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Administrative | We recognize we have a large number of spring turkey season hunters that have a great range of wild turkey hunting skill and a variety of opinions on spring turkey hunting techniques. We do not propose one is better than others and offer the previous article as a starting point for those that may not be fully comfortable with our open ground spring turkey hunting. We also encourage and accept feedback from others that contributes toward the potential success of our hunters, for spring turkey hunting and other disciplines as well. To that end we have consolidated feedback from several hunters referencing specifically the information in the previous article on: "Spring Turkey Hunting". That feedback is listed below. We also accept articles directly from hunters for inclusion within our website as long as they are focused on hunt success methods, techniques or other activities related to MAHA private lease land. There are a good many such membership articles throughout the website and each one offers a unique viewpoint that may make more sense to others than what we could write ourselves. Overall, they all collect into a wealth of experience based information that simply has no substitute. BlindsIt's [Skilled Spring Turkey Hunting article] good, but there is one point that I disagree with. You talked about a blind on several occasions. I would discourage a blind for flydown spring hunts scouted on random ground. On a well known farm the blind is set from previous experience on the same farm. The average turkey hunter in the Association is scouting and making a judgment based on a one day scout and hunt, most typically on land they have not hunted. I would not bring a blind in for a roost shoot because the flydown spots can change from day to day. Spring turkey hunting does have such variables that cannot be planned on.
Decoys#1 You mentioned decoys like they were a major part of a successful hunter's for spring turkey hunting. Many times I found they are not so, I would say with or without a decoy. Also, if you roost birds, I would not go to the flydown spot the night before and prepare a spot to sit. The biggest part of the puzzle is to make that move without a flashlight in the dark. Marking a tall tree in the dark and guessing 50 yards to the left is the best you can do. If you land 10 yards within your destination you are lucky. Then you must hit the ground and make the best of what you have to work with. Limbs in your face or rocks under your seat must be dealt with and no movement or noise is mandatory once you sit down. HensBy nature, the hens go to the toms at first light. After that toms may want a hen, but hens don't want toms. They are about feeding and nesting. FlydownI noticed you referred to flydown areas as open areas. These flydown areas can be overgrown fields on the back side of the roost trees, which are not always the fields they are using the night before. These fields can be difficult and sometimes impossible to sneak into in the dark because the hunter makes too much noise stumbling through the overgrown trees in the dark. Approaching around the edge of these fields on the opposite side can be a helpful hint.
HuntsWe often attempt to place all things in a well defined box of truths that equally apply to all conditions, experiences and in this case to spring turkey hunting. The basic article has value in that it lists the straight from the gut turkey hunting topics raised by the original contributors to the article. Two very well proven 20+ year spring season hunters. Those topics, probably more so than the afterthoughts listed above, represent what most should work towards and then adapt from dependent upon terrain and spring conditions which all agree are far different than other seasons and change from year to year even on the same farm.
Details on our wild spring turkey hunting for Iowa, Missouri and Kansas |
via email: John, We finally got our scanner running, we think. Sorry this is so late. I went to [location deleted] the next to last weekend of the spring turkey season for a quick hunt. Having never have been to this property I got in to the timber edge before light and waited for sunrise. After not hearing any gobbles when the crows started calling and trying my owl call I went to move and spooked a deer trying to go around me. The deer blew twice and when he did the turkeys sounded off not 200 yds from me. I quickly set up and just after sunrise had these two jakes come into the decoys. I could hear more birds behind me but the jakes caught my movement and started to leave and you can see the results. The Association hunting is better then I imagined it and after 4 scouting days this winter I can tell its just going to get better. Great work Thanks, Steve N., PS don't forget to take your deer calls with for spring turkeys