Success yesterday morning! I was setup pretty close to a roosting spot with a couple decoys on a field edge. They quit making noise for a couple hours but I wandered around in the woods and made some noise and got one interested. He popped out of the woods about 15 yards away and I had to take a quick shot before he spooked. I think my decoys gave him something to look at while I moved and aimed. I was only out about 4 hrs in total this season and managed to get my 1 opportunity. This was the only bird that seemed active at the time too. The weather started turning sour about the time I made my shot and today’s weather is pretty rotten too (SE MN). Good luck to the rest of you.

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Thanks for the advice. Sounds like it’s mostly a non-issue which is what I was hoping to hear. At this point I think season B is going to work better for my schedule even though season A might be preferable to avoid the field work.

steelslinger71 wrote:

Congrats to you both. Holy smokes turkeyfail what load were you shooting? That is some serious head damage for a thirty yard shot.

Thanks! I was shooting long beard XR 3” 12 gauge #5…..buuut i wasn’t taking chances for my first so i ran up and shot it again inside 10 yds. Overkill!

Well my luck turned around. Got some last minute access to some nice wooded 50 acres that had some birds around it. Had a great experience yesterday getting busted by a jake while i had my sights on a tom with an obstructed shot. Today was quiet until about 9:30 then the same Tom came back and i had a better position. Was about 30 yards and he went down cleanly. He is 24.2 lbs. First ever turkey and first year hunting for them. Feeling like it was a ton of work but very fortunate for how it all turned out. Thanks to many of you for giving me helpful tips. It’s been a journey!!!

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To the OP, the Whitewater SP receives lots of pressure. Lots of birds learn by now being vocal has negative results. Lots of quiet birds that want to sneak up on ya first. Put some miles on and find birds, set up in a birdy area and rip some calls. Give it 30-60 min and move. Being mobile and covering ground away from the road will get ya in some good areas.

Thanks that makes sense!

FinickyFish wrote:

TF – are you sitting in a blind or actively stalking them? You said you heard distant gobbles. Are you moving towards them or just hoping they come your way? Are the gobbles coming from the public land? I don’t blind hunt so if I hear gobbles I’m heading that direction. And don’t let the rain scare you off. Turkeys come off their roost in the rain. It’s lightning/thunder that keeps them tree bound.

Well when i thought i heard very distant gobbles Monday morning i tried moving to them. Do not use a blind or decoys (no point If i can’t find them). But, after about 7am they stopped making any noise and would not seem to gobble to any turkey or crow sound i could make so i had no real idea which way to keep walking since the distant gobble was inconclusive. Also it’s easy to get so deep into the woods i lose cell access and worry about getting back out again (at least without some major headaches). It’s tough to track something when it just seems to go totally silent. I tried accessingg the land further East this morning but i heard nothing at all from that location.

BigWerm wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>turkeyfail wrote:</div>
I have OnX maps and have really been having trouble locating something with turkeys on it.

Spend more time scouting, and when you locate some turkeys look up who’s land it is and go knocking. I’d imagine people would be more receptive to a turkey hunter than deer or ducks. Watch The Hunting Public Turkey tour, they do a great job of explaining the “how” to their success.

Thanks – I hate bothering people in real life, so much easier to bother people on the internet – but yes probably good advice.

dhpricco wrote:

Never turkey hunted down there. I did watch this series of videos earlier this spring put on by the DNR and he goes over an area in the SE that he has hunted in the past and if you are savey with a mapping app its not too hard to figure out what public he is talking about. I think its in the first video around the 1hr 40 min mark. Lot of good information in this video series.
https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/gohunting/wild-turkey-hunting.html

Genius – I did watch this months ago, didn’t notice he was talking about SE MN there. I see where he’s talking about. That is just north a bit from whitewater i could go check it out. A rainy day tomorrow but I could probably scout. This is such a great forum.

Now if I can just bamboozle one of you to be my personal guide for some cold hard cash

Yeah the frustration is leading me to believe they are simply not here in strong enough numbers to find them in this vast area of land. I am honestly not sure where to go though as an alternative. I have looked at maps and nothing seems great. I would be happy to just be seeing them nearby, I could care less at this point if I even get one. Yes I can head out again in late May for a few more attempts, but I’m trying to just figure out where I should even be scouting. I have OnX maps and have really been having trouble locating something with turkeys on it. Anybody who is willing to give me some southeast MN areas to try would be a saint! Seems at least years ago people thought whitewater was a good area to hunt, but I don’t know if I’m just awful at scouting or if they truly have largely moved off these lands for some inexplicable reason.

Thanks for your quick replies. Really appreciate it. I did try scouting a few weeks ago for those roosting trees. Honestly it seems like there isn’t a sign of a bird anywhere i’ve looked. The whitewater WMA is quite huge, but there isn’t a whole lot of public land elsewhere that isn’t a long haul from where i live. If I could find where they roost I’d feel way better, just doesn’t seem to be happening despite a fair amount of effort.

FF – good advice, yes I did assume that if you aren’t hearing much in the morning it was a lost cause, I can try to head out in the afternoons and see what I can find. I have yet to have any gobbles in response to my calls which is super frustrating since it gives me no indication of which way to travel.

I assume most people are getting birds on private land?? Seems like the public land is pretty sparse down here for turkeys outside of a few specific regions.

Hi folks, stumbled on this forum out of desperation I am brand new to turkey hunting, live in SE MN. I just started my season B but the first 2 mornings have been very rough, trying to find turkeys on public land. I have a whitewater WMA tag so I thought that would be a fun place to go…but i’ve been having a terrible time locating birds. Heard a few distant gobbles yesterday morning but have not laid my eyes on anything. I’ve been leaving the woods pretty early after feeling like I am wandering aimlessly. Just wondering if anyone has any tips for this region in particular public land which seems to be very tough to find something. I have a couple more mornings to take a crack at this, and can spend longer times out there but I am starting to lose all hope!