I am wondering if I am going turkey hunting too early. I go out at 3:45am and am set up and ready at 4am. I have some people saying its too early and some its too late. What time is a good time to be out there and set up? legal shooting time starts around 4:55am. I havent seen anything because i have to leave by 6am. I live in Maine and we can only turkey hunt till 12pm.

Thanks
croc2116

Most of the birds I am seeing is between 8 and 9.. I did see a nice tom this morning around 5:30 and it gobbled once only for a hen to show up and off they went.. The toms are moving around to find hens right now and if they are with one they do not show up so good. I shot the bearded hen yesterday at 7:45 so I moved from that location for a few days. I saw 4 toms on the way back to the tagging station at 8:30 go figure. So after tagging the hen I went and bought my other permit. I also saw 3 more toms between 6 and 9 this morning but no go! Then I saw a jake at 10:15 this morning so they are out there moving and if I was you I would keep trying and setting up at 4:30 should leve you planty of time. As long as you can be set up within 10 minutes of our legal hunting time you should be fine with that..

I like to get to where I will start shock calling about 30 minutes before first inkling of light. I'll listen for hens or gobbleing, and if I do not hear any by say 30 minutes after daybreak, I will shock call ... and hopefully the chase will be on !! If I have a gobbler roosted, which I was not able to do this year, I will try to slip in near (50 -100 yards or so depending on where I think he might pitch) the roost around a hour before daybreak and take a seat, being as quiet as I can and with no flash light !