Wild turkey populations are flourishing across the country.
In Maryland, numbers have grown so well that an extra “winter” season has been added. Fall turkey hunting can be quite different than the spring season, yet one call and a few tactics can have you eating a real Thanksgiving dinner, just like the Pilgrims did.
To score on fall birds, first find the turkeys. In the West and Midwest, this means locating roosting trees where the birds return routinely. In the Eastern and Southern hardwoods, hoof around the hillsides until you find fresh turkey scratching.
With freshly fallen leaves, identifying turkey signs is easy. You’ll find a host of freshly scratched patches in the forest floor. Look at the scratches in the fresh earth and the leaf litter to see which way the flock traveled. Old timers will sit this location for a few days waiting for the birds to return, yet there’s a much more time-effective way.
Bill McKinley took this approach while hunting the opening day of Pennsylvania’s season. The weather had been dry and the leaves crunchy, so he walked along an old logging road to reduce travel noise and to cover more ground.
Soon after finding fresh scratchings in the leaves, he heard turkeys making the lost call, a series of five-to-seven yelps that begin low but repeatedly grow louder in volume and squeakier in tone. McKinley searched for a large tree trunk to sit against, posted his blaze-orange hat, used a diaphragm caller, and mimicked the turkey sounds.
Within minutes, he heard the sound of leaves rustling. Soon, a “feathered periscope” popped over the horizon. He squeezed the trigger on his Ruger Red Label O/U and a mature hen was his.
If you’re unsure of the kinds of calls turkey make in the fall, the rule is, “give what you get.” Copy the sounds that you hear using the same number of yelps and pitch.
McKinley lives near the Mason-Dixon Line and had a Maryland license as well. After attending a morning meeting, he headed to the mountains again, employing the same strategies. He hiked well into hill country until he found fresh scratchings in a place he had seen turkeys in previous years.
“I sat there for about half an hour, calling occasionally, when I saw two turkeys approach well down the ridge,” he said. “The birds came straight for me, even strutting at times. Unfortunately, they veered out of range and did not approach close enough for a shot.”
Undaunted, the patient hunter kept calling and soon had another turkey answer the call. McKinley’s heart nearly stopped when a large red head emerged over the hill-top and into shotgun range.
Normally, fall longbeards don’t answer hen calls, yet this one was eager for company. McKinley enjoys using a variety of shotguns when hunting and downed this big tom that weighted 17 pounds with a Browning A-500.
One caution when using this search-and-call method. If the season has been open for a while, flocks will likely have been scattered by other hunters or predators.
A turkey that has been alone for a day or two will often come to a call immediately, and you may not have time to sit in a concealing position.
Either find a good tree to sit against before calling or call with a sitting spot in sight.
The lost call is easy to make with a diaphragm caller and even easier with a box caller.
Since young turkey want to join their flock, they often call frequently and with volume.
Good luck!
