Most of my turkey hunting success comes during the fall season. I am fortunate to have a lease on some land where the turkey have never been hunted, that is until I started leasing there. During the fall season the turkey tend to travel in larger groups. They are easier to spot due to a lack of foliage. However, there are some tricks that can be used to help improve your turkey hunting success during the spring season.





Most people don’t realize that turkey are actually quite predictable. Similar to deer, they travel the same corridors. They also prefer to use the same dusting, roosting, and feeding spots. When scouting for turkey, use some of the same skills that you use when scouting for deer. This will greatly improve your success rate by being able to intercept them on their way to these locations.


Get in the mix. In order to have the best advantage, you need to get right into their territory. This can get a little tricky at times, especially in open ground. This means that you need to be able to conceal yourself as much as possible. Turkey actually have better eyesight than deer do. Use your best camouflage techniques. Get yourself a ghillie suit, dig a pit to get down into or lay down prone onto the ground. Shooting a shotgun in the prone position can seem a little awkward at first, but it will great increase your success rate.


Call in the hens. You may notice that at times when you call, a tom may reply but not come over. This is because they are quite satisfied with where they are at with other hens. This is because you end up competing with the dominant hens. So, instead of trying to call in the tom, call in the hen. You do this by mimicking the hens calls. Find the hen who is the most vocal in the group and mimic every sound that she makes. If she yelps three times, do your best to imitate it. Every time she makes a sound whether it’s a cluck, cutting, or yelps, call back as precisely as you can. Eventually she will get upset and start heading your way with the tom in tow.


Crawl instead of call. If you have located your birds and calling doesn’t seem to work, try low crawling close enough to get a shot. This method takes a lot of patience. You will need to move very slowly and stay as low to the ground as possible.


Ruffle his feathers. If you are close enough to here a gobbler but he won’t come to your calls, try dragging a turkey wing across the ground. He will think that there is another tom in the area strutting his stuff. If you can hear him, it’s guaranteed that he will hear the wing draggin and will come to see what is gong on.


Try using multiple calls at the same time. If you are teamed up with another hunter this will work best. use combinations of box, slate, and mouth call at the same time. Switch your calls every few seconds for a series of yelps over a minute or so. This will give the impression of numerous hens in the area.


Spread your decoys. Using decoys during the spring is imperative. Spread your decoys apart, but make sure to keep them all within shotting range.


Try some of these tips and tricks during this springs turkey hunting season and you’ll see your success rate go up.


Happy Hunting!

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