When Should I Start Scouting?

It just turned over 90 days until the Spring Gobbler Opener in Kentucky. It is 12F and the wind is gusting to 24 MPH. Believe me, today is not the day to start scouting. So when? It all depends.

Scouting New Property

My big question is how much pain is involved and what is it worth to you? Turkeys are generally not silent. On a still morning in winter, I can hear hens flying down a good 300 yards out. Driving 50 miles for a chance to hear that sounds reasonable. 200 miles? That’s up to you. Looking for sign? This time of year, the scratchings are going to be evident. Where the mud is not frozen, you will see tracks. If conditions are right, you may see turkeys on an east or south-facing hillside, trying to sun themselves. Is it worth it to you?

Here in KY, Squirrel Season is open until the end of February. It is a good excuse to get out in the woods. I’d take it.

Scouting Old Property

My general rule is that I stay home until the first weekend when there is no precipitation forecast for Saturday and the high reaches at least 50F. That can come anytime from mid-February on. When I get back down and open up Turkey Camp, I’m out on the Thoughtful Spot at sunrise and listening. Whether I hear a gobble or not is a crapshoot. I’ve waited until after April 1 to actually hear a gobble. However, after Mister Moto came onto the ridge, he and his spawn have been known to gobble all year round.

After that first gobble, I will usually start venturing out with my recording gear to get material for my podcasts.

I’ve been doing something like this since 2002. I don’t know exactly how many generations of turkeys that is, but they have all seemed to roost in the same general places year after year. They may disappear from a roost for a day or two due to weather, but they always come back. The gobblers like to strut on the same hillsides on warm afternoons.

What I will say is that their habits change a lot from now until The Opener. At this moment, they are still in same-sex flocks. At some time in the next month or so, those flocks will converge and form a late-winter super flock. That flock likes to roost together in the ravine we call Hootin Holler, and up to 75 individuals may be up in the trees on a given morning. It is from this super flock that the mixed sex spring breeding flocks break off, and it is only then that you can really see what the spring program is.

Another thing I will point out is that none of this is predictive of a good or bad season. I have heard raucous gobbling in February and have been hard-pressed to see a single gobbler all season. On the other hand, I have heard zero, zilch, until youth season and then filled both tags. Turkeys are a perverse species.

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