First time CO turkey hunter needs mentor

[americanbwana]

Well the wife just told me to go turkey hunting this spring.

While Ive gone once, I wouldn\'t really call it hunting. More like watching the snowmelt.

Anyway, is there anyone that would be willing to mentor me, or even allow me to come along to see how it\'s done?

I have one CO point, and can do archery or shotgun.

Thank much,
AB

 

[cnelk]

Dana
I\'m not much of a turkey hunter and have also watched the same snow melt.
I know bnsafe is helluva caller/turkey hunter but he is back in Misery now

 

[bnsafe]

yes i am back in misery. dana if you have any specific questions ask away. i know how to kill turkeys. tomorrow when i get time i will throw out some ideas and i think i made several posts last year in this section.

 

[mainebrdr]

Hey Dana, you may have heard \'turkey hunting\' but is that really what she meant? :lol:

 

[bnsafe]

merriams are a little different than the easterns im used to hunting. i learned alot last year chasing them and got one, but there are prob some differences i havnt figured out yet. but with that said, merriams seemed to be more predictable than easterns. they roost in the same areas and go to the same spots in the morning. you can use that against them so dont push them to hard the first time. they are much more flock birds than easterns so its a little harder to call them first thing in the morning, NOT IMPOSSIBLE, but harder. if i was hunting them i would figure out where they got together first thing in the morning. there should be a pasture or open spot they will go to. find that open spot close to where they roost and be there before they get there or dont go. once they start to get together, and im talking early, its possible to call one off the main flock but not likely. try, but keep you eyes and ears open for a bird thats sneaking in to the main flock. once they group up they will move off to who knows where. its hard to hunt them then. BUT, follow them or just get in the opening and wait it out. around 10 or so turkeys start breaking up into smaller groups. and once this happens the gobblers will start cruising for receptive hens. this can be one of the best times to hunt a turkey. if you can get one to gobble after 10 he will almost always come to you. no always, but almost. hunt that way most of the day. i would either find a spot thats comfy around the original clearing or move from one clearing to the next depending on where the gobbles are coming from. as the day wears on and its getting closer to roost time they will roost in generally the same area. be there before they get there if you wanna hunt at night. in mo we can only hunt til 1 so i dont have alot of advice for you, other than if you blow them off the roost area at roost time they wont be there in the morning to hunt. but, they will be scattered and vulnerable the next morning because they wanna flock up. they will come to your calling. I personnally wouldnt do that til the end of the hunt, say the last couple days. i would find another open area a couple hundreds yds or so away from the main roost area and try to catch them coming back in. that how i would hunt them.
now, a turkeys main defense is his eyes, and merriams are wary because they have so many predators chasing them. dont get caught out in the open. use the terrain to sneak around. stay on the opposite side of some structure and you will be fine. when you have to go that extra to get into position use the trees and crawl if you have to. they wont smell you so forget the wind. but they will see you.
alot of guys will try an get above them when they are calling. i find that just keep the main structure out of it, MEANING THEY WONT FLY OVER SOMETHING TO GET TO YOU, and you will be fine. but dont make em fly to get to you.
lastly, calling. dont get caught up in to much calling. i have all the calls and use them well, but i find myself using a box call and mouth call almost exclusively. i know people that use slates exclusively. so find one a box or a slate and stick with it. get one mouth call. a single reed is easier to blow, but i personally like a double reed for the sound so depends on how much you are willing to practice.
learn one call, and its a simple one. learn the yelp. you tube it and practice. it wont take five minutes to learn it. its not about the sound as much as the cadence. turkeys all have different voices just like we do, but the cadence will always be close. its a simple five or six note call and very easy. its your go to bread and butter call and you will kill all the turkeys you want with that one call. if you want to expand learn the cutt next. thats the hens im ready to breed call. its a good one to fire a turkey up and i use it alot so its a good call to know but if you dont then dont worry about it. after that you can learn a cluck, purr, cackle exetera but you dont need them. so again, learn the yelp and you will kill turkeys. i like to call alot cause i get bored, but you can call to whatever you like, anywhere from a once or twice a minute (for short periods) to every 15 minutes. its a feel thing. the more you call the more the gobblers know where you are. so you gotta call enuf to keep them interested, but not so much they arnt afraid of losing the hen. mimick the hens if nothing else. change how loud you call. call loud when you are trying to get there attn or reaching out. dont scream at them when they are coming. tone it down.
advanced tactics. if you have one answering but wont come try moving if you can without being seen. they like that. especially if you can get closer but any movt is ok. if you have one gobbling his head off and answering you and all the sudden he shuts up then get ready, hes prob coming. dont give up. they gobble all day and move around looking for hens all day. if you scare one dont worry about it. there are more around. when all else fails and your towards the end of your hunt try busting the flock. they will wanna get back together.
hope this helps and i didnt ramble. ask any questions you want and i will clarify as this is just a start.

 

[americanbwana]

Hey Dana, you may have heard \'turkey hunting\' but is that really what she meant? :lol:

Yea I heard that also. Seems working from home may have it\'s advantages after all :dance2:

 

[razorback]

bnsafe-that sure sounds different than how I hunt my birds. I would probably strike out in Colorado and I\'ve been killing MO turkeys for 20 years!

 

[Bob Frapples]

What I want to know either way is, if you use a mouth call, how many times you slip up and make a cow call during your turkey hunt. since I\'m pretty new to elk hunting I practiced elk calls a ton all last year and caught myself making a few cow calls while out turkey hunting. :crazy:
Would love to know what all the Louisiana critters thought was wondering around in the woods,

Bnsafe\'s post is solid and is spot on with the birds in my area. Beware of the silent birds, been busted by them many times by being impatient and fidgety, like elk, just cause you don\'t hear them dont mean they not there. I find Elk are nearly blind compared to turkey\'s vision, good full camo or good cover and minimal movement is mandatory.

 

[bnsafe]

steve, whats your preferred way to kill em. i killed my first one in 1983 or 84 and have been in on over a hundred kills. but, like elk, theres always a different way to go about it. anything to put in my arsenal im all for

 

[razorback]

I am strictly a run and gun hunter. I don\'t typically find my birds flocked up. I do find gobblers henned up some depending on how the season falls. If so I try my best to get between the gobbler and hens if possible when they are on the roost and then flush the hens. If not I just pick at the hens with a lot of cutting. Sometimes it works, makes a hen real mad and brings them all in and sometimes shuts them down. If so I\'m off for another bird. I rarely sit down until I\'m ready to shoot. Yes I kill a lot of 2 year olds (love those things). Don\'t get me wrong though I\'ve killed a lot of limbhangers too. I\'ve been turkey hunting since about 83 or 84 as well and primarily use a mouth call(s). I\'m kind of a wild man though I usually have an old boonie hat I am flopping to sound like birds stretching their wings (they do that frequently) and always scratching leaves). I probably use a shaker tube more than most hunters. The public land around here gets hammered a lot before season so birds are pretty call shy and can be hard to locate even at day light. My favorite way to locate them is to be IN the woods well before daylight away from logging roads. I wear an owl hooter out trying to get as many owls going as possible. I find that birds pressured quit responding to owl hoots from a distance but will gobble at the real thing if it happens to be close so the more owls the better. Seems like the odds go up if you can find one to work from a limb because it tends to get windy later in the morning and gets harder to hear. If I don\'t strike anything on a limb though I\'m walking until 1:00. Like I said earlier I find a lot of birds around here not flocked up as much and not normally henned up too bad. If they are and for some reason I can\'t get the gobbler to work, I just make a note of where he\'s at and check on him later in the morning. Last year I found 3 different nests with hens on them right after daylight. They had 10, 12 and 17 eggs in them respectively. Gobblers were for the most part by themselves with the exception being small flocks of jakes (I won\'t shoot jakes).

I am more aggressive than a lot of turkey hunters I know around here. I\'ll keep moving on a bird when a lot of guys are content to sit and wait. Yes. I spook my fair share but I\'m okay with that, my idea of a successful hunt is getting them fired up more so than just killing them.

I wasn\'t trying to come across as knowing more or anything like that, just sounded like those Colorado birds acted more like fall birds around here. I would be in trouble if went at them the same and probably disappointed if they don\'t fire up and run in hammering. That\'s all I meant by that. If you want to try and get togehter this spring to chase some gobblers let me know. My spots aren\'t great, a lot of hunters, but I usually do okay and kill a few birds.

 

[bnsafe]

not at all steve, i wasnt accusing, just asking how you did it so i could learn. i am a run an gun turkey hunter to for easterns. and it might work well for merriams. but those birds flock up like nothing ive seen. i would certainly go til i could hear one gobble or make him gobble. but they gobble alot more than what we are use to.

 

[razorback]

They sound a lot like fall birds. Just curious why wouldn\'t you just bust them up right off the bat? Seems like that would work, it\'s worked for me around here. I hate to try and work a big bunch of birds, usually the only time I will try to do it is if they are on another piece of property I don\'t have permission to hunt I\'m just out of luck trying to call them over to the piece of ground I have permission to hunt. Other than I\'m not fooling around with a big flock I\'ll hunt individual birds or scatter them. Those mountain birds sound tough, but they are some pretty birds, I love those white tipped tails. I\'ve read about hunting them before, I had always been under the impression they responded well and came to calls pretty easy. So are they all flocked up because they season starts early?

 

[bnsafe]

i dont know that they are that tough. i hunted twice an had opportunities both times,killing the second chance. they gobble good and come to a call ok. the only two real problems with killing them are 1. finding them, 2. flocks. i believe busting them up would work well but never had that chance. where i was hunting was around alot of private ground and i didnt wanna push them any farther away.and they were in a valley an ran up and down that valley all day long so no real reason to bust em up.

 

[razorback]

So scouting must be key. I generally don\'t scout much, just walk a lot during season. I know this from my CO experience, I can cover a LOT more ground in MO than CO in a lot less time. I believe if I was turkey hunting CO I would probably do some scouting and rely less on my running and gunning.

 

[Lark Bunting]

I am going to begin turkey hunting with my son this year as well Dana. While I don\'t have a mentor I do have a spot in mind that is remarkable close to home to allow for some half day trips and easy scouting. I\'ve also had turkey cross the road in front of me while driving through this area.

If you\'re up for a beer sometime maybe we could chat about meeting up and doing some scouting. :mrgreen:

 

[cohunter14]

I think I know where you are talking about Lark. If so, I can tell you where the turkey AREN\'T! :lol: I hunted up there a couple of years and never once came across a turkey. And I covered A LOT of ground! I don\'t know if it\'s because of the spring time or what. I know a guy who sees them all the time when elk hunting in the fall and I too have seen them by the road during the summer.