Not much gets your heart pounding like seeing a wild turkey coming out of a tree line, tail fan out, red and blue head glowing bright. All your calling, scouting, and prepwork has paid off. Now hopefully you’ll be able to get your gun to your shoulder to take the shot before he notices something is off. If you have yet to see and feel this for yourself, hopefully this guide will help get you in this situation.
Big Witty Birds
The wild turkey is the largest upland game bird in the USA, also being one of the smartest. Turkeys have been evading hunters for many years because of their remarkable eyesight and hearing abilities. One subtle movement while you’re sitting along a tree or a creaky chair in the blind is enough to send these birds running away from you with no shot opportunity. Figuring these birds out can be quite the trick due to their intelligence but they do happen to be predictable and once you figure out their patterns, you’ll be heading home with one over your shoulder.
Morning Patterns
At dawn turkeys will leave their roosts. Turkey roosts are tall trees, often with cover around them. When turkeys leave the roost, they’re heading out in search of food. Turkeys will target green vegetation like grasses, berries, acorns, and wild onions. They will also go to harvested fields in search of leftover corn and beans.
Afternoon Patterns
In the afternoon, birds will move from their feeding zones to loafing zones. This type of area will consist of trees with dense canopies. You’ll often find them in oak forests because of the food and canopy that they provide.
Turkeys will also dust during this time of day. Turkeys dust themselves with dirt to clean their feathers. You can spot these areas easily by looking near tree lines on the edge of fields. Turkey tracks as well as a mess in the dirt is something to look for. They look similar to a buck scrape but quite a bit bigger.
Evening Patterns
In the evening they will head back to feeding zones for a short time before they wander back to roost for the night. Turkeys will often roost in the same tree night after night as long as they feel safe.
How to Use These Patterns for Hunting
Knowing the key patterns turkeys exhibit is one thing, but using them to your advantage will provide a successful hunt.
You’ll need to start scouting for turkeys early before the season. Using a gobbler, crow, or owl call early in the morning is the best way to locate toms. Once you’ve got a pin point on where the sound is coming from you should try to spot the tree they are roosting in. However you don’t want to get too close to the birds and spook them from their roost, as they may never return. Using a pair of 3 Primal Binos will aid you in spotting turkeys at a distance. You’ll want to scan the tall trees and once you’ve spotted them watch where they go out to feed. After seeing where they head to feed you’ll want to pick a spot in between the roost and feed zone. By doing this you can intercept them on the way to feed and hopefully get a shot off.
By picking this type of spot to hunt you should be set for morning and evening hunts because of the way they keep to their daily schedule.
Mastering the Ways of the Turkey
Figuring out turkeys can take some time. Although predictable, they can throw you for a loop and roost in a different spot than the night before. Figuring out all the areas turkeys go on the land you hunt will give you a better chance of bagging one. Like most hunting endeavors, if you put in the work and the time you’ll bag one and gain some valuable knowledge for the next hunt.
