First timer

[bobthebowhunter]

Well I will actually have a peice of private land to turkey hunt on this year. So I will be trying it for the first time this year. If I see half as many turkeys this spring as I did this fall on deer stand it should be fun. LOL

But seriously I was hoping some of you could steer me towards some good links, literature, video's..ect.(hopefully the free kind) I have used a mouth call for years just playing around on deer stand and coyote hunting, but past that i have no experiance calling. I also don't know much about the birds themselves. I realize that most learning comes from being in the woods and experiance, but I would like to start preparing myself as best I can. Any help would be much appreciated.

 

[Lawrence]

You tube

 

[TurkeyBurd]

Any hunting catalog has tons of dvds or cds to buy.

Pop one in your truck cd player and have fun.

Good luck with the hunting.

 

[bvoss]

I always steer people towards HS struts' So You Want To Be a Turkey Hunter video. Its good at breaking down the different calls and I believe it talks some about setting up, patterning your shotgun, and other aspects of turkey hunting.
The best thing though, is to go with someone who has lots of experience. You'll learn more on hunts like that than you'll ever learn watching a video or reading a book.

 

[spitndrum]

Primos Boys are very informative!

 

[Anonymous]

Primos, mastering the arts are ok, lot of how to info if you can deal with shameless commercialism, but ther all like that.

OLD GOBBLER.com, mountains of info on ther, great bunch of guys always good to help a brother out, any thing pertainin to turkey huntin, one of my faveorite places to hang.

 

[Gobblrgttr]

Patience, patience, patience

 

[nate17]

I spend quite a few hours practicing every year. I usually find my best practice is riding around in the truck a month or so before season. I usually end up buying several new mouth calls and i have to spend time weeding out the ones I dont like.

When I first started i had trouble with mouth calls and found slates to be quite a bit easier. I taught myself, just good old trial and error. I have messed up many a good gobbler by calling to much.

 

[kdxdude]

In my experience, be careful counting on you'll have birds in an area in the Spring where you saw them in the Fall. I hunted a place in Mid-Tn that had hundreds of birds in there in the Fall, went back next Spring & they were nowhere to be found or heard. The place I hunt now, I rarely see them in the Fall but they are in there big time in the Spring.
Early morning is when they are most vocal & then they will get quiet & you'll be thinking, "well. they've quit gobblin so I'm goin home". Lots of times they will really get cranked up late morning or early afternoon. Be patient & let the birds tell you what to do, meaning if they get quiet then you get quiet. If they're really talking then you really get aggressive with your calling. Be patient, if they're quiet, stretch out & take a nap. I've taken a lot of birds by just makin a few clucks & then take a nap & I'll hear em walkin in or they'll wake me with a gobble.
If it's quiet in the afternoon, try a little runnin-n-gunnin, meaning got to different areas calling aggressively(cutting) trying to get 1 to gobble. Sometimes it works & ya kill 1, sometimes ya just do a whole lot of walkin & callin, but that's huntin. If I can help ya in anyway, I will. Good Luck & God Bless!

 

[sellsman11]

Lots of good advice here. The BEST, IMO, is finding an experienced hunter or two and go with them everytime that they will put up with you. 99% of the turkey hunter's that I have met jump at the chance to get someone their first bird.

After that, practice your calls anytime you get a chance, get out and hunt as much as possible and BE STILL!!! Those jokers can see you blink your eyes at 150 yards!!!!!!!

 

[bobthebowhunter]

Thanks fellas this is all great information.