Educate Yourself For Turkey Hunting
When it comes to turkey hunting, knowledge is the most important factor. Being educated in the daily habits of the turkey will help improve the hunter’s chances of harvesting a gobbler.
Become Educated
A hunter can obtain a turkey education by reading helpful books or articles, watching hunting related videos, or most importantly, from experience in the field.
Key To Education
The key to a turkey education is learning and understanding what the turkey is likely doing throughout the day. This is followed by deciding how to hunt a specific turkey based on the accumulated knowledge.
Knowledge Gathering
The hunter must spend time on the property to be hunted in order to gain much needed knowledge. Here is a brief look at the information that should be obtained.
Roosting Areas
To begin with, find out where the turkey is likely to roost. This can be done by observing the turkey in the evening and watching as it flies up onto the roosting tree.
A roosting tree can also be located by using a locator type call as the sun is rising in the morning. Occasionally the same tactic can be used during the late evening hours just before dark.
The roost tree may be a large oak with long limbs, a tall pine tree, or any other tree native to the area.
Strutting Areas
The next step is learning where the turkey strutting areas are. Generally, gobblers will fly off the roost towards an area where the gobbler will strut and wait for the hens to arrive. This is usually an open type area such as a field edge, power line, open trail in woods, ridge top, and similar.
Feeding Areas
The feeding areas of a turkey will be determined by the available food sources in a given area. This may be field crops, grassy fields, food plots, wooded lots, or anywhere else that food can be located. The scratchings made by the turkey will give a good indication as to how frequent an area is used.
Watering Areas
The turkey will also need to have a water source. Depending upon the daytime temperatures, the turkey may use the watering areas more frequently. The water sources can come from creeks, ponds, rivers, or anywhere water can be found. Generally, a large number of tracks found near water will indicate frequently of use.
Education In Use
The hunter can use the gathered education to improve on proper setup locations. Each area of knowledge should be considered. A plan should be made to cover all the basic areas that the turkey is likely to use. This way if the first setup does not work then the hunter can move on to the next. The more options the better.
The more educated that the hunter becomes, the better chances that the hunter will have a plan of action for improved results.
