to make a fast adjustment to a new move made by the bird. If you want your turkey hunting trip to end in success, then the most important thing you can do is learn the right time to move in on a turkey.

First things first: you have to attract the turkey in to you. Most of the time, at least one turkey will answer your calls, and the first part of moving in on a turkey involves listening to this turkey answering your calls and judging where the bird is by where the calls are coming from. At this point, it is important to know you shooting ability and from what distance you are capable of taking shots. Knowing your shooting habits will help you determine when you are ready to take a shot and when you need to move in a little bit closer. Of course, the distance at which you are capable of taking a shot will also determine the distance you will need to cover when you move in on the turkey you have in your sights.

Knowing how close you need to be to the turkey to take a shot is one part of calculating your perfect approach to the turkey is one part of making the perfect move. The other part is all about learning to judge the behavior of the turkey and being ready to react to it. Every hunter has experienced the scenario in which they have been calling to a turkey, and getting tons of returned calls from the bird, when all of the sudden everything goes quiet, and then the turkey suddenly pops up next to you. To try and avoid letting the turkey sneak up on you, make sure you key in to all of the sounds the bird is making – not just the calls. Calls can give you an idea of the turkey is at, but it is also important to listen for the sound of the turkey’s feet crunching on branches or the shaking of leaves as the turkey moves by. Putting all of these sounds together will help you keep track of the turkey’s location more precisely.

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Strategies for Defensive Hunting of Turkeys

Turkey hunting is a favorite activity for many hunters, but it is also just about the most dangerous kind if hunting around. Think of the strategies you have to use to successfully hunt a turkey – you have to hide yourself from view and try your best to sound like a turkey – while you are surrounded by turkeys returning your calls and other hunters who are also trying to sound like turkeys. On a busy day, it can be hard for hunters to tell the difference between the sound of the turkeys and the sounds of their fellow hunters, and if you are especially convincing, the hunter could soon find themselves becoming the hunted, as other hunters take aim in your direction. To stay safe out there while hunting turkeys, there are a few strategies you can follow.

First and foremost, don’t be lax about wearing the proper vests. Most states require hunters to wear bright orange vests over their camouflage, but many hunters dislike the rule – after all, what is the point of camo if you are going to top it off with something bright and orange? These vests have saved many lives, however, and are well worth the hassle. If your state doesn’t have any laws requiring that you wear an orange vest, and you want to find a balance between your camo and the safety provided by the vest, check out the camo vests that are part camo and part bright orange removable paneling. You should also pair this vest with a ballistic vest under your clothes that will protect your chest and stomach for stray shotgun bullets.

It is also important to never wear the colors red, white or blue when hunting a turkey. White is the same color as the ball of fur on top of a mature male turkey’s head, and a flash of white can draw a shot. Red and blue are the colors that hunters use to tell the difference between the male gobble and the hen – males have red head and female heads are blue.

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Turkey hunting can be one of the most addictive of all the hunting pursuits. But turkey hunting, like most wild game hunting, can also be quite dangerous if you do not take the right kinds of precautions. Safety is key to ensure a safe and enjoyable wild turkey hunting expedition. Here are some important safety tips that you do not want to ignore. Ignore them at your own peril.

Take Caution with Your Target Identification

One of the most important things you can do as a safe wild turkey hunter is to take care with your target identification. When you are preparing to shoot, you simply cannot be 99.9 percent certain that are aiming at a wild turkey. You need to be exactly 100 percent sure that you are taking aim at a wild turkey. Make sure that you are aiming at a turkey with a beard before you decide to pull the trigger. Many catastrophes and tragedies have been known to occur when the hunter misidentified their target before taking aim.

Calling at the Wrong Moment

One of the worst things you could do is to use a gobble call on a spring hunt. This increases your chances of getting shot by another wild turkey hunter who mistakes you for a wild turkey. Although this sounds unlikely, it has been known to happen. This is especially dangerous if you are hunting in an area that is crowded with hunters during the busy spring hunting season. Busy hunting areas are often filled with less experienced wild game hunters, who may be more likely to shoot indiscriminately in the direction of what they thought was a wild turkey.

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Sight Considerations for your Shotgun for Hunting Turkey

No matter how good a wild game hunter you are, you cannot expect to succeed with a low-quality shotgun. There are special sight considerations that you should take when buying your shotgun or preparing to take aim at your gobbler. How is the determined turkey hunter to improve their shots? Sight considerations for your shotgun can make all the difference when you are hunting turkey. Here are some tips for improving and focusing on sight considerations for your shotgun when hunting for your gobbler.

Finding Quality Sights Can Make All the Difference

The most important thing to keep in mind is to find a quality sight for your shotgun. No matter how sleek and powerful your shotgun is, it will be rendered useless if you are not able to minimize misses. Have you been missing a lot of still gobblers at point-blank range? This is probably a sign that your range could use some improvement. This may also be a sign of an inexperienced hunter. Either way, you can help diffuse a lot of near misses by making sure that you have a quality sight on your shotgun.

Today’s Sights Make Near Misses Nearly Impossible

Today’s sight and shotgun technology have greatly reduced the instance of near misses. Today’s sights and shotguns are equipped with super extra full chokes. These are designed to deliver super tight patterns, which can result in many more missed shots. There are some solutions for this trend. First, you will have to abandon the typical point-and-shoot mentality of the shot gunner and switch over to the aim-and-squeeze approach favored by more experienced marksmen. The best way to improve your shot and your shotgun is to add a spiffy new sight to your shotgun.

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Your Packing Guide for Hunting Turkey in the Wild

What should you pack before your big wild turkey hunting expedition? If you are a novice to this exciting activity, here are some guidelines on how you should prepare for the big hunt.

As the popularity of turkey hunting continues to expand, equipment companies have taken note and provided hunters with an ever-growing stable of hunting accessories and equipment. Turkey hunting used to be quite a simple activity, especially when it was left only to bow hunters who took up the arrow. In recent years, the market has produced hundreds of wild turkey hunting accessories. In days past, the wild turkey hunter only needed to carry a few shells in his hunting vest, pick up a double-barreled shotgun, and that would be it.

Today’s Modern Turkey Hunter Has More Choices Than Ever

While hunters of yore did not have much else but their shotgun and perhaps a slate call box, today’s modern turkey hunters have special camouflaged clothing, extreme full-choked turkey guns and hunting vests with dozens of special pockets. But do you really need all the hunting doodads to be a successful wild game hunter? The first real choice you have to make when it comes to picking and choosing your wild game hunting equipment is to decide what kind of equipment you will choose for carrying your hunting tools and accessories. In this department, there are three basic choices that the modern turkey hunter has to choose from. These include a turkey hunting vest, a backpack, or a fanny pack. Which one is right for you? It depends on how much you are going to carry, and how far you will be going. Turkey vests come in a variety of styles. They can come designed as full vests, or in jacket style. They come in expensive shoulder strap models, or they come in simpler styles. Hunting vests are often favored because they come equipped with many different pockets. This lets you organize your tools and accessories with greater ease. Many hunters favor backpacks because they are easy to carry on long distance hunts, and they allow you to carry more or as much as most vests. They can also be removed quite easily, and you can use them as a backrest. Fanny packs are favored because they are generally the least expensive option. They allow you to carry some gear, but they don’t weigh you down as much as a backpack or a vest. They also provide quick access to your equipment and tools.

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Turkey Hunting Safety Tips You Don’t Want to Ignore

Turkey hunting can be one of the most addictive of all the hunting pursuits. But turkey hunting, like most wild game hunting, can also be quite dangerous if you do not take the right kinds of precautions. Safety is key to ensure a safe and enjoyable wild turkey hunting expedition. Here are some important safety tips that you do not want to ignore. Ignore them at your own peril.

Take Caution with Your Target Identification

One of the most important things you can do as a safe wild turkey hunter is to take care with your target identification. When you are preparing to shoot, you simply cannot be 99.9 percent certain that are aiming at a wild turkey. You need to be exactly 100 percent sure that you are taking aim at a wild turkey. Make sure that you are aiming at a turkey with a beard before you decide to pull the trigger. Many catastrophes and tragedies have been known to occur when the hunter misidentified their target before taking aim.

Calling at the Wrong Moment

One of the worst things you could do is to use a gobble call on a spring hunt. This increases your chances of getting shot by another wild turkey hunter who mistakes you for a wild turkey. Although this sounds unlikely, it has been known to happen. This is especially dangerous if you are hunting in an area that is crowded with hunters during the busy spring hunting season. Busy hunting areas are often filled with less experienced wild game hunters, who may be more likely to shoot indiscriminately in the direction of what they thought was a wild turkey.

Always Dress for Hunting Safety

What you wear during your hunting expedition can make the difference between being safe and not being safe. You should always dress defensively when you are hunting. Make certain to wear full camouflage before heading out to the field. You should wear camouflage from your head to your toes. When you wear partial camouflage, the exposed parts of your body may cause you to appear like parts of a turkey. There are certain colors that you should avoid wearing, including blue, white and black. This includes undergarments and the socks you wear. These colors are often associated with wild turkeys.

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Turkey Hunting Help for the New Bowhunter

Bow hunting turkeys, or as a matter of fact, any game animal, is far more difficult than with the gun. Besides a good aim, in bow hunting, it is also important to have the right tension in the bow and also pull the bow good enough so that the arrow actually makes the distance intended. Many hunters will be able to tell, that bow hunting a turkey is one of the most challenging ways to hunt for turkeys. But many experienced gun hunters have the desire to bow hunt for their game. To be able to do so, a few tips might help the hunter to get on his way as a bow hunter.

One of the first skills that a bow hunter needs is actually the same as for any other hunter, patience. Patience is necessary in hunting. Hunters need patience to wait for game to come by, and patience after calling the bird. Even if half an hour or more passes from when the hunter first heard the gobblers call, the gobbler might still be on the way towards the calling. Getting up and checking might scare the bird away.

If a hunter is waiting in a spot, there are two major signs for when patience is actually essential. When a gobbler has flown in and answers his calls, coming slowly closer and when there are no barriers between the hunter and the bird. Any movement could scare the bird away.

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Top Five States for Successful Turkey Hunting

As with many different things, for hunting, there are some places that are better and others that are worse. Take a look at the top five states for successful turkey hunting as scored and ranked by many hunters. These states are preferred by hunters due to many things, such as the number of birds that a hunter is able to shoot and take home.

The highest ranked state for turkey hunting is Missouri. For many years, this has been the number one harvesting spot, maybe due to their big turkey population. There are over 600,000 turkeys that call Missouri their home and hunters from all over the United States come to Missouri to find their perfect turkey trophy to take home. Missouri’s Shrubs, mountains and forests seem to be an ideal habitat for those Eastern turkeys. A hunter is allowed to take home two male turkeys per season. In Missouri, the allowed methods of hunting turkeys are firearms and shotguns that are 10-gauge. or smaller, No. 4 shot or smaller and archery bow and arrow. Decoys and recorded calls are illegal in Missouri and this is one important fact for hunters to know when planning a hunting trip to Missouri.

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Tips for Turkey Scouting Just Before the Season Starts

You can be the best shot in the world and have your turkey calls down to a science, but if you don’t end up in the right place at the right time, it will all be for nothing. Rule number one of turkey hunting – or any kind of hunting, for that matter – is to know where to find your prey and to understand its habits. You can get lucky by heading out to a place turkeys are known to live and sitting around for ages waiting for one to come by, or you can improve your odds of a successful hunt considerably by doing your homework and doing a little scouting before the season begins. A little time investment in turkey scouting before hunting season kicks off can mean a more fulfilling season for you all around.

When it comes to turkey scouting, there two parts to the process. The first part is the actual scouting, which involves familiarizing yourself with the hunting ground, and the second part is observing the turkeys in the environment to get to know the behavior of the birds you’ll be seeing when the season kicks off. For both parts of the scouting, you should arm yourself with a journal, a pen and a map of the area if possible, so you can record all of your information.

To scout the land, you simply have to walk it several times, from several different angles, making notes of the special features of the area. Pay close attention to where all of the streams, ravines, fences and so on are located – these things act as natural barriers and may stop a turkey dead in its tracks when it is responding to your calls. Also take careful note of where the high ground and low ground is located. Turkeys like to come uphill to answer a call instead of down, so scope out a few places on elevated ground that might also offer you good cover. In general, look for places that you can easily sit out of sight that also allow you to keep a good eye on your surroundings.

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Gun and Bow Tips for the Turkey Hunter

Turkeys can be hunted with many different arms, including guns and bows. Turkeys are very wary and fast and therefore, hunting with knives or similar is just not possible. Whenever a hunter goes hunting for turkey, he has to make sure that he checks the local hunting laws and regulations in regards to arms. Generally these laws allow a shotgun with a gauge somewhere between gauge 10 to 20 and shot sizes between #4 and #6, as well as bows. Bow pulls must be similar to bows allowed for deer hunting. Some places even allow rifles and handguns as hunting gear during fall.

When turkey hunting with a shotgun, it is always important to aim for the neck or the head. Hitting the body or feathery part of the turkey might not kill to bird, but leave it wounded instead of dead. The turkey’s head and neck are very small targets compared to the deer and a good aim and a good choke are essential. There are many good scopes that might help bag that turkey, but one thing that is important before going on a turkey hunt is to pattern the gun in advance. Pattern means to do some target shooting on targets the size of a turkey head and neck. Using different ranges for the target to shoot at and different ammunition will help the hunter learn which ammunition gives him the best overall aim and accuracy. It will also show him exactly how he has to aim to get his shot into the center of the target when the gun pulls a little low or high instead of dead center. Patterning the gun is like pumping up tires for a long bike ride or making sure everything necessary for a trip is packed.

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