Wooddust

I'll wade in on this....you have entered the twighlight zone, tread carefully!!

1) The birds you saw in the fall will be far more dispersed and scattered in spring. Don't get discouraged.

2) Learn to yelp quietly.

3) Listen in the woods. I'd venture to say if you hunt 5 days in a row, you may have 3 days when you never hear a hen. Think about that.....then remember you are supposed to sound like a hen with your call....hens are quiet. Hens dont run about cackling at every opportunity, yellping, and carrying on. TV people do that. Call makers make videos of that.....unless you are hunting a call maker or wanting to be a TV star....go to the woods and sit still where the turkleys are and be quiet.

4)Gear....Gear makes gear makers rich and turkey hunters overloaded. Your gun is fine, a 3 inch is fine, and any 5 or 6 shot shell will work. The idea is to get the bird in range. The day we started to have super duper extreme chokes and unworldly shells and patterns was a bad day....you will be a real turley hunter if you learn the craft and not focus on gizmos.

5) Let Owls be owls, crows be crows, and turkeys be turkeys....you need to get close enough but not too close and stay still.

6) I am a curmugeon anymore as I have seen too many people learn this sport by hunting birds over well tended patches of feed ( dont refer to this as baiting or you will have a fight on your hands)...If you can define the act of planting specific seed mixes that are designed to attract Turkeys or deer for that matter, and differentiate that from spreading said feed on the ground as somehow different, you should run for office as you have found your calling.

7) Learn to love the hunt and the challenge and the bird itself....dont rely on feed patches, chufas, long range guns, dogs in the fall, and decoys.....only then can you say with some pride..."I am a turkey hunter"