New to fall turkey
 

This year is the first time I will try fall turkey. I will be doing my hunting in Michigan. Any advice is a great help.

Serious piece of advice.............get some Magnum Blend shells
from HeviShot. The absolute best turkey load that I have ever
used....GOOD LUCK

Backwoods, I find that fall turkey hunting is much different than spring. The turkeys behavior and therefore your hunting and calling stratagy are not going to match with spring gobbler.

Spring is all about mating and we sit and call or run and gun but we are focusing on what is going on, namely toms wanting to breed hens. The toms fight eachother and the hens will group together or go to a secluded nest and sit on eggs. Communication is to show dominance and find and breed the hens.

In the fall the birds will tend to form mixed flocks with hens and jakes and toms all mixed up but together in (family) groups. They communicate with each other more for locating members than for breeding. Best to do some scouting to see where the flocks are hanging out.

A good stratagy is to move thru the woods listening and throwing out some locator calls. When you hear birds put the stalk on them and then you may be able to call one in but they have no real reason to come to you except curiosity. Sometimes the key-key will pull them in. Many hunters will try to scatter a flock and then use lost hen yelps as they try to regroup.

I've tried spring tacktics in the fall and I felt like a fool in the lonley woods no where near the flock. Follow the lead of the local hunters and just enjoy the woods.

Ok Ridge runner! I was only trying to help. Thanks for setting me straight. I'll just keep quiet. Why don't you give us some more info so I can learn, that would be helpful.

I have only hunted them once in the fall so far. That is because I had filled both my tags in the spring. This year I am hearing that for the first time we can still get a fall turkey after filling our tags. I need to check into that one closer to see if I really can or not.
Anyways I had hunted them with a bow during the fall hunt. I listened to what others had told me about busting up the flock. I busted the flock and then waited them out to join back up. This worked great for me. I shot my first turkey ever and with the bow. What I did was bust the flock and watch which way the bigger birds had went off to. Then I went up ahead of them and waited them out. For me it worked like a charm.. Good Luck on your fall hunt..

If your going to be Deer hunting anyway keep your eyes and ears open.You can hear them come off the roost and if it's a good Deer spot hunt both at the same time. I confess I don't get after them like I do in the spring so my skills are limited when fall season comes but I get a tag just in case I get a shot from my stand or while still hunting deer. Good luck and many guys on here will share their wisdom to your profit.

My biggest piece of advice would be to scout like crazy. For me, scouting fall turkeys is much more important than scouting spring birds. How I've had success in the fall is by finding out where the turkeys are gonna be.

this is also my first fall turkey hunt. I went out for the spring season this year for my first turkey hunt ever. even though we didn't bag a bird, I am hooked! haha I hear it's alot harder to call birds in and scouting is a must. you have to know where the birds roost and feed. I also have read that hunting them in open areas (i.e. wood edge or fields vs deep woods) is more successful in the fall season? can anyone vouch for this? GOOD LUCK and BE SAFE out there

Fall Turkey
 

I am also new to fall turkey hunting and would like to know if open fields (where I have had success in the spring) or woods where I have seen birds most recently would be a better option for the fall season.

Turkeys will range further in the fall and usually roost near water if you have pin oaks, or some type of crops soybeans corn etc that's where they will be. We can use dogs to flush them in Va. the better the scatter the better the call back . hens with young birds will be more vocal, Gobblers might take all day to regroup, for the gangs with young birds Kee-Kee or Mama hen yelps,(Assembly Call)For gobblers deep Clucks or 3 note yelps sparingly. Hope this helps,Good luck.