Home Forums Birds & Dogs Turkey Hunting Excited for fall turkey hunting?

I buy tags every fall, but to me, it just isn't the same as a spring hunt. In the fall, I'm already in the woods bow hunting for deer. In the spring, I've been cooped up in the house after what seams longer and colder winters here. But I still buy at least one fall tag every year, sometimes I even get one! A very good friend has almost 300 acres just south of Mauston, WI. If I'm there in the fall, not hard to run and gun a fall turkey hunt and there's birds all over the place. At my property in NE WI, a little east of Green Bay, it doesn't take long to run and gun the birds completely off my 40 acres. There too, there's birds everywhere. But I still love being in the woods, just a different excitement level.

Hopeful maybe. Turkeys are a sometime thing on “my” WMA because it's only about a square mile. The hope comes from the October opportunities I’ll have, two senior days for bear and antlerless deer during the turkey season, then four more when the mammals are both in. Reminds me of the good ol’ days a bit, when seasons weren’t so chopped up. Adds a little spice.

Not really. Fall turkeys are targets of opportunity for me. Would rather hunt deer and small game, but I'm not adverse to taking a turkey if the opportunity presents itself. I've killed more turkeys in the fall while hunting other things than in the spring. Deer, small game and fall turkey seasons here overlap. Fall turkey season here is broken up into three or more segments, IIRC (I always have to look at the regs the day before deer hunting to see if turkeys are in). Always have to be careful when deer hunting that turkeys are legal that day.

Here are the season for fall turkey in the counties I hunt most:

County 1
October 22 through November 4,
November 23 and 24,
December 5 through December 31,
and January 14 through 28

County 2
October 22 through November 4,
November 23 and 24,
and December 5 through December 17

One thing I've notice is how differently fall turkeys act versus spring. A group of fall turkeys will forage below a tree stand or out from a ground stand seemingly unconcerned that there is an orange clad hunter near them. It's always been that way. Sitting in a ground or tree stand wearing and orange vest, only to have a flock kicking up leaves and eating mast work their way in nearly up to the tree.

I went fall turkey hunting one time. Saw a big flock of birds out in a creek bottom, and called to them. Every bird in that flock, which I'm guessing was somewhere close to 60-70 birds, came in at practically a run. I thought to myself that this is to easy, and I never fired a shot, nor have fall hunted again.

I know that that was the exception rather than the rule, but I just don't care to fall hunt for turkeys.

A turkey should never be an opertunist target.

Maybe, Maybe not, but if you want to test your hunting skills, sneak up on a flock of jakes and shoot one with an old Burgess shotgun loaded with 2 inch #8 shot shells. You will soon see how good a hunter you are.

Here is a 2 inch shell for comparison. It isn't a real potent shell, you need to be stealthy...

That's a super nice gun. Always enjoy seeing your collection.

Yes, I hunt them with a bow along with deer, pigs, and Aoudads. The season starts soon, Oct 7 I think.

Not really.

I've hunted fall turkeys since I started hunting them. But, after a while, it just lost a lot of its appeal to me. You go out. You hunt the current food source. You break a flock of hens and poults. You sit down and call. You decide which one of 10 or 20 birds is going to commit assisted suicide first. The hardest part is the walking and the finding............which isn't usually very hard. The calling and killing is actually not much sport in my personal opinion. Some guys......some really good friends......fall hunt with some very good dogs. I've never gone along. I could imagine the dog work would be very satisfying. But, still, really not my cup of tea. So, if you want a bit more challenge, you target longbeards. I've done it a few times. I've had good success. But, I've only ever pulled the trigger twice because I'd 1000X rather shoot a longbeard after he strutted and gobbled the whole way in and gave me a show. Not when he slid in quietly on the sly. I have called flocks of fall longbeards in, only to pull down my facemask and say "See ya in the spring !!" The two fall gobblers I did actually shoot were two of the biggest birds I've ever taken. But the length of the beard(s) and spurs aren't the only things that make a hunt exciting or make a mature tom a trophy to me. This is not to say I won't go out this fall or another year. My older brother LOVES fall hunting. I enjoy sharing hunts with him. Calling birds for him. There will be a day we won't be able to............

I suspect here in the fall a turkey dog will do to turkeys what deer hounds do to them - send them straight up into the trees. East of the Blue Ridge in Virginia is deer hound country. During the general firearm season the hounds are out running deer. Dogs send the turkeys straight up. Birds will sit there for hours. Once the hounds are done working an area, they come straight back come back down. There is no "scattering the flock" and calling them back in. They fly to the trees in a group and come back down in a group. Scattering a flock with a dog and calling the birds back in may be doable in places, but where turkeys are habituated to all the damned deer dogs running, they've become desensitized to dogs and just aren't that freaked out by them that they go in all different directions.

I’m glad they did away with dog hunting in Texas

Fall turkey hunting is my favorite. All the nuts are out in the spring gobbling and hooting. I gave it up. I only hunt in the fall.. Spring time is the time for bear hunting.

I hunt bear in the fall.

Spring is when I come to Wyoming and shoot your turkeys.

I don't do any gobbling or hooting, though.........

I much prefer to be in the woods in the fall/winter. No need to screw around with head nets and bug juice to keep from being eaten alive come fall. In the spring the black flies make the woods a miserable place to be. Spring is better spent fishing and shooting woodchucks out in the open where the little bastards ain't so thick.

Any time someone tells you how easy it is to kill turkeys in the fall its evident they dont know chit from shinola....

Years back I've taken people fall hunting with my turkey dog Buster the Brown Bomber and when I was sure we had flushed a flock of Gobblers I remarked that when I get them talking you are going to hear turkey talk like you have never heard in your life....

If you hunt enough and payed attention you can tell from the dogs barking if he has flushed hens or a flock of gobblers...

Hens are not like calling longbeards....lots of factors flushing hens with a dog.
Like was mentioned hens go to the trees a lot of the time and can be difficult to deal with....then you have the "fear factor" when dogs flush a flock of hens it scares the hell out of them. A lot of times they come in peeping.....every once in a while you'll get a boisterous hen doing the kee kee kawking run.

With longbeards the "fear factor" is a lot less....when you flush a flock of gobblers and get one to answer the call they will go into wild calling....yonking and sometimes gobbling.

The best I can describe the experience is being circled by sharks....if you're skilled and lucky you might get 2 or 3 maybe 4 kills then it's over.

I dog hunted during a period in Tennessee that pretty much had unlimited fall tags.....one fall I remember having 42 tags for two counties and I also hunted Fort Campbell military base weekly. Then they had a 4 month season with a daily limit of 2 turkeys.

My dog is in the happy hunting grounds, bag limits are gone.....fall hunting is no fun if you can't kill a pile of turkeys.

So I just spring hunt now.

OR............... Someone who thinks killing fall turkeys is HARD........may not be as good at it as they think.

Some may quit when their dog passes on. Some may quit when it stopped being a challenge.

Turkeys show up in/on pasture, field, oak ridge at XX time, be there the next day around that time, shoot turkey. Yeah, it's rocket science.

Ambushing turkeys is no real challenge.

I guess I never really understood the allure of finding a flock, not shooting one, breaking the flock up, then calling them back in, and then shooting one. I guess that has appeal if you just want to fall call. Hell, I've had flocks forage nearly up to my deer stand apparently unconcerned I was there. I've stood up or made a noise with my feet, scared them off a ways, only to have them work their way back to the same location 20 or 30 minutes later. Like they don't even remember I was there. I just don't see fall turkey hunting as hard as spring hunting. And taking a bird from a flock that forages up to your stand is certainly no less ethical than setting up a deer stand on a deer trail and waiting for a buck to head from where he's bedded to a field. One method is not more "ambushing" than the other.

That's sure iZ a lOt of success Denise....in 12 years my dog sat in on about 200 fall kills without the use of a sack or a the use of a blind.

Not sure I'm prouder of.......you or your dog. Which of you is it that doesn't have a sack ??

Now.............ask me how many times I've called gobblers or gobbler flocks into gun range in the fall and NOT pulled the trigger because it's a waste of a regal spring opponent. Called in a flock of 13 longbeards last fall and killed a nice double bearded tom. Then I was pizzed off at myself for weeks for having done it.

No. DON'T ask me. Because I don't feel the need to justify anything to you. I do know that the total number of fall turkeys I've killed is less than 200. But I have no idea WHAT the number is. I'm not a turkey counter. Turkey counters are the guys who have to have a number to toss out during a dick swinging contest in an attempt to legitimize their woods cred. Believe it or not.......no matter WHO you are.......I'll know in the first 2 minutes of talking turkey hunting what someone's skill level is. I don't need told. Quickest way for someone to lose my respect in a turkey hunting discussion (if I ever had any in the first place) is for someone to toss their kill numbers at me. That's where they get an "Oh........that's nice" and I'm done.

Just when I start to think you MIGHT have a tiny bit of usefulness in this forum, Luther, you go and prove me wrong.

I’d imagine that if one limited the hunt to mature gobblers, the challenge would be considerable. The few I’ve run into have been pretty dang wary, and were solo. Scattering a flock of hens and poults then calling one in doesn’t seem all that tough, but the one time I did it for my young son it was a lot of fun, and he sure enjoyed it. I woulda had one too if not for the balky magazine in my .22/45.

We have another few days in January when hunters using stick bows or sidelock MLs can shoot a turkey, a bear (good luck with THAT) or a deer, another mixed bag opportunity. I’ll be hoping for snow that week.

I used to hunt turkey exclusively with a big ol 10 bore SxS muzzleloading shotgun. I truly enjoyed that! On kind of a modern firearm kick at the moment...

But I can see getting back into that. Also used to load shorter black powder shells for a couple old Belgium 12 bore SxS hammer guns (Shrapnel, enjoyed your picture, roll crimp?). Was even published about some of it in the now defunct "BlackPowder Hunting" magazine out of I forget where Wyoming. But that and a couple bucks got me a cup of coffee this morning.

I kept up with it because I was proud of my dog....I stopped counting at close to 200.

I've let a few longbeards walk in the spring so I could keep hunting none in the fall with the exception of the winter season at Ft. Campbell....bearded birds were off limits in their winter season.

One thing I never did was count my kills (except to make sure I did not go over my limit) Same goes for deer.
Had a guy ask me a few years back how many turkeys I have killed, he could not believe that I did not know.

When I first started I kept up with it I could tell you how many at some point you will loose count.

I've always notched the chalk boxes on my box calls and I used to notch my pot calls too.

I only have two boxes one I made in 1995 has about 75 or 80 notches the other box I made in 2007 has over a 100 notched. They only get a notch if they're involved in the kill....its nice to look back on.

Other than that I stopped counting years ago.

I've lnow a lot people that like to brag.....one guy in particular comes to mind I won't mention any names because most here would know of him.

He used liked to throw out these big numbers of turkeys he had killed.

Funny i met him a few years after his house burnt to the ground and story goes he lost everything he had.....when I met him a few years later he had about 60 to 80 beards on the wall in his new house.

Didn't take a Rocket scientist to figure out there was a bugger in the wood plie.

I've also known people that have hunted for decades and killed a lot of turkeys that really don't know much more than when they started out turkey hunting.

This might sound far fetched but ive hunted with a few.....

As much as I like spring turkey hunting I’m still more amazed by all the different sounds you hear turkeys make in the fall. I vividly remember busting a flock of 7 or 8 gobblers one December in KY in a snowstorm that deadened all the sound except those birds gobbling in every direction around us. I’m not sure I ever heard turkeys gobbling in the winter before that day and they must have gobbled over 100 times.

Buster and I ran into a December flock of close to 60 gobblers in Cheatam county Tn. on more than one occasion......gobbling, strutting, fighting turkeys gone wild.

One might ask how you could count 60 gobblers in big hardwoods....you can't but a fellow that lived up there told me about them.

The spring turkey hunter will never hear what a fall hunter will hear or have the conversations with turkeys that a fall hunter can occasionally have....

I learned more about how to call turkeys in my years fall hunting than I ever learned in the spring.

I've took people with my dog and have a turkey come in peeping....peep peep sometimes just one peep.

I look over there and the guy is playing on his cell phone. Later I asked him if he heard that turkey calling directly in from of him while he was playing on his phone he said "that wasn't a turkey that was just a bird".

It was a bird alright a hen turkey that had the hell scared out of it by Buster the Brown Bomber.

You don't suppose that fellow was shooting more turkeys than what the law allowed for, do you ??

My dog hasn’t sniffed a turkey since the spring when I kept some wings and fans to put in the freezer. I got a wing out last night to drag across the back yard this morning before I let him out and without him knowing what I was up to. Normally when I let him out he makes a beeline for the back corner of the yard where I scatter bird seed to feed the doves. Within a few seconds of letting him out he hit the scent trail of the drag to a flower bed in the opposite corner of the yard where I’d hidden the wing. Hopefully we’ll make it to KY in October for a hunt. I figure with all the regulation changes going on this might one of last few opportunities to try to get him into some birds.

I drew my my tag for fall. There were close to a hundred out at the ranch Sunday afternoon when I took my camper out to the barn. I only saw two groups of gobblers. Will be a lot of fun.

Usually hunt them with my longbow, which makes a lot more challenging.

Turkey feather fletchings? Lol! That would be cool!

Now THAT'S cool, right there !!!

I do save wing feathers and fletch arrows with them. Long time ago I even split tail feathers and made flu flu arrows.

Bringing back memories! Enjoy!

I made some of those a few years ago with feathers I picked up while walking my dog. I just wrapped the split feather around the shaft in front of the regular fletching. Works fine.

Fall calling a bird up is an excellent way for beginners to learn to call and communicate.

Let me be perfectly clear, if I get in range of a flock of turkeys in the Fall, I’m gonna scatter ‘em by shooting the fattest one I see. I’ve heard of guys doing what 10Glocks mentioned, not shooting one, but I ain’t that much of a sport.

Shame on me, and pass the gravy…..

I used to enjoy fall hunting. I won't buy a fall firearms tag, and I get two archery turkey tags with my archery deer permits, but I won't shoot a turkey even if I get a chance. Our population is so low now that I would feel guilty shooting a turkey. Especially so a hen.

Yea we all know you eAt a lot of turkey grAvy.

You have nothing to offer but bull chit proven time and time again.

I know for a fact he wasn't.....I'm guessing the fire department rescued the beArds and spurs.

Is that a promise Denise ?

Facrt s Denise skill level is acquired in the woods not behind a key boArd.

Just tell us who in "the turkey hunting and choke tube industry" in their right mindz would "pAy you for over twO decades "?

Here we go again, different thread, same....

I'm sorry Dean, I erased my post, but it gets tiring. LFC uses the CampFire to harass and bother legitimate users. LFC has been banned from just about every other forum he's been on for this same behavior. He's found a place that is essentially unmoderated and he can get away with his abusive behavior. You can't ignore the guy, his posts show when they are quoted or when you aren't logged in. And he has show ZERO sign of letting people post in peace without destroying threads.

So Dean, you take as you find it. The turkey forum on 24HrCampfire is haunted by LFC. Like the optics section and a few others is haunted by Big Stick. That's the way it is. Rick doesn't seem to have an intention to get rid of the thread destroying ass-clowns on this site. It's just the way it is.

No apology necessary, but thank you. And I'm not saying I disagree with you, not saying that at all. I'll admit, that at times, I'm drawn to these threads like a moth to a flame! Lol!

Just an FYI..........

The Old Gobbler Forums are certified LFC-free. There's moderation over there and he was removed on several counts of being an azzhole (go figger).

If you're not already a member over there, you may wanna go check it out.

My tag. will hunt them however I choose.



You need a dog to hunt turkeys??????

A dog, really? Is that a thing?



By Nov 1, there will be 300 turkeys on our place give or take. 60? big deal.

I've killed turkeys with every kind of gun imaginable. I don't do it for anyone but me. I have never used a dog and never will. Most of these guns are worth more than the purebreds that bird guys pay for their top bred hounds.

To each his own...

More...

DANG, but I love them Merriam's !!!!!

Beautiful birds !!!! And that smoke phase is a real trophy.

Shrapnel always has good stuff.

A Turkey dog wouldn't do you any good in the open terrain....it's a Southern thing.

What, do you think there's no trees or brush in Montana? Maybe he just doesn't need a dog to successfully hunt turkeys.

You know nothing about nothing.

You're right. On the contrary, you know nothing about anything.

You don’t “need” a dog to hunt quail, ducks/geese, etc. but some people enjoy watching a dog you’ve trained work more than the other parts of the hunt. I’m one of those people just like Frank is and others like Marlin Watkins who is also an avid fall turkey dog hunter. Having said that I’ve never deer hunted with a dog and likely never will. I’ve never shot a turkey with a rifle, maybe some day I will. Like Shrapnel said, to each his own. To me hunting fall turkeys with a dog just adds to the experience.

10Glocks are familiar with John Byrne who lived up your way and was known for breeding a line of Appalachian turkey dogs? I’m not trying to pick on you just asking since that’s someone who was generally in your back yard. As far as I know Marlin and Pete Clare at Turkey Trot Acres in NY still hunt with dogs from the Byrne lineage.

The name rings a bell, but only that. We have a lot of sporting dog breeders in eastern Va. People use dogs to hunt everything, here. Hound hunting for deer is a tradition in eastern Va. Lots of hound breeders and trainers here, along with waterfowl and upland bird dog breeders.

I don't have a problem using a dog to hunt turkeys. None whatsoever. To each his own. I do sometimes hate the deer hound hunters who run their dogs across public and private property, and who shoot whatever their dogs chase out of the woods, whether its a buck or an illegal doe, fawn, fox or whatever.

.
With all due repect, sir, please don't put those two names in the same sentence. They are two individuals that could not be further apart in human qualities.

Marlin Watkins is one of the kindest, most sincerely decent individuals one could ever meet. His name should NEVER be defiled by using it in the same sentence as..........you know..........

And then they're are scum bags like Donnie....

Only thing GlockheAd is familiar with is showing the world how stupid he is.....he has no business commenting about turkey hunting.

By his own admission the only turkeys he's ever shot he shot while he was deer hunting in the fall.

It was not my intent nor do I believe I defiled either man’s name by mentioning Frank and Marlin in the same sentence. My point is hunting with a turkey dog has a legacy and tradition enjoyed by contemporary hunters and those are two well recognized names that come to mind. For what it’s worth I’ve hunted and dealt with both men over the years. Both have treated me well so I’ve only got good things to say about both.

I NEVER said the only turkeys I shot were in the fall while deer hunting, you dolt. I said I shot more turkeys in the fall while deer hunting than in the spring. Yet another lie on your part. You are just dishonest to the core, aren't you, CFL?

Post your hunting video....anyone thar watches it will know you are nuttz

Everyone knows you're nuts. And full of [bleep].

Tell us, was it true what was written on Old Gobbler? That you were on disability but still selling your calls and asking people to send the payments to your wife? Why would people who bought your calls say you asked them to make their checks payable to your wife?

You want another chance with me....then tell me who is feeding you the lies about me.

What is it that I wrote that suggest to you "I want another chance with you?" God, you're screwed up.

It's the bipolar side of you that suggests it....

Bing fuggin' go. Saved for posterity. Hate and jealousy. No one has treated you the way you've treated them. And now we know why. Thanks for admitting it. May be the first time you've been honest since you've been on this site. You are driven by hate and jealousy.

Now that you admitted it, that's the first step to getting over it.

Thanks.

Who am I jealous of ?

You sure screwed up this thread.

Explains everything.

Here is my line of thinking, with some changes, but I am a little more pedestrian with my weapons.

Would someone please explain the dog method of turkey hunting. Had never heard of it.

The Black Hills are pretty thick terrain. The prairie not so much.

BTW Grew up shooting lots or pheasants, ducks, geese, and grouse without a dog. Allergic to dogs, so have not owned one. Have hunted with a few, but am more a big game guy myself.

I have a friend that brings his dog turkey hunting with us every spring, but just to come along. Does not actively "hunt" the
turkeys.

The short course on it is that it's much like hunting with any other flushing dog.......say, for pheasant..........except it's for turkeys. The dogs generally quarter fast and fairly far out. Most bark during the flush. And rather than shooting off the flush........which can occur totally out of sight of the hunter........the dog returns to the hunter and lays totally still and quiet beside him (maybe backed into a camo sack with just his head sticking out or maybe just low on the ground) as the calling starts. A lot of turkey dogs will locate downed birds and some, even retrieve.

The dogs can be about anything if you train them right. But the Appalachian Turkey Dog (somebody previously mentioned the late John Byrne of Virginia) is a specially bred line.......a mix of a Plott hound, setter and pointer.

I'm no authority on it. But I know some.

LFC could probably fill in the blanks I missed.

[/quote]
Would someone please explain the dog method of turkey hunting. Had never heard of it.

The Black Hills are pretty thick terrain. The prairie not so much.
[/quote]

If you grew up hunting pheasants and grouse without a dog then you know how much walking and blindly kicking the bushes is involved in hopes of getting the occasional bird to flush. Searching for a roaming flock of turkeys in the woods can be just as challenging but using a dogs nose and ability to cover ground greatly improves your chances to state the obvious. A dogs speed and barking also improve the chances of scattering the flock in as many directions as possible. The birds from a scattered flock are typically very vocal and eager to reassemble which makes it easier to call them back to the area from which they were flushed. A person trying to flush a flock of turkeys more often than not only succeeds in pushing the flock in one direction away from the approaching hunter where they quickly reassemble and the odds of calling either larger groups or the entire flock back toward you is much slimmer than a lone “lost” bird. In the thick Black Hills terrain you mentioned, a dog would work well. In the open prairie not so much if the turkeys can see the dog approaching from a distance since they’re going to all take off together in the opposite direction like I mentioned above.

If you have a dog that likes to range quite a distance or you hunt in areas where your line of sight is limited it helps to have a GPS tracking collar on the dog. When you hear the dog barking on the flush you can mark the spot to know where you need to go set up and call.

That’s the basic gist of it along with what Yoder said. LFC definitely has far more knowledge and experience on this topic than I do so I welcome any corrections he may have if if I misspoke about anything.

In the Hills I hunt known turkey areas and call as I go. Not spring time hen yelping, but flock turkey talk. Have been successful getting turkeys to respond. Then the hunt is on!

Sometimes the flock is already heading my direction. Then it is fairly easy to get them to come check me out.

Sometimes I have to make adjustments to get in proper position. Sometimes it is simply a stalk/sneak that ends up with an opportunity.

Sometimes a deer would get in the way, and an archery deer hunt would ensue. Sometimes a ruffed grouse would be spotted and added to the pot.

Our fall Black Hills turkey season has really been limited the past few years for a multitude of reasons. Have not had a tag for quite a few years.

So I am limited to our fall prairie season on our property, but would much rather be hunting in the Black Hills.

Why won't you shoot a gobbler in the fall but would in the Spring?

A gobbler is in his prime in the spring.....turkeys killed in the fall that are feeding heavily on acorns will have darker stronger tasting meat.

Of course you talking about gobblers in your neck of the woods and not painting the country with a wide brush. Eh?

Gobblers in the big oak woods....would be the turkeys that will feed heavily on acorns.

The December craw on a young gobbler can hold a soft ball sized pile of acorns.

There's an old saying you are what you eat for a reason....

People in the South used to eat Opossum some condsidered it a delicacy....possum conisours caught them alive put them up and feed then a while before they butchered and ate them.

I saw seven possums run out of a dead cows azz one time.

You said: A gobbler is in his prime in the spring.. In some of the colder regions after a hard winter of snow and cold many gobblers are not in their prime.

No wild critter is in it's prime after going through a hard winter here.

A gobbler is in his prime for spring mating season.

That depends. We've had years where there was still 3 feet of snow on the ground in mid April. I've seen plenty of turks {and deer} dying and/or dead from starvation in April when they would have been breeding in a milder year.

Where are you located ?