Being that I live in the big city, it takes considerable time and gas expense for me to drive 1.5 hours away and scout new areas, primarily public land. My biggest source of information to find new turkey areas this year are the people I associate with daily such as workers that live in the country, truck drivers and fellow deer hunters who see flocks of birds in the fall. I am builing a topographic map library of the general areas to get a picture of the geography before I will head out and search for turkey activity. I will then slip into the woods early spring moving quietly and concealed in camoflage searching for dusting areas, scratchings, droppings, prints ect. to verify that turkeys are using the general area. In one area I hunted the past couple of springs, the turkeys will gobble a bit on opening day and then completely shut up after the bombardment shock calls and hen calls that follow before and especially after the season starts. Sometimes I wish shock calls weren't sold as I think they make public land hunting harder. My tactics this year is to push deeper into the woods searching for birds that don't get hammered by calls close to convenient spots such as logging roads. I will try and get out onto high vantage points early and listen for gobblers on roost areas and maybe try alternative gobbler locators later in the day before the season starts such as my goose flute, gobble tube, coyote howler and my mallard drake whistle to recreate the screech of the red tail hawk.
God help me find more turkeys this spring as turkeys are strutting, haunting me in my dreams!!!