I'm actually heading to a state forest today to start some early scouting. I'll take a couple of calls to see it anything responds. Probably too early to get much in the way of responses. But I've gotten them in the dead winter if February before. So one never knows.
While I'm always looking for an excuse to hit the woods, it's pretty much a waste of time to be scouting in January. Gobblers are flocked up and on their winter range right now.........which could be a couple miles from where they'll be when it comes time you wanna kill one. So go wander around now. But do your scouting every morning the week before you are gonna hunt.
As far as calling before season goes...... Have at it. I generally don't. But it's just because I usually don't have the time for it. Turkeys are dumb as a rock. Their "memory" is less than a day long. They don't put 2 and 2 together and get 4. If you call well enough to kill a gobbler then you call well enough to not make them "call shy". And for the guys who go out and call them pre-season that suck at calling.........all the better. They're just making it harder for themselves and easier for me. Biggest thing, though, that affects how gobblers may respond, as far as human influence goes, is just your presence in the woods. Be stealthy. Don't just go crashing around.
Some day I hope to have killed enough gobblers to be able to self-proclaim as an expert. I'm not sure what that number is, though. But I have been at his sport long enough to know "usually" is in the vocabulary of EVERYONE who's being honest. Aside from being dumb as rocks, turkeys can be ignorantly random. There are things that work some of the time..........most of the time........but not all of the time. Hence "usually". The day I can walk outta my house and come back with a dead bird EVERY TIME...........that's the day I quit.
