Scouting for Turkeys prior to the season?
#1
Spike
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: Oswego, IL
Posts: 3
Scouting for Turkeys prior to the season?
Is there any real pointers to doing this? any pictures of what to look for?
Also im assuming this shouldn't be done until a couple weeks before hand cause turkeys are always changing habits as the weather changes.
Also im assuming this shouldn't be done until a couple weeks before hand cause turkeys are always changing habits as the weather changes.
#4
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: west central wi USA
Posts: 2,242
Since you're hunting individual birds, you'll increase your chances of success a great deal by knowing where they roost, where they go during the day, what routes they take, where the travel barriers are, etc. Otherwise you'll spend a lot of time calling to an empty woods. The more you know about your turkeys and where they live, the better your chances.
#5
SERIOUS scouting should be done immediately before the hunt...as patterns change a lot between now and then, and continue to change throughout the season as well. But, hey....who doesn't like to be in the woods whenever they can? Its a great time to look for sheds, evaluate rut sign from last fall while it's still visible, atleast locate flocks of birds and keep an eye on them...and I always look forward to hearing those first gobbles in early spring. I would never pass an opportunity to be in the woods....just don't put all your faith into what the birds are doing right now, because its WAY to early for that. Just enjoy yourself and try to learn something out there. It's time well spent!
#6
#8
A lot depends on the terrain. If water is a limiting factor, check for tracks to get an idea of where they're watering. The scouting I've done usually tells me more about where they ain't than where they are, but that too helps.
#9
Fork Horn
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Ontario, Canada
Posts: 221
Any day is a good day to be scouting.
One way of knowing the Tom population in an area is to go out in the morning and listen for them. The more areas you have the better quality hunt you have as you can move depending on what the birds are actually doing the time of the hunt.The hen has usually an area of up to 3 Km sq., the tom will move amongst the hens and stay with the one that is responsive during that time.Just keep your scouting info current and you'll even know which Toms is good enough to take in a given area.In summary, gas spent driving around looking for good spots are well worth it.
One way of knowing the Tom population in an area is to go out in the morning and listen for them. The more areas you have the better quality hunt you have as you can move depending on what the birds are actually doing the time of the hunt.The hen has usually an area of up to 3 Km sq., the tom will move amongst the hens and stay with the one that is responsive during that time.Just keep your scouting info current and you'll even know which Toms is good enough to take in a given area.In summary, gas spent driving around looking for good spots are well worth it.