How reliable are strut marks?

[deerbasshunter3]

If you drove around public land this morning (10:30-ish) and came upon some strut marks/tracks at the opening of a long narrow field off of an open back road (easily accessable to hunters), how reliable do you think that spot/area would be to hunt on Friday morning? Keep in mind, people can hunt it Tbursday, and there is private land with a hundred yards or so of it.

[g8rvet]

I spend a lot of time looking for them.  To me it means there is a ready for action Tom in the area, so I would say pretty reliable.

A private piece I hunt had gone quiet after I killed a Tom.  Had not heard a gobble, nor even seen a hen in the prior 3 weeks there. I assumed I had killed the only Tom.  On the last trip there that i was gonna make, I checked a little 10 yard by one yard strip of dirt in a field and found fresh strut marks.  game on!  I hunted that piece hard and ended up taking him home. He never said a word, just silently showed up one day. 

[Ihuntoldschool]

How reliable would it be to hunt that area Friday morning?  Well it might be a good place to listen from. Now if he is still alive Friday morning then chances are he will be within hearing distance of the strut marks but not necessarily right in that immediate area.  They do travel quite a bit in the Spring; we know this from telemetry studies.   If you are trying to "pattern" him thinking that where he was at a certain time one day, he will be there the following day or days later at the same time then you are wasting your time IMO.

[fallhnt]

I wouldn't get my hopes up but you gotta try. If hens are dragging him around they may not go that way tomorrow. If it's a jake are you going to shoot?

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[RiverRoost]

Down a closed dirt road where I hunt there is a spot in the road where it falls off a small ridge and every year for the past three years at least there has been dust bowls and strutt marks in this one spot every year. I've never sat up and waited one out there but I feel like it would be a pretty good spot to wait one out at some point. I guess what I'm saying is if it's a bunch of strutt marks I'd assume they may be frequenting that area to strutt

[deerbasshunter3]

I take it as a good sign that turkeys at least want to be there. However, there is not any water around that I see, so that makes me think it won't be a good morning spot. Maybe I am wrong in my thinking. I just have to hope that somebody else hasn't come upon this spot yet.

[EZ]

Don't worry about water. Turkeys are where turkeys are. Lot's of my bests spots have no creeks, ponds or seeps but they have turkeys.

[CMBOSTC]

To me, strut marks are an indicator where a turkey wants to be. If a tom hears a hen within the general area of where he frequents, he will more than likely  come without too much hesitation.

[sixbird]

Gobblers will frequent the same areas where they've been successful with hens before. That's not to say it's any kind of guarantee he'll be there when you are but he was there once and more than likely found hens, hence the strut marks. Beats complete blind calling...

[deerbasshunter3]

Fun Fact: I have killed five turkey, but I never seen a single one of them strut.

[g8rvet]

Fun Fact: I have killed five turkey, but I never seen a single one of them strut.

Wow.  I guess a lot of that depends on where you kill them too.  I can't think of any bird on a "classic hunt", gobbling on the limb and come to the gun that strutted either for me.  Usually it is those later in the morning birds-coming down a road or in a field or field edge. The last one I killed would not go out of strut for the shot, even with me clucking at him.   

[deerbasshunter3]

Of the five birds, this is what they did:

#1 - Walked down the edge of a freshly plowed field eating. he came to our calling, but seemed to just be checking us (the hen) out. He never strutted or gobbled.

#2 - He was gobbling and walking around looking for the hen (us), but he never went into strut.

#3 - Came to us fairly quickly, in the pines, but was gobbling. We never saw him strut.

#4 - Came to us looking for the hen. He gobbled, but never went into strut that we saw.

#5 - He came about 250-300 yards in a matter of five minutes. I lost sight of him for about 30 seconds to a minute, so he may have gone into strut then. He never gobbled after hitting the ground, but came running to some soft yelps.

Maybe the birds that I have been on were just not in the situation to be strutting. #2 seemed like he should have, or may have, gone into strut, but I don't remember it if he did...