Different is good despite what peers and friends may say about your contradictory ways. Staying the course as different could be your key strategy when hunting a small property for turkeys this spring. Curveball tactics, unexpected pop-ins and tossing time-honored tactics all could flow in your favor while hunting a tiny tract for turkeys.
You may not have access to a sprawling estate with gobblers running amok. I don’t. Most of my turkey hunting today takes place on an 80-acre and 100-acre tract, both of which have only ribbons of turkey habitat. Most are open pasture. This bantam ballpark for turkeys has made me rethink my approach to turkey hunting. I still go bold sometimes, but regardless, being different makes all the difference in whether I tag out.
Have A Plan
Begin being different by crafting a plan. The turkeys have a plan to survive so checkmate them. You likely devise a morning hunting plan driving from your convenience store stop to the hunting property entrance. Start earlier. Team firsthand knowledge of a parcel with your hunting app (huntstand.com) to analyze every acre of terrain on a property. You need to be intimate with every topographical dimple, possible roosting sites, food sources and turkey loafing areas. Mark all possibilities on your app and, before your hunt, confirm.
Onsite confirmation needs to be a clandestine operation. Use a binocular or spotting scope when possible. Trail cameras, especially cellular, also have value in keeping you up to speed on turkey movement at primary locations. Plus, once cellular trail cameras are installed, you minimize any small property intrusions that could alter turkey behavior.
Do It Different Access
With a comfortable understanding of turkey habits on a property, modify your behavior starting with access. Begin with an early start. Although turkeys have good eyesight, they cannot see in the dark. Move into position well before daybreak, an hour before shooting light is not too early in the spring where dawn delivers more morning illumination as spring daylight hours increase.
Next, stay out of sight, especially when maneuvering toward a roost tree in the predawn. Use any topographical advantage you found on your hunting app, plus the screen of any leafed-out trees or bushy coniferous species. Stay out of sight as much as possible especially when staking decoys near the roost. Again, go early as turkeys may sense movement, but raccoons, deer and other forest critters also stir below turkeys to help you with foolery.
Next, vary your entrance. In the dark you can repeat a route, but once daylight strikes, varying your ingress keeps turkeys guessing of your movements. At some point expect to bump a turkey. By changing the direction of your arrival from a completely different track, turkeys may be more watchful of their backside to the bumped location and miss your admission from a new bearing. Keep them guessing.
Even changing the time of day you hunt aids in not allowing turkeys to establish your hunting pattern. Few things trump a turkey landing in your lap at a morning roost site, but oftentimes you can jack up a turkey midmorning that could be in search of a brunch blind date. Turkeys may have a nut-sized noggin, but their paranoia outperforms as they recall danger situations from the past, so alter access.
Do It Different Calling/Decoying
As long as you’re changing your access routine, apply it to your ways of calling and decoying. You know that one relative who no matter when you encounter him retells the same story from his past you already know by heart? Turkeys may not relate in the same way, but if they hear the same sounds from you every time you hunt a tiny tract they could perceive it as danger. Red flags may rise. Start by adding different instruments to your turkey band.
Consider varying your diaphragms, using a pot call or going back to your grandfather’s favorite box call you inherited. A different sound each time you visit a property keeps turkeys guessing as to new visitors in the area. Change the tone of your yelps, add more cutting, utilize the soft talk of putts and clucks, and avoid repeated clashes with the boss hen on every visit. Gobbles can also be effective, but use them only in areas where you know others will not stalk you.
As for decoys, keep changing the sex, look and number of feathered visitors. Rotate decoys based on manufacturers and even mull adding a real feathered cape to your faux flock. Consider swapping between hens, hen and jake and strutting tom decoy varieties to always provide a different situation real turkeys view. And a final trick to consider is attaching a long thread of stout cord to a decoy. One cloaked tug can give just enough motion to a decoy to seal the deal.
Do It Different And Deer Hunt
If all else fails, become a stump sitter. Your scouting likely revealed several hangouts on a small property turkeys repeatedly visit. Build a natural blind or stake a commercial model. Bring a thermos, an extra power source for your smartphone and wait it out. Field edges, the mouth of a coulee or a shady edge where turkeys may dust all provide locations for a wait-and-see strategy. You can stake a decoy in front of the blind and even add in the occasional flock chatter to spark the curiosity of an unsocial flock. Either way, the wait-and-see tactic is discreet and, when you use a veiled entrance, a clandestine best to hunt a tiny property.
In closing, the turkeys you hunt on a small property may get wise to your ways and become unkillable. I’ve been there. Keep your chin up. One unexpected benefit of the ongoing turkey season is the arrival of wanderers. Toms who have bred the hens in their flock or been booted may show up without an RSVP. Anything goes with a newcomer. Take advantage of that occasional gift when it gobbles.
*To follow along for more hunting tactics and adventures, join Mark on Instagram @kaysermark and Facebook @markkayseroutdoors.
