Owl hoots before it's light out and crow call at first light.

Don't crowd the roost tree, even if you think you know it's general location !!!

Ya i learned that the hard way last season. There was a tom in his roost gobbling his head off. No clue why. It was pitch black out. I tried sneakin by him to set up close to him and he saw my hatlight and flew off!

I try to never set-up closer than +/- 100 yards (depending on the terrain) from a roost tree.

You learned a good lesson........................

Most lessons I've learned (ONLY ONCE) was because I learned it the hard way !!! :hail:

Once you have an idea where he roosts, go in one morning and try to learn where he and his harem meet up and travel to.Hunt him where he wants to be.


Good luck.


And when scouting on public land, before heading to your spot, you may want to walk in a bit before in some other direction.

Thanks and yea i never put up any ribbons at my spots so ppl cant follow them into my spot

If they don't gobble try something different. Here in Mo the birds hear hoots and crows from march till may. If I roost one in the evening now I use a coyote howler. Its louder and they gobble good at something different and loud.

Do that **** in wv and you will not hear a peep, coyotes eat turkeys here, I have used the coyote howl before, for 1 reason, to shut them up to lower hunting pressure in the area.
in any given area, only 10-15% of the gobblers are aggressive enough to gobble, so your best bet is find an area with a good turkey population and go out and listen, kill the aggressive gobbler, when he's gone, the rest will lose the fear of being put in their place and the next gobbler in the pecking order will start to show his dominance.
The main point here is a good place for turkeys, is a good place for a reason, it will continue to be a good place unless something drasticly changes. kill every gobbler there this year, next year there will be more, because, its a good place.
RR

They eat em here too, but the gobblers seem to respond very well to a howler call here in the southern part of the state.

Locating technique
 

That will work great if you hear nothing try the coyote call if they are there they will answer. To get the best possible odds of getting a bird I would locate them the week before then get close enough to here them just before light. Stay quite and when you hear them fly down Mark the landing site,roost area,travel routs and follow them to the strut area, then sneak out. You now have multiple set up locations, the best way in and if you spooked them they have a week to settle.

I'm a little late to the party but the owl call works great for me when I'm trying to do recon on gobblers at night.