Questions for the experts

[Mepperson]

1. Do turkeys have different spring and fall roosting areas or do they stay in the same general area?

2. I have heard that turkeys make big circles when going through the daily routine to get back to the same area to roost, is this true?

3. Which locator calls are best for early morning, mid-day, and while roosting?

4. Which is better for early season, "run and gun" or "wait them out in ambush areas"?

5. what are some tactics for toms that have lockjaw and don't seem to gobble for anything?

6. Given very similar conditions, will turkeys frequent the same areas as previous seasons?

Thanks for your help and expertise.

[Xi Bowhunter]

In my opinion here are the answers I would give to those questions:


1:I think the roosting areas during spring and fall are different, b/c food is the main drive in the fall, and mating is the main drive in the spring.

2:Most of the time, turkeys that I have seen DO make a circle throught the day, and roost in the same general area they came from that morning....for the most part.

3:early morning locator-owl or gobble shaker....mid-day-crow call or duck call.......roosting-gobble shaker or owl call

4:In early season, I run-and-gun in the morning until they get "henned" up, then I try and wait them out till the hens lay down at midday, then I set up and wait paitently, calling about every 30 minutes or so, but staying in the general roosting area.

5:The only tacticts I have found for a bird with "lockjaw" is to not call at all for as long as it takes for the tom to become too curious and come to me to investigate. If I have sat for over an hour and nothing happens, I usually set for at least another 30 minutes before i start calling, or try to make a move and locate the bird again. Sometimes a "fighting purr" will get a quiet bird stirred up enough for you to work him in.

6:IMHO, turkeys stay around the same spot from year to year. I have personally seen the same turkey on the same farm several years in a row.

I hope my insight helps.

[Multidigits]

I don't consider myself to be a expert, but will offer my opinion-

1. Do turkeys have different spring and fall roosting areas or do they stay in the same general area? Yes, most of the time.

2. I have heard that turkeys make big circles when going through the daily routine to get back to the same area to roost, is this true? Not always true. Depends on a lot of things, such as what the hens do. A squirrel can fart and make a turkey fly a half mile, so it's hard to say where they will end up when it's time to fly up in the evening.

3. Which locator calls are best for early morning, mid-day, and while roosting? Morning -Owl mid-day -- crow on the roost -- owl Remember that a turkey will only gobble so many times each Spring and once you use them up, it's over with.

4. Which is better for early season, "run and gun" or "wait them out in ambush areas"? No way to predict that, depends on the bird and the phase of the breeding cycle.

5. what are some tactics for toms that have lockjaw and don't seem to gobble for anything? Be where he wants to go to when he gets there

6. Given very similar conditions, will turkeys frequent the same areas as previous seasons? Mostly, they want to be where they can be safe and have food.

Remember, nothing works all the time, and sometimes, nothing works any of the time. a tirkey has a brain the size of a acorn, he doesn't know what he's going to do 90% of the time, so how can you out think him???

[sirgiovanni]

My own humble observations:

I have seen roosting areas change from one month to the next. One spring may be different than the next also.

We have noticed a lot of trails that can be relied on in the mornings and evenings. Rather it is the same birds, not sure, but they are moving in opposite directions.

I've not had a lot of luck locating except for standard mouth calls.

When their not talking, you can't really force it. You need to keep to your game, be patient, and don't move. You never know where they're at or when they might slip in right behind you! :o

[turk2di]

I don't consider myself to be a expert, but will offer my opinion-

1. Do turkeys have different spring and fall roosting areas or do they stay in the same general area? Yes, most of the time.

2. I have heard that turkeys make big circles when going through the daily routine to get back to the same area to roost, is this true? Not always true. Depends on a lot of things, such as what the hens do. A squirrel can fart and make a turkey fly a half mile, so it's hard to say where they will end up when it's time to fly up in the evening.

3. Which locator calls are best for early morning, mid-day, and while roosting? Morning -Owl mid-day -- crow on the roost -- owl Remember that a turkey will only gobble so many times each Spring and once you use them up, it's over with.

4. Which is better for early season, "run and gun" or "wait them out in ambush areas"? No way to predict that, depends on the bird and the phase of the breeding cycle.

5. what are some tactics for toms that have lockjaw and don't seem to gobble for anything? Be where he wants to go to when he gets there

6. Given very similar conditions, will turkeys frequent the same areas as previous seasons? Mostly, they want to be where they can be safe and have food.

Remember, nothing works all the time, and sometimes, nothing works any of the time. a tirkey has a brain the size of a acorn, he doesn't know what he's going to do 90% of the time, so how can you out think him???
:D:D:D That was hilarious, tho true!

[plowboy]

:D:D:D That was hilarious, tho true!

I especially like #5, it makes more sense than anything else.:D

[schuyler olt]

Mepp--

Turkeys often change their roost sites from winter to spring, particularly the hens. They form large winter flocks and then bust apart come late February and will often scatter quite a distance. That is also very true of jakes. It's definitely worth your time to learn those hen roost sites and how the ground lies between them and the toms, as they will tend to fly down in the toms' direction.

You can think of turkeys travelling in a big circle, but in some places it will be out and back--the key point is that they will generally return to their roost site, and they are travelling early and late in the day. Mid-day, particularly as it gets hotter, they will loaf and dust in some shady spot, then start feeding later in the day as they work toward the roost.

As to the style of hunting, I am a run and gun guy regardless of what stage of the season. Part of the fun to me is getting to the bird's vicinity and then calling him in. Having said that, early in the season you often hear them hammering on the roost and shutting up when they hit the ground. They do that because they have hens with them. The odds are good that about 45 minutes to an hour later, they are going to gobble again. During that quiet period, I will generally work very quietly to close to where I know they've gone off to, relax a little, and wait. Toward the time I think it's right to call, I'll generally do a quiet series of yelps. If I get an answer, I'll aggressively respond with cutts and cackles. That almost always gets a response, and then it's game on.

With lockjawed toms, I'll generally call as if they were responding, maybe adding a little more feeding flock talk. I try to set up where I can see fairly well, because you're hunting a bird you're going to have to see. About every thirty minutes I'll move a couple hundred yards and do it all over. More than once I've had a bird gobble in the vicinity of where I just came from--if that happens I respond pretty excitedly. If I can move back in that direction a little, I do, and again respond excitedly. Be ready--these are birds that once they fire off, they are going to come in hard and fast.

One tip--if it's raining in the morning, set up on fields and openings, and don't be surprised if flydown comes very late. Toms will gobble on the roost on these mornings as a rule, but resist the temptation to respond too much--they'll stay in the tree all day!

[Hammer]

3) My experience has been that it's terribly hard to get a tom to gobble in the late morning or afternoon no matter what call you use.

5) I learned really early on hunting turkeys that they hardly ever gobble as much as they do on tv, lol!! The ones that don't gobble often are the ones that will come right in to your calling. They could be subordinate toms/satellite gobblers, or maybe they just don't want to gobble, lol! Who knows? It's so important to keep your patience. I like to run and gun with the best of them, and I have to MAKE myself wait it out a few more minutes on each stand site. Lastly, MD mentioned be where they want to be. I found 2 strut/loafing zones last Spring by being at a distance and observing toms doing their thing, gobbling away, but not budging. I killed birds both places on later hunts by getting there before that tom did and letting him come to me. One was a late morning kill; the other was midmorning.

[Multidigits]

It is, as long as the bird is with hens. If you see or know the toms are henned up after fly down, and your not killed out. Just lay down and nap till late morning. No reason to keep after them when they have the real thing in front of them. But when they are done with their morning bunch, they'll head back to their strut zone and they will gobble. when that happens, yoiu can kill that bird most of the time.

[schuyler olt]

I agree, Hammer, although early evening can sometimes have some decent gobbling as they try to gather hens while heading to the roost.

Especially during the early part of the season, if you have birds that get lockjaw when they hit the ground, it means they have hens with them. That is the primary reason that, during the early part of the season, I like to get REALLY close to a gobbler's roost tree. I have inadvertently bumped them off the roost and had them come in hard--in those cases I scrambled and crawled to a place 40 or 50 yards from where I was when I bumped him.

[turk2di]

Glad i ain't a turkey. U guy's r killers:eek:

[Mepperson]

Thanks for all of the info and good luck this season.

[schuyler olt]

Glad i ain't a turkey. U guy's r killers:eek:

Yeah, I knew I had it bad when I belly crawled about 60 yards in a ditch that had about 4 inches of 40 degree water in it to kill a bird. If you are going to do that, I highly recommend taking off your vest first.

[turk2di]

Yeah, I knew I had it bad when I belly crawled about 60 yards in a ditch that had about 4 inches of 40 degree water in it to kill a bird. If you are going to do that, I highly recommend taking off your vest first.
AW yea, turkey hunting at it's finest! I bet as u drew near, the thumping of your heart should have given u away.

[Hammer]

Yeah, I knew I had it bad when I belly crawled about 60 yards in a ditch that had about 4 inches of 40 degree water in it to kill a bird. If you are going to do that, I highly recommend taking off your vest first.

sounds better than belly crawling through a cow pasture full of pies which I've known somebody to do, lol!

[Mepperson]

Well, I am fairly new to this. I killed two last year and now I am hooked. I don't think I have ever been fired up like this before. Looks like I'm hooked for a long time.