On a spring turkey hunting trip to Tennessee, the very year the first fall turkey hunt was to take place in my native Wisconsin, I asked my hosts for advice on how they hunted turkeys in autumn. They described the classic scatter-and-call-back scenario, whereby a hunter rushes a flock of turkeys to scatter them to all directions of the compass, then sets up and goes to work calling the lonely, discombobulated birds back in to re-group with their flockmates.
Those guys had several long Appalachian ridgelines at their disposal, with multiple turkey flocks roaming the hills. When I thought about the two small farms I had access to for turkey hunting back home, I thought there had to be a different way. Why booger and try to call back, then shoot at, and scare again, the very turkeys that I wanted to hunt all fall?
So I decided to go “scatter-free,” as in, hunting turkey flocks as they go about their natural daily business, much like you would whitetails. Here’s the eight-step process that I have developed since then.
Fall turkey hunting presents an exciting challenge compared to the spring season While you won’t hear nearly as much gobbling, the tactics and strategies involved make for a thrilling hunt With some key considerations and smart scouting, you can have success tagging a bird in the autumn.
Understand Fall Flock Behavior
In the fall, turkeys form large flocks consisting of multiple hens, poults, and adult gobblers A flock of just 10-12 birds can consume over 50 pounds of food per week. They become very territorial over food sources and won’t tolerate rival flocks encroaching on their territory
Use this to your advantage. If you can locate areas where the birds are feeding daily, you can set up nearby and call in the flock using hen yelps kee-kees and purrs. The birds will perceive an intruder in their feeding area and come to investigate.
Scouting for Fall Birds
Scouting is critical for locating fall flocks. Look for signs like tracks, droppings, feathers, and scratchings in oak flats or agricultural fields. Identify food sources the birds are using and set up between the roost and feeding areas.
Roost sites will change in the fall depending on food availability. Look for large piles of droppings and feathers around potential roost trees. In the evening, listen for the sound of wings rushing into the trees.
Effective Fall Turkey Tactics
Call in lone birds: If you spot a solitary bird, get ahead of it and call softly using purrs and clucks. Lonely birds will often come looking for company.
Scatter and recall: Rush a flock on foot to scatter them, then quickly set up and call to bring them back together. Use kee-kees, yelps, and clucks. Add a decoy to help draw in birds.
Challenge a flock: Locate a flock and set up nearby. Put out a decoy and call aggressively with yelps and cutting to mimic an intruder. The flock will likely come in to investigate.
Roost set up: Get under a roost before fly down and call using soft clucks and purrs as the birds begin to fly down. Join in the chorus as they assemble on the ground.
Provoke a gobbler: Use deep gobbler yelps and purrs to strike a territorial response from fall gobblers. Get one fired up just like in spring.
Key Gear for Fall Turkey Hunting
Having the right gear can make your fall hunt more effective and enjoyable:
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Decoy – A hen decoy works very well for drawing in flocks in the fall. The Flambeau Masters Series Hen is lightweight and realistic.
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Voice calls – Carry various friction, box, and mouth calls that can imitate hen, poult, and gobbler sounds.
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Choke – Use a tight choke like the Winchester Xtended Range Hi-Density to ensure dense, tight shot patterns.
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Blind – A folding blind with a chair like the Red Head Bucklick Creek is perfect for staying hidden and comfortable.
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Boots – Snake boots like the Cabela’s Gore-Tex Snake Boots protect your feet while allowing quiet movement.
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Binoculars – Quality binoculars like 10×42 models from Maven, Vortex, or Nikon are extremely helpful for spotting distant flocks.
4 More Fall Turkey Hunting Tips
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Infiltrate the roost – Set up near a roost before fly-down and join in the chorus of calls as birds take to the trees and ground.
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** intercept a flock** – Make hen calls as you still hunt to strike a flock. Ease ahead and continue calling to draw them in.
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Ambush along routes – Note regularly used routes. Set up with decoys to entice passing flocks.
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Entice gobblers – Use deep yelps and gobble sounds to strike the competitive nature of fall gobblers.
With smart scouting to pattern flocks and a solid game plan, your odds of filling a fall tag are excellent. Just adjust your expectations and hunting strategy for the season. A flock of autumn turkeys converging on your calls can kick the heart rate up just as fast as spring gobblers!
Hunt the Travel Corridors
Avoid getting in tight and hunting a roost itself until you are closing in on the end of your season. Just as scattering can move turkeys out of your neighborhood, meddling with turkeys in their immediate roost area can send them packing for a new address.
A better plan is to figure out how the birds get from roost area to feeding area (morning), or from feeding area to roost (evening), then hunt the travel lane or corridor that gets them where they’re going much like you would set up for a whitetail.
Read Next: How to Call Turkeys: Has Cutting and Running Lost Its Effectiveness?
Understand Fall Turkeys
Everywhere fall turkeys are hunted, any bird is legal game. That means adult hens, young-of-the-year males (known as jakes), young-of-the-year hens (often called jennies), and, of course, gobblers.
While fall gobblers that hang out in loose bachelor groups are certainly huntable, they are extremely difficult to target, so we’ll leave them for spring and spend our time here talking about all those other (I might add, mighty tasty) birds.
Hens, jennies, and jakes travel in family flocks. As fall goes on, a couple of hens will sometimes join forces, and broods, to make super flocks. Some jakes get so raucous though they are sent off in their own rowdy and inquisitive juvenile flocks, which are very talkative and very fun to hunt. Hens that didn’t pull off broods often group up together too.
These are the birds you’ll be targeting. And they all have two things in common: They’re naturally curious, and they eat a lot. Those are the main factors you’ll play on.
Scout fall turkeys like you would whitetails. That means carefully, and from a distance as much as possible, so the birds don’t know you’re around. Vantage points, vehicles, eyeballs, and binoculars are your best scouting tools. If you can figure out what the turkeys are doing every day without letting them know what you’re up to, you’re gold.
One beauty of fall turkey scouting is that you really don’t have to get serious about it until a few days before the season. As fall progresses and the landscape changes almost daily, turkeys are continually changing their feeding and movement patterns.
But that means something else too: What the turkeys were doing at the start of the season—when the forest’s leaves are full, and the meadows are full of greens and bugs—is way different than how they’ll pattern when the leaves are down, the fields brown, the acorns dropped, and the grainfields harvested.
FALL TURKEY HUNTING/ How to Find Fall Gobblers
FAQ
How to call turkeys in the fall?
Use your cap to imitate wing beats by slapping it against some brush or a tree. Take a stick and scratch at the dirt or kick leaves around. Using these nonverbal cues while softly running a hands-free call might just be what it takes to bring in a wary tom.
What is the best Time of day to hunt turkeys in the fall?
What time of day is best for turkey hunting? The best time of day to hunt turkeys is early morning, just before sunrise, or late afternoon, just before sunset. This is when turkeys are most active and likely to be moving around, making them easier to hunt.
What is the best way to hunt turkeys in the fall?
For a morning hunt, I put the blind near the roost on the most likely path the birds will take on their way to feed. I set up in the dark, usually within 100 yards of the roost. If it is dark, and you are quiet, you can set a blind up very close to roosted turkeys without their spooking.
Is fall turkey hunting harder?
Provided that fall hunting is allowed in a given area, turkeys tend to gather in larger groups, making them harder to lure or spot.