turkey harvester

I will always try to but to be honest I like the challenge of not knowing where they are exactly. Making a plan of attack last minute really gets the wheels turning in the head. Doesn't break my heart if I dont get on him on the roost, would rather have him on the ground so things could begin to happen.

jmedenf

I put them to bed whenever I can. There is a lot of open farmland around here so I find them out in the fields and watch them in the evening and see about where they fly up. With all the open fields, it is hard to move in on a gobbler after dawn without being seen. They usually fly out of the woods straight into the field, flying directly over my head on several occasions and landing in front of me within shooting range.

Another way to go after them is to pattern them. Easily done in areas that have mostly open fields. Just pay attention to where you see them on a daily basis. Three years ago I saw one on one or two occasions, but didn't see him after that. The next year, I saw him in the same field on several occasions while waiting for a dry day to go after him. Two hours of strutting just out of range, he finally stepped in to 15 yards. Patience prevails.....

Topgun 3006

I'm always in bed before they are, LOL! That way I can be out before daylight and as soon as I hear one gobble from the roost I hightail it as close as I figure I can get without getting busted. Then I call once or twice and wait for the flydown and action to start. If they go the other way, I pick up and try to get ahead of them to set up again.

rritchey sr.

here in pa. I hunt mainly public land and our day is over by 12pm. I have gone in late afternoon and sounded gobblers in a given area in order to hunt them the next day. Roosting gobblers the night before has come few and far in-between over the years though. I like to find areas that have turkey sign in them and then hunt those areas. Morning tree calls or owl hooter have seemed to work best for locating roosted gobblers.

RIStrutStopper

I don't really hunt close to home much so it's difficult. We can only hunt until noon and one in the two states I hunt so I'm never in the woods when it's roosting time. Now, during deer season I have roosted with the turkeys, that was an experience. Someone should have told me my stand was in a favorite roosting tree....

JW

I roost every chance I get.....

JW

VTBoneCollector

I've shot at least half of my birds by watching them fly up into the roost. If I'm gonna use a blind, then I wait until the turkeys have been in the roost a couple hours after dark and then go back and set up as close to the roost as possible. Usually the blind will be right on the edge of where the turkeys left the ground and 9 times out of 10, that's where they hit the ground coming out of the roost. I always get there an hour before daybreak and absolutely no calling. My dad and I pulled off a double last season using this tactic and I'll be trying to get my brother his first thunder chicken this way if I can. Some may not agree with this tactic and I can understand their reasoning but I've called them in too and both ways get the blood pumping fast.

RockyMtnGobblers

I roost birds when I hunt a new area and not always the night before a hunt maybe a week before, then I'll sneek in very close to the roost sometimes no calling sometimes I'll do a soft yelp and a tree call using a wing against a tree and after they hit the ground I'll do some yelping.
If no luck I'll try and head em off and ambush a nice tom or stay within a 1/4 mile of the roost calling intermittently finally I'll go back to the roost later in the afternoon and just wait for a gobble.

deerdust

Many times I have roosted birds and had it pay off for me. Then there have been times when the hens took them the other direction that morning, only to come to me the next day. Roosting will always give you a general direction to head to for your morning hunt. At that point you can always fine tune, unless you are blind hunting. Sometimes, when I already know where the birds will go on a given property, I may set up a ground blind. But if I am going to be on the move, I will always have my half blind that can be unrolled and set up quickly, or use nothing but the brush as cover. It is all according to the given situation I am in.

deerdust

Another thing to note. You don't have to be at their roost tree to know where they are going. Always roost from afar with binocs. The idea is to get the general location, so you know where to head to in the am. You don't want to be so close as to get busted and upset their pattern.