iDoHunting.com: Fall Turkey Hunting

Maybe you've had a chance to hunt these birds in the fall, and it fell short of your expectations compared to the spring hunt. Well don't give up! Here are a few hot tips to try out, and more reasons why the fall hunt can be just as rewarding!

1. Learn when to put the calls away - Much of the fall hunt can be a "wait & see" type of hunt, where birds won't come headlong across a plowed field to your calling. Calling sparingly, especially in the fall, is typically better than getting overly aggressive.

2. Pull double-duty - For you archery hunters, think about deer hunting while you're turkey hunting, and vice/versa. Many times, travel routes and escape corridors are favored by the birds as well.

3. Take a stand – Along the same lines, don’t feel obliged to remain on the ground, especially if you’re timing your hunt around a travel pattern that puts you between the birds and food. While unorthodox, you’re more likely to at least see birds from a distance and learn a bit from them for the next day. That is, if you don’t take one right away.

Hens Are Fair Game for the MN Fall Hunt

4. End-around – While paying particular attention to your surroundings, other hunters, and your personal well-being, give the old end-around a try this fall. It’s typical to see large flocks of birds feeding their way across a field. Pick where you think they’ll exit the field, and make camp.

5. Sit and wait – While this tactic may be common amongst many spring hunters, it is my preferred method for taking fall turkeys…..with an asterisk. I will try to make contact with birds in the early morning, and then move away and towards their feed. Do your best to put yourself between their roost location and food source, preferably along a travel corridor. Use a portable ground blind to conceal your movement and maintain flexibility.

6. Scout the spring hunt today - I've heard it a million times while taking out folks in the spring, "If I could only deer hunt this property, I'd set up here...." Why not apply the same logic this fall when out in the woods deer and turkey hunting? Find new spots and learn the lay of the land with the leaves down, so that you can better know and understand your position once trees have leafed-out.

Birds Will Be Where the Food Is!

7. Fast food – Remember that the landscape you’re hunting is rapidly changing in the fall. Food is prime, and birds will structure their day around it. Crops are harvested, acorns are falling, and cold weather is imminent. These birds are looking for acorns and field-corn. Look in the woods for general mayhem and large scratched-up areas. Look in the fields for droppings, tracks, and feathers. It’s a dynamic period, and the landscape is constantly changing, stay in-tune with it.

8. Breaking-up is hard to do – The oft-penned tactic of “breaking-up the birds” then calling them back to you can be difficult, and sometimes puzzling. Personally, this tactic has been a low percentage move, and you many times have a better chance of spooking them all in the same direction. If you need to call your bird in to take a fall turkey, by all means, break away. However, if you can get close enough to spook them, you’re often close enough to shoot them.

Too Much! - Scale Back on Your Calling a Bit

9. Assembly yelps, clucks, and whistles – Most of a turkey’s communication during this time period is simple socialization. Contented feeding clucks and purrs, soft check-whistling, and the occasional prolonged assembly yelp will be the primary calls you’ll use, if any. If you are going to call, intense cutting is probably not the ticket. Learn the turkey’s full vocabulary, and most importantly, get out there! Sitting amongst talking hens in the morning is about the best way to learn a turkey’s dialogue.

10. Woodsmanship and Work – This type of hunting can really bring out one’s true colors. Gone are the warm mornings where a championship caller can lasso a lovestruck tom from hundreds of yards…..at least until spring. Here, are the days of keen observation, patience, and a strong understanding of how the birds are using food and cover. There is no substitute in the fall turkey season for a good dose of woodsmanship, and a heaping pile of hard-work.

So there it is, an ode to the fall turkey season. Hopefully you’ve done your homework and have a tag ready to be filled. For the first timers, worry-not. The playing field has been leveled for those of you whose calling prowess is not that of a Walter Parrot. If you don’t know that name, all the better; you won’t need to.

Good huntin’!

Joel