Whats your setup?!

What's up guys! Just wanting to see how some of you go about your turkey season! Do you use a blind? Nestle back in the weeds? Go from your treestand? You like decoys or go without? Gun or bow?

I personally either find a hole in the weeds and hide back in there or set up in my blind. I usually set out a couple feeding hen decoys and maybe a jake here and there. I had one walk within 5 yards of me last year sitting in the weeds but he came from the side that I wasn't set up for and I couldn't get my gun turned for the shot and the weeds were too thick to get a shot. I bought me a new blind this year and will be in black attire for the hunts. Just purchased a new camera so I will be trying to get some good footage to share with everyone! I prefer to take my trusty ole Mossberg 500 12ga.

Please share your preferred method to help not only me but others that are going at it this year and maybe some tips on what you've found to be your favorite calling method (if any). Thanks all! Aaaaand go!

Have never given turkey hunting a try, however I've been watching a group of 11 out behind the house for last several weeks, so may have to give it a try this year?

use a blind mostly to start with then run and gun,

Dave Smith decoys are the best I have found to use, I use a jake and hen mostly. I added the jake B Mobile with the fan I made for this year.

My gun is a 12Ga. Remington 870 with timney trigger, Indian Creek choke tube shooting Winchester Longbeard XR shells #5 or #6 shot.

I usually start out in a blind and then always end up running and gunning, unless my son who is now 8 is with me. Then we stay in the blind since it hides his movement. It amazes me every year how the birds will pay no attention at all to the blind I'm the middle of an open field. Decoy wise I usually have a single hen out.

+1 on that. I have been schooled by MANY old smart toms over the years, but the blind in the wide open is really the turkeys weakness. They do not associate it with danger at all.

You know I just was told this weekend about putting a blind in the middle of a field and going that route without it affecting the birds and I struggled to believe it but I've heard more and more people saying that they hunt that way so I'm going to give it a try this year

It's simply amazing they pay no attention to it what so ever. It's baffling honestly that they see so well when your outside of a blind yet clueless to one out in the open. Only thing is its impossible for me to stay put when birds are gobbling elsewhere.

I only bow hunt birds anymore. The blind in the middle of a wide open field works wonders. Turkeys don't view the blind as a threatening shape. Turkeys best survival tool is their vision. They are comfortable in wide open spaces. If you spend time scouting and watching birds you will find that they often feed and hang out in wide open fields on whatever rise they can find (even if that rise is only a couple feet over surrounding areas). They like this because they can see danger approaching. My theory is that when a bird steps out and sees your decoys in the wide open, that he associates two things ... 1) a safe situation that birds like and 2) hens to mate with and a jake to kick butt on in that safe situation. Generally he heads right in. So I set up in the wide open. 75 yards or more from any tree, brush, or fence line ... generally.

So if blind hunting is your thing, then hunt a blind in the open if possible and use visibility of the decoys as your tool. Set the sun to your back. Wear black from the waist up, including a black glove on your bow hand. A black bow (or riser at least) really helps too. The black on black is an old magicians trick and makes movement almost totally undetectable looking from the outside inward. Then finally ... be patient. Patience kills turkeys ... especially when hunting ground blinds.

It is an effective way to hunt them especially on smaller properties where run and gun hunting isn't really an option.

For me, when I'm hunting on my home premises, in the morning I either hunt in a blind (homemade turkey blinds that I've made out of cattle panel and camo burlap), or I find a tree to hunt up against. I put out 1 to 2 decoys at a time (hen, or hen and jake). I call every so often, and if I hear gobbling I stay put, but if I sit there for a couple hours and there is no gobbling then I move to a different property or move to a different woods. I have had luck with these morning set ups.

I'm in a different situation than most as I hunt public land. A blind can work there in the right places but I prefer to set up against large trees or a well placed dead fall. I always try for a close in fly down hunt and then position as necessary being careful to try not to spook birds.

Two hunters working together are helpful too swapping off calling as a tom approaches. Back guy ends up calling or even moving away while calling, if possible, especially if the tom hangs up.

Movement is the key. The bird's eye is built to pick up movement such as insects crawling on the ground. It would be nice if they ate ticks.

I personally don't like to be tied down to a blind. I am not exactly the most patient person in the world.

I prefer to get as close as possible in the dark to a gobbling bird. Last season this was very difficult because of the lack of foliage early in the season.

I like to get within 75 to 100 yards, if possible in the dark. I will then do some soft tree yelps on a slate call after the bird gobbles. Once I feel he has gobbled back in response to my soft yelps I shut up until he hits the ground.

Once he's on the ground I will yelp and cut very aggressively with a mouth call each time he gobbles. I like to cut him off. Meaning I start cutting before he is done gobbling. This will normally make him crazy gobbling and even double gobbling back at me. A lot of times a bird will come in doing this. Of course, there are a lot of factors to consider. Hopefully, he isn't with hens. In nature the hens go to gobbler when he is gobbling in the tree. If you hear or see hens just do what they do. Whatever sound I hear a hen make I make it right back at her. If she yelps 4 times I yelp 4 times. If she cuts I cut. You might call in the hen that will bring in the gobbler. But, very rarely, if ever, will you call a gobbler away from a hen.

I personally like to pour it on once I have a bird gobbling at me on the ground. Every time he gobbles I cut like crazy back at him literally whipping him into a frenzy.

The main thing to consider is that once its light enough for them to see you can NOT move. I mean can NOT unless they are over a rise or hidden behind brush where you are 100% sure they can't see you. If I know they can't see me I like to rake leaves with a stick. Turkeys are very loud in the woods. I have called in birds just doing this.

Good luck!

I hear that HunterDan, sounds like my old Ben Roger Lee cassette when he says something like "you wouldn't believe how close I like to get to em. If you get close enough, you have a 50/50 chance he might fly down in your direction." One of the worst sounds to hear on a spring morn, is busting a gobbler out early. Thin line you don't want to cross and you learn it by trial and error. But when it comes together......cupped and committed like a duck coming into a spread, it is magical. I'm betting foliage will be late coming on this spring too. Good advice.

I tape a fan to each of my heels and one to my hat and crawl up and down the logging roads clucking and putting. I dust out a bowl sometimes so when the Male Turkey sees this he thinks another turkey has taken over his bowl. Sometimes I tape trash bags under my armpits and flap them to sound more like a flying turkey. I have never killed a bird but I have been real close. Sorry had to do it! I hunt from a blind wherever I hunt and yes sometimes in the middle of an open field and had turkeys come right up to it like it wasn't even there! The blind is their weakness because they wont pick you off as easily.

For the last 14 years in a row now…..its been the Kroger frozen meat isle for me!!!

Nice visual garman. Bout lost my beverage on that one! Definitely a few different ways to approach the wild turkey.

Yaz......

the best advice? Find where the birds are going then setup there.

I have killed a few who never gobbled once. Scouting told me where I needed to be. Then I setup and waited....now my favorite method is to set up on a gobbling tom and call him in but we all know it does not always work this way.

I am a run/gun turkey hunter at heart. Personally, I have never killed one out of a blind or even tried. Killed plenty with my back up against a tree. I may try one day from a blind, especially if I bow hunted. Since moving back to Indiana 11 years ago, I have been calling most seasons for people and never pulled the trigger.

Hunting with the kiddo is a different story:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXAd8vWYfkI

As you can tell - lots of activity going on in the blind. Jeez - I can't wait. Turkeys and walleyes.

I wouldn't know what it is like to harvest a turkey... In all my years hunting them I have never taken one...

I love his excitement in that video! Good to see a young one so excited! He'll definitely be back at it this year!

Garman's setup made me LMAO! .. I loved Luke's hunt and was shocked at how oblivious the turkey was to it! I have never used a blind, and have heard how they can mask some movement but seeing is believing!

Does anyone have any good stories about how turkeys spit 'n drum? I think it's a fascinating phenomenon.

Hey Duder. And they still can't figure out how they make the noise! First time I got slipped in on and had one spitting and drumming behind me in some thick stuff but I couldn't figure out what it was. I was a greenhorn. Ended up walking out the field towards the logging road calling every 100 yards. No gobbling all morning. I was on yellowbanks public down in Kentucky. I turn around and there's a big ol tom standing right where my deke was staked. His neck was craning to find the hen. I tried to get down on the edge and set up but he busted me. Looked like an ostrich running off.

When you don't hear much gobbling listen for phttttt hummmmmmm and leaves shuffling. How about the other gobbler vocals too I have heard them cluck and make a so called tock. Seems like they do it when they don't see the hen and are a little jacked up. Not to be confused with putting, a horrible noise to hear in the turkey woods. Sorry for the long winded reply I got turkey fever!