I've hunted a number of States with afternoon hunting and have found that turkeys tend to slow down from action in the early afternoon. Late afternoon feeding setups and Travel route setups for roosting areas tend to be some of the prime areas for afternoon action.

How do you work these type of birds, What kind of tricks do use...BT

Hi Adrian, how have ya'all been up there? Been a long time since we chatted.
Well you hit the nail on the head here, they sure seem to slack off a bit in ther afternoon especially if it's hot,rainy, or the wind picks up. One thing though if you can time a rain shower right and be out there when the sun wants to pop out man it can get wild. This happen to me and Jalvja, three nice toms came in and.........well, lets just say his gun barrel was a little bent at the time and he didn't know it......LOL
Well great talkin to ya again. Hey Jim are you going to be at the Jaffa this yr?

Thanks BT3 ,

I'm kinda surprised in the replies to this , as I have not seen a question in this nature on the boards and thought it would be a good topic of discussion for a change. Good thing everyone Jumped right on it ! Lots willin to help others on this board ...BT

what states allow afternoon hunting in the spring? (i'm assuming you mean spring hunting)

In NY we're done by noon in spring season, but, they turkeys i hunt in the AM seem to be roosting in the general vicinty every morning (till I get 'em!), so (forgive my ignorance) wouldnt it be a matter of setting up near established roosting areas?

Well most Midwestern states now have afternoon hunt times.

Wisconsin you can hunt to 5 pm
Mich is close to the same
Iowa is up to a 1.5 hour before sunset


What I do. I hunt or set-up on food plots late afternoon. Or as mentioned I will set-up on know roost areas.

TIP - I have seen birds feed heavily very late afternoon from 2 PM till fly-up time for roost.

Sometimes I use a decoy(s) - depends on the season to how many [early may have a jake - later just hens or hen] and will do soft clucks and purrs. If I can get a hen to talk back at me - then that is the hen talk I will mimic and stay with during this set-up. If I do get a gobble well each bird is different and what ever it did answer is what type of callin I stay with.

I have seen long boring no sound spells that all of a sudden my decoys have hatched a new one! Meaning where it came from I do not know but I have a live bird in my Coys!


Afternoon set-ups I usually use a rag blind - really helps conceal movement and can make ya far more comfortable. As we get going here I will again post the blinds, chairs, seats - all I use to help others come up with better idears!

JW

I have never hunted during the afternoons, however I do often return to the truck to drop off the gun, and go back out to do a lot of scouting during this time. When I see birds in the afternoon, I often see them using the feeding areas during afternoons. If they aren't pressured, I find them near the fields, when they are pressured, I look for browse food in cover that they may be eating. In my opinion, it should be MUCH easier to kill birds in unfamiliar terrain during the mornings then in the afternoons........you need to really have them patterned in the afternoons. If you know how the turkeys are moving, then simply setup between feeding and roosting areas much like you would hunt for a deer, or cover ground until you can spot them, and attempt to cut them off while they are headed to a certain destination. I would also refrain from much calling other than clucks and purrs. I don't think I have ever heard a hen cutting or yelping aggressively in the afternoons.

The one spot I see birds regularly in afternoons is on the top of a certain ridge that follows a hollow up the side of a mountian I hunt. They walk up the same ridge at around 12noon every day when under pressure to get to the pines at the top of this mountain. It is a hell of a hike toget up there, but the ridge is only about 30 yards across and it would be very easy I assume to put a decoy on top of it and sit in the afternoon waiting for them to go up to roost.

generally I will use a ground blind (since I mostly bowhunt) and I will either setup in a known feeding area which is on the way to a roost area or I will actually set up in the roost area. Generally I have found I like hunting around fields (gobblers tend to check them from time to time when they are lonely) in the afternoon and if you use 2 or 3 decoys it seems to work well. Generally I will use a variety of calls & mix it up between hot & heavy to light & tame. In this type of situation I have found that the gobblers will almost always come in silent and I usually will bring in a few lone hens as well which make it a lot of fun because they won't shut up!

If I happen to be gun hunting in the afternoon I will generally cut & run using a misture of boat paddle boxes, regular boxes & aluminum pot style calls along with super raspy mouth calls. I also like a tube call for the extra volume. If you can get a bird fired up in the afternoon generally you can get them to come into range.....it's just that you don't get many hot birds in the afternoon! I will genrally target areas around fields, ridgelines, power lines, and old roads in the woods.

i like too set up on old logging roads where turkeys are known too travel usually between feeding and roosting areas another good set up would be dusting areas this is where scouting comes into play i generally hunt the same areas year after year and it seams like the turks are using these same general areas as far as clling goes i let hunting pressure time of spring and mood of the turks determine my calling more aggressive in the a.m. allot softer calling in the p.m. purrs and soft cucks every 30-40 min. and lots of patience and little movement.

Adrian I've had some very satisfying hunts in the afternoon hours simply because the majority of the hunters have packed it in!In high pressure areas I've actually had birds go silent on the roost as pressure can have a tendency to give them lock-jaw!Then in the same area have found the birds to fire-up later in the day because the woods have quieted down.In most cases I know the land and the birds,knowing where to go in those mid afternoon hours is a huge plus!A:M action usually will determine where I spend the P:M hours!I try to key in on those strutzone areas and with some time spent scouting before and during season you can find those loafing areas that the birds go to in those mid to late afternoon hours!Usually the birds will move into the cover in mid afternoon because of the shade so consequently check those field edges just inside treeline to find those potential loafing areas!I will usually try calling coy at first but the birds response will determine my play!Patience in these afternoon set-ups is a must!Get comfy and let it play out!I've killed some dandy longbeards in heavily hunted areas by locating a loafing area and having the confidence to stay put knowing they will eventually show up!This is a tough set-up to take a client into because the action can be extremely slow but under the right circumstances it can be deadly on those pressued gobblers!!