Hello. I've been lurking for some time and decided to introduce myself. I've already learned a lot from what I've read on this site, so thanks to you all for that.
I have some questions about fall/winter turkey hunting. I'll give you some background before I ask the questions:
I live in southeast Virginia. I do hunt turkeys in the spring, with varying levels of success. And I've shot them in the fall. In fact, most of the turkeys I've ever killed have been in the fall. Our fall turkey season is broken up into segments and some of it overlaps other seasons. The vast majority of turkeys I've taken in the fall have been while hunting other things. But I want to try some actual fall turkey hunting and not just take them incidentally to hunting something else.
The last fall segment is coming up on January 14 to January 28. Bearded and non-bearded are legal. This segment is not during the deer season, so I will not have to wear blaze orange during this segment. (Virginia requires blaze orange during any hunting during the deer firearms season.)
Southeast Virginia weather in January ranges from short sleeve shirt temps to parka temps. Snow, rain, overcast, or bright sun. So no telling what the weather will be like.
I hunt on a hilly tract of land that has been partially timbered and has thick pine thickets. There's losts of big ravines that form bottomlands. The pine thickets are usually up higher and adjoin bottom areas that are more hardwoods, mostly beech trees. Other areas have been clearcut and are covered in new growth pine and every imaginable sort of thorny plant. There's a swamp the separates this tract of land from some other private land. The swamp edges are oaks and several hundred yards through those oaks is a cut corn field. I do not have access to the land on the other side of that swamp.
While deer hunting this fall, I've determined the birds are pretty much roosting in the pine thickets at night. From what I've seen, they'll stay there until April when the flock breaks up. I know that because they are still there when spring season starts. By mid April, they're all over the place. They are flying down around 7 AM. Before that I am hearting soft tree calls. Am an even hearing an occassional gobble. When they hit the ground they pretty much go silent. I've seen a big flock fly in from the corn field maklng nosies as they flew and landed. When they come down in the morning, sometimes they are coming down into the beech trees and foraging for beech nuts. Sometimes they are going across the swamp to the corn field. The last bird I shot had a craw half full of field corn, half full of beech nuts.
So, I have some questions:
1) Under these circumstances, how much would hunting this time of year be like hunting in the spring?
2) Are decoys useful in the winter? I know I need to be set up somewhere before the flydown and try and keep the birds on my side of the swamp.
3) I am proficient with pot calls and box calls. I am getting better with mouth calls. What call is best, if any? What calls should I work on to keep these birds on my side of the swamp?
Any other thoughts or advice would be appreciated.
Thanks.
Welcome aboard. I am primarily a Spring Turkey hunter, but there are several veteran Fall Guys on here that hopefully see this post to offer their expertise. Good luck, enjoy the forum.....
Thanks
Good to see you here.
I am new myself
:thanks:
Welcome to the OG Forums !!!!!
Quote from: RMP on January 02, 2023, 11:17:51 AM
While deer hunting this fall, I've determined the birds are pretty much roosting in the pine thickets at night. From what I've seen, they'll stay there until April when the flock breaks up. I know that because they are still there when spring season starts. By mid April, they're all over the place. They are flying down around 7 AM. Before that I am hearting soft tree calls. Am an even hearing an occassional gobble. When they hit the ground they pretty much go silent. I've seen a big flock fly in from the corn field maklng nosies as they flew and landed. When they come down in the morning, sometimes they are coming down into the beech trees and foraging for beech nuts. Sometimes they are going across the swamp to the corn field. The last bird I shot had a craw half full of field corn, half full of beech nuts.
So, I have some questions:
1) Under these circumstances, how much would hunting this time of year be like hunting in the spring?
Not particularly similar in that you are not trying to appeal to a gobbler's urge to mate.
2) Are decoys useful in the winter? I know I need to be set up somewhere before the flydown and try and keep the birds on my side of the swamp.
I'd personally leave the decoys at home.
3) I am proficient with pot calls and box calls. I am getting better with mouth calls. What call is best, if any? What calls should I work on to keep these birds on my side of the swamp?
If you can get in on the roosted birds 0:Dark-30, a little soft tree talk just to let them know you're there. I'd likely lean on the pot call for that. But either would be fine. Just talk SOFT. Just like the roosted birds.
Any other thoughts or advice would be appreciated.
Get between where the birds are roosted and where you think they're gonna go. Call soft. You're appealing to their social nature. Not any mating instinct. Learn how to kee-kee on your pot call if you haven't already.
Thanks.
Best of luck !!! Go get 'em !!!!
Quote from: Pu11it on January 02, 2023, 08:22:12 PM
Good to see you here.
I am new myself
WELCOME ABOARD, to you, as well !!!!!!
:wagon:
Thank you!
I have only been Fall hunting for 3 years now so I am no expert at all. No it is not quite like Spring hunting but it is fun. The go to call that you read about is the Keekee or Keekee Run, I have not had much success with it but I am still learning it myself. I can do it no problem on my Don Watkins box calls and am getting okay with it on a trumpet I am told. (Not so sure I agree) There are some good books on Fall hunting and some videos though not near as many as Spring hunting. Anyway that is the very small amount of help I can offer. Maybe a jake yelp would work but I am not sure of that. Anyway welcome to the forum and best of luck to you.
When fall/winter hunting, the first thing is understanding the flock structure at this time of year. In most fall hunting situations, you will be dealing with three "types" of flocks of turkeys. These are 1) hens with their young of the year, 2) groups of last year's jakes, and 3) bands of mature gobblers. Each of these groups generally requires a different approach in your fall/winter hunting and calling tactics. Identifying the group of turkeys you are about to interact with and tailoring your calling to "fit the flock" is an important consideration.
Having said that, as others have stated, there are some dedicated fall turkey hunters here that can expound on their successful tactics better than I can. Although I have hunted fall turkeys in the past, I have pretty much stopped in recent years.
The biggest flock I've seen was about 30 individuals and they all appeared to be hens. However, I know there are toms around. Even thought it was fall, I heard gobbling.
Don't make it any harder than it is.
Sounds like you got the most important thing covered.....you're hunting where there are turkeys and you know the land.
Get in before daybreak and listen. If you hear turkeys, call to them. If you don't hear turkeys, call.....listen. Be patient.
Call soft. Call a little louder. Listen. If you get a response, imitate that turkey.
Learn the difference between (and learn to make) gobbler/jake yelps, hen assembly calls, kee-kee runs.
Any call or calls you can use proficiently will be fine. Don't be afraid to call and call often if you aren't hearing anything.
Have fun!!!
Thanks for the tips. I do know the land and know where they're hanging out. I am hearing all kinds of sounds coming out of them when they are on the move.
My only suggestion is for you to spend as much time as you can in hunting these birds. Try your best not to bump them while your are chasing and setting up. In the fall turkeys have a different attitude... Good luck
I'm heading out in the morning. Got my truck loaded. I have two of my bestest kee kee'ing friction calls. My Primos Waterboard box and my Hanks Zebrawood glass over aluminum with my dymondwood and poplar striker and a pure dymondwood striker. Got a few mouth calls, too. The Primos kee kees reasonably well and belts out some really good chatter. The Hanks kee kees like a champ if I condition it with 220 grit sandpaper as well as the strikers. I've been annoying my pets all day with some last minute practicing. Will be taking my Winchjester SX4 20 gauge and some Federal TSS #7s. Now I just need a bird to committ suicide and get in front of my gun. :funnyturkey:
Hunted Saturday. No dice. Went back out today. First time in my life I've ever hunted on a Sunday.
Virginia started this 2-week winter season I think in 2022 in select counties. The one I hunt is one of them. Either sex is allowed. And it's a chance to get out and hunt turkeys after deer season closes without having to wear blaze orange.
So I got in the woods just as the horizon was starting to show a bit of light. Sky was clear, stars out, and the moon was shining. Very little wind. But pretty cold - in the 20s. I was able to do the mile+ hike back to the bottom area I like to hunt by moonlight. I go there and took my spot from yesterday hoping the birds had returned to the pine ticket at the top of the other side's hill. They had been flying down into this bottom area to eat beech nuts. As it got lighter, no sounds at all. I did some soft tree calls as it got lighter, and about 7:45 I did some fly down cackling on my box call. Nothing. By now, the wind had picked back up again and was blowing pretty hard. But the sky was cloudless. It was very cold.
I decided to go back the way I came and call into the pine thicket that borders the trail. Nothing. I knew birds were there - they're there every year. But that's a damned big thicket and I had no idea where in there they'd be. I went in about 60 yards of so. The ground slopes down that back up and down again. As thick as it is in there with young pines, you can see pretty far and walk nearly silently. I could see a slope down to a ravine and decided to set up so that I could shoot if the birds came the way I thought they would, from my 11 o'clock. That was the direction of the ravine. I started with some soft clucks. Laid my call down and watched. Nothing. Picked up my phone and shot a short video of where I was sitting. This is just a couple of minutes before the hen appeared and I've been looking to see if maybe I caught her somewhere in the video. I don't think so. You can see a long lane through the trees at the :21 second mark. That's where I got her.
https://youtu.be/uNzZhIKlzX0?feature
Put my phone away, and made a few more soft clucks. Was watching my 11 o'clock. Then I slowly turned my head right and looked at my 2:30 postion and saw a hen about 30 yards out with her neck straight up looking in my direction. She never made a sound and came in completely silently. My gun was pointed at 11 o'coclk so I just watched her. She must have gotten nervous because she started putting and walked away. Didn't run, just kind of meandered off. When she went behind some brush, I turned and got my call and scootched around so I could shoot in her direction. I gave a couple more clucks and set the call down and shouldered my gun in her direction. She came back and stepped out into a straight lane about 40 yards away. Neck straight up looking in my direction again. I had my bead on her but was a little worried since she seemed pretty far and I had my 20 gauge. I had patterned the gun with TSS #7 and it patterned well and I decided to trust it. I touched her off. The shot hit her head and neck and I saw feathers poof off her. She tipped forward head first and except for some nervous spastic flapping and flopping, that's all she wrote. She ended up about 2 feet from where she tipped.
I walked over to her. I found my shell's flight control wad about half way between my spot and her.
(https://i.imgur.com/IAm7ovQ.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/77VCPd4.jpg)
A little shameless plug for Hank's Game Calls
(https://i.imgur.com/nPShnZ0.jpg)
Freezing. It was supposed to be in the 40s and that's what I dressed for. Never got above freezing. I always carry 10 shells with me. Given the cost of TSS, I had 2 #7 TSS shells, both in the gun. I had 8 #4 lead back up rounds.
(https://i.imgur.com/FlEe8s0.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/J5jgWz3.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/J8uUqAu.jpg)
After-kill video.
https://youtu.be/x22NsP-nst4
The poor girl would have had a hard winter. Her crop was completely empty. I opened her gizzard and just about the only thing in there was gravel and a couple small green buds.
(https://i.imgur.com/SugIi3d.jpg)
Anyways, that's 2 of 3 I am allowed in a single year. So my 2022-2023 season is 2/3rds over. I'll have to wait for spring to hunt again and, God willing, take a bearded bird.
Great story and pics RMP. Thanks for taking the time to post it up. Congrats on your success. :icon_thumright: :icon_thumright:
Thanks, GobbleNut. I appreciate the kind words! And I do enjoy reading your posts!
Thanks for documenting! Fun read.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Nice job, you earned that one. Congrats.......
Congrats, great pics..
Very cool, loved the story. I like to open up the crop and gizzard too, just to see what they been eating.
Well done.
Congrats on a great winter bird. I do wish we could shoot hens here in Florida. We are over populated with them in my area.
Sent from my SM-A536U using Tapatalk