how do you go about scouting a new area?

[shaman]

I quite agree.  In fact for overall scouting, I prefer a USGS Topo to anything. 

[Gobble!]

Getting in early to listen is my primary method. I never try to get close to the birds. Just close enough that if they are where I'm guessing they are I will be able to hear them.

[howl]

I hunt it with a sq. dog. Before season, I'll go listen of a morning. I don't really scout too much. Patterning them takes some of the fun out of it.

[TRG3]

Most of my turkey scouting is done during the summer/fall tree squirrel season and fall deer season. Turkeys rake up a lot of leaves in the woods looking for insects which are easily spotted while slipping through a squirrel woods. While sitting in a deer stand during deer season, it's not unusual to spot a flock of birds slipping through or hear then fly up at dusk. I make note of all of this so that in the spring, I have a good place to start looking for birds. Having hunted the same 7-8 woods over the past few years and noted turkey habits, I don't have to do much pre-season turkey scouting. I try to add a couple of new places to hunt annually, looking for farmers who have noticed a flock of turkeys in his just-emerged grain field and sees them as pests.

[GobbleNut]

Here's another vote for the early morning (and late evening) gobbler counts.  If you have large areas you can hunt, driving roads at first light and using a good, loud locator call will almost always produce gobbles,...assuming they are there to start with.

Spring gobbler hunting is about gobbling turkeys (gobblers).  That is the single element that makes it the attraction it is to many of us.  Learn the techniques for locating gobbling turkeys, go out and find them, and then start hunting from there. 

[fallhnt]

Get on this forum and ask for all the public land hot spots.