Turkey season starts for me in the about 3 weeks. About a month ago I almost tripped over a turkey while out squirrel hunting and saw another one crossing a 2 track later in the day.

I want to head back and find out where these guys are roosting prior to hunting them. I need some suggestions from some veteran gobbler hunters on how to go about this. I'm still practicing with my box calls and mouth calls so I was thinking about getting a couple of those electronic calls for scouting. Can i head out pre-dawn and work a crow call or something else and pretty reliably expect to at least get a sign from these roosting birds?

Thanks in advance for any tips!

I'm far from an expert turkey hunter, but I'll pass along a few thoughts.

Yes, you want to figure out where they are roosting. They'll make noise whether you do anything or not, but yes, a crow call is recommended. I haven't used one but the advise sure appears in print a lot. If the trees aren't too leafy just yet, you can see them roosting from a long way off, sometimes.

I think you want to do that in the evening, though.

Heck I see no reason not to just practice your normal turkey calls, if you're just scouting. Gobble too, as well as the hen calls. It's fun.

A turkey is not exactly the brightest creature in the animal kingdom. My experience is, you need to be in an area that has plenty of turkeys, you need to be doing this during the 'mating season' so the gobblers are interested, and finally, you just need to SIT STILL and I do mean like a rock, not move a muscle, when they are coming in. Have some patience; if they're with hens, they may not come in right away, but later after the hens are back on the nest.

They like big timber near water to roost in.

Hope this helps. Should get lots of good information on this thread!

It's been said that using any type of Turkey call for locating birds and scouting isn't a good idea , the reasoning being that the more they hear and respond to it without a bird showing itself the more likely they are to clam up. Probably more relevant to birds that have been duped a few times by artificial chatter(?), but there are too many other good locator calls to make it worth the risk. Crow is good as well as Owl , Hawk , Peacock (yeah peacock ) ,Coyote particularly in the evening for obvious reasons. Just about any sudden noise can evoke a gobble from roosted birds. Iv'e even had them spout off when one of the kids slammed the truck door with a little too much gusto heading out into the woods. But I'd stick with the natural stuff.


444fitch

Dunno if western birds will act the same, but eastern birds will usually call a bit from the roost once they get in their tree for the night. If you go out to your area around dusk and a bit later, you can often pinpoint the tree they're in- or at least narrow it down to a small area.
I use no calls at all for finding roosted birds- just listen.
Using binoculars- as mentioned- to spot birds in the tree is a good idea, too.
Dunno if it's always true, but it has been my experience that a good roost tree or roost area will get used over and over- so if you find where they roost, remember that spot, and check it again later in the season, or next year.

Thanks fellas - great tips. I was reading in an article yesterday that here in FL the turkeys prefer to roost in cypress tress near water. The place I will hunt has a great samll river/big creek running through it and on the edge is where I sccared up one of the birds. I'll go back and see if I can find some packets of cypress and look for ground sign under them. One common thread from you guys so far is that dusk is the better scouting time. I was totally thinking I should be there for fly down but I like the idea of duck better because I can move into the area over a longer period of time being much quieter. The other bird I'd seen spotted my truck, barely rolling, and 100 yards and split into heavy cover like it's tail was on fire. I'll need the afternoon to move in quietly, identify some gorund sign, and then locate a spot to sit and listen.

Thanks gain for the tips.