Splitear_Leland

I need some good advice. Yesterday after work I drove by a woods that I hunted last year, and stopped and called to see if anything would answer. I got at least three gobbling. I stopped by the owners to get permission again for this year, and I did, but they said some others had permission to hunt also. My season starts Saturday, and sunrise is at 6:22, but I am going to get there at around 5:00 so I will be the first one there. My question is what time should I head to the woods seeing as I have them roosted, but don' t know exactly what tree they are in, and what the set up around their trees are like. I want to get in early enough so as not to spook them and have time to set up in the dark. But I also dont want to be sitting there for an hour. Any advice will be helpful.

cpac

if you know there will be other hunters possibly close by, leave the decoys at home, assuming you have decoys. be the first one there, and get about 200 yards from where you think they are roosting and try to get them to gobble. open your mouth and listen. you can hear better with your mouth open, dunno why, ya jus can. if you get an answer, shock em again and try and pinpoint thier loc. and move in closer and set up. now the the hard part, if you dont get a answer at all, try a different shock call, if that dosnt work, get closer, maybe by another 50 yds, and shock em again. hopefully you hear something. go slow and dont wear out your owl call, do more listening than calling and dont be afraid to shine your flashlight in other hunters faces, you dont want them near you and they dont want you near them either. well i aint no pro but thats the way id do it. good luck!

HomerJ

I' m curious. How big a timber patch is it? Is there ajoining pasture, grain, or hay fields that bump up to it that you have permission for? If so, I love setting up just off the timber edge, and putting decoys out in the open fields. The other hunters there are a concern with that tactic. 100 yards from roosting birds is plenty close enough. Don' t worry about the exact roosting tree. If it' s a smaller patch I' d really try to find out who else is in there and talk to them before you hunt.

maineac

I always like getting to my area at least an hour before shooting light. I also like to park in avery obvious location, polite hunters will go find another area. I then walk in to an area near where I think the birds are roosted and follow cpacs advise. There are several benefits to this.
One you beat the competition.
Two it is early and I do not think turkeys can see well in low light. Your movement sounds could be a deer or coon or other night critter to them.
Third you are sitting and quiet for a long time before you make your first call.
It is worth sitting there for an hour if you want a bird.

snowdog2

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.

Splitear_Leland

Thanks for the help guys. The woods is about a six acre patch that the turkeys roost in. From there they fly in to the hay field on the east or the corn field to the north, and they are in the corner. I was not able to get the other hunters names, and I don' t even know what season they have. But I fuigure if I park where they can see me they won' t hunt there. And if they do beat me, I know of other hunting spots, I just don' t know exactly where the birds are there. Thanks again.