Crossing the road

[Mikehunts2]

I have a access to a corn field for this spring season. Sits right across the street from a huge State park that's loaded with turkey. They do not allow spring hunting. I'm wondering the actual chances of calling a bird(s) into the field across the road. This is not a busy road. I feel like there might be an advantage here. Especially for spring and being one of few open fields. Any thoughts?

[bbcoach]

Scouting will be the KEY here.  If there are plenty of birds, as you say, on the State Park and the road (dirt or hardtop?) isn't very busy these birds (once they breakup into smaller groups this spring) may move into the field to strut and feed.  About a month before your season begins, start scouting their movements and see if they are in fact moving into and out of this field.  As the season begins, the hens will be looking for places to feed and lay their eggs and the gobblers will follow them.  No guarantees but scouting early and often will tell you what you need to know. Be advised, if you aren't the only one with access to this field, you will have fellow hunters that have done their homework and will be there as well.

[GobbleNut]

Never hurts to try.  As far as tactics and calling goes, I would assess where along the field you might have the best chance of turkeys in the park being able to see across into the field, set up a decoy or three (including a strutter if you have one), and call away at them. 

I would start conservatively with your calling, but loud enough to reach out into the park...and hopefully you would get a response indicating turkeys over there can hear you.  If, and when, you get a response, I would just interact with them, again conservatively at first, and see what happens.

Personally, over the years of trying to pull turkeys off of other properties, I have mostly found that I have had to get pretty aggressive in my calling. Loud yelping and cutting seems to work well in those situations, but you need to adjust your calling based on how the turkeys are reacting to it. Generally speaking, if you get an active gobbler coming, you will probably want to tone down the volume and aggressiveness as he gets closer, but you want to do what is necessary to keep him interested and coming on.

The decoys will likely be necessary if you happen to pull a gobbler over to the park boundary such that he can see into the field. Hen decoy(s) may do the trick but having a strutter and/or a jake decoy in the mix will cover all the bases (Note: there are others here on OG with much greater experience in these types of situations in terms of decoy use...so maybe one or more of them will chime in).

Regardless, if you are in a wide-open field, any turkeys that come to where they can see into it will most likely balk at coming over to you if you do not have some sort of visual aid in place.

...May not work...but that is what I would do...    

 

[Paulmyr]

I would say the likelihood of the turkeys to move from the state park into the field is directly correlated to the number of hunters who have had the same idea as you.

You see your facing the same conundrum many public land hunters face. Instead of a state park most public hunters try and pull turkeys from private land. Successful attempts are possible but in most cases, as the season progresses, you find the turkeys pretty reluctant to move from their safe havens.

Don't get me wrong, it can be done especially early in the season before the turkeys in the park realize hunting season has started.

I think one of the main factors involved in this situation is the amount of pressure these turkeys received from the land surrounding the park.

If you have truly have found an overlooked honey hole than I don't think there will be any problems getting turkeys to come across the road. On the other hand, and I'm guessing this might be the case, other hunters have the same idea as you and them turkeys will most likely give you fits trying to get them to leave their safe havens.

Good Luck in your efforts.

[Mikehunts2]

Scouting will be the KEY here.  If there are plenty of birds, as you say, on the State Park and the road (dirt or hardtop?) isn't very busy these birds (once they breakup into smaller groups this spring) may move into the field to strut and feed.  About a month before your season begins, start scouting their movements and see if they are in fact moving into and out of this field.  As the season begins, the hens will be looking for places to feed and lay their eggs and the gobblers will follow them.  No guarantees but scouting early and often will tell you what you need to know. Be advised, if you aren't the only one with access to this field, you will have fellow hunters that have done their homework and will be there as well.

I'm the only one hunting it. It's a paved road

[Tclipse01]

Sounds worthwhile enough to give it a shot for sure, you have gotten some good answers. If you do use dekes (I would in this scenario), would recommend hens only or hen + jake and would avoid using a strutter.