Sweetroels

1st Kill, I hope. Never hunted turkeys before and need some help!

Did some scouting ahead of the season for this Saturday and spotted a nice group of turkeys with a big Tom 3 consecutive mornings. They roost just inside the woods about 150 yards. They came out at dawn into a U shaped large winter wheat field about half way up the U and followed the edge all the way to the other side then dive in the woods after about an hour and a half.


The Tom was strutting the entire time and calling to 2 other Toms in an adjacent field at the top of the U. I set up a ground blind, cut shrubs, at the edge of the field about 300 yards where they 1st appeared into the field. Here are my questions:


How early do I arrive
What decoys do I set out. I have 3 hens and a Tom
When do I start calling
What calls should I deploy and how often
Any other advise?


Thanks everyone for response. When I harvest the bird I will tell the story and show a picture.

Thunderchicken217

If you have the birds patterned that well you don't need to do anything except show up 30mins before fly down and sit tight. If their doing that regularly just wait em out and shoot. Sometimes they will change their routine from day to day and then return to it a few days later. If they should throw you a curve ball and not fly down and feed towards you where you can see them then I would get out of the blind and put up my decoys and start soft calling. Some soft yelps and clucks and purrs and see what happens. So to summarize if me I'd get in the blind 30 mins before fly down and hope they take their normal pattern towards you so you can get a shot. If you see em fly down or head somewhere else I'd then pop out of the blind undetected and stick me decoys up and start calling. Don't over think things and think you need all the accessories to kill a bird. Its not how great a caller you are or the most realistic decoys or anything else like that. 99% of killing a turkey is already being somewhere he wants to be. Good luck.

Bible_Man

If the birds are consistently doing the same thing, you could simply get there while it is still dark, not set up any decoys, not touch a call, and wait for them to come by you. Simply be in the way of that gobbler getting to where he wants to go. If you want to use some decoys, fine. As far as calls, I'd wait to see if he gobbled from the roost, and then throw some light, almost muffled yelps at him. A few purrs, a few clucks, and wait. Don't call too loud. Just let him know that you are there. Again, the key is to be between where he is, and where he wants to go. Do that, and we'll be looking at pictures next week.