It is spring turkey season across North America and hunters are hitting the woods in pursuit of gobbling tom turkeys. The adrenaline of the sound of gobbling toms on the roost or the sight of strutting toms is enough to get any hunter fired up. Now’s the time to plan ahead for your hunt.
6 Tips to Have Your Best Spring Turkey Season
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1)Start by patterning your shotgun!
Maybe you have a preferred turkey gun, full choke, and load that you have already used successfully before. Shoot it on cardboard and double check! It’s better to be fully confident in your setup than second guessing on a missed opportunity. Experiment with loads paired to your gun and choke.
Know your effective range – see how the pattern changes from 30 to 40 yards. The time you spend patterning your gun before the season will pay off when the moment of truth comes. Patterning helps you choose your best ammunition and gun pairings, builds confidence in your firearm and munitions, and is respectful to the bird to not wound a bird with a weak pattern. Archers can do the same, paper tuning their turkey broadheads and shooting at various distances and pins.
Failure to prepare and you will be preparing to fail.
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2)Have your gear ready
Pull out your hunting boots, snake chaps, camouflage pants, shirt, gloves, and hat. Treat everything with permethrin to prevent tick exposure and the disease risks they present. Make sure pop up blinds are in good working order, guns are ready, decoys look good, and calls and packs are ready.
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3) A little calling practice never hurt anyone
In fact, the best callers in the world practice year around! Throw diaphragm calls in your commuter vehicle and practice on your drives. Spend time rehearsing your specific calls on boxes, slates, and push buttons.
Experience is a great teacher, but think about what calls to use and when to invite a tom into range. Prepare for a range of situations and think through what you would do with calling.
A successful turkey hunt is like a game of chess – make the right move to stay in the game or risk having to start a new match.
4) Scout
Scout at a distance before the season to know the birds and movement patterns on property you will hunt. Check around early, mid-day, or late. Deploy trail cameras in strategic spots like blind locations, near roosts, adjacent food sources, or close to known communal strutting areas. Do the same thing in season. Habitat use varies as the season progresses and you need to keep tabs on what the birds are doing if you hope to be successful. Hoping birds are nearby is not a good strategy.
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- Multiple brush straps for enhanced concealment.
- Storage bag & integrated transport strap for easy carrying.
5) Be patient
Do the toms seem to ignore you early in the day? Do they hang up on you at medium distances and drive you crazy? Stay the course. Patience has killed many a tom. Even if you are ignored early in the day, those henned up toms make it a habit to circle back a few hours later to areas they heard birds. Middle and late morning toms are a little easier to kill than toms that join hens straight out of the roost. Those henned up toms are hard to peel away when they have the real thing right next to them.
Stay patient and let that tom’s curiosity and hormones get the best of him, leading him straight back into your lap.
6) Go Where the Bird Wants to Be
When everything goes wrong and you can’t seem to get a bird to slip up and come to you, change course and go where the bird wants to be.
Get ahead of his morning ritual to a location you can pick him off. Find out where he roosts and work close early or late. Stubbornness can leave you scratching your head, but if you are willing to go where that bird routinely wants to be, you can force an encounter.
If you're a blind hunter and need to stay in a location, be it because it's a great spot, you're using a bow, or taking out fidgety kids, a TideWe blind is a great choice to get set up in the pathway of travel for that tom you can’t seem to pull your way.
If you are a run and gun hunter, sneaking around to get ahead of a lovesick tom, the TideWe FlexGrid Active Pursuit Turkey Vest is a perfect to carry all your essentials for light and easy moves. The FlexGrid Active Pursuit Turkey Vest comes in three different camouflage patterns, allowing you to blend into your specific terrain. Special customized pockets allow you to carry any and all types of calls. A magnetic, flip down padded seat is always quiet and at the ready when you need to sit up against a tree in a hurry. There’s an orange safety towel, a spacious game bag, and it even comes with a hydration reservoir so you can spend the day working to get ahead of Mr. Tom.
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The author: Jason Brenic
Hello everyone, my name is Jason Brenic and I am an avid hunter residing in Central Wisconsin. In this article, I want to talk to you a little bit about how the TideWe Turkey Vest can make for some awesome hunting.
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