The eastern wild turkey is either the dumbest or smartest bird on the planet.
Every spring, this majestic and elusive bird falls to the simplest of attempts to harvest him. At other times, he takes the most eloquently laid-out plans and laughs at them, leaving the turkey hunter to sit all alone in the woods scratching his head.
The 2024 hunting season for eastern wild turkey opened across the Upstate on April 1. The season ends on Tuesday on wildlife management area land but stays open until May 10 on private lands. Needless to say, time is running out, and if you haven’t tagged a bird this season, you’re not alone.
Before giving up on this year’s turkey season, perhaps a few late-season tips could help you pull victory from the jaws of defeat.
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Tip 1
If you’re new at turkey hunting, try to arrange a hunt with somebody that understands how turkey behave. Go with them and learn how and when to use a call. A lot of hunters put too much emphasis on calling when location is a lot more important. Get down to learning the terrain and the area the turkey is using, then figure out how to get him to come to you.
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Tip 2
Many hunters make the mistake of thinking a gobbler is ignoring their calls. A mature gobbler may respond to your call while he has hens with him, but he won’t come back to investigate the call until after the hens have left him to attend to their nests. It’s for this reason that many late-season hunters have better success later in the day.
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Tip 3
Too many hunters want to rush turkey hunting or put it into the standard deer-hunting parameters of first and last three hours of daylight. Once you set up on a turkey — meaning you’ve called to him and he has responded — you’re on his land and on his time. A mature bird doesn’t have anywhere to be — nobody to see, and nowhere to go or answer to. A lot of times, sitting tight and making him come to you is the main key to success.
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Tip 4
Knowing the lay of the land is very important. A few lucky hunters may hunt a piece of property for the first time ever and call a bird straight to them and kill it. Most of the time, however, the prize will go to the hunter who has done his homework, understands the lay of the land and knows where turkey feeding areas, roosting sites and travel corridors are.
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Tip 5
More than half the turkey population you’ll find in the woods year-round will be hens. Don’t discount the time you get to spend with a real live hen turkey. Most hunters have one or two hen sounds that they wear into the ground — the yelp and the cut. Real hens make all sorts of sounds — purrs, pops, clucks and putts, as well as yelps and cuts, but it’s mostly soft stuff. Learn to mimic those sounds, and you’ll be a lot better at closing the deal when that gobbler responds to your initial call but won’t come any closer.
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Tip 6
By all means, hunt the early mornings using whatever strategy has worked for you in the past, but at some point, you’ll need to alter your morning plan to a lunchtime or afternoon plan.
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Tip 7
Check ridge tops and saddles early in the afternoon, then look for birds around edges — pine thickets, briar patches or cane breaks — until late afternoon. Oak bottoms that stay cool in late afternoons, especially as the weather heats up later in the season, will attract a number of birds. If you can hunt the same location the next day, spend the last hour of daylight checking roosting areas for birds going to roost.
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Phillip Gentry is a freelance outdoor writer who has been writing a wide variety of outdoor articles across the Southeast since 2004.
