Total Newb with a potential opportunity
05-03-2015, 06:00 AM
#1
Nontypical Buck
Thread Starter
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: NE Kansas
Posts: 1,101
Total Newb with a potential opportunity
Last night at about dark, I kicked two turkeys out of a big tree, presumably roosting. From what I'm reading, it's the sort of place turkey's tend to roost. A bit earlier that evening, I flushed a turkey at the boundary of a pasture and crop field south of it about 300-400 yards.
How do I capitalize? Will they return to the tree? FWIW, turkeys can't be shot while in a tree here.
The tree is is a big hardwood at the low end of a wooded draw. Walk down it any further and you're in a wood lot with a big pond, a good place to hunt deer and turkeys show up in it frequently, too. On either side of the draw is pasture and that crop field to the south.
I've got a 12 gauge 2-3/4 tucked away, turkey loads are available. As for camo, I've got military eastern woodland BDU's, a face mask, and a camo hat.
How do I capitalize? Will they return to the tree? FWIW, turkeys can't be shot while in a tree here.
The tree is is a big hardwood at the low end of a wooded draw. Walk down it any further and you're in a wood lot with a big pond, a good place to hunt deer and turkeys show up in it frequently, too. On either side of the draw is pasture and that crop field to the south.
I've got a 12 gauge 2-3/4 tucked away, turkey loads are available. As for camo, I've got military eastern woodland BDU's, a face mask, and a camo hat.
05-03-2015, 06:16 AM
#2
Giant Nontypical
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Allegan, MI
Posts: 8,019
Take a look around the tree during the daytime to see if you see signs that they are using the tree regularly to roost in (droppings, feathers). Also, you could stay back from the tree a long way and use binos to see if you see any birds fly up to roost there right before dark. If you have seen a few birds in the area, even if they aren't roosting in that tree regularly, there are probably more in the vicinity. Set up before daylight and listen for gobbles as day breaks and either try to call them in or set up in that pasture edge and try to catch them coming into that area later in the morning where they may be strutting/breeding, etc.
Last edited by Topgun 3006; 05-03-2015 at 07:33 AM. Reason: Spelling
05-03-2015, 08:28 AM
#4
Giant Nontypical
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Allegan, MI
Posts: 8,019
Sure, as long as you can do it before the legal time quitting time your state has. I shot one of my best birds up here at almost quitting time within less than an hour before they went to roost one year. He wouldn't come to a call and was out in a big field feeding, so I set up where I knew he was going to leave the field to go roost for the night. It wasn't as exciting as calling a hot bird in, but it was getting late in the season with little time left for me to hunt and he ate just as well as if he had come in gobbling.
05-03-2015, 03:39 PM
#5
Nontypical Buck
Thread Starter
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: NE Kansas
Posts: 1,101
Sure, as long as you can do it before the legal time quitting time your state has. I shot one of my best birds up here at almost quitting time within less than an hour before they went to roost one year. He wouldn't come to a call and was out in a big field feeding, so I set up where I knew he was going to leave the field to go roost for the night. It wasn't as exciting as calling a hot bird in, but it was getting late in the season with little time left for me to hunt and he ate just as well as if he had come in gobbling.
Gotcha. I may give this a shot.
