New Guy Needs Help

[billkay]

Guess I'm the new guy here. I have some family in Bell County Ky, and was planning to try and turkey hunt there with my son. Is anyone familiar with the area or have any advice? Thanks

[b1jeremy]

i am going to give it a try down that way this year....i will be going there in the next few weeks to scout...ill try to post and tell you what i have seen and how it looks...jeremy

[SixPack07]

I would suggest going and making sure you are familiar with the land before going to hunt it if you aren't already. Find where the turkeys are hanging out, roosting, feeding, all that stuff. Go listen in the morning if possible to see where you hear them gobbling from, where you see them out strutting when season gets closer.

[billkay]

Unfortunately I won't be able to got to do any scouting before hand. The turkey hunt is as much a deer scouting trip as a hunt. Some non-hunting family seem to know where there are some birds, so between that and a couple days on the ground in the spring, I'm going blind. If it helps any, we will be near Pine Mountain State Park. Chenoa/Davisburg area.

[peckprice]

It might not be possible for you to pull this off, but if you could get some of your family members to get out and listen for the turkeys to gobble at daybreak, it would be a big help. The closer to season opener they go, the better. I have never hunted in Bell County, but I am very familiar with the mountainous terrain (I am in Clay County) The problem with the mountain birds is that they can be on one ridge or point and you could be on another. It can take a lot of time to reposition and it is easy to loose track of the gobblers. But that being said, I have gone turkey hunting in places that I have never been before and had a blast, just take a GPS or take a good compass reading and take out after the gobbling birds.

[skin_dog1]

I think scouting for turkeys is less important than scouting for deer. The turkeys will tell you where they are. If it's a big expanse of property then try and get in the evening before the season opens, find some fields, try and spot turkeys or listen for one on the roost the noght before the hunt. Good thing about turkeys is you have all day long to get after them. With deer you need to know travel routes, feed areas, bedding areas and such to get inbetween them. Turkeys you can make them come to you. Get on the web and locate the aerial photos of the property. Usually you can pick out fence lines, creeks and other obstacles that would prevent you from getting a bird to come in. Look for likely strut zones and plan accordingly. It won't hurt to have family locate birds for you, but make sure they don't disturb them. You don't want them pushed to a neighboring farm. Good luk
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