Sitting on fresh sign

[Brillo]

This is a common deer hunting technique.  If you have  applied it to turkeys how did that work out?

[ChesterCopperpot]

I'll throw afternoon hunts at fresh sign and historic roosting sites when I don't actively have a bird to chase, but that's about it. I note the sign, and it does tell you birds have been using an area, but you can't shoot scratch.


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[GobbleNut]

I'll throw afternoon hunts at fresh sign and historic roosting sites when I don't actively have a bird to chase, but that's about it. I note the sign, and it does tell you birds have been using an area, but you can't shoot scratch.

Exactly.  Sitting on sign without vocal turkeys in the area is way too much like deer-huntin' 'em.  Now, if you have turkeys answering your calling, it may be a good idea to see if they will come to that fresh-sign spot.  More likely, I am going to "prospect" for a gobbler in that general area by carefully moving and calling, based on the terrain, in hopes of getting a vocal response. 

Having said that, there are (have been) times when I was just unable to get a rise out of a bird by doing the above, and while covering  the area I had available to hunt pretty thoroughly.  In those instances, sometimes a guy is just relegated to assessing the "evidence" of where you are most likely to be successful in "deer-huntin' 'em" and making the best of it.  I will state unapologetically, however, that I absolutely abhor hunting turkeys that way.  If a guy wants to kill a turkey badly enough, though, sitting fresh sign and waiting patiently for an indefinite amount of time is one way to get it done.

[Paulmyr]

If I see fresh sign like dusting bowls or strutt marks there's good chance I'll be pulling up a tree for a few and letting a some calls out from nearby.  Dust bowls especially. I won't just sit there patiently all day. It would be like pulling up a tree and casting some calls into tasty looking hollar where I might think some birds are hanging. The dust bowls might merit a revisit or 2.

[Greg Massey]

I have during the years set up on fresh signs, especially dusting areas in hopes of a hen bringing a gobbler my way. Again I'm turkey hunting, because deer season has been closed for a couple of months. I don't understand why people call it deer hunting, are you still chasing deer or turkeys? A lot of this type of hunting or sitting on sign is more of a midday hunting for myself. A lot of us don't have unlimited land to hunt including public land in our area. So you have to adapt to your hunting ground. Look for shady areas in fields that turkeys like to hang out during the day. if you have a good creek bottom is another place to hangout and do some blind calling etc. You may get fortunate and call a gobbler off other property. So again hunt as you feel you need in being successful. If i listen to everyone on this forum as TO HOW i should hunt i would be totally confused. SO as you become more experienced you will find what works for you in chasing gobblers on your hunting grounds. Most of the time i pack a lunch and i drop it off somewhere in the area I'm hunting and enjoying my day of turkey hunting. Turkey season is a short season.

[bbcoach]

In my experience, turkeys aren't like deer, you can't set your watch by their previous day jaunts.  If I find fresh tracks, scratching, wing drag marks or dust bowls, it tells me one thing, they are in that area.  After that, it is my responsibility to scout and put eyes on them not just flop down near that sign.  When I put eyes on them, I need to observe their travel routes and see if there is a gobbler in the group or a few hens feeding together.  If a gobbler is available, then I develop a plan to go after him.  Turkeys don't have a watch to go by or any place special to be so they maybe back the next day or it may take them several days to a week to swing back through that area.  Scouting, finding travel routes and eyes on trump sign every day in my book.  But sign definitely lets me know we may have some players around.

[Number17]

In the last decade around my parts of Pennsylvania you had better be really good at hunting quiet gobblers if you want to be consistently successful.
That means reading sign, listening for non verbal clues, and slowing down and glassing the landscape.
I read and hear all the time that guys won't even pull the trigger unless a bird comes in gobbling down the barrel, well......your season my be a big flop if that's what you're waiting for.
I remember listening to guys like Preston Pittman talk about how tough hushed up southern birds can be. I think we are experiencing that now.

Now this year we should have a good crop of 2 year olds from what I've seen. Two year olds make things fun.

[Tom007]

About 15 years ago, I took my godson out on youth day. He never harvested a bird before. He was super excited when I picked him up before daybreak. Unfortunately, the forecast was for heavy showers right at daybreak, but the look on his face told me we have to "give it a shot". We started up a logging road in the dark, it stated to drizzle. The rain got heavier, I looked at the radar on my phone. The orange was almost over us, I told him let's retreat and get breakfast till this passes. We got to my truck just in time, the skies unloaded. We went for coffee, came back around 8:30, the storm had passed. We started back up the same logging road and ran across the freshest scratches I've ever seen. The ground was torn up, the soil was black. I told him this had to be from this morning, so we slowly followed them. I stated calling as we walked. About 150 yards in, "Boom", a gobble. I told him to sit right down, gun up on knee while I dropped back around 40 yards behind him. A couple soft clucks, Boom he gobbled. I saw the Red Head coming, I watched my godson put his head down, bang. The gobbler flopped, I told him safety on, walk up and grab him. The look on his face is a smile I'll never forget. I know that we were extremely lucky to find and follow such fresh sign, but I am confident these scratches were from this Gobbler. It ended up being a great learning experience for him, to this day he is an ardent Turkey hunter that can harvest the toughest Tom's.......

[jwp0020]

I like to get in places like this when I don't hear anything on the limb.  If I know turkeys are in an area, I'll devote some mid there.  There are several places I hunt where they don't tend to tune up until later in the morning. 

[Lcmacd 58]

I wont specifically sit on it ..... but if its fresh .... turkeys are around .... you gotta hunt where there are turkeys....

[g8rvet]

I killed one this year because I found a ton of fresh sign, but he was very isolated.  No human traffic, 75 acres surrounded by deep creek/ravine and highway.  He gobbled at first light though and enough all morning to let me know he was there and would work his way around to me. 

Did not work this weekend where I found another area loaded with strut marks and fresh sign.  I was in birds, but the toms would not follow the hens in to my set up. 

[Farmboy27]

I personally don't have the patience to sit for very long without hearing anything. I do personally know several people that kill their birds every year from the exact same location just sitting there and soft calling from time to time. I suspect that they wouldn't have to call at all. I'm not against anyone who wants to take that route, it's just not for me! 

[howl]

Run n gun doesn't work anywhere near as well as it used to most places I hunt. Jakes observe people doing it all Spring. By the next year they're conditioned against it.

You have to be close and doing like a hen do, to get gobbles to respond in such pressured areas. That means you need to be when and where a hen would be. Sign tells you that.