Fall Turkey Hunting Tips
Brooks Johnson 11.01.12
Fall turkeys split into two types of flocks each year, and your call cadence and technique depends on whether or you targeting toms or hens with their young. Toms hang with toms in the fall, and hens stick with their young. You may find both groups together occasionally, but as a general rule they do not spend much time together. We are going to focus on fall turkey hunting tips gobbler style.
Fall turkey hunting tips in gobbler flocks
If you want to call gobblers in the fall, you have to sound like one. Fall gobbler flocks can be very territorial, and if you are a strange tom invading their turf, you may be in line for a butt kicking. Fall food plots for deer are good places to start. Corn and beans are magnets for game when weather approaches.
The cadence or tempo of a gobbler yelp series is slower than a hen’s. The sequence is also deeper in tone, raspier, and contains fewer yelps. Clucks are still sharp, and also deeper toned. The video below illustrates the difference, which is important as many of us have never heard a gobbler yelp or cluck in the fall. Calling gobblers in the fall means focusing on this cadence and tone.
httpv://youtu.be/KRp9C6g5Jls
‘Blind’ fall turkey hunting tips
Like a whitetail doe, turkey flocks are very predictable in the fall. They do not do the exact same thing every day, but you can knock down feeding and roost areas pretty easily if you put some time in scouting. If you want to fill that tag, you will spend time scouting first. Find out where the birds like to be at certain times of the day, and be set up and ready before they arrive. If you learn the birds daily patterns you are well over half way to punching your tag. Blind calling to toms is a low percentage endeavor, and often a waste of time. If you are not in their home range, they really do not care what you are saying.
Typical fall turkey hunting set up
Once you know the birds’ daily movements, you typically set up in one of two places: either their daily feeding areas or even better close to the roost in the evening. If you can nail down how they approach the roost, and set a realistic jake turkey decoy in their path, you will be in for some excitement. Fall groups of toms will readily attack a cocky jake close to their roost sites. Watch below as the roost scenario unfolds as it did over and over for our fall turkey hunters.
httpv://youtu.be/_kwqKEZgymE
A quality jake turkey decoy works as well in the fall as it does in the spring if you do your homework. Unravel their daily patterns, learn some gobbler talk, and realize success with these fall turkey hunting tips.
Brooks Johnson has been active in the bow hunting industry for close to 20 years. He successfully cofounded and sold Double Bull Archery, and learned a lot about both turkeys and bowhunting along the way.
He loves traditional sticks, swing blade heads, and the tug of a night time catfish.
