This applies more for spring,
Public Land Hunting
This is place that most hunters try to avoid, the pure pressure of these areas seem to distract the hunter from working them right. There are different ways to hunt these areas, to become successful over the pressure that they receive. Most of the pressure on these areas is at the Start of the season and the first weekends after the opening. This is the time where your going to have a number of hunters, hunting the same bird that you intend to hunt. Here are some valid tips to follow to becoming a successful public land hunter.

Scouting the area of the public land works as an asset, to give you the jump a head of a smart gobbler, and other hunters. Having a map of the areas work well, your local DNR will sometimes have these or will be able to tell you where you can find one.

As you scout walk the area, and find the spots that the turkeys feed is a good start, Turkeys like to eat, so finding foods such as Acorns, Beechnuts, Farmed fields on the outside of the area like Corn, Soybeans and Grains help to find the sign you need to get started. After these areas are found, you have most often than not, have found the Stutting areas as well. Gobblers like to strut in the fields as the hen’s feed, to display for mating purposes. You can scout the woods for scratching, and dusting areas and this will help you in finding the roosting areas, this is another important area to find. This is where the birds like to spend the night. This gives you another place to start your locating the night before your hunt, hearing that Thundering Gobble gives you the place for a setup in the next morning. This puts you on top of the areas that make good setups for hunting situations.
Now that you have found some of the important info in your public hunting area, you need to find the areas that slow the birds up that are coming to a Call. Finding these areas help you with your setups and you have the knowledge of why bird has stop and won' t come any closer to your call. These are called Hang-up areas and these are important as well to know, these areas may be fences, creeks, rivers, or just a very thick area that the bird will not want to come through. Knowing these areas and where to setup around them will put one more mark in your book for being successful. As we continue to Scout we look for Tracks, turkey scat, and feathers. This will tell us what sex the birds are in that area, Hen tracks have an average front toe of 2.5 inches and a gobbler well over 3, Gobblers feather appear Black in colour, and buff brown for Hen, Scat the hen leaves a little pile looking like popcorn size and a Gobbler is in a J shape. When scouting these areas, use Locators instead of your turkey calls, this is what makes public birds silent birds.

Hunting these Public areas during the week will advoid most hunters, hunting later in the morning as pressure dies off works well. Limiting your calling as most birds in these areas have been called to often. The later part of the seasons also works because of pressure slowing.
Decoys, work in this type of hunting, as most gobblers are silent in these areas.
Calling sparingly can work better in these areas, as most birds have been called to, due to pressure, sticking to Plain yelps, Soft Clucks, and purrs work the best, as most birds have heard the aggression calling as well. On these grounds hunters tend to turn a morning of hunting into a call competition, when they try to out call another hunter. This is not normal to the birds and they shy away from this activity. Hunting the areas away from the pressure is a good note, as birds tend to head for these areas away from the pressure. Moving Quietly and using your terrain also masks against the Keen eyesight and hearing of this wonderful bird. Knowing your gun and how it shoots and the Range of your shots is a must before entering the woods. Patience, Persistence,peperation is a must in these areas and one last note, please by all means Identify your target before you squeeze that trigger.
Adrian Hare QuakerBoy ProStaff