Best way to scout a new property?

[dBmV]

 Hi guys, just signed up but I've been lurking around the site to a couple of years. I'm fairly new to Turkey hunting but I've been deer hunting all my life. I've had good success with birds on my deer hunting land because I know the land and where the turkeys are all year. This year I've talked my way into access to a fairly large piece of property. I have never set foot on the place but have been intensely studying arial photos on the place. The photos show a good mixture of mature hardwoods and cut overs of various ages with several deer food plots scattered around the property.
I will only have a few days before the season opens to scout the property. What is the most effective way to scout it in the least amount of time with as little disturbance as possible. My plans right now are to walk the roads looking for tracks, glass the cut overs, and walk some of the food plots in the hardwoods. What else should I do to maximize my little bit of time?
In case it helps this property is in central Alabama.

[Bowguy]

If the property isn't huge and you can listen I'd be there first light and get an idea where they're gobbling. That'll tell you roost. From there w binoculars I'd be watching fields to see where they go.
I'd set up between them or where they wound up. I'm not really a field bird guy though.
That's no disturbance.
You'd still wanna know the terrain so you didn't set up wrong, example across a brook or river.

[Sir-diealot]

First off welcome to the site. One thing that is a big help to people I know is if you know somebody that is into it is having them fly over the property with a drone with a camera attached, it shows you the lay of the land and often you can see where the critters hang out. Just make sure they stay up a bit as not to disturb said critters.

Of course scouting the land on foot is almost always better.

[Happy]

I am kinda weird how I go about it but here goes. I typically check out new property in late winter. I just want to get an idea of the lay of the land and verify that there are birds in the area. After that I leave it alone. The most I will do is some listening from a distance as spring aproaches. I am usually scouting a year ahead and spend a lot of time formulating plans for hunting an area. I usually leave it alone till season opens the following year then go hunt. I am an explorer and rambler at heart and I love to hunt places for the first time and start to get a history with a place. I watch guys all spring running around before season yacking on calls, bellowing on owl hooters and once a watched a fellow beating on the guardrails along the road with a big stick. These fellows have the birds on edge before season even starts. So any more i just take it slow and steady. By the time most hunters are getting tuckered out and frustrated I am just getting serious. Yes some of the young dumb birds are dead but I find the quality of hunting much better. Maybe I am just getting to the age to where I am a little smarter, I am still in great shape and have no problem getting where others won't go. But there ain't no sense in wearing myself out like a young pup chasing squirrels in the first week. I snoop around and feel things out and when I get an opening I try to make it count.

[GobbleNut]

As far as I am concerned, being in the woods at the first hint of daylight and staying there until the sun comes up is the single most important way to scout any property.  That period of time is worth the entire rest of the day put together in terms of its value to you in knowing where your birds are at.

That's not to say that becoming familiar with the property during the rest of the day is not important,...it is.  But that first hour (and sometimes the last thirty minutes before dark in the evening) will generally provide you with all the information you need to be a successful spring gobbler hunter.  Why is that?...because that is when gobblers are going to be the most likely to tell you where they are at by gobbling. 

It will tell you where they are roosting,...and often give you an idea of how many of them there are around.  It will tell you where they are in relation to their most likely staging areas and food sources. That information, in combination of learning the lay of the land during the day, is paramount. 

Now, if the property is large enough that you cannot HEAR the entire property from a single, well-chosen location, you want to either plan on spending your scouting mornings listening from different places on the property and noting where you hear birds, or planning a route you can take in that first hour of daylight to get to different areas of the property while the gobblers are still on the roost and are likely to be gobbling.  They are very likely to be within earshot of that/those locations pretty much every morning,...barring any disturbances that cause them to change roosting sites.

My single word of advice:  When scouting anywhere, ALWAYS be there at first light in the morning if you can possibly do it.
My second single word of advice:  Get you a good locator call and learn how and when to use it... 

[dutch@fx4]

I agree 200 percent. Get there just before sun up and lisen .Thy will let you know were thy are and how many. thy will also give you a good idea were thy head after fly down..once you have this info you can make a plain to get in near the roost in the direction thy want to travel.. trick is to get there with out them knowing.