Any way you can have a conversation with the " other hunters" and find out their plan? It seems like you' re trying to use a " me first" tactic in hunting this property, which is understandable if you have usually had exclusive right to use it in the past, but isn' t open communication a better policy? After all, if you get there early and get set up, and then the other hunters waltz in on your setup, you all could go home empty-handed and upset. And who is to say that your " competition" might not waltz in at 4:30 a.m., just to " beat" you? If I' m the " other hunters" and this is the only place I can hunt, seeing a vehicle in a very obvious location is not going to prevent me from hunting on the land, especially since, at the time I asked for permission, I was the first one to secure permission. So, while I may be a very polite hunter, and a true gentleman and a genuine sportsman, I may have no choice in where I hunt. I' m certainly not going to not hunt if I got up at 4:00 in the morning, just because someone else is also hunting on " my" property. Besides, if there are " other hunters" there, I' d think you would want to discuss safety issues with them, as well. Some of the posts I read in response to your post suggest not using a decoy, for safety reasons. Wouldn' t a discussion with the other hunters about where you will be, and that you will be using a decoy, be a better, safer approach?

Assuming you are not able to identify these " other hunters" to talk to them, I would travel in blaze orange as I moved about the area, taking my orange off when I got to where I wanted to set up. I' d never use a turkey call except if I had a tree at my back, bigger than my shoulders. I' d be hyper-cautious about using a decoy, setting it up only in safe situations. I' d also put a note with a map on my vehicle, showing where I' ve gone, and I' d take steps to make sure that that note is highly visible to any other prospective hunters. I might go talk to the landowner again, and try to let the landowner know where I planned to hunt, hoping he/she' d tell the other hunters, if I couldn' t directly talk to the other hunters. I' d probably bring along some orange surveyor' s tape and tie it (as high up on the tree as I could get) to the tree where I' m sitting.

Also, shouldn' t you go back, scout the actual area of the roost sites to know what the layout is and pick a good area, and then also go there the night before your opener to roost the birds? Although many times I have discovered that turkeys regularly roost in the same tree, I have also discovered that they don' t always roost in the same tree, so what may be true on Wednesday may not be true on Saturday.

As far as when I' d go in, I' d go in in the blackest of night--5:00 a.m. is good. As maineac says, if you' re there an hour early, it gives the birds time to forget about you.