By Mark Strand
strandoutdoors@msn.com
How scouting, and a bit of clearing, can make your turkey land hunter-friendly
It’s harder to pattern turkey movements than to predict where a group of deer will enter or exit a field, but there are things you can do to prepare your turkey-hunting properties for stealth approaches and clear shots.
And almost no turkey hunters do it.
Rather than simply driving up on the morning of the hunt, in the dark, and crashing from the truck to the first setup, you can create ‘quiet approach paths’ and open shooting lanes that greatly enhance your chances.
You need the blessing of the landowner, but in virtually all cases we’re talking about minor adjustments that will be hard to find come midsummer. It’s more about trimming branches here and there, and placing blinds at key locations, than landscaping.
When it comes down to it, you
have to fool a turkey’s ears and eyes. This goes well beyond calling a turkey
in, although that’s part of it.
The only things turkeys have to do are avoid predation and eat enough to avoid starvation. Everything else, including mating, is optional. During spring mating season, adult gobblers don’t even have to eat much, because they can be sustained for long periods by a reserve energy source known as ‘the sponge.’ In order to be a successful spring turkey hunter, you have to approach each setup area without alarming nearby turkeys, and get yourself into position to take an unobstructed shot.
How much you rely on calling to bring a turkey into shooting range is a personal choice; it’s entirely possible to sit quietly in a high-percentage area and wait for your chance. But you have to get there without spooking birds, and have a good shot when they show up.
One thing that’s important to understand is that you don’t have to be silent when moving from one place to another while turkey hunting. But you must avoid making noises that can be interpreted by turkeys as something other than noises made by other turkeys, and you can’t let them see you. They don’t care if you’re wearing the finest camo; they don’t stick around to see whether big upright blobs come in peace.
Wild turkeys make all kinds of noises as they move about, and the relative volume of those noises depends on how dry or wet the conditions are and what’s underfoot. In an old-growth forest littered with dry leaves and broken branches, it’s virtually impossible to walk silently—but you don’t have to. You just have to walk so that your footsteps sound like turkey footsteps, and you should avoid adding noises that alarm turkeys within earshot.
Classic noises to avoid: talking above a whisper; allowing ‘loud’ fabric to scrape against trees, brush or fences; clanging gun barrels against binoculars or metal fence posts; opening or closing velcro; sneezing, coughing or clearing your throat.
As you walk, use ‘muscle control’ to land each step softly enough to approximate the strike of a turkey’s foot. If you crunch sticks and leaves, that’s OK, as long as a turkey would crunch those same items with about the same volume.
If possible, though, it’s even better if you don’t crunch while you walk through the turkey’s world.
The first step toward choosing sitting spots and clearing quiet-approach paths is to scout the area to see what the birds are doing and when. If you hunt the same property every year, past experience will serve you well. But even if you’ve never been there, you can get a grip in just a few days.
Even if you can’t call very well you can learn a lot. Get to the hunting area well before daylight and find an elevated listening post. When turkeys start gobbling near fly-down time, you will know where they roosted the night before. Returning a time or two will tell you whether you have found a traditional roost.
Pay attention to what direction the birds go after they fly down. If necessary, just listen to the yelping and gobbling to chart the birds’ travel route. If possible, watch them through binoculars or spotting scope to judge the number of adult gobblers and get a feeling for which ones are dominant.
If you can find a safe way to move without spooking them, dog those turkeys throughout the morning and check their travels by using imitations of owls or crows to get them to shock gobble. Or, just wait for crows to sound off and listen for the response. You can find several midday strutting zones this way.
Once you determine where various groups of turkeys go during the day, you can choose prime places to build blinds.
Then you can manipulate the land to tip the odds in your favor.
Because you know something about where the birds go at different times of day, you can time your land management chores. It’s important to get out there, get the work done, and then leave. On most properties, turkeys are not bothered by the sound or even sight of an ATV, so it’s an excellent choice for pack mule duties. To bring tools and blinds along, hitch up a utility trailer. There are several available, including the Woodsman and HD-1200 from Polar. These particular trailers have a special axle that offers a foot of ground clearance for going over rocks and stumps.
If you own numerous portable blinds, set them up at key locations where gobblers like to strut for hens. Or, build your own, either with brush or perhaps lengths of camo material. Bring camo, stakes, tree saw, ratcheting clippers, rope, blinds, chairs and anything else you plan to leave at each sitting place.
You don’t have to precisely predict where turkeys will arrive. With decoys (where legal) and calling, you can typically influence turkeys to come into your shooting zones.
Make blinds that are easy to get into without making noise, but conceal your movements from all sides. Approaching gobblers will resort to amazing lengths to check out the source of calling, including hopping up on logs to peer in at you from behind.
After you have built the blinds, turn your attention to clearing quiet approach paths and shooting lanes. Don’t seriously change the landscape on the day before your hunt, but rather take the noise factor out of the equation. It’s probably best that his wife doesn’t know this, but dedicated hunter Kevin Hurst has been known to rake all the leaves away on long approach paths, in an effort to sneak into position on particular Missouri gobblers—the ones that earn nicknames for evading other hunters. (Who knows how many leaves cover his yard as Kevin’s out there raking ridges.)
Safety must always remain your number one objective. It is far more important than getting a turkey. We strongly encourage the use of blaze orange whenever you’re walking through the hunting grounds, and don’t call like a turkey as you move.
The one time you willingly defy the ‘natural sounds rule’ is to announce your presence, in a clear voice, when you see or hear another hunter.
Hunting on managed lands is arguably safer than other places, because your paths and blinds are typically easy for other hunters to spot and identify.
Getting a clear shot at a big tom, after scouting that bird and setting up undetected on his home turf, might be the grandest sense of satisfaction this great sport can offer.
Notes: Utility trailers
specifically designed for use with ATVs, lawn tractors and other maintenance
vehicles are rapidly becoming indispensable for more than just managing hunting
lands. See the Woodsman, HD-1200 and others at www.clamcorp.com (click on Polar
Sport) and at
-30-
CAPTION FOR SUPPLIED PHOTO
Photo: Manage
Deer hunters often trim shooting lanes, but the practice has not caught on with most turkey hunters. By bringing blind-making materials and brush-trimming tools into the woods with an ATV trailer, you can create quiet-approach paths and shooting lanes that help you make a clean shot on the turkeys you scout. (Photo: clamcorp.com)
###