# Fall Turkey tactics



## goforbroke (Jan 4, 2009)

So picked up a southern fall turkey tag for my 11 y.o. Is it best to wait for snow to find the birds or better before snow flies. Do you call or just try and ambush?

Thanks for the pointers. He is hoping for success as he had a few misses this spring.


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## Critter (Mar 20, 2010)

From what I saw last week the turkeys are down on private property by now. 

I saw all kinds of them the first of the deer hunt and they were all moving down following the creek bottoms.


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## BPturkeys (Sep 13, 2007)

Plan an ambush. You might get a bird to wonder over to socialize a bit with your decoys but for the most part they will not respond to calls at all this time of year. The birds will be in groups made up of others of the same sex with the larger toms running separate from the hens and small jakes. Try and find them coming from or going to a roost or feeding area. Turkeys are birds of habit and follow pretty much the same routes every day. As always, they'll be on private ground so you'll spend about half your time begging for access from farmers and ranchers. 
I personally like a nice fall day over a nasty cold snowy winter day, but to each his own. On the other hand, if you wait until there is snow on the ground you can make a combined turkey/cottontail hunt out of it. 11 year old boys and girls have a lot more fun poppin off a mess of 'tails than they would have spending a day searching for an old turkey.


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## Packout (Nov 20, 2007)

I picked up a Southern Region tag for my 12 yo daughter. I'll let you know if I find any birds and if I can find access to private. So far the asking has been fruitless.

..


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## Tall Tines (Apr 16, 2017)

BPturkeys said:


> Plan an ambush. You might get a bird to wonder over to socialize a bit with your decoys but for the most part they will not respond to calls at all this time of year. The birds will be in groups made up of others of the same sex with the larger toms running separate from the hens and small jakes.


Hmmm... the toms we shot last year were both in large flocks of hens, jakes and toms... maybe you aren't always correct? Or those turkeys just weren't following the rules?


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## gdog (Sep 13, 2007)

Having grown up hunting fall turkeys back east the norm was; find a flock and scatter them really well, then sit down and start calling. The turkeys will want to regroup quickly. Calls to bring them back together would be, Kee Kee run's, whistles and hen yelps.

If you try to ambush them and it doesn't work out...scatter them well and then call them back in.....


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## KineKilla (Jan 28, 2011)

Follow these steps VERY specifically....they almost guarantee success, almost most of the time.

1. Get up early to be in your chosen area around sunrise, coffee in hand.

2. Drive slowly through your area paying close attention to the areas in front and to the sides of your vehicle.

3. When you spot a flock of turkeys, do not stop...accelerate towards them then, when within shooting range, stop the vehicle and put in it in park (this part is very important).

4. Jump out, run towards the turkeys and shoot the first one that gives you a shot...they're fast buggers so be prepared!

IF you follow these instructions you'll most likely be successful. Just remember that the fall hunt is any either sex hunt so there's no need to be picky, just quick.







* Disclaimer: The author of these instructions almost never knows what they are talking about and their advice is, at best, seldom right or in poor taste. *


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## BPturkeys (Sep 13, 2007)

gdog said:


> Having grown up hunting fall turkeys back east the norm was; find a flock and scatter them really well, then sit down and start calling. The turkeys will want to regroup quickly. Calls to bring them back together would be, Kee Kee run's, whistles and hen yelps.
> 
> If you try to ambush them and it doesn't work out...scatter them well and then call them back in.....


Great advise. This can be pretty fun and is about the only "calling" that will work this time of year. One little thing...if they all fly away in the same direction they probably won't need to "re-group", so, as gdog says...scatter 'em good.


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## whitepd01 (Aug 26, 2014)

My fall experience is similar to others. Where it is either sex, its a pretty easy hunt frankly if you just want to kill a bird. Once you find the birds and get permission to hunt them the hardest part is over. In the fall they do seem to run is group of similar size birds as another post noted. If you wan the big boys, you got to find their group. They typically will be hanging with other mature toms and not with the hens. I haven't had much luck calling in the fall.... however I haven't had much luck calling in the spring either. I pretty much suck at calling. Our tried and true tactic is to pattern them, then ambush them. Lots of ways to hunt them in the fall. Which is why turkey hunting is so darn fun. My goal this year is to get my 8 year-old his first bird and hopefully he will be patient enough to get a big tom. And my bro-in-law and his 2 boys are coming with us so I want to get them their first turkeys. My 11 year-old and I will take whatever we get. We have both killed enough birds to not really worry about it. We want to see the others get their first turkeys. Can't wait til tomorrow!


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## plottrunner (Apr 3, 2008)

Packout where do you want to hunt on the Southern unit? 

As far as tactics, I plan on driving down the road, getting out of the truck and shooting one. I will probably take my call but don't think I will need it.


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## hawglips (Aug 23, 2013)

I've only hunted fall turkeys seriously for the past 7 or so years, and have only killed 11 fall/winter birds (4 toms, 5 hens, 2 jakes), so take what I say with a grain of salt. 

I'm not above ambushing a fall bird, but it's not the best way to do it, IMO. Of the 11 I've killed in the fall, every one of them has been called in (with no decoys used). Last year I killed my first UT bird (my first UT fall hunt), which came from a flock that was heading away, and came back to our calling. I counted 102 birds in the flock as they walked by, and had to quit counting when a tom finally showed up so I could concentrate on a shot. So, you can call them in, though it's a lot harder to call a fall bird than a spring bird, if you're hunting without dogs.

I've called them in to a cold-call setup when I knew there were turkey in the area (due to fresh sign found, or sightings). I've called them in to cold-call setups when I had no idea whether there were turkeys around or not. After locating a bird that answers my calls while prospecting, I've called them in to that setup also. 

My favorite way to hunt them is just like I hunt spring birds - try to locate them by hearing their calls, setting up on them, and trying to call them in. In the occasional cases when I was able to bust up the flock well, setting up and calling them back under that scenario increases your odds of a successful hunt by a large margin.


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## goforbroke (Jan 4, 2009)

Thanks for all the ideas and tactics. I will likely try all of them, only to see my son start shaking and miss. He is a pretty good shot at targets, but man he was really excited in the spring and I think the gun went off before it touched his shoulder!


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## plottrunner (Apr 3, 2008)

plottrunner said:


> As far as tactics, I plan on driving down the road, getting out of the truck and shooting one. I will probably take my call but don't think I will need it.


It worked... :grin:


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## Packout (Nov 20, 2007)

plottrunner said:


> Packout where do you want to hunt on the Southern unit?


I am willing to try wherever she has a chance to get into some birds. We live in UT County so the closer the better, but it could be fun to overnight further south. We will probably start to go out mid-late Nov. Lucky the hunt is so long.


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## plottrunner (Apr 3, 2008)

Packout said:


> I am willing to try wherever she has a chance to get into some birds. We live in UT County so the closer the better, but it could be fun to overnight further south. We will probably start to go out mid-late Nov. Lucky the hunt is so long.


I have some places but they are the extreme southern areas of the southern region. Sometimes the snow closes this area by late November.


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## goforbroke (Jan 4, 2009)

Just wanted to report back. Calling seemed to have no effect, but it was windy. We did scatter one flock, but had no luck finding a turkey again from that flock. As we were leaving, we happened on some turkeys in a great spot to sneak up on. We came over a knob 35 yards a way and the turkeys started to run. Luckily my son was quick enough and SUCCESS! His first turkey and hunting success. He was smiles all day!


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## hawglips (Aug 23, 2013)

goforbroke said:


> Just wanted to report back. Calling seemed to have no effect, but it was windy. We did scatter one flock, but had no luck finding a turkey again from that flock. As we were leaving, we happened on some turkeys in a great spot to sneak up on. We came over a knob 35 yards a way and the turkeys started to run. Luckily my son was quick enough and SUCCESS! His first turkey and hunting success. He was smiles all day!


Congrats to your son!

After you scattered the flock, what did you do?


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## goforbroke (Jan 4, 2009)

after we scattered them we sat down close to last seen turkey and called for a bit. Heard and saw nothing so we kept moving after 10 minutes. I am likely short on the patience needed.


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## hawglips (Aug 23, 2013)

goforbroke said:


> after we scattered them we sat down close to last seen turkey and called for a bit. Heard and saw nothing so we kept moving after 10 minutes. I am likely short on the patience needed.


If you got a good scatter (defined as turkeys scattering away in different directions), you were sitting mighty pretty. That's the classic, highly sought after fall hunt scenario. It's almost a slam dunk to call at least one back to you after that. What I do is to wait about 15 minutes after making sure they are scattered good (plan out where you'll be calling from in the meantime), then sit down and call. And hold on for some exciting fall turkey call-back action...  If it was a brood flock, you'd probably get some response very quickly. If it was old gobblers, maybe not so much. But with patience, your chances are high.


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## Lone_Hunter (Oct 25, 2017)

Filled my tag yesterday with a tom sporting a 7" bird. I found an area where a flock happen to be roosting in national forest lands. The biggest thing I can offer right now as tactics go, (and i realize this is turkey hunting 101) is be patient and pattern those birds if you can. Particularly when it comes to the roost.

I think the biggest mistake I made was not patterning them from their roost, when I had the opportunity to do so. Those birds adjust and adapt quickly. I started working them on a Saturday, and by Sunday they seemed well educated. In my defense, I was a few hours south from where I live, and in an area I had never visited before, with only a few days to hunt. 

I'll also say, that for a bird that can fly A LOT higher and farther then I gave them credit for, I'm amazed they spend so much time on the ground. The "fly downs" for this particular flock was more like high altitude fly by's directly to the roost from across a canyon. 

My younger days of dove hunting with my dad, sure paid off. :grin:


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## hawglips (Aug 23, 2013)

Anybody got any dead turkeys to show and tell about from the fall hunt?

I'm having a tough time finding any to play with where I can hunt them.


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## toasty (May 15, 2008)

We had a good time on our hunts. They both missed several birds this fall, but I finally put a red dot sight on the little 28ga O/U and that was the ticket. Now I need to teach them to head shoot, they both body shot their birds with TSS and they took forever to clean.  That second image is the best ever from a turkey hunt, love seeing a bird as big as the huntress.


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## KineKilla (Jan 28, 2011)

Went out once and saw only tracks heading into private ground. I’m going to try again after the holidays but it’s tough driving two hours from SLC every time.


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## hawglips (Aug 23, 2013)

That's awesome Mike!


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## hawglips (Aug 23, 2013)

Eclectic found one this morning.


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## hawglips (Aug 23, 2013)




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## toasty (May 15, 2008)

Great fall bird. Love the now camo.


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## hawglips (Aug 23, 2013)

Couldn't find anything but hens to come in, so took one as we were running out of time on my 1-1/2 day hunt.


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