Best strategy for afternoon hunting???

[woodhavenman]

What have yall found is the best strategy for hunting turkeys in the afternoon? I usually just sit in a high traffic area and call about every ten minutes.  This strategy is either a hit or miss and I'm looking for something more effective/exciting. Any ideas?

[RutnNStrutn]

Afternoon hunts are great if you set up near a known roosting area. I've also noticed that birds are in the fields a lot in the afternoons. So if you have some fields to hunt, especially if they are near roosts, set up there with dekes and wait them out. If you can get one gobbling in the afternoon, you are usually in business!!

[fl panhandler]

I try to find areas that I know the hens like to dust.  They sometimes hold a gobbler strut zone where he shows off for the "ladies".  If it's real hot out I'll look for logging roads  near some roost sites.
Rick

[shootumindaface]

Our birds are much more predictable in the evening than the morning.. Most times our gobblers will strut with hens in Ag fields in the morning.. I think alot of the time our gobblers lose their hens throughout the course of the day..

They than return to the ag field in the evening as that is a place they know the hens frequent in the evening hours.. I tend to call alot in the evening as if this situation arise they are usually plum fired up..

[TURKEYSLAYER101]

Afternoon hunts are great if you set up near a known roosting area. I've also noticed that birds are in the fields a lot in the afternoons. So if you have some fields to hunt, especially if they are near roosts, set up there with dekes and wait them out. If you can get one gobbling in the afternoon, you are usually in business!!

What he said but be on your toes because alot of those big ole boys like to sneak in silent in the afternoons. Good luck!

                                                 TURKEYSLAYER 101

[bowhunter84]

Afternoon hunts are great if you set up near a known roosting area. I've also noticed that birds are in the fields a lot in the afternoons. So if you have some fields to hunt, especially if they are near roosts, set up there with dekes and wait them out. If you can get one gobbling in the afternoon, you are usually in business!!

What he said but be on your toes because alot of those big ole boys like to sneak in silent in the afternoons. Good luck!

                                                 TURKEYSLAYER 101

[Basser69]

I have killed a ton of birds in the afternoon blind calling on the edge of fields. Most of the birds come silent in looking for a hen. You do not have to use a decoy but it will help as a visual aid.

[surehuntsalot]

I sit in an area that has alot of sign  and call about every 10-15 minutes,sometimes I've had them gobble,but most of the time they come sneaking in

[Crutch]

Like they said.  I really enjoy sneaking around the woods checking out fields without getting busted, then trying to figure out the right direction to go. I've crawled along a field toward their roosting spot many a time and it does pay off. If they are not in the field one minute, wait a few, they can show up at any minute especially if they typically use a certian field. I am fortunate to be able to hunt a pasture, next to a wooded creek. The pasture also grows those little plants that have yellow buds on them. Before they turn yellow, the birds eat them while they are green, they look like a minuture clover bloom.

[okgobbler]

Last year, I killed a gobbler and looked in his craw and it contained a bunch of clover.  Apparently the turks in my area like their clover!

[StruttinGobbler3]

As stated already, I like to find exactly where they are roosting. If they're roosting near a field or food plot, set up there and call every fifteen minutes or so. Decoy is optional, in my opinion. If you can find the exact trail, road, or other pathway that they are using to go to their roost tree, then you all but have him in the bag. Set up along that road and call every once in a while, every twenty to thirty minutes. Sometimes they'll gobble, sometimes they won't. The bigger birds usually slip in silent. This is how I killed one yesterday, setting up on a road the bird was using to go to his roost.

[harvester]

Last year, I killed a gobbler and looked in his craw and it contained a bunch of clover.  Apparently the turks in my area like their clover!

I check everyone of them to see what they are eating.