Turkey hunting Help!!

[forgehunter]

Ok all, I have 2 sons that want me to take them Turkey hunting either this fall or next spring, and I have very little knowledge of Turkey hunting. I will most likely be hunting public land in SE wisconsin unless I get lucky and gain access to some private land. What am I going to need for equipment? We bought a couple of inexpensive diaphram calls at the a sports show to play around with and to my surprise all three of us were ably to get sound out of them! I have a blind if neccassary, and obvously the camo, but the rest of the equipment and knowledge is non existant at this point. So I guess my questions are what equipment do I need, what am I looking for when scouting...ect..are there some decent videos out there to teach the basics? Help!

[3dog]

Fall and spring turkey hunting is like night and day. For fall birds, evening feeding patterns are best. Do your scouting and you'll find a flock running a pattern then set-up an ambush. For spring hunting, calling is necessary, I'm partial to slate/glass calls. Away Products makes a great glass/slate combo. It's easy to run and makes great sound. As for calling birds, I can't stress enough the importance of praticing before the season starts. And by pratice I mean on real live birds. The sweet notes you had while calling in the yard can turn sour quick when a long beard is hammering at you just out of range. There's a nature conservancy close to when I live and I go there often to tune up before season starts. Other than that, scout, scout, scout. Turkeys are relatively easy to locate, pick any calm cool moring in March/April and the toms can't help but sound off at day break. Find yourself a good half dozen gobblers before season and you're well on your way to punching a tag. Good luck!!

[Mountain Man]

I would go to the local library and get some books on turkey hunting or go to Amazon.com where you can buy books fairly cheap even w/shipping. I haven't seen any videos on how to turkey hunt so I can't comment on that.

For fall turkeys 3dog is right in that you can pattern them. In my experience the gobblers will be in groups and the hens with their poults will be in separate groups. They move in the same general pattern at roughly the same time each day. You can ambush them if you want. You could scatter them too but make sure you scatter them in different directions and try to call them back. They will come to the call to try to regroup. I don't purposely target turkeys in the fall but when bow hunting I'll shoot one if I have a tag and they get in range.

For spring turkeys I would recommend going to one of the DNR turkey clinics. You will have to check on the DNR website for locations and dates but that will give you a good summary of how to hunt spring turkeys. I believe these are only held in late winter/early spring before the season.

I don't know how old your boys are but I would recommend also getting a slate and box call. That way all you guys can learn how to use other calls and the boys can then help do the calling with you and that way they will think it's cool to be participating in the hunt.

Depending on their age you might want to also look at the youth turkey hunt weekend if they meet the criteria. For this check the DNR website.

It would be good if you could find some private property but be aware that if the properties are small you might have trouble setting up w/o getting busted and/or calling in spring birds. For example I shot a bird this year in the 2nd period on a small private parcel and at the time there were a lot of birds in the area. By the 6th period there were no birds in the area. I hunted a bit there but gave up due to lack of birds and moved on. You need to have a few areas like 3dog said so you have other options to get close to where some birds are roosting or moving through. The public land would give you a lot of space to locate some birds but you will need to do some scouting. Try to determine where the roosting areas are and also strut zones.

I assume you'd be using a gun so make sure you pattern your shotgun with the turkey loads you plan to use. You can get into different chokes and size shot also but that will be up to you once you learn more about it.

At times while hunting you will need to have a lot of patience. The birds might hang up or take a few hours to come in. If you have patience you will be rewarded.

I would get some kind of locator call - a crow or owl call are probably the most popular.

When scouting and hunting be aware of any barriers that might keep a turkey from making his way to you such as a river or creek, fence line, etc.

If you want to use decoys there are plenty to choose from.

For scouting learn to identify gobbler poop - it's J-shaped. Also learn what feather drag marks on the ground look like from a strutting tom.

That should get you started. There are a lot of other things you can learn from books and videos as well as first hand experience.

[forgehunter]

Thanks for the start guys very helpful.
my boys are going to be 13 and 15 in a very short time. so they would be more than happy to do some calling.. We would be using shotguns as well, at some point I would like to try with a bow but I think it would be easier to learn with the guns.
Is there a place to start looking when scouting the property I will be hunting? or do we just need to start walking?

[huntinfool14]

the quickest and easiest way to scout is listen for them in the morning to see where each individually tom roost..then check it every other morning to see if there in the same spot.if that goes good also watch open fields in the mornings..turkeys love to strut away on east side fields when the sun rises to warm up and "show off" for the hens..if you put ur time in and scout for them..killing becomes much easier..another thing that helps me is putting out a hen decoy with a jake about 5 feet away..it seems the toms get pissed off and come running in to kick the jakes but but instead gets a head full of lead! good luck!!

[huntinfool14]

also for fall turkey hunting..iv never done much of it..but what people always tell me is find the birds in the afternoon..and get as close as you can and run at them to spook them into all directions..then set up decoys right there wait a few minutes and start calling...turkeys always want to be in a group in the fall so they come right back to where they got spilt up..

[dan]

Are your kids young enough to hunt the youth spring season weekend? If so, I would be willing to take you guys out and show them the ropes if I have that weekend free. Or if Im free the week they draw.

[forgehunter]

Dan that would be awsome! I believe they both are within the age limit!I will double check. I really appreciate the offer! I will talk with you more as it gets closer!