First Year Turkey Hunting Woes

[Jmarp33]

This was my first year to turkey hunt and let me say it was quite an adventure.  I've heard all kinds of advice....stay in the blind, get out of the blind, don't over call....it's head spinning to say the least!! 

I took four trips and was skunked four times!  I'm sure every beginning hunter goes thru this but seeing as I started hunting later than most, I'm letting my frustration get the best of me.   

Enough with the pity party!  Time to practice and get ready for the fall! 


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[101st501]

It only gets better with time.

[Tail Feathers]

It will get better, hang in there! 
Practice calling.  Get a CD and keep listening and practicing.  Realistic calling helps a lot.
Scout before next year and scout some more.  Super heavy right before season.

Get in close to where they roost. 
Know that fall hunting is pretty different the spring hunting.  I've never done it but I'm told it is great fun too.  Good luck!

[TRG3]

You are right about there being a lot of advice out there about how to hunt turkeys. Most of it is good if you understand that in turkey hunting, a variety of approaches may be necessary to get the gobbler. What works with one turkey won't necessarily work with the next. My first year of turkey hunting was 1987. The guy taking me hunting had one decoy. It was a flat plastic hen that would allow the belly to spread out and was held in that position with a short piece of metal, looking much like a tiny pup tent with a turkey head on top. We used the run and gun technique all morning and never did call in a bird, but the excitement of the hunt kept me going for the next few years, only killing a gobbler about every third year. At that time, I had to drive about two hours to Pope County Illinois (Shawnee National Forest) that permitted turkey hunting whereas now my county has turkeys. After several years of hunting, I incorporated gobbling in my calling and quickly moved to taking two and often three birds annually. I don't hunt from a pop up but do wear a leafy camo cut out over my other clothes and sit in a very comfortable ground lounger that allows me several hours of comfort, very important for taking gobblers up in the morning. Since I hunt scattered wood lots, I don't run and gun but instead set up in one spot, usually were the birds go after fly down. Best of luck in you new adventure of turkey hunting!

[kyturkeyhunter4]

Hang in there, it will get better.

[mgm1955]

Keep after them!!

[darn2ten]

Par for the course. Stay with it, things will change as you adapt and learn. Turkey hunting is a learning experience. I started in my late teens and I'm 40 years old this year. I started out on public land Osceolas and had a rough go of it for a few years till I killed my first bird. Take everything in and learn from your mistakes. If your serious and passionate about it, you'll figure it out. Heck, I been doing it for over 20 years and I'm still learning, lol!

[floatingboy]

It's only my 2nd season and I've yet to kill one but this season I've seen a lot more action already.  One thing I remember reading but it didn't sink in was not to call too loudly.  I'm pretty sure I scared the bejeezus out of a few of 'em last year with loud yelps and cackles.  Finally, this year it dawned on me that the two toms that were hammering away when I snuck in didn't make another peep because my first call was way too aggressive.  Then, the lesson was reinforced when I had a hen come in within 10 feet of me last week.  She was making the very lightest of clucks to try to find where I was. 

If I'm not mistaken, loud calls have their place for eliciting a gobble when you have no idea where any are.  But once you do, take it easy. 

[HFultzjr]

Sounds like me!
It's the excitement that brings me back.
Gobbling, gobbling and more gobbling, just won't come in.
Can't seem to get it to all fall together.
It's on my "bucket list" to get a nice PA spring gobbler.
And I'm gonna do it!

[ncturkey]

It takes a lot of time to learn to turkey hunt. I will give some advise of something I learned the hard way. There are no easy gimmicks to get you a turkey. All the stuff like decoys,blinds and calls are all tools and have a time and place when they are need to not. My advise is to learn everything you can about turkeys. They will teach you them how to hunt them. Once you learn about the turkey habits and the different phases of the season this will help you find the turkeys. Depending of the phase they are in you will know how to hunt them. One thing to remember to is that there will be year you do not work a bird. I hunted five season before I took my first gobbler. I have had a few years I did not get a turkey. But that is how it go's. But over the years has I learned more about the turkeys I began to take a few birds. As turkey hunters we all want that hard gobbling bird that runs to the call. To me this does not happen very often. Toms want to hen to come to them. All I can say is learn everything you can about the wild turkey. They will teach you how to hunt them.

[Cut N Run]

Welcome to turkey hunting. Zero for four really ain't that bad in this world. I've gone zero for 22 days of turkey hunting before, that one hurt.  For the most part turkeys are earned. It is turkey hunting and not just turkey shooting. Though I will say thank god for suicidal 2 year old gobblers, they've saved many a hunter's season.  I started hunting turkeys in 1982 with no mentor, no advice, and no such thing as the internet.  Mistakes and the school of hard knocks are a b!tch!  Here's my $0.02 worth of advice for you.  I hope it helps you on your journey to successfully taking turkeys.

You definitely landed in the right place to get sound advice.  There's a lot of sure enough turkey slayers here who understand the game and play it well.

First thing I'd suggest is that you find as good a place to hunt as possible.  The more turkeys available, the better your chances. It is really hard to call in turkeys that aren't there. Make it your mission to secure a great place to hunt, then learn the land so you come to understand where the turkeys like to move around on it.  Scouting can pay huge dividends, particularly in Winter when there's no leaves on trees (and no snakes or bugs!).  As you scout, look for quality places to set up.  That way when the time comes, you can get out ahead of a gobbler and get to a good location to get the drop on him before he gets there.  If he comes in looking for a hen, but sees an unusual blob in the open at the base of a skinny tree instead, you likely won't get to use a tag on that bird on that day. The less pressure the better too.  Turkeys that don't know they're being hunted are easier to call in.

I'd also suggest finding an experienced, dedicated turkey hunter to help show you the ropes and help shorten your learning curve.  There's things a skilled hunter can teach or show you in the woods that can't be found online or in videos.  Develop your woodsmanship skills and learn to read sign, it doesn't lie.  Like most things, it all gets easier with practice.

Practice your calling year-round.  It helps to go listen to live turkeys to get the proper cadence and inflection.  Adding some emotion into your calling definitely helps pull in gobblers versus robotic calling where the same calls are made from the same caller with identical notes and rhythm.  Listen to another person calling compared to the sounds a live hen makes.  If it is easy for you to tell the difference, it is also easy for that gobbler to tell it too.  Thankfully, gobblers are so horny in the Spring that they aren't as picky as judges in a turkey calling contest. The gobbler is the only judge who needs to like the sound of your calling.  Before the season starts, I'll go to state parks where hunting is not allowed to practice my calling on live lightly pressured birds.  It makes a difference  by the time the season opens.  You'll be accustomed to sitting still and finding out what turkeys want to hear and what they won't tolerate.

Make sure your gun is as accurate and lethal as possible.  Your only real connection between yourself and that gobbler are shotgun pellets (or an arrow).  Find out what load performs best from your gun and make sure you know where it is going to hit. Learn to judge distances in 10 yard increments.  It can make a huge difference between making a good shot and wounding or losing a gobbler.

Expect to make mistakes.  I hope you learn from them.  Turkeys are great teachers.


Patience, patience, patience.  If you already know you're in a good location with a good population of turkeys, stick to the area you chose to hunt. Just because things got quiet, don't be in a rush to chase off to greener pastures. There has to be a reason you picked that spot in the first place.  Trust your instincts and scouting.  If you have a gobbler respond, but stay quiet for a long time (unless it is early season and he's with hens), he may have managed to sneak up behind you and is trying to find the hen he heard. I don't know how many times I've assumed nothing was around, only to have a gobbler run off, putting as he went. Never saw him, never heard him until it was too late. Older, experienced gobblers don't gobble anywhere near as much as a foolish 2 year old does.  The experienced birds aren't so in love with the sound of their own voice and can be extremely wary if not downright paranoid. They didn't get old by being careless. When you think it is time to leave, give it an extra 20-30 minutes.  Spending that extra time can help increase your success.  Turkey season is only so long anyway, make the most of it.  It will be over until next year before you know it.

I hope some of this makes sense and it helps. Turkey hunting is a great way to spend the Spring and you can end up with some of the best eating to be had.  Good luck, have fun, and be safe.

Jim

[ncturkey]

Great advice Jim

[Greg Massey]

Good advice...patience and putting in the road time will help you a lot. Going out turkey hunting just 4 times is usually not going to make you a successful turkey hunter.. You have got to put in the time and learning as much as you can.

[Greybeard11]

Good advice above. I totally agree, if you hunt where you know there are birds and you have patience, you will eventually be successful. I had a great mentor when I started turkey hunting many years ago, but not many turkeys. I had to drive a lot to find birds to hunt. It was my 5th season before I killed that first bird, a jake. So, hang in there. There's a hell of a lot worse places you could be than in the spring woods whether you kill a turkey or not, and you'll learn something everyday.

[WVhuntEER]

Hang in there!   Remember, the birds have to cooperate.   It doesn't matter if you are Michael Waddell if you have a bird that is henned up or isn't hot it's tough.  You will be amazed at how easy it is some days.  Some days it's seems impossible.   That's just turkey hunting!