Turkey Newbie Questions

After years of saying “next year I’m gonna do it” I’m finally gonna do it. in the process of gearing up for my first spring turkey hunt, researching and practicing calling, looking for affordable camo, decoys, etc. Already have a blind and will be hunting private land in south-central MN – in the Minnesota River Valley- zone 505.

Is there any strategy or special characteristics/trends that lead you to pick a specific season (A-F)? IE – “I like season A for these reasons…” etc.

I will be doing youth hunt with at least one of my sons, potentially both of them in the same area. The season choice is my main question but open to any suggestions any seasoned turkey guys have for beginners. (And I’ve already been told over and over -“Stay Still” :))

I generally tend to avoid the first season, season A. This is mostly because there can still be snow on the ground, or it can be snowing. I personally don’t care to hunt turkeys in the snow. A warmer, sunny day is preferred. I know some people don’t mind it.

Being that you’re in southern MN, you will probably encounter a less chance of a snow than in the north, but that’s your call. Also, a lot of hunters go for season A or B, so you may encounter less hunters if you choose a later season. Just be aware that they usually get tougher to hunt as the season wears on. If you want the woods and fields to yourself, pick the week of fishing opener. Very little pressure that week.

Also, if you fail to fill your tag during one of the earlier seasons, you can use it during the last one. Sort of a “second chance” if you will.

Unless you hunt someplace where you have to put in for a draw. I’d wait and see how the spring plays out. I’ve had success anywhere from season A all the way till the final season. Early can be great but it all depends on the weather. If hunting public land you may have lots of competition during the early seasons. Don’t get too caught up in too much calling. Pick one type and learn it well. I’d say a friction slate call.Don’t get the urge to over call. Sometimes less Is better.

“Turkey reaping” you will be hooked compared to normal sit and wait

I have always found the best hunting when the high temps stay below 60- 65, and the trees with the leaves just starting to bud.
Hot weather seems to shut them up. When the trees leaf out vision and sound are limited.
This is my experience, we tend to run and gun, hunting from a blind may be different.

Thunderlund where are you located? Mike Foster has a free turkey seminar every year at A-1 archery. It’s great for kids and first time hunters.

Being a good woodsman and patience harvested more birds then great caller. Scout know your property where they are going and want to be and coming from. Run trail cams for birds if you can.

Take the birds temp, days they might be ok with decoys some days will not come near or hang up from them. I rarely ever use decoys and start that way. I bet i’ve only used decoy’s 3 times in the last 10 years. That’s counting archery only in NE. It’s addicting and you will love it. Great sport for kids can use blinds to stay warm or pick better days to bring them out. The response to calling sure gets kids excited and into the sport. I don’t think there is a better morning then spring woods mornings.

Pattern in your guns know which shoots best out of your gun. After market choke tube might be better then the one comes with the gun. Group of friends we will each by a box or two and shoot together to figure out what round works best for our gun. Getting a new CVA scout 410 this winter to try out on birds this spring.

Scout and decide what season you will want to go. I don’t think there is a bad season for turkey woods.I’ve hunted from A-the last season luck in all. I’m a season A fan. Turkey’s in the snow are great hunts.

This is great stuff, guys! Keep it coming

Hoyt4 wrote:

Thunderlund where are you located? Mike Foster has a free turkey seminar every year at A-1 archery. It’s great for kids and first time hunters.

If you’re referring to A-1 in Hudson, WI I’m probably an hour Southwest, but could make the time if available, when is it?

Hoyt4 wrote:

Being a good woodsman and patience harvested more birds then great caller. Scout know your property where they are going and want to be and coming from.

This strategy has worked for me way more often than calling and/or using decoys. Simply being in the core area the turkeys are using on a daily basis, near the roost, is far more important. You can’t call any turkeys in if they aren’t there. Find the flock, find their roost, and then go from there.

Yes sir A1 in Hudson. They will also be having a Womans for outdoor just before same as last year so they had a huge group so get there early to get a seat.

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March 28th 7pm -8:30 and will go longer if needed for questions even talk to you after the seminar.

Turkey, $0.97/LB on sale.

Wild turkey, $300/LB

Good luck

Thanks Hoyt! I’ll check the schedule and see what I can do.

The Turkeys are indeed there! The reason I’m getting more serious this year is I changed deer stand locations last fall. I realized opening morning of youth hunt that we were directly downhill of a major roosting tree. We listed to their wake-up chatter every day and heard them fly down. One day they marched by us, other days they took different routes. But every night they returned to the same tree and we heard them fly-up. A couple weeks later during gun season, they were still there, same routine. Spring pattern my be different but there are PLENTY around. We have some room to run and gun if the gobbles are distant.

Unless you can put birds to rest the night prior or you are really sure of where they primarily roost, I’d not setup for them until you can locate them prior to them pitching off their roost. The ideal situation is if you can verify where they roost the night prior and sneak in as close at possible well before they get off the roost. I’ve often had them sail direct from the roost to real close where my decoy is setup or where I call from if hunting without a decoy. If you cant watch them roost the night prior or are not sure where they roost, Its often possible to get them to shock gobble a few times well before they get down, this will allow you time to identify where they are and get setup as close as possible to them.

Decoy or not to decoy – This is a tough call. I’ll always start with 1 or two. Either a solo hen or a hen and a Jake. The good thing about using a decoy is it often focuses the toms or jakes attention on the decoy and not looking all over for the source of the call. It also helps position the bird to get you the cleanest shot if you position the decoys correctly. I normally position my decoys about 1/2 way from me to my maximum shooting distance. That way you can use the decoys as a distance marker. Its easy to misjudge distance in the rush. A big old tom will often look much closer than you think it is.
If you notice that a tom or Jake clearly see’s the decoys and seems hesitant to approach, that is when its time to not use them at all. If you are on private land and the birds have not been hunted hard, that rarely seems to happen. On public land and high pressure land its real common.

As far as a blind goes, I have never hunted in one. I know some say they have set one up out in the open the morning of the hunt and the birds came right in with no problem. If I were to use one ( and I would with young kids along ) I would set it up well in advance if possible and try to brush it in as much as possible with natural vegetation. The only problem with a blind is that you really have to know the birds pattern and be sure you have it in a key area. I know far to many who tend to wait it out hoping that a bird will come to them rather than go to where the birds are.

Looking forward to hearing how your hunt goes, Keep us posted !!!

Lots of great advice here. One thing I will throw in is to temper your expectations. I think the hunter success rate for MN is somewhere around 25%, so don’t get discouraged if you don’t shoot a bird your first couple years. Watching all the hunting shows on youtube can give a guy an unrealistic expectation if you aren’t familiar with the ups and downs of turkey hunting.

Another thing is it is a very short season, so if you have a window to get in the woods, do it, even if its just a hour or two sit! Most seasons are 1 week and the weather can completely screw your plans over for where/when you are planning to hunt, so make hay while the sun is shining

As far as a season goes, in general I’ve found the A or B season to produce better as far as the ability to call in birds. Once the toms get their harem together and the breeding starts, it can get very difficult to get a tom to be willing to abandon his hens and go chasing. There are exceptions obviously.

As others have mentioned, the weather in the A and B seasons can be highly variable and having snow-covered ground can make things very difficult. I don’t have a good feeling about this year in the northern half of the state, but there’s no way to tell right now.

Personally, I generally start the day setting up within calling distance of known roosting areas. If the birds don’t respond, then I switch to run and gun where I either hear flydown activity and so I try to get within calling distance, or I just hit known travel or feeding spots and try to get responses.

I’ve been trying for years to get the conditions to get a chance to try “Scoot And Shoot” style where you crawl behind the big strutting tom decoy. Before I’d even seen this, I had several years where the turkey were out in fields in prime position, but since then I’ve had no luck getting on birds when the toms are strutting. One day we’ll get this done.

Good luck.

I prefer the earlier the better.

As mentioned before. Once the breeding gets going heavy it’s tougher. At least for me it is anyway.

The thing about early season is they are still in bigger flocks from the winter.

I found i was more successful scouting and trying to pattern the birds.

Sure run and gun is fun but it gets harder with a bow.

I don’t know if you are hunting public or private land. If public, two things I would not do. 1.)Reap. Could lead to you getting shot at. 2.) Decoys and blinds. I find sitting in a blind with decoys out on public land usually holds up birds from approaching. I like hearing them and going after them. If you scout, that will save your bacon. Otherwise, if you hunt private ground, reaping is fun, and decoys do work. I have a jake and a hen, but they mostly spend time in the basement. For starters, of course box calls will be the best. Learn a good yelp and you should be in good shape. Best of luck!

Updated: I seen you were hunting private land, so I would get the decoys and setup where they fly down. Should have one come right in.

Many (most) Minnesotans prefer A & B. More birds, more dumb birds, and April hunts conflict less with fishing. About 40%+ of the MN harvest is the first two seasons (especially now without a draw). Plenty of Toms are killed in the snow.

I prefer late seasons and have killed birds just after flying down from the roost to mid-day … deep woods to field edges. Every day is different. Some days I stay put others I am running and gunning pretty early. I do better without decoys most of the time.

My youngest son is not much of a morning person. He has killed 4 toms in 6 years … missed one in one of those blanked years. The earliest kill for him was 9AM, the rest after 12 noon. One kill right before sunset.

Newbie. I would say scout before your season. Go listen in the AM. If you hunt close to home go out before sunset and see if you can roost birds. As noted above try “master” one call. Most will tell you stay put. Toms often come in silent and can be spitt’n and drum’m right by you in a blink.

Come to think of it the other advantage of early seasons is reasonable sunrise times. Sun gets up way too early in May.

Access to private land – like any hunting is a big plus … birds are usually less pressured and less worry about some jackwagon sneaking you and your call.

Brittman wrote:

Newbie. I would say scout before your season. Go listen in the AM. If you hunt close to home go out before sunset and see if you can roost birds.

I didn’t believe this one before I actually finally tried it, but an owl call really does work for locating the location of roosting birds around sunset or just after.

I have a little milk run of know roosting spots so starting about 30 minutes before sunset, I run the route with the owl call. The kids get a big kick out of this by the way. You DO NOT have to get very close. I’ve set them off from a quarter mile away or further with the owl call. Usually I try to sneak in with heavy woods and/or a hill between me and the roosting spot to avoid being seen.

You just blow the classic Great Horned “Who Cooks For You” on the call and if there are turkeys up in the roost, they’ll go bananas gobbling back at the perceived enemy.

Why they do this is a complete mystery to me. You would think the evolutionary advantage would be with the birds that did NOT give away their roosting position to the enemy, but there you go.

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

You would think the evolutionary advantage would be with the birds that did NOT give away their roosting position to the enemy, but there you go.

Is an owl a predator of an adult wild turkey? I would tend to think that a turkey is too big for an owl. Poults, perhaps, but an adult seems like a super sized meal for an owl.

A barred owl is the owl you are replicating.

If you have private land, but the turkeys are mostly on a neighbor’s land… it can be daunting at times … but I have watched Toms travel mile(s) in a morning.

Many birds roost in the same woods (unless disturbed) fly down and hang with the local girls. When they tire of him … the Tom(s) often go roaming.

Turkeys love to use spots (especially here in MN and WI) that you cannot see from the road. A small dip in the land may hold birds that you will not see when glassing from a road.

I wouldn’t get too wrapped up in season. I’ve had a lot of really good luck hunting later in the turkey season. Often early season the Tom turkeys are “henned up” much more often. This means that they are hanging with the hens, and it is very difficult to lure or call them away. Later in the year the hens will be around, but not for very long as they usually have a nest with eggs in it. When the hens leave the field to go lay on their nest around 9-10am the males are very vulnerable. Hunting between 10am-2pm is when a large number of birds are killed.

Barred owls are the call most often mimicked as a locator call for turkey hunting. They are one of the two most common owls in the upper midwest. The other common owl, the great-horned, has been known to attack and kill adult turkeys for food, often a pair of matted owls working together. I don’t think a great horned owl is afraid of anything.

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

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I didn’t believe this one before I actually finally tried it, but an owl call really does work for locating the location of roosting birds around sunset or just after.

another good call to use to try and get a Tom to shock Gobble is a wood duck call. I often would have success with this when they would not shock gobble to either a owl or crow call.

crawdaddy wrote:

Barred owls are the call most often mimicked as a locator call for turkey hunting. They are one of the two most common owls in the upper midwest. The other common owl, the great-horned, has been known to attack and kill adult turkeys for food, often a pair of matted owls working together.

Didn’t know that, thanks.

gimruis wrote:

Is an owl a predator of an adult wild turkey?

Yes. An owl is the only predator that can hunt and kill an adult turkey in the roost. Nothing else that’s big enough to kill them can get at them in the roost.

I believe I saw somewhere that the MN DNR estimates that 15-20% of turkeys killed by predators in MN are killed by owls and the % is higher with adult turkeys because they are less vulnerable to ground-based predators like fox and coyote once they are old enough to fly.

So it’s strange to me that the turkeys seem to have found some advantage in calling back to the owl. Almost likey they’re saying to the owl, “We know you’re out there and if you come over here, the big Tom will kick your @ss.”

crawdaddy wrote:

February 8, 2023 at 11:37 am#2180033
Barred owls are the call most often mimicked as a locator call for turkey hunting.

My apologies to all the barred owls out there for misidentifying your call. Totally failed the “Know Your Owl” test.