hunting nomadic turkeys

[logy]

I have only hunted in the state I live in, so I am unsure how other turkeys behave in other states. With that stated is there any tatics that I can use to hunt these birds that seem to have a huge "home" range?

It seems like the only surefire tatic I have right now is to hunt as much as I can and the rest is luck.

[High plains drifter]

They like to be reasonably close to water. Always keep that in mind.

[Happy]

If you know nothing of the area, I would suggest getting as high as you can to be able to cover as much ground as possible with your ears. Be in shape and be willing to cover steep terrain. It ain't easy but in my humble opinion, they are the most fun and challenging turkeys you will hunt.

[Clif Owen]

I guess this description fits the birds in the area I hunt. I read about in some places; the turkeys will roost in the same area..sometimes the same tree. It ain't like that here. They seem to me like they just fly up wherever they happen to be when it's time. From one spot, they might be southwest, southeast..somewhere to the north or even somewhere I can'r even identify because I don't hear anything. I would love to be able to figure it out but my explanation is they are just being turkeys. In hindsight, I really wish I had spent more time hunting them through the years instead of the other things I did. Between coonhounds, fishing and just working I missed out on a lot of fun and experience.

[logy]

I guess this description fits the birds in the area I hunt. I read about in some places; the turkeys will roost in the same area..sometimes the same tree. It ain't like that here. They seem to me like they just fly up wherever they happen to be when it's time. From one spot, they might be southwest, southeast..somewhere to the north or even somewhere I can'r even identify because I don't hear anything. I would love to be able to figure it out but my explanation is they are just being turkeys. In hindsight, I really wish I had spent more time hunting them through the years instead of the other things I did. Between coonhounds, fishing and just working I missed out on a lot of fun and experience.

It just feels like I am rolling the dice on where they will be. Good thing I am in decent shape.

[shaman]

I have a 200 acre farm in northeast Kentucky.  I've been hunting it since 2002.

For the most part, I feel like I'm hunting the same turkeys I met up with when I first got here.  Individuals pass on, but where gobblers gobble and where hens go to forage seems to be nearly eternal.  The terrain dictates the behavior. 

If I work a gobbler that likes to roost in a given area, a few years later another gobbler will show up in that area and he'll act fairly similar.  I even have names for some of them.  There's the Virginia Rambler,the Garbage Pit Bandit, Mister Natural, etc.    For instance, let's take the Garbage Pit Bandit.  There's an island of scrubby trees and blackberries  just to the east of a oak grove penninsula.  In the middle of the grove is a sinkhole where the previous owners dumped trash.  Nearly every spring, a flock will feed in the late morning and then again in the mid-afternoon.  Usually there's a gobbler strutting between the island and the peninsula.  I tried for years to hunt that gobbler. 

It took until just a few years ago for me to have success.  Normally, what happens is that I spy the gob on my way in to the cabin for lunch.  If I do a bit of sneaking, I can get up to another island at the east end of the field and sit there in the shade and call to the gob at Garbage Pit.  Sometimes, I can draw him out into the middle of the field, but 20+ years of trying, I'd never got him to come all 200 yards . 

20+ years?  That's not the same gobbler, but it could just as well be from the behavior I'd seen.

Here's the whole story:
The End of the Garbage Pit Bandit


Are they nomadic?  I usually show up at camp around March 1.  It may take a few weeks before I hear them for the first time.  Where they go and what they do over the winter is a bit of a mystery.  Once they show up, they roost in the same spots, go to feed in the same fields and loaf in the same woods. 


It won't be the same tree every night.  In fact they'll sometimes roost 200 yards away some nights.  I don't know why.  I used to think it was weather and wind, but that didn't pan out.  What I think happens is that they just browse through the woods until late afternoon and suddenly decide it's time to roost and they pick the nearest tree and go for it.  Most nights, they end up at the same tree, because they're such creatures of habit, but moving roosts is not a sign of stress or incoming weather or much of anything.

As an example:  I can take a gobbler amid hens 80 yards from the roost and have them plop down the next day from the same tree.  On the other hand, I can have two nearly identical days of weather, no contact with the birds and find them roosted across the pasture on Day 2,  only to return the next night. 

[GobbleNut]

I have only hunted in the state I live in, so I am unsure how other turkeys behave in other states. With that stated is there any tactics that I can use to hunt these birds that seem to have a huge "home" range?

It seems like the only surefire tactic I have right now is to hunt as much as I can and the rest is luck.

Naturally, you have to be hunting where there are turkeys to begin with. If you do not KNOW where they are to begin with, in my experience, the key to finding them is covering as much country as you can...at the right time of day (first and last light)...to find GOBBLING turkeys by using your ears and LISTENING.

Do that in the most efficient way you can for the area you are hunting. If there is an extensive road system, use it. If there is not, as happy states, stick to high spots, if available, where you can hear over the largest amounts of country.

Listening at the right time of day can be done passively...or actively. I have found that in places where gobblers are widely scattered and/or you are hunting an unknown area, using the active method is a much better tactic than the other.

Finally, if you are not HEARING gobbling at those right times of the day, do not assume turkeys are around UNLESS you have found verified evidence they exist there. For me, though, that is a last resort. I have hunted lots of places...and there have been very few (almost none, in fact) that I have had to hunt non-gobbling turkeys.