Spring and Fall Turkey Hunting

[walleyehunter80]

Is Turkey hunting in the spring or fall easier?

Im not even sure how you go about hunting turkeys in the fall?

In the spring they are very receptive to calling and I would assume easier to kill.

Any input would be awesome!! Thanks

[DonBo]

They are certainly a different animal in the fall. Most fall hunting is done by opportunity. Most of those opportunities will be for hens and their poults. For instance, most of my fall hunts are done the morning after I hear some fly up while bowhunting the night before. I know where they are and I set up in the area the next morning waiting for them to fly down. You can call and some may answer and head your way, but the boss hen really has that market cornered. Once she starts calling you seldom have a chance of getting any of the others to come your way.

You can certainly scout an area and set a blind to wait them out. You can find a roost area and wait there in the evenings for them to return. You can slowly stillhunt an area and blind call occasionally. Just being there is often your best bet.

Toms are another story altogether. Waiting near their roost area either in the evenings or mornings, or sitting long hours in an area they frequent is often the only option to bag a fall tom because they seldom call and have no intensions of answering any calls outside of the spring season.

[Gordie]

This may sound weird but this fall while hunting geese in the afternoon and once in the morning the Turkeys really got vocal after I was done calling for geese.The were with in 200 yards of were I was and I would have to say that all that were vocal were hens as I never heard a gobble.

IMO I would think spring is easier to locate Toms than in the fall but I have never tried in the fall yet maybe next season

[bigbucks]

I would pretty much agree with what DonBo said. My son & I should have had a double on toms this fall however, but I screwed it up & we got neither. That one is still stinging a bit. Just hasn't really been my fall for hunting, just goes that way sometimes.

[IlliniWalli]

they seldom call and have no intensions of answering any calls outside of the spring season.

i have to respectfully disagree with the latter part of this statement as i have worked in and shot several nice toms with calling in the fall.

granted it is rare, you can hunt for days and not get a response, but you can get toms to answer gobbler yelps and clucks and come in close enough for a look-see to get a shot.

i've had it work "trolling" and pulling one closer while set up within 100 yards or so of the roost in the morning or evening.

when they do respond, i match it, whether its a single cluck or a few low, coarse gobbler yelps. 2 years ago i shot a nice tom in the fall that flew down more than 150 yards away and starting working away from me, he answered a yelp, which i matched, then became louder and more aggressive in his calling, which i matched, like working a dominant hen, and he finally came down and across a steep ravine to within 40 yards for the shot.

i've also shot a couple in the fall when they came in to check out calling on a gobble tube.

its a social heirarchy and/or curiosity thing.

[walleyehunter80]

I think I will stick to hunting turkey in the spring

[Musky Buck]

Boy, ok, I have 21 bearded Toms coming into the yard daily, 0 hens, they seem to be a mile away at the neighbors with their broods from last year, I've been taking pictures and will post some when I get a majority of them in the same photo, 21 Toms, no kidding, I thought that seemed weird because I hadn't seen more than 8 toms together before a few weeks ago. I think with fields plowed under my bird feeder seems like gold, they're not finding much forage maybe ? This is the first year ever we had any turkeys in the yard, strange but true. Maybe it isn't so strange ?

[DonBo]

MB, that's pretty cool, yes, pics please. Maybe this spring you should put your blind in the garden?

I don't believe it's all that uncommon for big flocks of toms to gather together for the winter. Nice to know you'll have some around come spring.

[Musky Buck]

Right on Donbo, my dads area they are still absent, but where I'm at I was really happy to see them, hadn't seen many or any until about mid-November so it's good to know last winter didn't get as many around here as I was wondering about them. My area here would be about an hour north of Anoka ish. It just seemed weird to see so many beards, then my wife was like they all have beards and sure enough, definitely will post pictures next Monday or so, some must be grandpa Toms, there's a few really old ones in the batch and I like how mad they get at each other when one starts pecking to close and not following the pecking order of rank in the flock lol. Blind in the garden, it would be a 10 yard shot from the window, by then they'll disperse I hope. I'm glad they are mopping up the seed on the ground or it gets kinda nasty under the feeder in the spring. Our cat(s) snuck up on them, lol, didn't go too good for the cats, they rushed the cats and sent them packing.

[Gordie]

I saw roughly 25-30 Turkeys today on a alfalfa field today and It looked like more than half were toms like mature toms I didnt have a ton of time to check them out and they were about 80 yrds off the road. when I returned a hour later they had moved on.

time to start on getting permission for the spring hunts

[DonBo]

I'm with ya Gordie. I've been seeing some big fall flocks recently in some new spots too. Don't wait till April to talk to those landowners.

[Musky Buck]

The 21 pack is still coming daily, 1 has a really nasty beard hanging there, some are Jake like, awfully big, but stubby beards, the rest are nice big toms and they are extremely gorgeous wow, there's green tint in them etc. What was really cool was looking at there spur length, some of the biggest bearded ones didn't have the longest spurs, some of the shorter beards had longer spurs, even baby was pointing at them and trying to make the gobble sound lol, they are quite cool.

[Musky Buck]

Turkey question, what would you do ? Area 507 giving out 1,205 permits. Area 508 giving out 480 permits. Do we have any info on how many apply for each zone and if so how many like last year for each A-D season ? What would you do, 507 almost 3x as many as 508 yet 5 of us trying various seasons last year none of us got drawn in 507, do you gain a point if you're not selected ? I have land enough in both to get a landowner permit but not real sure I want to go that route. I could just season E-H over the counter, any info on the process etc. would be very helpful. Area 508 is where I'm seeing a lot of birds and area 507 we're not seeing anything at this point, Jan. 13th 2012 deadline hmmm.

[Fishman11]

Since you have land to hunt in either areas, I would go the route of where you are actually seeing birds. You'll have a better chance of bagging one and do your scouting homework. Good luck.

[Musky Buck]

Even though I'm seeing them in December ? True, they shouldn't all leave the area and if so some should return. But only 480 permits, how many apply ? My neighbor has his wife,kid and his kid is in college in Marshall,and dog putting in for a permit so he's guaranteed to get a permit he thinks.

[Sturg]

They often segregate by gender over the winter. I have a group of toms I see in a small area quite often. Last spring there was a group of 4 toms and a group of 4 jakes. Now they are combined. They are roosting in the same places as the toms did last March. The jakes have put on about 4 inches of beard and a half inch of spur since last spring. I haven't seen the hens at all.

The tom below was a jake last spring.Their colors are a sharp contrast to the dull surroundings.

In another area there are 10 toms that hang together and about 20-25 hens and young of the year. I haven't seen the toms but I have seen the hens. They will redistribute in the spring.

[IlliniWalli]

thats a tough call, buck. turkeys follow the food in fall/winter and a lot of times dont stay or return to those areas in the spring.

i have a couple deer hunting places where we always see birds in deer season but they aint there in spring turkey season.

dont know the regs in your state, but i'd go the landowner route, if i had the chance. in ill., landowners are guaranteed a permit since they dont count against the county quota.

cool pics, sturg!

[Musky hunter 82]

I was bow hunting this fall, around a roost and really wished I had a bow tag in my pocket, had 16-17 under my stand that included 2 nice big toms. Also I went out earlier this week to move some of my stands around for next year and put the sneak on a group of 30-40, I was able to get right in the middle of them, and there were 15-20 Toms that I could tell. It was really awesome to be in the middle of that many turkeys, they are soo noisy with scratching in the leaves, purring, and clucking.