TBow

Hello everyone. I have decided this year to try and go on my first turkey adventure, fill in some time around fishing. I am up in Northern Colorado and have not been able to find much information at all on this area, everything I come across is farther south. I am not looking to steal anyones holes and get the guarded secrets. I just was trying to see if anyone out there is willing to give me a start or any guidance for this area. An area would be great, tactics really anything that could get me on birds would be very much appreciated. I come from a family that has not done any kind of hunting and have had to self teach myself every aspect of the sport that I have gotten into thus far. I have done a fair amount of pheasant hunting here in colorado as well as nebraska. I only have one year under my belt of deer hunting in rifle season so have a ton left to learn.

At any rate I saw that this site had much more turkey posting than others I have looked through. Much more than my pheasant site I have been using. Any help is appreciated, if there is something I can do to "pay back" for the info I would try.

neb

I know nothing about your area. I suppose you are on public land? If so get out in different areas and do some calling and hiking around looking for sign and try to hear them. It maybe just a venture till you can locate some birds. A lot of hunting is scouting and just being in the outdoors and paying attention to your surroundings.

Good luck and keep us informed on how you do and what you have found.

TBow

Thanks for the input! I will be hunting public land. The only private access I have is in Nebraska from my pheasant adventures. I am planning to go and do some walking tomorrow to see if I can see any sign or hear something. Really just taking a best guess for this outing.

neb

I kind of started the same way you did when I started to turkey hunt. I didn't know anything and I did a lot of reading about how to hunt them what to look for and such. I didn't have a mentor for turkeys either. I can tell you I have learned a lot about them through trial and error. Do some practicing on the call you are using and do some experimenting when you can with the birds. Things like you can do and can't do. When I have hens come in I do different sounds to see how they react etc. Learning them will be a rewarding thing and even if not having much outside help you can learn how the bird operates. Good luck and stay in touch and learn every time you go out.

blessed n born to hunt

Welcome to the site and may you be lucky and blessed enough to enjoy harvesting your first bird

TBow

Thanks for the encouragement, Im sure it will evolve into something great. Im not to worried about it as I had to learn pheasant the same way and did exactly how you said. Just spent tons of time looking and trying different things to see what happened. I for sure chased away a fair amount of birds that way but loved the fact that I had learned something. I have made private land contacts and at least see birds on most of my outings now days.

I am for sure not opposed to doing it that way, just thought it was worth a shot seeing what I can gain by asking here. I do understand I am a new member here and that fact may prevent a lot of people from giving advice right away. I will just keep updating here and build something and hopefully be able to keep growing as a hunter of all species. Thanks again ill keep updating as I can.

RPD63

Welcome to HuntingNet. Nice to see new hunters here. I know nothing about your particular area so m no help there. Read as much as you can and watch as many videos as you can stand. Putting your boots on the ground is key. If you have any specific turkey questions I'm sure someone here can assist you. Enjoy your time in the woods.

TBow

There is always more just general turkey videos and articles to watch, I will be doing more of that this week.

I did make it out to burn some leather today, it was a gorgeous day at like 75 degrees. I am going to have to head back there on an earlier week day though, I have never seen this place so busy. I was off the trail a little ways and found a couple nice open meadow type areas right off a few ridges. The only problem was I did not find any turkey sign there. I saw plenty of deer sign however. I did see a string of tracks, unfortunately they were on the other side of the road where hunting is not allowed. I guess at least there are turkeys there. I guess I have a few more questions after this adventure.

It is getting pretty warm here in the front range, I did not run into any snow the entire time. The snow is much higher up at this point. With that being said, how high up into the "foothills" do the birds tend to run up the mountain as warmer weather rolls in? Next would be that I saw a lot of ridges in this area. However a number of them were very steep. My question is how steep of a ridge like area are they willing to run and fly into a roosting tree on?

neb

You should find them in the pine forests and you will find them from 3000 to 10000 feet. They won't be all over but you will need to locate them and they will be in that general area year after year. It is kind of like elk hunting you can find elk in the same general areas each year. There are places it seems like turkey or elk just aren't going to be.

JoeA

Contact your local "fish & game dept." and ask to speak with a game biologist in your area. They can give you all sorts of great starting information on where to go, where not to go (an important question), survey results, and harvest #s.

Don't be afraid to ask them about deer, upland birds and waterfowl either. Predators too.