Fall Turkey Set up

[jbonice007]

What your fall turkey set up.

Do you use decoy’s

do you call and are what calling should I use.

It seem most hunter target spring turkey,but I don’t hear to much about fall turkey hunter.

Any help would be thankful.
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“To go fishing is the chance of washing one’s soul with pure air, with the rush of the brook, or with the shimmer of the sun on blue water.”
~ Herbert Hoover, devoted angler and thirty-first President of the United States.

[FishaBass]

I use a jake and that’s it. I have a natural runway to the food so I set up near their travel path. I don’t call much. Trail cameras are a must to pattern them.

Life is tough......it's tougher when you are stupid! (John Wayne)

[eyenut]

I don’t Turkey hunt at all, but I understand enough to know that a fall turkey hunt would be more of a challenge for sure. Without the allure of romance in the spring, I would have to agree with FishaBass. Food sources would be my “go to” tactic this time of year.

Good luck with your fall hunt!

[H2ODep]

Scouting whether by camera or walking/driving is critical. The mature toms group up, as well as the hens and young turkeys. The latter will be together in several large family groups. The Toms may or may not be near/in those groups.

Once you find the groups, see if you can locate roosting and morning feeding areas. We’ve had good luck setting up 1-4 decoys in those spots where the turkeys fly down and start feeding.

During the day they can travel quite a ways as they move from feeding, to water, to feeding, then back to the roost. If mornings/evenings near the roost don’t pan out, stalk the travel areas.

If you can sneak close to large family groups, you can either set up an ambush along their route (get in front of the direction they are moving). The second method is to bust them if you can’t get close enough to shoot.

Basically you get as close as you can, the run at them. Sounds ridiculous, but it works. Basically you try to create enough havoc so that the family group(s) scatter in multiple directions. Watch closely which way the adult hens/largest group go, then set up near the last seen point. If you did your job right, a number of turkeys will have scattered in a different direction.

Set up on that last seen point, give it 20 minutes or so, then start using lost calls. Long series of yelps increasing in volume and kee-kee’s which is the whistle the young turkeys use. You can start calling sooner if you hear either of these two types of calls, just mimic what you are hearing.

Basically what is going on is that the turkeys are all trying to find each-other again, and very often the singles can be called right to you. We’ve had a lot of success with busting/scattering flocks.

One note is that we don’t usually bust mature toms. They all seem to stay together when they take off, so no need for them to re-assemble. With toms, it’s more scouting and ambush along routes. I like box calls for toms in fall, it’s the only thing I can get to sound close to that slow croaking yelp they have. Sometimes we’ll use a gobble-tube as a locator. You will hear the occasional gobble in the fall along with seeing strutting behavior, but it’s not related to breeding, and sometimes you can get them to respond early in the day with a gobble.

Good luck-

Minnesota Steelheader
"Beer is proof that God loves us & wants us to be happy" Ben Franklin

[eyenut]

H2ODep,

That was an awesome read. Heck, I feel like an expert after reading this!

You’ve obviously done your homework!

[IlliniWalli]

h20 pretty much covered it … but i’ll add a few things from many years of fall turkey hunting
i have had good success targeting roost sites morning and evening. get set up early and try to call one in by answering their calls as they gather after flydown or call softly and sparingly waiting for them to come back to the roost
of course, finding those roost sites is key. a lot of times turkeys roost in different locations spring and fall, but i have a couple spots where they’ll usually roost year ’round
have also called in and picked off a few late morning and midday by targeting food sources. ridge lines with good mast, hay fields since turkeys eat a lot of grasshoppers in the fall and freshly harvested corn or bean fields are good spots
i dont use decoys in fall since the turkeys usually are in gender specific flocks – toms hang together, so do jakes and hens/poults. if toms see a group of hens or a mixed flock including jakes, they usually dont want to associate with them in the fall
when random calling, i’ll start with gobbler clucks and yelps, then if nothing happens try a few hen yelps and/or kee kees. if you get an answer, try to match those calls
i have an old hs strut field champion box that makes good gobbler yelps on one side. i’ve also called in toms using a glass or crystal pot call with a hardwood striker. use the center of the call for the deeper tones of gobbler yelps and clucks, and make your notes longer and slower for a gobbler yelp

[jbonice007]

Thanks Guy’s

I will be hunting the Carlos Avery area this fall.
I’m told this is a good area to look for turkeys in the fall.
My biggest problem is i’m hard of hearing and can’t pick up the calls till their very close to me.

“To go fishing is the chance of washing one’s soul with pure air, with the rush of the brook, or with the shimmer of the sun on blue water.”
~ Herbert Hoover, devoted angler and thirty-first President of the United States.

[Author]

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