Don't be in too much of a hurry. Where you find Turkeys at this time of year you may not find any later on. On the other hand, later on you may over look an area that had no Turkeys early. Hold off on serious scouting until five or six weeks prior to season and start out slow, checking areas once or twice a week. Make note of findings but don't draw any conclusions until one week before season. The last week check everywhere regularly. Don't call to the Turkeys. Don't even use locater calls. If you really need to hear a Gobble get your ars out of bed and liston from a good distance from your vehicle and move on to liston else where before fly down. You don't actualy need a Gobble to know that Turkeys are present but it's purty dern handy to have when it comes shoot'n time. Look for "Tracks," "Feathers," "Terds" and most importantly "Strutt Zones." Don't be detoured by finding areas of just hen tracks. You can bet a Gobbler's not far away.
Throughout the season go back and check areas that previously had no Turkeys present...
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Like Shallow said, I also wait until about a month before then start scouting. It don't take a lot to scout turkeys, but I believe it is a must. The things you need to find out for turkey hunting is 1) where they roost, 2) where they like to fly down (note this will/can vary) 3) where they feed and 4) where the toms like to strut.
Especially when hunting a new area, I get up as if I was hunting, dress up in my camo and head out to the turkey woods. I listen for gobbles to find where their roosting, watch where they fly down to, see where they feed, then check out surrounding open fields and watch for Toms. Although early in the year, the Toms will be extremely henned up, so you probably won't see many Toms by then selves strutting that early. But as the year goes on, the hens will begin to nest after flydown...that is when the Tom heads to a open stop to strut his stuff and try to pick up a lonesome hen. When I go out to scout, I never bring any calls..not even a owl hooter. I also make sure the turkeys are outta sight before moving. I get just as big as kick scouting as I do hunting...theres just something about being in the wild as the sun comes up, surrounded by turkeys gobbling....even if I'm not carrying a gun. Good Luck
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www.drop-tine-taxidermy.com
I usually get out about three to four weeks before the season starts and look for tracks, poop, and roosting sites. If you can here some gobbles at first light or last light, you will have a good idea where the roost will be.
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quick question. i have been hunting for 2 years now, killed some little deer, but never a turkey. I can only hunt at greenridge state forest, which is like the largest parcel of public land in MD. I understand the basics of scouting, what to look forn all,but i dont understand exactly how to go about it. out of 20,000 or whatever acres, how do i know where to start scoutingt? if you have never hunted a specific area b4, and it is a very large tract of public land, how do you start the scouting process so that i can bag a darn bird. I heard one gobble for the first time last year and it BLEW my mind, and i reeally would like to just see one atleast. A quick explanation is all i need of how you all individually would scout a new tract ofland of this sort, what you would do and when, just how to go about finding birds. thanks alot fellas
geterdun : If you never hunted on this land then you should get a topo / aireal map of the place , then look forwood lots , pines , creeks , rivers or small lakes and ponds. When you do go out walking around try to be therejust before day break so you'll be able to hear / see the fly downs cackles and the bigboy's gobbling. If you can't get out that early , then look around old logging roads for tracks , look around big oak trees for feathers and droppings.
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thanks alot. yea i think i will buy a MD topo map and go from there. we wil see how it goes - any other help is appreciated, hope this helps you too PA hunter
Don't forget the obvious, listen. Turkeys make considerable noise as they do their day to day things. After you have found a few spots the look turkeyish on a topo, get out there as some one said get there before light and be ready in the event they start making noises. I wouldn't respond to their noises just listen. You don;t want to educate them too early. Good luck.
Scouting
