Rookie Land Owner ISO Turkeys

Hey all,

I recently moved to a farm, having lived all my life in cities/small towns, and am hoping to maximize the odds of connecting with a tom this spring. I've seen plenty of turkeys in the area (large flock on corn just down the road), but so far there have been none on our land. All of our fields are in hay, but we do have 5-ish acres of timber and some water. I'm aware that I can't bait and hunt within 400 m for seven days. Long-term, I plan to make some improvements to the property to attract more game. My question is, short-term, would you just sit on the fence line and call as loud as possible with a decoy spread? Seek permissions elsewhere? Something else I haven't thought of? I'm not looking to extend permission on my place to anyone else at the moment, at least until I experience some success myself, but I'd appreciate any suggestions/experience other forum members are able to share. Thanks in advance!

On the farm I hunt they do come into the hay fields in the spring, and I have shot several there over the years.
Have you found where they roost at night? If so, set up between the roost area and the hay field. If you are lucky, they may be using your bush to roost - they will move to different roost sites, and not always return to the same site night after night.
The biggest thing if you want to be successful is get a comfortable seat and be patient, and do NOT move!! Any movement will give you away..

If you have birds in the area the Toms will eventually come. Later in the season when all the hens get bred the boys have to move along to find new gals to meet up with.

Basically the bar is closing and all the ones you were eyeballing all night have gone home. The lights of the bar are on and they have announced last call. All of a sudden you hear a faint voice calling to you from the farthest corner of the bar stating "Hey good looking I am still available."

You get it. That is when they may stop in for a visit with you. You just need keep talking to them with your sexiest call.

Good luck.

Early spring they will be in any field with green in it - winter wheat, or hay. You might be in good shape but best keep a safe back distance and try to pattern them. See if you can get permission on the neighboring farms to increase your odds.

As said above, why not also put some effort into getting permission for the farms where you're seeing them?

-N.

If you've seen lots of turkeys in the area, you should not have any issues getting a bird. Since you live there, you can easily try different times of the day and different combinations of locations. If I were in your situation, I would get out pre-dawn even now and just listen for gobbles and then make plans based on that. If you hear gobbles in a certain area of your property, or close to it, find a way to set up close to that location.

When farm ground starts to get worked they’ll move to quieter ground that be your hay field

Thanks folks! Sounds like my pessimism about hayfields compared to the local corn/soy could be premature. Until now, I've only ever hunted turkeys in the timber on public land (with minimal success). I'll be sure to get out to listen for morning gobbling in the coming weeks to get a sense of what's happening around us. Seeking additional permissions elsewhere would be what a rational person would do, but I'm too emotionally invested in harvesting a bird on my own land to go that route just yet ;)

Wait til it green's up more before starting to pattern them. They will still be dispersing out more and more from their winter grounds. Tom's will be finding new strut areas and hens will follow.

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