Spring Turkey Season
Spring Season Tom
This tom was photographed by the Association owner, Jon Nee, while on a scouting trip and land lease renewal. Being on the land 12 months of the year is the best action we can take to ensure we have the hunting that will cause members to renew their membership. This tom is for hunting.
Spring turkey season topics covering a range of discussions we have had with hunters over the years.
Spring Season Safety
The number one spring turkey season issue affecting all is safety. We all recognize that the best spring turkey season setup is one with the hunter low on the ground, thoroughly camouflaged with decoys to his front and with good calling skills. While this may seem a bit insecure this condition it is not the leading situation for spring turkey season mishaps. The leading condition of spring turkey season hunter shooting incidents are while the hunter is moving.
The leading accident contributing condition (IHEA and MDC website records) is one where the camouflaged hunter is up and moving and being mistaken for a tom. Moving between setups or call and run hunters are the ones at risk. Within MAHA we minimize that risk by having our spring turkey season hunter’s telephone reserve individually numbered properties we lease for our exclusive use and it is one numbered property per hunter per day. We also encourage after a successful harvest to wear a hunter orange hat or vest on the walk out. A not too widely held practice during spring turkey season.
Scouting, the first day of the turkey hunt
Spring Turkey Hunetr Feedback
Here are some pictures of our spring hunt. Had a great time. Weather and camaraderie were great! Can't wait until next year. Thanks to the entire MAHA staff for the great job that you do. CC and MC
We have talked to many highly successful do it yourself hunters and the most commonly cited technique to enhance the chances for success is scouting. This scouting is to find roosts by glassing where birds are moving to during the last two hours of light. This spring turkey season scouting is also targeted to wooded creek bottoms and patches that are out of direct line of sight of roads and active farm yards.
Once the roost is spotted the next techniques become possible and while they may seem simple they are further pieces to the puzzle of what these skilled spring turkey season hunters commonly give as reasons for their success. These techniques are: where to park; where to walk in and don’t crowd.
During the successful scouting trip that finds a roost the successful spring turkey season hunters then backward plans where they will setup, how they will walk in and where they will park their hunting vehicle.
Parking
During the early morning dark the roosted flock will be well aware of its surroundings and routine is what they like. Anything that disrupts that routine will gain attention and encourages avoidance behavior on part of the birds. Many spring turkey season hunters fail to understand this and when driving to their hunting land will park where it is most convenient for the walk into their setup spot.
This parking spot frequently creates a disruption to the flock’s morning routine with introduction of headlight and vehicle noises that typically do not occur at that time of day on our remote lease lands. This sets the flock on edge and the hunter that follows up with a noisy walk in will frequently find the flydown from roost in the opposite direction rather than that anticipated by scouting.
The right answer is generally to park as far away from the roost as possible and always far enough away to prevent headlight observation by the flock and if practical far enough away that vehicle noise is greatly attenuated.
Walk In
The walk in has the same anti-disruption principle of where to park and we will not spend much time discussing it. This principle minimizes any light, noise and sight disruption to the spring season flock’s early routine environment and behavior.
Sight mitigation is achieved with the morning dark, that is for those that can walk in with out a flashlight. Those that need a flashlight should make it red lens and a small one capable of just lighting the ground immediately at foot.
Noise attenuation through having scouted a route into the first planned setup location that avoids rougher terrain and thicker vegetation which often means a longer walk in and requirement for an earlier start. Noise limitation is frequently violated by those that carry in a pop up blind or create a blind at their setup. The answer to this should be obvious at this point and that the blind should have been established the night before during the scouting trip. This last point is one that many frequently fail to recognize and its value is based on wild turkey flock behavior.
A comment from a reviewer of this article at this point was about our (over) emphasis on the spring season aspect of turkey behavior. In this case the reviewer was not a turkey hunter, but a well educated articulate individual, and we are making the assumption in this article the hunter/reader is well aware of the distinctive flock behavior of turkeys during the spring from pre breeding, peak and trail of the breeding cycle. There go when we make a statement that such and such relative to spring season turkey hunting is such a case we accept the do it yourself hunter has the wherewithal of that specialized behavior and fully appreciates the value of the original statement.
Winter Flock
A value point to the Association staff being out on the lease land 12 months of the year is as the snow in this picture well illustrates. We track where we see any wildlife. In this case turkeys, all to make better for better spring hunts.
The birds above are what we saw from the distance and just a part of the larger flock stretched out tot he left and right. This flock was not under any pressure and was walking/feeding strung out along a trail from the roost area through the neighbor's farm, on to our lease and continued unseen across the road.
We found where they were feeding.
The flock was easily tracked back to the roost.
Another flock, another lease, another time.
Where on the farm they were.
Setup
Spring season turkey flocks once in a roost at dark will be hard pressed to leave that roost as they do not like to move anywhere after dark regardless of many influences. The hunter that finds a roost then examines the surrounding terrain and the continuing flock behavior knowledge that roost morning flydown is to open ground simplifies where to scout a setup. The next part is to pick a ground setup that will place the hunter near the open area the morning flydown will move to, however not to setup too close. Setting up too close to the spring season roost or the flydown area is the next most fatal error of many hunters.
Turky Hunting Not For All
An aspect of these kind of articles on spring turkey hunts and others throughout the website is our recognition many of our non-resident turkey hunters have never experienced any type of central mid-west spring season turkey hunts. These basic articles help eliminate some of that mystery.
Taking away that mystery makes for more enjoyable trips as all will know where they will be turkey hunting long before they leave home and have an idea of the hunt conditions. The pictures in this article and elsewhere are the best means by which to illustrate the habitat so no hunter will be too quick to dismiss a good spot due to unfamiliarity was compared to home state habitat. Experienced mid-west turkey hunters may find these same articles needless reading. We walk that balance.
Crowding
What must be remembered when selecting a spring turkey season setup location is that regardless of how stealthy a turkey hunter hunts and occupies a setup the bird's sight and hearing is much greater than humans. What may seem quiet and dark to us may be far more noticeable to the birds, especially on moon lit mornings.
The principle of anti-disruption continues. Pick a setup that is within direct line of sight and sound of the roost and flydown area and not too close that the hunter’s presence causes the entire turkey flock to flydown away from the anticipated area. This typically means not setting up between the roost and flydown area but to its side, either left, right or opposite.
Pick a spot that allows decoys to be seen from where the flydown is anticipated and allows for easy, non-intrusive walk in access. Once that spot is picked move in during the night before and establish the blind. Doing so the night before eliminates the intrusive activity the morning of the hunt. Any disruption that may attract the flock’s attention the night before most likely will have no effect on the flock at that time and will be forgotten by morning.
Most will agree that spring turkey hunts are far more about preparation than the actual hunt itself. It is that preparation work that makes the hunt and not the actual turkey hunt itself. A small point seemingly overlooked more than it should be by many turkey hunters who seek to hunt without scouting. The second point is that those that believe scouting is just to locate the birds and not all the rest seem to have fewer successful turkey hunts and harvest the least number of mature toms. This is well illustrated by those that seek to hunt multiple states rather than seek a quality hunt in one state first and then expand to a second.
Turkey Hunter Patience
Wild bird spring turkey season flock behavior at flydown is about sex and food for both the hen and tom. The spring roost is where it is at, due not to just the roost tree habitat, but also due to a food and water source. And, most will agree that the spring season roost is not always the same spot as a fall roost. That one fact alone makes all spring turkey season hunts begin with scouting.
While on roost and well before shooting time spring season courtship begins and continues all day long right up to roost that evening. Never forget this and that knowledge gives the turkey hunter confidence to remain steady to his blind setup hunts rather than be too quick to move should the toms not find his decoys or calling sexy enough at first light. The day is long and a setup that first appears to be ignored frequently is serviced later in the day.
The spring sex behavior part is simple. The hens know they must mate and will mate on their time schedule. The toms want to mate and will do all they can to encourage the hens and that keeps them with the hens or looking for hens all day long.
The toms go where they think the easiest hens are. The hens interested in mating do so early and move off to lay an egg in the nest that seemingly is always well away from the roost, seek food and water. The hens need food and water far more frequently then sex and that is the key to the open ground near the roost. Setting up a spring season decoy spread where it can be seen for our open ground turkeys is not to be ignored. A case where decoys are as effective at calling to gain a spring tom's attention. This is contrary to may heavily wooded states spring turkey hunting experience where the call predominates.
During spring turkey hunts the most readily available food source is that which is grazed - vegetation. This is frequently open ground and will be frequented through the day by the hens and the toms will follow. If the hunter is confident his scouting has produced a roost and flydown area stick to it with decoys and hen calling and the toms will seek out what they will believe is the next available hen.
Have patience, failing to do so for any of the call in game disciplines such as spring turkey season, fall duck or winter coyote will only result in failure. The hunter must do what hunters find to be the hardest thing to do and that is to do nothing.
Turkey Hunetr Criticisms
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 this article.
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.
Blinds
It'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.
A lucky spring season hunter that has a wife that hunts.
They use a blind and a decoy to be successful.
Spring season is a good time to involve a spouse due to the warmer temperatures. The blind is the most assurance for two that hunt together to have the best time of it and allow for some body comfort repositioning. Nothing new in these statements, just a reminder to the sometimes overly aggressive spring season turkey hunetrs that blinds have a purpose.
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.
#2 I am known by my spring turkey hunting partners as being a successful hunter. If my gut says placing a decoy might have a 3% chance of blowing my cover I don't use a decoy. Late season a lot of times decoys can hang up a tom.
Hens
By 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.
Flydown
I 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.
Hunts
We 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.