How early to get into the turkey woods?

[High plains drifter]

Everyone seems to be on the same page. About an hour before gobbling light. I'm sure everyone on here watches the weather or has some sort of weather app. I use Wunderground. I look at when sunrise is, and first light. I like to be in and setup about an hour before that first light time frame. In my experience,  you can just start to see a little bit of light popping up about 20-30 mins before that first light time, pending on whether it is clear or not, so if you're in there an hour before the first light time it gives you a little bit of play to re-position if you don't like the initial setup.

That is a very good point. Give yourself some time to find the right place to call from.

[falltoms]

I'm always early no matter what. My philosophy is better to be an hour too early than a minute too late.

[Crghss]

I plan to be in my spot 30 minutes before first light. But when turkey hunting the excitement usually gets me and I usually wake up earlier then head out earlier and get there about an hour before first light.

[BB30]

I like to get in early as the others have said. If there is some green up and I have a good idea of where the bird is roosted I won't stop at 100 yds I will get into 65-70 yds and be still.

If you get in early early enough they won't know your there. When doing this I won't call until the have hit the ground. Once on the ground a cluck and some purrs should be all you need if you get in their bubble like that.




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[G squared 23]

My first time out, I'm normally in 30 minutes or more before gobbling time, but I'm never hunting right close to a roost.   That is the plan every time, but I eventually wear out and will end up putting out decoys when the first gobbles start.  Since I'm off the roost, it doesn't usually hurt me, but I hate the feeling of being late.  But sleeping is pretty awesome too....

[a_jabbo]

I guess I'm the odd one on this.

From the front porch to my favorite turkey spot is about 15 minute's walk. I like to cover the first half or so with the flashlight on.  Usually, I am able to turn off the light and make my final approach with the flashlight off.  That gives me about 15 minutes before legal hunting starts. The first gobbles occur a short time after that.   

Mind you, my style is different from a lot of folks.  I'm not as worried about catching a bird at flydown.  I'm more worried about being there for when they come off silent running and come out into the fields to feed.  My favorite spot puts me where I can hear birds on the roost, but I'm not right up on them.

I also have an advantage, because the path I take is an abandoned road running the length of the property.  It runs just to one side of a knife-edged ridge, and I can walk silently along its length well below where birds roosted on the other side of the ridge could see or hear me.  When I get where I'm going, I pop out to the top inside a dense treeline.   My son has a similar spot staked out on a neighboring ridge.  When conditions are right, he and I can call to each other, even though we're a half-hour's walk between

When everything goes to plan, he and I are situated for witnessing one of the greatest shows a turkey hunter can possible experience.  Both of us are positioned at rim of a large holler. When the conditions are right,  gobblers light up all up and down this creek and produce waves of gobbling that you can hear moving in both directions. It is the sonic equivalent of watching The Wave at a ballpark. 

Using that analogy, we aren't down on the field, or trying to hunt in the middle of the box seats.  Rather, we're set up by the refreshment stand.

That sounds like an incredible spot to have back behind your place. Basically a dream of mine.

[shaman]

That sounds like an incredible spot to have back behind your place. Basically a dream of mine.

Thanks. 

The creek with all the gobblers is called Pity Creek by the locals. I own about 1/4 mile on one side of the creek and maybe 100 yards on the other at one point.   The crazy thing is that we've only harvested 1 gobbler from there in 17 seasons. It looked like ideal turkey habitat, so beginning in my first season, I would walk down there an hour before first light and set up. I had a ground blind that I made from burlap that was set up on a small rise.  For 5 seasons I tried to get a gobbler out of that creek and never could.

Finally, one year, I fell hard against a fence rail in the pre-season. Afterward I kept having really bad stabbing pain in my chest. I was in my mid-40s, hunting alone, and my boss had just had heart attack.  I was fairly sure it was just a rib that was popping out, but I decided to play safe and not go down into that creek bottom. I stayed up on top of the ridge that season.  Wow!

What I discovered was that I had been hunting the place all wrong.  The gobblers were all roosted down in the creek, but they and the hens all pitched down to uphill side of the trees and always walked uphill after flydown.  By being down at the bottom, I was always chasing the turkeys those steep hillsides.  Saying on top, I tagged out by mid-week of the Opener.

I too used to dream of a place like that.  Early on, my head was filled with Ben Lee tapes, and Ben used to say a gobbler whose droppings hit water is a happy gobbler.  It might be true, but the truth of it is, those gobblers tend to pitch down and run away from that water as quick as they can-- at least down on Pity Creek.

Dreams will also steer you wrong on is gobblers at Flydown.  You'd think it was just a matter of being on the right side of the tree.  For me, the truth was it wasn't about that at all.  Until that rib bone forced me to stay up on top of the ridge, I was not going to be successful.   I took gobblers, but it was never from the bunch on Pity Creek.