Evening Hunting

[StickString96]

Hey Guys,

             My name is Dom and I am 17 years old. This is my first season hunting turkeys and I have learned a lot of information from the forums on this website. I have had a couple close encounters with birds so far (MD season opened up 4/18), but it is hard for me to hunt mornings with school and all. Evening hunting opens up here on 5/10, so after Friday I will have much more time to hunt. I was wondering what evening strategies you guys use? Are there any special tactics that are effective especially in the evenings? I know catching the birds going back to roost is an option, but is there more? I'm trying to kill a bird with my bow if it makes a difference. Thanks in advance.

[TnRidgeRunner]

Can you get one to gobble?

[wisconsinteacher]

As a teacher, I am in the same situation.  I am able to sneak out after school to hunt.  I try to sneak into the roost area and plan to sit the last 2 hours of the evening.  The past two hunts I have had great success with birds gobbling and responding to calls.  I messed up both times so the toms are still there.  Sneak in and call every 10-15 minutes.  Birds can travel a good distance the last few hours of the day so stick tight and keep your eyes open. 

[R AJ]

Early afternoon till just before roosting time, try slowly and stealthily walking down roads, along edges of fields(in the woods), scouting for tracks, strut sign, scratching, etc. Make some crow calls or yelps/cuts/clucks, every two hundred yards or so and try to get one to answer. If this fails, go to a known area, if possible, for them to use in the afternoons and after about thirty minutes, try some soft calling and be alert for silent birds walking in on you. 

Last effort is to get to the place about where birds fly down from the roost in the mornings and do more clucks than anything and sparingly at that. They may come in right at fly up time and this takes patience.

If you are taking a bow along then you are adding to your NON success kill chances by a ton. I admire your propensity for a challenge. Many times turkeys are more easily killed in the afternoons than mornings , especially when they are separated from the hens. Thump one .

[DirtNap647]

afternoon is more of an ambush in my opinion

[StickString96]

Can you get one to gobble?

Every day is different

[StickString96]

Early afternoon till just before roosting time, try slowly and stealthily walking down roads, along edges of fields(in the woods), scouting for tracks, strut sign, scratching, etc. Make some crow calls or yelps/cuts/clucks, every two hundred yards or so and try to get one to answer. If this fails, go to a known area, if possible, for them to use in the afternoons and after about thirty minutes, try some soft calling and be alert for silent birds walking in on you. 

Last effort is to get to the place about where birds fly down from the roost in the mornings and do more clucks than anything and sparingly at that. They may come in right at fly up time and this takes patience.

If you are taking a bow along then you are adding to your NON success kill chances by a ton. I admire your propensity for a challenge. Many times turkeys are more easily killed in the afternoons than mornings , especially when they are separated from the hens. Thump one .

I know it's more difficult with a bow, but I'd be tagged out right now if I was using a shotgun. I like the challenge.

[StickString96]

As a teacher, I am in the same situation.  I am able to sneak out after school to hunt.  I try to sneak into the roost area and plan to sit the last 2 hours of the evening.  The past two hunts I have had great success with birds gobbling and responding to calls.  I messed up both times so the toms are still there.  Sneak in and call every 10-15 minutes.  Birds can travel a good distance the last few hours of the day so stick tight and keep your eyes open.

It sucks not being able to hunt mornings ?

[cajun1085]

Stick with the stick and string. You don't have to have a blind either. I killed both of my birds here in MD with a bow. One from a blind, one from Goin' and bowin'.

[Tail Feathers]

My experience with evening hunting Easterns is that IF you can get one to gobble at you, your odds of getting him to come are pretty good.
Bad news, they don't gobble at you very much in the evening.
Rios and Merriams are different, evening hunts can be very productive with plenty of gobbling.
At least in my limited experience.

[ruination]

Early afternoon till just before roosting time, try slowly and stealthily walking down roads, along edges of fields(in the woods), scouting for tracks, strut sign, scratching, etc. Make some crow calls or yelps/cuts/clucks, every two hundred yards or so and try to get one to answer. If this fails, go to a known area, if possible, for them to use in the afternoons and after about thirty minutes, try some soft calling and be alert for silent birds walking in on you. 

Last effort is to get to the place about where birds fly down from the roost in the mornings and do more clucks than anything and sparingly at that. They may come in right at fly up time and this takes patience.

If you are taking a bow along then you are adding to your NON success kill chances by a ton. I admire your propensity for a challenge. Many times turkeys are more easily killed in the afternoons than mornings , especially when they are separated from the hens. Thump one .

I know it's more difficult with a bow, but I'd be tagged out right now if I was using a shotgun. I like the challenge.

What did you miss?  Shotgun range isn't that much further than a bow.

[StickString96]

Early afternoon till just before roosting time, try slowly and stealthily walking down roads, along edges of fields(in the woods), scouting for tracks, strut sign, scratching, etc. Make some crow calls or yelps/cuts/clucks, every two hundred yards or so and try to get one to answer. If this fails, go to a known area, if possible, for them to use in the afternoons and after about thirty minutes, try some soft calling and be alert for silent birds walking in on you. 

Last effort is to get to the place about where birds fly down from the roost in the mornings and do more clucks than anything and sparingly at that. They may come in right at fly up time and this takes patience.

If you are taking a bow along then you are adding to your NON success kill chances by a ton. I admire your propensity for a challenge. Many times turkeys are more easily killed in the afternoons than mornings , especially when they are separated from the hens. Thump one .

I know it's more difficult with a bow, but I'd be tagged out right now if I was using a shotgun. I like the challenge.

What did you miss?  Shotgun range isn't that much further than a bow.

No I didn't miss, one bird was at 45 yards and the longest shot I'm comfortable taking with my bow is 40 yards. The other one came in silent while we were set up inside a barn. The wind blew the barn doors wide open and the tom looked right in at us. I tried to raise, draw and aim quickly but he was gone. With a shotgun I'm pretty sure I would have killed both of those birds, but it is what it is. I wouldn't have it any other way, than with a bow.

[njdevilsb]

It's terribly frustrating only being able to hunt until noon here in NY.  My dad and I took opening day off last Thursday and now we are pretty much bound to weekend.  My work schedule is flexible right now so I could probably get a few more mornings off.

I wouldn't know any different tactics for actually hunting them in the evenings since I've never actually hunted spring birds in the evening, but I have done a ton of scouting and have learned a few things.  Where we hunt, there is one small section where they roost 99.999% of the time within a 50 yard area.  There are 4 or 5 trees in there loaded with droppings underneath them and feathers.  If you can find an area like this with a nearby food source that the hens hit, getting in between these two areas should work.  We have a hard time patterning where they are going to fly down, but where they fly up is almost an exact science on our lease.

To me, the birds up here seem much easier to pattern in the evenings than in the morning. 

[wisconsinteacher]

Well it worked last night after school.  I was up on the ridge and set up by 6pm with the mind set to sit until 8.  Sunset was 8:26 so I figured he would be there by 8 if he was going to come.  At 6:40 I was able to hear a distant gobble through the heavy wind.  Every 5-10 minutes he would gobble.  At about 7:00, I gave my last calls and was able to pull the trigger at 7:10 on a 22.5 pound tom with a 10.5" beard.  He did not gobble the last 200 yards but I knew where to have the gun pointed based on his last gobble. 

[ruination]

No I didn't miss, one bird was at 45 yards and the longest shot I'm comfortable taking with my bow is 40 yards. The other one came in silent while we were set up inside a barn. The wind blew the barn doors wide open and the tom looked right in at us. I tried to raise, draw and aim quickly but he was gone. With a shotgun I'm pretty sure I would have killed both of those birds, but it is what it is. I wouldn't have it any other way, than with a bow.

You might be a little delusional.