When should I start Scouting for Turkeys?

That’s a very good question. It certainly is a timely one. As I write this, the countdown is just passing T-Minus 7 weeks to The Opener. I’ve been at it 40 years, and I can’t tell you a set formula. For the last 20 years, I’ve been on the same 200 acres and hunting the same flocks, and I still cannot tell you.

Turkey hunting is such a perverse sport. I used to have this girlfriend. She kind of goaded me into getting engaged and then promptly dropped me. A few weeks later she decided we should date again. One night, I was trying to feel her out about where we stood.

“Life is perverse,” she said. “It can be beautiful, but it won’t.” She refused to explain further. Two weeks later, she dropped me and started dating my next-door neighbor. They’ve been married 40 years. Turkey hunting is that kind of perverse. It wasn’t too long after that experience I started turkey hunting.

I do not start scouting turkeys until the roads are clear. Our camp is kind of “out there,” and an ice storm will occasionally drop power for weeks on end. I hold off going down until three conditions are satisfied:

• The daily HI is expected to be 50F
• There is no rain in the forecast
• The power is on at Camp

For me, that usually means somewhere from the last weekend in February until the last week in March. Remember, this is all about perversity. I was able to make it down last weekend, which is somewhat on the early side. I’ll next be able to go back next Saturday. Both last Sunday and Monday mornings, I heard a gobbler just before sunrise. He was undoubtedly one of the great Sons of Moto,

The Sons of Moto

and I heard him in the general direction of the Honey Hole. I did not investigate much further. At this point in the process, there is not much information to be gained. The birds will be going through a bunch of changes over the next couple of months. This is just the prelude

Turkey Season Transitions

So when should you start scouting?

Some would tell you that you should stay out of the woods; the turkeys are skittish and walking into their territory will make them flee to the other side of the county. Others will tell you the exact opposite. My guess is that this is more about the hunter than his quarry. A good turkey hunter needs to embrace the suck and be out there as soon as it is practicable. However, at this stage of the process, I’ll hang back. I heard that gob last weekend from a distance of at least a quarter-mile. In fact I have conducted the bulk of my early scouting these past 20 years sipping coffee from my front porch, throwing an owl call here and there to see if I can get anything to respond. It always feels good to get that first comeback. It gives me a false sense of hope.

False? Look, if you came here looking for hope, you picked the wrong place. I have sat out every Sunday morning before season for a month and not heard a gobble until after Yute Season. I’ve had them gobbling their heads off in February. Neither is an omen of success. I have agonized for a month, having not seen or heard a bird, and ended up filling both my tags. I have also had the exact opposite. Remember what the Mutual Fund salesman said: “Prior performance is not a guarantee of future results.”

The important thing is what is going on in your head. First off, are you a newbie or a seasoned killer? If you haven’t gotten your calling down pat, it is imperative that you get out there and engage those flocks. Don’t go barging into the roosts, but hang well back and listen. You need to get those hens living in your head. It’s like muscle memory, only it’s that big muscle between your ears. That is one of the main reasons I started doing the podcasts— so I could share turkey noises with y’all. If you’ve got many seasons under your belt, it is probably a good idea to get out and exercise and start rehearsing the excuses you will make to yourself when the season closes and you still have unfilled tags.

Shaman! Quit Being Perverse! When SHOULD I start scouting?

I have had been detained by work, weather, and illness such that I did not get down to camp to scout until just before season. It honestly did not change a thing. I have seen years where I got to follow flocks from through February all the way to the Opener and walked away without filling a tag. I have heard nary a gobble all through March and been certain Bird Flu or some other catastrophe had befallen the flock only to have the action hot and fast Opening Week.

However, I have taken up a good deal of your time grousing about old girfriends and bad turkey seasons. I figure I should at least give you something solid to grasp. That is probably the best bet: find something solid to grasp. That is, have some goals:

• Scouting should at least give you a place to start on The Opener. Know where some turkeys roost and where they like to go during the day and how to be there at the right time to call to them
• Got that? Good, now do that several more times. There is nothing more agonizing than cruising back country roads for a month before season, finding that one special flock and coming back on the Opener to find the turnout filled with pickup trucks. I learned this lesson at a time when I was still having to drive 3 hours to get to the birds.
• Wherever you find flocks, have enough scouting under your belt to know more than just one roost. My birds have been using the same roost sites for twenty years– I don’t know how many generations. Sometimes they are in this roost and sometimes they are in that roost, and sometimes they seem to just disappear.

Are you looking for practical advice? Dad gave me practical advice when that chick dumped me. “Women are like roller coasters,” he said. “You go up, you go down. You get thrown all over the place, but eventually, the car pulls to the stop, the bar comes up, and you exit to the left and go looking for another ride.” Turkey hunting is a lot like that. You’ve got a few weeks a year; you have only so much you can be out. The expectations will make you sick with anticipation and the let down at the end is crushing. Get your head wrapped around those bare facts and you may have a great season.

This post has already been read 702 times!

Views: 7