How to hunt turkey

If you are a novice turkey hunter, then anyone who can put a diaphragm call in his or her mouth and make sounds come out might seem like an expert to you. If you are an experienced turkey hunter who's made his share of mistakes to go along with the successes, then you are probably a lot more discerning about who the real experts are. If you are considered an expert-or a pro, you know how inappropriate the title really is.

That's because all too often the true expert in turkey hunting is the gobbler that gets away: the one that teases you with his thundering responses but never struts within shooting range; the one that sneaks in on you silently while you move your hands to strike a slate call for a bird you mistakenly thought would come from the opposite direction; the one that is actually two, the second spotting you as you slowly position your gun to aim at the first, his alarm putts ending to all hope of a victory.

The first thing you need to do is locate a general hunt area.

To do this contact the fish and wildlife agency in the state you want to hunt, obtain the harvest records for the various counties in the state and see if the agency representative can help you pinpoint hot spots. A lot of times, when an area continually leads a state in turkey kills, it not only means that is holds a lot of turkeys but that there maybe a lot of public hunting land available and perhaps a minimal amount of 'No Hunting' postings on private property. Once you get some idea of where to hunt in the state, contact the agency's regional office covering that area. Talk to a biologist or technician who is familiar with the area. Ask for maps of public lands-state and national forests, for example, and public state-managed access areas. This is a very important step. Why? Because while personnel at headquarters can probably give you good information on general trends, the Field office personnel really get out to their region's turkey country to see what's going on. studies have shown that agricultural areas, mixed with timbered lands, can be ideal habitat. And dairy farms, especially in the Midwest and Northeast, are real hotbeds for turkeys. You see dairy farms usually grow grains for their cattle feed, and turkeys love that! When the farmers spread manure over the fields for fertilizer, the undigested food that has passed through the cattle helps sustain the turkeys through the winter months.Here is a link you can click on as an example of locating the fish and wildlife agency: USFWS - Fish and Wildlife Management Offices - State, Territorial ...

The next step is SCOUTING.

If you're going on a guided hunt, much of the preliminary work will be done. Obtaining permission or finding some good public land to hunt might be the toughest part of getting started on a successful turkey hunt if you're doing it yourself. Yet permission doesn't guarantee success; nor does finding good public land. Scouting then becomes key. During the months of March and April, at dawn and dusk (more dawn than dusk) with a box call handy, take a drive down the back roads bordering the properties that you know you have access to hunt. listen for gobblers on roost (turkeys sleep in trees and are said to be in "roost" when they are in trees). Don't do to much to much calling, and when you do, use a box call, a gobble, or locator calls such as an owl hoot or goose call just to get the birds to respond. Remember, you just want to know the birds are there, not have them come to you yet. Of course you can walk the ridges of the property and while doing this listen to hear a gobble from a remote hollow. The thought of this exercise is that if u go after one of the birds you hear in a remote hollow, (this obviously means that you would not hear this bird from the road.) You would rather hunt one of these birds that may be by himself, because you may have less competition hunting this bird and he will not have heard as many calls. The birds that you hear from the road may have sounded off for other hunters who practised their calling on them and even called them in before the season- not a good idea. Now when you walk the ridges, look for gobblers of course. But also keep your eyes peeled for much, much more than just a wild turkey. LOOK FOR SIGN!!! Look for scratching (where leaves have been turned over and the soil raked by feeding turkeys.) Most of the scratching you'll see in the spring is made by hens because the gobblers feed very little then. They have built up a fatty breast sponge, which sustains them while they devote the spring to breeding. Also look for dusting areas(bare stretches of soft, dry earth that might resemble a buck scrape.) At times, turkeys will also dust on old ant hills. Turkeys scratch and flap their wings in the dusting spots to create a lot of dust, especially underneath their wings, where bird lice tend to be. Almost all turkeys have some lice on them, and they dust to rid themselves of the pests.

The way to a wild turkey is through its ears. In the spring, turkeys will make several different calls, hens will do a "cutting" call, which is a real excited call telling the gobbler that they're available. That call will have the most excitement of any a hunter will ever use. But what you'll hear more than any other call in the spring are simple hen yelps. You may hear from one to maybe eight calls in a row, and they may vary from fast to slow. Another important call is the cluck. The cluck is intended to make a statement. (Hear i am right over here, if you are looking for me.) This is a call the birds make twelve months out of the year to communicate there location. You can be successful just by learning to cluck. You can also put a finishing touch on a cluck with a soft purr. On occasions when birds hang up out of range, just give a cluck then a little purr to give the bird a little bit of encouragement. Another call you may hear, is a "kee-kee" . These are sounds that a young turkey may make that really hasn't developed the ability to project a hen yelp. It starts off with a real high kind of whistle and then breaks into a yelp. Turkeys make other sounds as well. (such as tree calls,- which are soft yelps, and fly-down and fly-up cackles. It is estimated that 80 percent of the calls you hear in the spring turkey woods are made by hens. But the call that all hunters most want to hear is the gobble from an adult tom. An adult male might gobble on his own to alert hens of his presence, or to respond to a hen's call- or he might sound off almost like a reflex. The challenge to hunters is to understand what a turkey's calls might mean, to learn to imitate and trigger these calls and to know when to use them. The best advice i can give you is to get a videotape, or even an audiotape,on turkey calling. You can learn so much by just sitting down and really paying attention. Then after you have listened to them, go out and purchase the calls. The first thing you need to become an accomplished hunter is locator calls. The two calls I would recommend are the crow and owl calls. These are easy to use, especially if you buy a can-type owl call. Then get three more calls two of which are "friction" calls. First, get a "box" call. Next, get a "slate", "glass", or "aluminum" type of call. Then you really need to practice with both to gain confidence in your ability. You'll discover that there are times when you use your box call and don't get a response, so switch to the slate-type call and connect. In general, the aluminum calls give a higher-pitched call, which could be an advantage over slate and glass on a windy day. Otherwise, it's just a matter of personal preference. The third call is a mouth or (diaphragm) call. Go with a light reed call with a single or double layer of latex. The back of the box that it comes in should say 'light' or 'thin' latex. Then go back to watching the videotape, and practice with the calls. I understand that the diaghragm call may be the hardest to learn to use,but there will be times when you have a bird out there 60 steps and you cant risk the motion of a slate or box call, but all you need is a little cluck to bring him in. That's when you must be able to use a diaphragm call.

This section is going to discuss how to use the diaphragm call.

Using a mouth call is as easy as blowing bubbles with bubble gum. Put the call against the roof of your mouth, with the open part o the horseshoe toward the front of your mouth. Stick your tongue against the latex real easy, just like you were going to try to blow a bubble. The first note comes out when you start blowing against the latex. If you don't get a sound out of it, you're blowing to hard. Back up the pressure and start blowing the reed real lightly. When it seals off the roof of your mouth, you want you tongue to go against the latex and the air to be forced out between the tongue and latex. Some people trim off a little bit of the tape to improve the seal. Thats fine, but be careul not to cut off too much tape. Practice whenever possible. Any time you are traveling back and forth rom work, for instance, carry a call, throw one in your mouth. Chew 'em get used to 'em. It will really help when it comes to calling for real. Put all this together and you should get the results you are looking for. Remember to practice as much as possible!!  GOOD LUCK AND BE SAFE OUT THERE!!!