Locating Turkey

[tan]

I am planning a trip to Kentucky. Ive hunted here for three years for deer, but never turkey. Every time I travel here I see a bunch of turkey, but never pursued them. I hunt turkey in Ohio, but on small parcels I only hunt from blinds setup only 100 yards from where they roost. What I am wondering is how I go about finding them before day break. Do I go out hours before legal light and owl hoot to find them? Do they like the bottoms or the top of mountains? Also will I find that these turkey will be in the same general area I see them in the fall, or will they be in completely different areas. I read that they tend to be in the woods with hard mast in the fall, then in the spring they'll go to the fields. Where I am hunting there isn't any crop beside a single 5-acre alfalfa field that borders the 2,000 acre public land. Any help is much appreciated, I am completely new to this type of turkey hunting.

 

[dtrkyman]

Get on a high spot and listen, won't gobble typically until about an hour before sunrise. Look for scratching, I typically find them in different areas than in the fall in the midwest but not far away!

Find permanent water.

 

[WoodDuck]

Listen for a bird gobbling off the roost at daybreak, then go try to set up on and kill said bird.

If there were other birds gobbling in a different direction, go try to kill those after you screw up on the first one.

 

[Chaser96]

They may or may not be in the same places. I like to get to a high point to listen so you can hear more ground. They won’t start gobbling typically until it starts breaking daylight a little bit. Practice owl hooting to locate birds on the roost. Don’t get caught up on fields. I live in and have hunted Kentucky my whole life and 90% of the birds I kill are in the woods. If you hunt the same general area and get to a good high spot I would imagine you will be within earshot of a bird.


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[travis.smith]

I live and hunt in KY. Public land during turkey season can be very crowded. Don’t be shocked if there is a truck sitting at your plan A, B, C, and D location. I’d either sleep in the truck at your spot or get there at 3 AM. Hit them from a different angle. They have heard every Walmart box and pot call from the parking lot or forest service trail gate 100x. Don’t over call and be patient. Less is more. I’ve been on pretty much every inch of public land in the central and north eastern part of the state. PM me if you got any questions about areas or anything I’ll try to help.

 

[WoodDuck]

One other note: in my experience (which hasn’t been Kentucky) it is much easier to kill a bird mid-morning to early afternoon on public land after they break away from the group of hens they flew down with. Pretend you’re a YouTube elk hunter and cover ground, hitting them with a cadence of hard yelps every 1-200 yards. Eventually you’ll get a response, and when you do that bird knows where you are. Either cut the distance in a straight line or set up where you are depending how far away he is. Once that happens, DO NOT over call or they tend to hang up waiting for you to come to them.

This doesn’t work great in open cover, but is a great way to cover ground and find birds in wooded terrain. It doesn’t always work, but when it does it’s a lot of fun.

 

[zacattack]

You can also go out in the late afternoon and listen for them to fly up to roost. Then just come back in the morning.

 

[Erict]

Never had much luck or volume from owl hooters - I really like a loud crow call to entice shock gobbles pre-dawn and after sunset when they've roosted for the night. I'd rather hunt the first two hours of light over the entire rest of the day - usually much more gobbling, easier to hear because the winds don't pick up til later, and you see a lot of neat stuff like deer, woodcock, etc. earlier. Good luck.

 

[juju]

From your OH experiences, you have seen the sort of place a turkey likes to roost. It's the same thing over and over anywhere there's plenty of water. Dry country birds are the same but their routine is more spread out.

A turkey isn't smart enough to recognize danger sitting in front of something. It only looks for danger coming out from behind things. They'll walk by close enough to grab without noticing you if you sit still. If you sit still, in the shade, in front of something larger than yourself they won't notice you.

I highly recommend you get a copy of Kenny Morgan's A One Man Game It'll flatten the learning curve and make you a better turkey hunter.

 

[tan]

I live and hunt in KY. Public land during turkey season can be very crowded. Don’t be shocked if there is a truck sitting at your plan A, B, C, and D location. I’d either sleep in the truck at your spot or get there at 3 AM. Hit them from a different angle. They have heard every Walmart box and pot call from the parking lot or forest service trail gate 100x. Don’t over call and be patient. Less is more. I’ve been on pretty much every inch of public land in the central and north eastern part of the state. PM me if you got any questions about areas or anything I’ll try to help.

luckily for me I have some private access that’s about 2 miles as the crow flys to the closest parking, and i’ve never seen any sign of humans back there. Seems like most people go in the hollers and never up a steep hill. Still prepping for the worst. I’ve got 3 spots that I know they’ve been in, all about a half mile apart. If I don’t hear gobbles do i still run the risk of over-calling? I’ve heard in some places turkey don’t gobble as much.

 

[juju]

Sometimes turkey talk a lot, others not so much. It's a matter of doing what turkeys do when they do it. You need to make the gobbler play your game, not you play his. He's better at it.

If you're used to college lectures, Dr. Lovett Williams' recordings will help on that. His website is still up and operating afaik.

 

[travis.smith]

luckily for me I have some private access that’s about 2 miles as the crow flys to the closest parking, and i’ve never seen any sign of humans back there. Seems like most people go in the hollers and never up a steep hill. Still prepping for the worst. I’ve got 3 spots that I know they’ve been in, all about a half mile apart. If I don’t hear gobbles do i still run the risk of over-calling? I’ve heard in some places turkey don’t gobble as much.

Two ways I would personally go about it if they aren’t gobbling much. I’d cover ground in likely topographical areas and look for fresh scratching and just do some super soft calling/scratching leaves and give each spot a hour or so. Or cover ground trying to get a shock gobble with a locator call. Reason being if you get a gobble he’s just gobbling at a locator call not a hen call. He don’t care and he’s not gonna come to a locator call he’s just gobbling to gobble. But this gives you his location and the ability to close the gap or set up accordingly before you start a hen sequence. If that don’t work I would just cover ground and do short cut sequences. Nothing crazy just 6 or 7 cuts to hopefully strike a bird. But be in a spot you’re ready to go if he gobbles close.

 

[Amos Keeto]

IF you have the time, go set up pre-season, before daylight and listen for turkeys gobbling off the roost.

NOTE: You don't want to set up UNDER a roost!
I did!
One time!
First gobble rattled me at it's proximity!
Next!
It started "raining" turkeys!
I was scared witless to breathe, much less move! I was scared to even blink!
I had turkeys all up in my face!
Even if I had a shooter within a couple of yards, there were (+/-) 20 turkeys just as close!
I'm sorry, but you can't slip ANY movement by 40 plus turkey eyes!

As scary as being that close was, it was just as exhilarating!