turkey hunting???

[Arrowmike]

I have decided to try turkey hunting this year, so any info on this would be great. I know next to nothing about hunting them.
Im thinking that I may take the shotgun with so what type of choke and load should I use? The gun is a Remington 12ga 26”barrel. And if my son goes I’ll be getting him a Mossberg 20 ga 20”barrel.
Next is calls and decoys how and when do you use them? What are good ones? Any good DVD to learn calling?

[bullmoose38]

Originally Posted by Arrowmike

I have decided to try turkey hunting this year, so any info on this would be great. I know next to nothing about hunting them.
Im thinking that I may take the shotgun with so what type of choke and load should I use? The gun is a Remington 12ga 26”barrel. And if my son goes I’ll be getting him a Mossberg 20 ga 20”barrel.
Next is calls and decoys how and when do you use them? What are good ones? Any good DVD to learn calling?

Well for chokes it seems like the H.S. Undertaker always patterns out of every gun. You want to use an extra full or turkey choke. You can experiment with different chokes. For load the winchester supremes 3 inch usually pattern well out of anything. Again you can experiment with different shells. I prefer 4 or 5 shot. The larger the shot the more knock down power at longer ranges. The easiest calls for a beginner to learn is the box or a slate type call. Decoys I like the delta. You definitely want at least one hen in your arsenal and place them about 15 yards from you. If you would be bowhunting them out of a blind place them about 5 feet. I think H.S. make a call video. I know Quaker Boy does. Hope this helps. If you have anymore questions ask away.

[HuntnMa]

get the bobble head hen....i'm telling ya , she is the best....she even keeps you on your toes, lol.....i'll be getting sleepy, all of a sudden i see movement out of the corner of my eye, it'll wake ya up, lol.... and the turkeys seem to be more willing to come in to a moving decoy...IMO

[Great White Hunter]

Tom's are beautiful, hens are not.

Tom's have a iradescent (sp?) color in their feathers...kind of a rainbow effect like water and gasoline - their feathers are shiny. Hen head are gray/blue, Jakes heads (toms under 2 yrs) are also gray/blue maybe with red, Toms have a lot of red in their head and a nasty little dangly thing that appears to be completely useless. If the grass is low you can see spurs but I always look for the beard. The beard will stick out like a sore thumb if it's a mature tom. It it's just barely poking out up to a few inches it's a jake. Another way to tell a jake is that the center 1/3 or so of the fan feathers are raised an inch or so higher than the fan feathers to the left or right. Bottom line - long beard (6" + will be a tom). If you see hens and no tom, many times it's because the tom is there but he's hanging back...even if there is a tom in the group a lot of times there's a boss tom hanging back. Since you've never taken a turkey don't be embarrassed to take a jake - getting a shot on your first turkey is tough enough.

It's been said that if a turkey had the ability to smell they'd be nearly impossible to hunt. They hear decent but they can see you blink at 50 yards. I've taken one step at 100 yards behind a tree before and gotten busted. Camo and stillness are key. Camo head to toe and move as little as possible no matter how much your butt hurts!

If you hunt later in the season in my experience the toms aren't vocalizing, but that doesn't mean they aren't coming so keep calling. I have killed the last couple of toms because they came into my call but never made a sound.

When you think your morning hunt is over give it another 30 minutes

Wear snake boots.

Bow - use the pics above
Shotgun - head shots - wait til he's in range and raises his head
Rifle - top of the leg or head shot will do the trick

If your in a blind keep the back windows closed, wear dark clothes (black or camo) and stay back away from the windows as much as possible - they won't see you. Plant your decoys 15 yards or so out in front of a tree line. Turkeys love to strut their stuff as soon as the sun hit's the tree line. So try to be on a tree line that will be lit first thing in the AM. Or close to one and start calling. A CD for calling can usually be purchased with a call of some sort. I prefer mouth calls - they keep my hands free. I can even yelp while drawing a bead on him with a mouth call.

Turkeys have terrible memories, if you take a shot and miss, settle down for a few minutes, start calling again slowly. After a bit you can start calling normal again. I've seen turkeys come back as soon as 15 minutes after I've shot one. They have NO long term memory. Especially if you're over a feeder -if they're hungry and haven't forgotten where the feeder is they're coming back.

If there is more than one tom and you take the biggest, quickly get ready for another shot. Many times a subordinate tom will jumb on the back of a dying or dead boss tom to establish dominance - might be an excellent opportunity to pull a double!

Best of luck! Once you start turkey hunting you'll have a new addiction!

[Arrowmike]

Great White Hunter- Great post, that answers some more of my questions. I'll have to find some pictures of the Jake/Tom thing, so I can see what your talking about.


Any one else like to add any thing feel free, all info appreciated!

[bullmoose38]

Originally Posted by Arrowmike

Great White Hunter- Great post, that answers some more of my questions. I'll have to find some pictures of the Jake/Tom thing, so I can see what your talking about.


Any one else like to add any thing feel free, all info appreciated!

Take notice with the picture of the small flock. Their fan isnt well rounded. Look at the lone strutter of the tom. You can see how the fan is even the whole way around. Hope this helps!

[nhbowhunter21]

Originally Posted by HuntnMa

get the bobble head hen....i'm telling ya , she is the best....she even keeps you on your toes, lol.....i'll be getting sleepy, all of a sudden i see movement out of the corner of my eye, it'll wake ya up, lol.... and the turkeys seem to be more willing to come in to a moving decoy...IMO

I went hunting only a couple of days last year due to my schedule but I had a great setup. I placed my hen decoy out in a field about 150yds away from a road near a wooded patch. I was wearing camo sitting in full cover amonst the woods facing back towards the road.

About once every half hour a car would come down the road passing by the field. You could tell the drivers saw the decoy because they slowed down almost to a crawl as then went by...

I was two hours into the hunt when a local farmer drove his tractor by the field. He put the tractor into low gear and then held one hand up to his mouth.... gobble.. gobble..gobble. He continued gobbling to my decoy until his tractor disappeared out of sight. I was laughing so hard I almost wet myself.

[Great White Hunter]

ROFLOL!

Then again, I can't stand hunting close to a road! vehicles buzzing by right at dusk drives me crazy!