Been thinking about doing some turkey hunting. I never hunted them much for lack of a place to hunt...though I do have a WMA close by.

I read that you can only hunt until 1 pm and have to be out of the field by 2 pm. So I guess that means that you can't put them to bed?

Leave it to me to find something to complain about but having the hunting day cut in half is sort of like getting half a season...I wish I could purchase half of a tag and half of a "game bird habitat privilege" stamp.

I went out yesterday and found birds in short order. That's no real trick because I see them out there all the time and know where to look. Well, that's when it's NOT turkey season.

My guess is that those same birds are going to get run ragged once the season opens and make themselves scarce.

I guess it just doesn't look real promising to me.

Hunting until 1PM is not a bad thing, you can still locate birds in the evening, just not hunt them after 1PM.

By not being pressured all day the morning gobbling is even better.

Hunting public land is not for everyone, but it is possible to kill birds on public ground. Many on here do it every season.

You CAN "put them to bed", but you cant have a firearm/bow or "hunt"... at least you can on the F&W areas..... I feel the same way, I got drawn it at a F&W area for the 28th-30th and am afraid they will have lock jaw by then....youth season first and 5 days of heavy pressure before I get on it, plus who knows how many jag offs will be scouting/ cold calling before hand...I'll be out on the opener on my new private leased land, hopefully I wont need to go the F&W route....I may go back to the private if the state land sucks and blow off the last day or two of the draw, depends on what each property looks/sounds like....

Hunt that wma! Many people talk themselves out of public land hunting for reasons listed above which is fine by me, that's about all I hunt. In fact I prefer it in many cases. Don't give up on em. You have an advantage of knowing patterns and the lay of the land. Use it to your advantage. One o'clock is plenty of time to git er done. You may be done quick! Good luck.

Maybe I read the rules wrong. The posting at the F&W said that you had to be out of the field by 2pm.

BTW, it's the Winamac area that I'm talking about.

As far as messing up an area by scouting or cold calling...it's one of the things that concerns me about hunting the place. It's sometimes hard to not bump into people and stumble into each other's hunts.

I don't know if it's true but I've been told that the place is best hunted by "spot and stalk" because the birds know all about calls and decoys. It might be true but they know all about people walking around too. Some of these birds saw me park the car. LOL

Spot and stalk is tough for turkeys. And it can be dangerous. I always google earth public spots to find alternative access if possible. I'm not familiar with winamac but I'm sure that there are areas that get a lot of pressure and some that don't get much at all, like all wma's. If i remember right winamac has tippecanoe river running through it so best hunting may mean access by boat or canoe. You will learn a lot this year. And you may learn to use the pressure to your advantage.

The Tippecanoe River does not run through Winamac Fish & Wildlife Area... The river only runs through the State Park and you can't hunt that for turkeys...

If I was hunting there I would set up in the northern most part of the property...

I guess I want to stress here that my intent is to ask...not sound like I already know.

I've done very little turkey hunting and never there. I know my way around the place a little because I do some squirrel hunting and a little deer hunting there. I really don't know what to expect during the turkey season.

Thanks. I remember taking a float trip for smallies up there one year but couldn't remember exactly where the wma was.

True story, first gobbler I ever killed I pulled into a hoosier nf parking area with multiple trucks one morning. I went on in and didn't feel comfortable. I could hear hunters hooting and carrying on. I backed out, drove to the other side of the river and got out of the truck just in time to hear a gobbler about 100 yards below me. The gobbler was walking a shelf above the river and answering the calls of the hunters I just left. I hightailed it to get in front of him and set up. I'm not ashamed to say they did most of the calling that morning but I got the bird. So, adjust but don't give up.

Draw hunts like on Winimac have different rules. But they also eliminate competition and can be worth the trouble.

Fish and Wildlife Areas are a challenge but I have gotten onto birds a lot on state forests. If you head south to the Hoosier NF, you can run and gun ridges for a long way and get into birds. Stay off the trails and roads and you eliminate a lot of competition.