One piece of advice

[jepcho]

My one piece of advice is this:  put away everything you ever read from others regarding turkeys and turkey hunting.  Go out, find some turkeys, and learn to hunt them in your own way.  Scout as much as you can. Get around turkeys until your understand them, and then go out and kill them.

My reason for saying this is that so much of the knowledge I gained from reading the turkey greats meant next to nothing to me when it came to hunt them.  More often than not, my head was filled with preconceived notions of what I should be seeing that I could not understand what was being presented to me.  It took years for me to see turkeys as they really are.  I must always fight to see things with fresh eyes, and not judge them just as a repeat of something I have seen another year.

This is great advice!  I agree completely,  Thats probably why it took me 4 years to kill my first bird, and over the last 11 years since I've been able to fill almost every tag I've had.  Once I quit doing strictly what I thought I should do according to the advice I'd seen on videos and magazines, and just used my experience to develop my own skills, in conjunction with some of the advise,,, thats what makes a turkey hunter.

[dejake]

Make sure that your gun is loaded.  Don't ask how I learned that one.

[silvestris]

Memorize and put into practice pages 188-212 of "The Wild Turket And Its Hunting" by E.A. McIlhenny (free online on Google Books), forget everything else, and learn to call presentably and you will be successful.

[zelmo1]

  Do your homework. Scout, pattern your gun and practice calling. Don't be cheap. Try different ammo, chokes and tactics to see what works for you. This is half the fun. Do it because you love it. Al Baker

[strut2]

Enjoy every moment, every gobble, every opportunity to get in the woods!

[ridgerunner]

Always carry a roll of toilet paper i vest...don't ask how I know...probably the most important item in my vest.

[FullChoke]

Remember that you are on HIS time schedule and not yours. His pace in the woods is determined by him and you need to get in synch with the rhythms of the bird.

I took a kid out a few years ago on a turkey hunt. He asked if he had to sit still or if it was alright to move. I told him he could move all he wanted to, but only on one condition. He asked what that condition was. I told him he could move but only as fast as grass grew. If that boy can wrap his mind around that, we might have a future.

[Bowguy]

My advice would involve scouting. In my opinion very little should be done in the woods before it's hunt time. Mark as many birds as you can before the season, if you can somehow get close enough to watch where they fly down in the morning, you'd be ahead of the game but as far away as you can be. Idea is not to spook em.
Beyond that the next time I'd hit the woods where turks live is to roost em.
If you know where they wanna go/be the rest can be easy. That's true for all game though

[WNCTracker]

Don't let the rain keep you home .and hunt the fields. I've killed last 3 on rainy days.


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[g8rvet]

For where I hunt?  Remember the Thermacell because that lets you be still and also lets you wait him out! Learned this one from experience in a swamp bottom with my nephew.

[deerbasshunter3]

Don't assume that just because you are using a shotgun that you can just point and shoot. I missed my first bird I ever saw by lifting my head. Boy, did I clearly see him fly away in a hurry! Later that day, I shot my first turkey. I think I held my head on the gun for about a minute after I shot him. I wasn't making that mistake again.

[Marc]

I got into turkey hunting much later in life than I did waterfowling and wing-shooting.

I have really enjoyed the learning process, and I would say it is not those days that I am successful that send me back out into the field, but, it is those days I am "almost" successful.

Getting that bird to come a half a mile, and come almost within range...  Knowing (or thinking) if I had just done this or that I could have had him...  That is what makes me get up again at 3:30 am and leave my wife at home with two small kids...

Some great advice given, and I would have a tough time prioritizing on anything being said...  But, I will point out one of my biggest flaws, which is over-calling.  I love hearing that tom get fired up, and the temptation to call is overwhelming...  But, from my limited experience, the more we call, the more that tom expects the hen to meet him half-way...  Showing some interest, but playing a little hard-to-get seems to work much better if I can control my urge to over-call...

[BABS9]

Call from where that bird wants to be! Put your time in scouting and even learn from that bird while your hunting him. If you call from where he wants to be or where he's going it most likely wont take much.

[jg]

hunting in mo. a while back i got a hot bird double gobbling and it sounded like he was coming in and then nothing, for 30 minutes.I thought he got with some hens and I got up to move only to find out that he was about 5 yards behind me.That one hurt! If you have hunted long at all you will have that bird that slips in silently.These are some of the toughest birds to kill,especially if your not patient.I learned this the hard way.

[55esox]

Don't call until your in the best position to kill that bird. That could mean relocating for several hours before you call, but once you do it means you pushed your chips in and the game starts.