One of my first memories of turkey hunting was not of turkey hunting at all. It was trying to walk in the same footprints as my dad while scouting for turkeys. He moved quickly, quietly, and never brought a turkey call into the woods before the season began. Towards the middle of February each year, we would begin walking through the woods looking for turkey sign. We generally had a pretty good idea of where they would be based on his history of hunting a particular place. Nevertheless, we made scouting trips to the same places year after year.

I don’t remember being given a great deal of specific instruction during the scouting trips. Basically, turkey sign would be pointed out as it was observed. I did not ask many questions. I mainly watched. I understood that this was a time to observe and take in all the sights and sounds around me. And I knew that as we approached the end of the first week of March, our scouting methods would change a little. We wouldn’t walk around in the woods as much. We would be out there earlier in the morning. And instead of looking, we would focus more on listening. One piece of specific information that was given to me from my dad was that there was no need to go “stomping around in the woods once the turkeys started gobbling.” To this day, I basically scout the same way that we did back in those days growing up. I guess my first memories would be from back in the late 70′s tromping around behind my dad in the piney woods.

I don’t have the final word on scouting or turkey hunting or anything else, but I have learned a few things that may be able to help people make their scouting time more than an exercise in spooking turkeys before the season. There should be two goals in your scouting. First, you need to know the land you are going to be hunting. Next, you need to know where the turkeys are. A great deal of these two things will be done simultaneously and with overlapping activities. In other words, while you are learning the property you will also be finding the turkeys. Focusing your efforts on learning the property and finding the turkeys can be the difference between hunting a turkey and hunting a turkey to hunt once the season opens.

Knowing the Land

Topographic maps are a great starting point for learning the terrain of a new area. These should be used in conjunction with satellite photos.

First, and possibly most important: knowing the lay of the land is a critical part of hunting any piece of property for any type of game. Enough cannot be said about having intimate knowledge of the property you are hunting. Creeks, fields, fences, seasonal drainages, isolated thickets, and various terrain features can all affect how turkeys travel on a given piece of property. Knowing these things can help guide how you approach the property when you start hunting.

There are three ways I go about learning a piece of property. First, I obtain an aerial photo of the property. I do this for every single piece of property I hunt whether it is public or private land. These maps can be found readily at websites like mytopo.com, the USGS website, and a host of others. The only problem I find with aerial photos is that they are often not recent enough to tell you everything you need to know about the property. Recent timber harvests, seasonal drainages, and other terrain features may not be on the photo if they happened after the photo was taken. However, aerial photos will always give you a very good perspective of how the property is laid out, which is a good start. Initially, I study these photos in an attempt to get an idea of areas that I think will be productive before I go to the property.