Some people scout, such as me, because they have multiple properties to hunt, with alot of pressure around each of them. I honestly dont know what farms have birds that made it through the last season...that is, until i go scouting. By scouting i dont run around waving my arms and spooking birds. It usually involves showing up before daylight listening for gobblers, and then driving around glassing fields from afar throughout the morning. Most of the properties I turkey hunt get hit hard on the neighboring properties, so scouting is neccessary to find which properties hold birds. I will probably hit up close to 10 farms this year, no way can I know where the birds are on each of these without some scouting.

Speaking of scouting, we went out yesterday to listen for gobbles at our best spot, so we thought. Not a peep, it was cold but we were still frustrated. As we were leaving the neighboring farm had a flock of 70+ birds in the corn field, not 500 yards from the place we hunt. Over 13 gobblers strutting and countless jakes in the mix. It is pretty exciting to see around 15 birds strutting at once. Looks like they are just now breaking out of winter flocks here. Once that happens this week, many of those birds will cross the street onto our property. We are working on permission across the road where they were as well.

I dont see how learning more about the birds you hunt could ever be "counterproductive", thats just me though. I am different, in that I enjoy and take turkey hunting way more seriously than deer hunting. Alot more fun for me.