camo tape

[Renegadehunter]

Just make sure you set up where it will be shady when the sun comes up so there isn't any glare from your shotgun. I do prefer to wear camo for them (IMO any neutral color would be fine) and of course avoid red, white, blue, and black for safety. Sit with your back to a shoulder wide tree if you can, for safety and to hide your outline. Definitely a face mask, I've had several birds spook when I don't bother to cover my face when trying to get them archery close. Jakes will come to you sitting in your cherry red pickup, but a long beard does shy away pretty easily.
I prefer just one hen decoy that carries easily. Focus mainly on being able to make realistic hen yelps, you can call in a lot of birds with just that sound. Think about your set up too, they don't like to come downhill or cross some obstacles, such as creeks or fences. Oh, and if you like to shoot coyotes you should load one side up with a PRB, coyotes come in to turkey calling quite often too.
My most successful method is to be at my hunting spot well before daylight, walk into the woods, and listen for them. You can crow call or owl hoot to make them gobble, but most mornings they will sound off all on their own about 30 minutes before daylight. Get as close as you dare, set the decoy out, and wait for daylight. I give them a couple yelps after setting up to let them know I'm there, but then don't call until they come out of the roost and hit the ground. If you don't hear them fly down you can still tell when they leave the roost because their gobble sounds farther away suddenly. Don't mistake that and think that they are moving away from you.
You can also "put them to bed", do some crow calling at dusk the evening before and they'll gobble and tell you where they'll be the next morning.

 

[Paddywonka]

Great turkey hunting advice. While I have never hunted them I have encountered many in the woods & watched them like a coyote would. Very crafty but also curious to a fault & would come close just to see what I was. Just like deer out of season, somehow they know when they are not being hunted. Many years ago my brother inlaw bought an old knee length horse hide coat with matching mitts & cap. Figured it would keep him warm deer hunting in the cold snowy Michigan woods. Told him it would till the first hunter squeezed his trigger. He wisely put the coat on a wrack in his den, where it stayed for the next 30 years.

 

[bobbythehunter]

I worry more about my personal safety when spring turkey hunting than anything else I hunt. If I pull-up into my parking spot under darkness and find more vehicles than I would like... I simply leave and go to a less crowded area. I'll leave also out of respect not to interfere with the hunters who have already planned their hunt ahead of me.

Yeah I'm the same Marty. I have a number of spots and I keep moving til I find a spot without a vehicle.

 

[muzzleloader48]

As

You just made every hunter safety Instructor in every state, cringe with that advise. Why not just dress your grandchildren as turkeys and let them run loose out in front of you? A ghillie suit and sitting still is your best bet. Always avoid blue and red. Practice, practice, practice your calling skills. And I had to laugh when I read the part about the cone on the nose.

usual over

 

[muzzleloader48]

l

As

usual over

Some foks have NO sense of humor! What I'm trying to say, and I guess I have to explain it now: SOME FOLKS OVER THINK EVERYTHING AND MAKE A SIMPLE TASK IN TO ROCKET SCIENCE!!! AS USUAL!

 

[drax05]

I do a lot of turkey hunting, and some time just take one of my wingbone calls just to have fun and not shoot. However 90% of my hunting is done behind a natural blind made with what ever is near the "display" area I want to hunt. Usually holly branches, with juniper, cedar and or pine branches held up with honeysuckle vine and twine, hence, I only really have to worry about sound and movement and not so much what I'm wearing.

 

[Marty1]

I do a lot of turkey hunting, and some time just take one of my wingbone calls just to have fun and not shoot. However 90% of my hunting is done behind a natural blind made with what ever is near the "display" area I want to hunt. Usually holly branches, with juniper, cedar and or pine branches held up with honeysuckle vine and twine, hence, I only really have to worry about sound and movement and not so much what I'm wearing.

How far ahead do you create your blind ahead of hunting?

 

[drax05]

How far ahead do you create your blind ahead of hunting?

only day or two, they never notice any change it seems, just movement and sound. I do put them back in the woods/brush some and not right on the edge of the plot/opening I expect them. Using limbs and brush makes it easier to ease my flintlock barrel through to shoot than netting. It's a little longer than a normal shotgun.... Evergreen branches and such last the longest before wilting and changing color or the leaves drooping making more spaces.

 

[bobbythehunter]

I've found that Turkeys ( and deer sometimes) will walk right up to blind on the morning you put it up.