Turkey hunting - starting out

[Hookeye]

A decoy can help. Killed a few w a cheap Feather flex hen.

Slate calls are good. MAD used to make good ones for not much money. I think tjey went cheap n crappy years ago though.

Real slate sounds great, but breaks easy. Go crystal or aluminum.

Took me a while to figure out how to use a diaphragm call. Was pretty comical. But once I did that was it. Simple HS Strut Double D. D-Deadly.

 

[Hookeye]

Pick a tree wider than your shoulders to set against. Helps hide you from birds and protects you from being shot from behind.

Be very careful of where you set up relative to your deke, some idiot shooting at rhe deke could hit you.

Private ground ya say? Dont care. Be careful. Poachers were a big problem on my private spot. Oddly, hunting public i rarely see another turkey hunter close to me, and never had one come in on my setup.

Mushroom hunters though.......... they are oblivious.

 

[Hookeye]

When the tom sees your deke you dont make a sound. You are done calling. Dont care what you see on TV.

If the sound doesnt come from the deke he sees you are screwed.

Unless you have a big property full of birds that see no pressure. That TV stuff wont work elsewhere.

 

[Hookeye]

Do not practice call your hunting area.
Many do before season.

Dont do it.

Big problem on public.

 

[Hookeye]

Turkey hunting, when run n gun......the way i describe it.......its like elk hunting in Indiana.

Pretty darn fun. Move and call, move and call, set up or not. Bring your sneaky A game though.

They gots the eyes.

Only bad thing about turkey hunting......ticks.

Spot we go on public, buddy got Lymes.
Permethrine everything.

We can hunt all day, used to be til noon.
I go by the old rules. People locator calling and scouting late just messes things up

 

[MJD]

Does anyone run a locator call as a regular part of their kit?
I just ordered a Lynch World Champion box call to get going on practicing....

 

[Aim1]

I think the best way is with a ground blind and a Jake decoy.

We like the newer 360' surround blinds where you can see right thru the entire fabric and the Dakota Extreme Jake decoys are the best bang for your buck on the market I believe. We use multiple dekes but have killed plenty with just the Jake decoy.

You can usually find both used for good prices on CL.

 

[Aim1]

Does anyone run a locator call as a regular part of their kit?
I just ordered a Lynch World Champion box call to get going on practicing....

I bought a crow call but rarely use it. We usually scout the night before then just set up the next day.

 

[eastbank]

i can,t improve on the advice on the posts, all are good. so just go out and hunt, you don,t have to be a expert. but you must be in the woods and don,t give up.

 

[MJD]

@eastbank, I'm the type that is more concerned about the chase!

How do you all carry these box calls? I was thinking about putting a rubber band around the call to keep it from sounding off in my pouch.

 

[eastbank]

i bought a carrier for my favorite box calls, a ben lee double sided call and lynch one sided hen call and a typhoon water proof. its factory made and was gotten at a sporting goods store for i believe 6.00 in cammo.

 

[buck460XVR]

Does anyone run a locator call as a regular part of their kit?
I just ordered a Lynch World Champion box call to get going on practicing....

I use crow and owl calls, learned how to do then with just my mouth. Do coyote howls with mouth turkey calls.

Box calls are nice because they will give you more volume than slate calls, but slate calls are much easier to learn on and less prone to mistakes. One of the best calls for a beginner are the push button yelpers, easy to use, require less movement than box and slate calls and are less prone to mistake calls when you have a Tom looking at you from 60 yards. Mouth calls are the hardest to master, but are the best as you can control volume, make a wide variety of calls and make no movement whatsoever when using. They are also the least affected by rain/snow. I make my own box calls, slate calls and scratch boxes. Scratch boxes work well when you find a good one, are easier to master than a box call and give a different sound than slate. Not many companies make scratch boxes anymore, tho at one time they were quite popular. Tom Gaskins has been making them for 75 years. His is still one of the best. Years ago, I made a slate call from a flat river rock I found in the Black River while fishing for Musky. Ain't pretty, and can't tell you what species of rock it is, but I can tell you it ain't slate. But it has called in several toms.

Whatever you use, try to master one call. Listen to real turkey calls and focus on the cadence and rhythm. This is more important than tone. Hens generally yelp in sequences of three to five. When trying to assemble or upset, they will yelp more times than you can count....but they always have a cadence. Loud clucks generally have more time between them than soft clucks.

 

[Patocazador]

Pick a tree wider than your shoulders to set against. Helps hide you from birds and protects you from being shot from behind.
Be very careful of where you set up relative to your deke, some idiot shooting at rhe deke could hit you.

This is the best advice you can get. People gets nutso when turkey hunting and shoot anything white or red or anything that moves. Turkey hunting is much more dangerous than deer hunting.

I had a guy 'sneak up' and shoot my HEN decoy and then he saw me sitting. He yelled, "My bird, my bird." so I wouldn't claim it.
I made him fork over $20 to pay for the decoy and to keep me from calling an LEO.

Everyone wants to kill an Osceola and they do crazy things.

 

[MJD]

This is the best advice you can get. People gets nutso when turkey hunting and shoot anything white or red or anything that moves. Turkey hunting is much more dangerous than deer hunting.

I had a guy 'sneak up' and shoot my HEN decoy and then he saw me sitting. He yelled, "My bird, my bird." so I wouldn't claim it.
I made him fork over $20 to pay for the decoy and to keep me from calling an LEO.

Everyone wants to kill an Osceola and they do crazy things.

That story is crazy in any context, but the "my bird, my bird" is really the craziest part of all that.