Early Season Turkeys - Is Opening Day the Best Time To Take a Tom?

Birds are showing themselves in a big way these days, as snow recedes from wooded hillsides and crop fields offer what’s left of last fall’s bounty.  It’s got turkeys on top-of-mind for all kinds of hunters who, rightfully so, are excited to get out and kill some winter blues and hopefully turkeys in a few mere weeks.  Yet, despite the enthusiasm, there’s a case to be made for some patience, or at least not putting all your tags in the early basket should you be able to get out with family and friends. 

Sometimes, waiting a few weeks until green-up is a better option than hunting early season turkeys.

Early Birds Ain’t Dumb

I’ve heard it said that first-season birds are “dumb” or “easier-to-kill” when chasing them on opening weekend or at least during the first week or so of the season.  Birds will decoy easier in my experience during the first few time periods, and unfettered access to birds that have been scouted for weeks really does provide an upper-hand.  While I understand the sentiment, and agree that there’s advantage to being the first person to send a call at a tom that hasn’t heard or seen a hunter for months, it’s sometimes amazing how “smart” they can seem in the early part of the spring.

Then again, “smart” probably isn’t the right way to describe an early season longbeard.  They’re certainly still sharp, but even more-so instinctual, and caught up in the rites of spring.  That makes them seem more intelligent than they are, if at times more difficult to take.  They stick tight to their hens, often don’t make a peep sans some heavy roost gobbling, and can be tough to converse with.  Ultimately, they don’t need to gobble on the ground as much, because they’re frequently in close visual contact with a bevy of hens.   

Lots of Beady Little Eyes

Early seasons are often characterized by hero-or-zero type days, where you’re really on ‘em, or not at all.  Birds are typically still flocked-up, roosting together in large mating groups that can be tough to crack.  While you may be in tight on them early morning, the whole crew can march off as you attempt to lay it on thick to any of several gobblers in the flock.  Lead hens don’t like upstart and unfamiliar Jenny’s (you), and pretty soon you’ve got a long line of rubbernecks working a bee-line straight away from you.

To make matters worse, you’ve got little room for error in the naked early season understory.  Even in big timber and brush, its extremely difficult to conceal movement and reposition on birds nearby.  While it’s easier to keep a visual on them, the reverse is also true, and there’s usually far more of them than you.  It never fails, some inconsequential hen far to the left or right of your viewable area spots a toe-twitch or a head-scratch and the game is blown before it begins.  I’d rather take on less pairs of legendary eyes than more, and also do so during later seasons where I can get away with at least a bit of movement.

The Effect of Hunting Pressure

You’re also contending with the dynamic of hunting pressure.  While most people hunt early to try to escape pressure, or hunt birds that haven’t been pressured, it’s amazing how many people can be in the woods pushing birds around in the first few weeks.  What may be considered an opportunity to hunt un-pressured, “easy” birds, turns into an exhausting exercise of finding areas without tracks and parked trucks. 

What I will concede is that during early season, there are simply more gobblers to go around.  Rather than them being an easy target, I think the fact that early season supply starts at max leads to those thoughts.  There are times, in early season, where entire valleys seem to be alight with gobbling birds in the morning hours.  To the point where it would seem difficult not to kill a bird if you just sat still and let one wander into range.  Surely, sitting tight during early seasons certainly has a place in terms of strategy.  In Minnesota, where I grew up hunting, it’s been the preferred tactic of most hunters for many years.  Understandably so, as most hunters simply did what they did in the fall for whitetails; take a stand, get comfortable, and wait for one to come along.  Not to mention, it’s often pretty successful, especially if you’ve done some scouting, have a little patience, and will be hunting the first few weeks of the season.

Yet, one of the reasons I enjoy turkey hunting so much, is specifically because it’s NOT deer hunting.  Woodsmanship, calling, and some strategic repositioning makes the sport what it is, at least for this turkey hunter.  That’s a game more easily played once green-up occurs, when the budding understory both conceals movement and offers legitimate pathways to approach certain birds.  Terrain plus greenery flips the script a bit, putting you at a greater advantage providing you like hunting this way.

More Gobbling Happens Later

Perhaps the unsung heroes of later seasons, are the longbeards themselves, who during this time can often be gobbling at all hours.  Mid-season and on, gone are days of big flocks of notoriously henned-up birds, and what’s more common is toms that are left mid-day by the very hens that made them so difficult to kill earlier.  With hens that are focusing efforts on nesting, it’s not coincidental then that research indicates an increase in overall gobbling as toms seek out the last of the unbred or non-nesting hens.  That’s right, even though many birds may have been harvested from a single area, it can be common to hear even more gobbling from the ones that are left, all throughout the day.  That makes them a more vulnerable target, and a fun way to fill a tag.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ll likely be hunting early as well, especially for youth seasons and the like where blind-hunts and decoys are more commonplace for me.  In reality, there’s not a “bad” time to hunt turkeys during the spring season.  That said, especially in these times with more liberal bag limits, open-ended seasons, and greater availability of early tags, it can pay to be patient and wait for some of the best turkey hunting that’s yet to come.

Should I Buy A Pellet Grill?

From multiple cooking styles and different food types, to various temps and techniques, pellet grills are here to stay.

Pictured:

Traeger 885 Ironwood

Long-handled Tongs

Pellet grills have gone mainstream; from something that sounded experimental only a few years ago, to a fully featured, well-seasoned backbone of the BBQ grill market.  They’ve been around for decades, though their popularity is not really anything I saw coming, or even something I fully supported.  I’m kind of a traditionalist when it comes to cooking, at least when I have the time to be.  Yet at the same time, if it produces good food, especially with less input or fuss, I’m all about it.  The same has held true for sous vide cooking or even newer techniques like reverse searing.  If we can do it better, easier, faster, or all of the above, without sacrificing taste, or even improving it, why not?

Being an avid hunter and angler, I have ample opportunity and interest in all forms of cooking.  From smoked turkey, to seared venison chops, and slow-roasting cedar-planked salmon, I want a grill to do it all.  That comes from someone who owns or has owned a laundry list of charcoal and gas grills, vertical propane smokers, chimney-style bullet electric and charcoal smokers, and even a Kamado style cooker. 

Extra room wasa big selling point for my Traeger 885 Ironwood - and it’s not even pictured with the extra rack that would hold a few more racks of ribs.

I’ve always been in search of versatility in terms of techniques and temperatures, no matter the fuel source, and no matter what I’ve tried, it seems like most versions of grills tend to do one or two things quite well, while being woefully inadequate in other areas.  For example, I really fell in love with a cheapie vertical cabinet-style smoker I had a few years ago.  It was propane, had tons of control, and it produced some really great results.  Ultimately, it lasted only two seasons before rusting out at the bottom, and could not be used for anything other than smoking really. 

Surely a Kamado style cooker would produce better results, so I dropped nearly $2k for the biggest and baddest, complete with a wooden roller cabinet to support its massive weight.  I treated that wood with the most expensive stain and poly combination I could find, covered it religiously, and still found a way to rot out the cabinet, and grow fuzz on the inside of the grill itself.  If it rains where you live, or worse, snows, then gets hot in the summer, a Kamado style grill might not be for you.  It seared well, smoked fairly well, and did fine in terms of roasting, but without a temp/fan controller, really required some babying.  Building and maintaining fires in them was a laborious process, and not to mention messy.  I’m all for that style of cooking, when I have the time, but woefully disdain it when I do not.

Fish can be a tough grill chore if heating isn’t consistent or runs too hot.

It was about that time, I hired someone to build a new table for my Kamado, and got myself a pellet grill – the Traeger Ironwood 885.  Again, with versatility in mind, I was interested in the size, multiple racks, temperature range, super-smoke mode, and especially, the ease of use.  I’ve got a gas grill too (the deck is getting full), and see my Traeger in a similar light.  Both are easy to use, require similar pre-heat, and are supplied by a readily available fuel source.  Propane is easier to find, but I’ve got Traeger pellets at the local hardware store, big boxes, and outdoors stores too, so it’s a push for where I live.

The similarities stop there, and I’ve grown to really love my pellet grill.  I get a solid “smoky” flavor and low temps when I want it, searing and high temps when I need it, and everything in between when I’m cooking chicken, fish, vegetables, and a host of other items, like desserts.  I can choose from a variety of smoke flavors, simply by adding different pellets, and I can perform more complex cooks, more easily.  For example, if I want to slow smoke ribs, then wrap and crank the heat to push the cook along, then unwrap and sauce at a slightly lower temp, I can do all of the above with the push of a few buttons.   

The Traeger App allows you to search a recipe and enact it on your grill - complete with controls for heat, timing, and meat probe alerts. Best of all, you can monitor your fuel and switch it to “keep warm” so the food fits your schedule.

Better yet, I can do all of that and more from my phone.  These days, I visit the grill to get it going, and come back to it when finished.  Occasionally, I’ll check it out mid-cook for a spray, slather, or sauce, but the onboard temp probe gets put in the meat at the start, and I monitor internal temp from there.  Recipe guides from the control app can be sent straight to the grill, complete with instructions, timing regulation, and alerts on my phone.  While I enjoy some of the tinkering and going off on my own, I realize that most people do not.  They want repeatable results and max ease of use.  I can’t think of an easier way to grill. 

There’s a few drawbacks, like the occasional need to remove ash via shop vac, and maybe some general grate scraping and foil shield replacing.  All of which is as easy as the gas grill maintenance and way easier than any wood or charcoal grill I’ve owned.  Ultra greasy grill-offs should be monitored, as I had one flare up when I didn’t keep the grease drain free from obstruction.  My fault on that one, but lesson learned, and the grill was smart enough to shut itself down after it detected the fire.  Still, I’ve had grease fires on gas grills and wood-fired grills too, so it’s been pretty rock-solid.  I’ve gone through a few bags of pellets, but fuel is fuel – grill, smoke, or roast a lot of food, and you’re going to go through it.  It’s slightly more expensive to fuel than propane, but with a load of flavor, so again, I’m not against paying a bit more for a quality result.

In App controls are reflected on the base unit, so you can monitor from afar or up close.

For that reason and others above, it’s become my go-to for about everything I cook, and I continue to find new ways to incorporate it into everyday cooking.  Grilling used to be for weekends, but I’ve done some really great mid-week meals that don’t heat up the house and are a blast to do.  The more I use it, the better I learn to make use of it for the varied styles and recipes it excels at.  For just about every task, including pizza-making, it does better than the other grills in my stable.

Over the long-haul, I expect it to phase out my other grills for all but a very few specialized tasks.  Even then, knowing what I know now, it would definitely be the one grill to replace them all had I only room for one.  I’m excited to own it for years to come, and look forward to sharing more I learn along the way.

Fencelines and Field Birds

Scouting fencelines is often the difference between being close, and close-enough.

Photo Credit - Matt Addington Photography

Early season turkey hunts usually require fooling more than just the big strutter of the group.  Toms are usually glued to their hens this time of year, and those jennies are quite the asset to any longbeard’s hope for a long-life.  The first line of defense is always their eyesight, which is sharp enough for a single bird.  Take a dozen or more of them in a group, each acting as a sentinel that’s peering with lazer-focus at anything, and I do mean anything, that looks out of place.  Add to that the fact that most hens who are attached to their men, don’t rather like another upstart female offering sultry squawks to their boyfriends, and you’ve got a challenging situation.

This challenge is multiplied in a field situation, where we so often hope to sit during the initial parts of any turkey hunting day afield.  That legendary eyesight is twice as sharp in the wide open or at distance, especially when bright sunny mornings offer few shadows in which to hide.  This makes it rather impossible to move on birds that may spend hours in front of you, but woefully out of range.  It’s also why you should choose wisely as to where you make your first stand on any field hunting opportunity.  Most times, that location revolves around a fence – a simple barrier that turkeys will cross at will, at least until you need them to.

Growing up in Southeastern Minnesota, most of my hunting experiences consisted of crossing several fencelines per day, just like the turkeys, as you went from woodlots, to pastures, to crop fields.  Over time, and through scouting, you came to find places in the fence where it was a helluva lot easier to cross, while torn pants and bruised egos offered proof to the spots where it was difficult.  Again, just like the turkeys, I crossed where it was easiest.  It’s amazing to me now, that after a few decades in the woods, how so many generations of turkeys have over the years crossed a fence at the exact same location.  However, it should come as no surprise as these are logical pinch-points that focus turkey movements across the landscape.

In some of the plains states I’ve hunted, fences can be even more important, as a hunt years ago in Kansas taught me.  It took us a few days to catch on to the gig, but those birds offered us two chances to tag out – after fly-down and leaving the general roost area, and once again that same evening as they headed back to it.  The remainder of their day was spent in wheat fields larger than you could see across.  Birds worked in massive groups that utilized one of two different fenceline crossings, and though we observed the location twice daily, it’s amazing how similar one fence post looks like the other.  We found out the hard way that close wasn’t close enough, and we couldn’t call even the satellite toms away from that clan.  You had to be within gun range of the exact crossing, which sounds easy until you’re trying to figure this out from binoculars on a 1,000 acre wheat field where everything looks the same. 

That story holds true throughout the Midwest, and everywhere else for that matter, as the number one rule of field hunting is to be right on the birds as they spill out onto the open-ground.  “Fence-post-accuracy” is what you need when selecting a spot, and your scouting needs to be precise.  40-50 yards off is too far in big groups, as you need a clear shot of a tom among many hens, and so often I’ve been close but not close enough as hens shield their toms and they work into the fields further and further away from you.  Precision counts here in a very big way.  In the past, I’ve even flagged a crossing with nearby brush, a broken limb, or really anything to give you the visual clues you need to be in the right place at the right time come opening morning. 

Rule number two is to never make them cross a fenceline if at all possible, which is probably better known from a general turkey hunting sense.  Growing up on the family dairy farm taught me that lesson well, with a dad that strung a full 4-strands of barbed wire on every T-post he ever met, usually tight enough to make you afraid the whole thing was going to blow up and send shrapnel flying.  Yes, I’ve hung many a bird on the other side of a fence, but even the most formidable fencelines have a weak spot somewhere.  Trail cameras make scouting easier these days, but even before them it was pretty easy to see turkey tracks on the leafless areas where birds would scoot under those fences. 

If crossing one-fence is bad, two or more is surely worse, but I hunt in a few areas where intersections of fencelines meet, creating an “X” that forces you to choose one of four quadrants from which to expect turkeys.  Of course you can hunt near the intersection of all of them, but usually birds end up coming from the direction you least expect it.  At least you’re close to them in this scenario, but even in these kinds of doomsday crossings, birds will often have a method to their madness.  Nothing beats scouting for these tougher-than-normal crossings. 

As callers, so often we fail at getting birds to cross these areas because they’ve been attracted on a semi-straight line to a barrier at a location they’re not used to crossing.  That’s why if I can visually see them and they’re heading even remotely towards my location, I won’t call to them until after they’ve crossed.  Let them negotiate a fence on their own time, and they’ll head through a spot they know and like to cross.  Excite them with a call, and even if they want to get to you, they somehow lose their ability to cross where they normally do, and you’ll more often hang them up.  I’d rather re-position on him and call to a place he wants to be, than force him to travel through a wall he doesn’t want to move through.   

Of course, there’s birds that will defy the rules, like a Wisconsin gobbler that fell last spring after crossing two different fences, ready to cross another before we toppled him at 25 steps.  I’ve also had birds fly over fences, hop through the middle of them, and scoot underneath as if the obstacle wasn’t even there.  Each tom is different, and desperate birds will do crazy things. 

Early season isn’t one of those times however, as options for hens abound.  Spend some time glassing those fields before you hunt, remembering that if you’re there too late, they’ll already be in the field and you’ll have missed where they cross.  Chances are that even if they’re working a particular zone in the field, they may not be later, especially if the hens lead toms away from your calling or decoys.  Be where they want to cross, and you may just be punching a tag before the sun tops the trees.  

How to Clean Your Wild Turkey

Turkey hunting can take you through the complete spectrum of extreme emotions.  From zero to hero, then back again.  Just when you thought the gig was up, and your opportunity was fading, you connect on the spring gobbler of your dreams.  After the high-fives, texts, and immediate calls to buddies are over, and a heaping plate of pancakes has been eaten, you should be thinking about what you’d like to do with your bird.  Well before the celebration even, you might consider just how you’d like to preserve the memory, and prepare the meat.

The good news is that you usually have a few hours, especially if the weather is anywhere south of the 50 degree mark.  Even in summer-like temperatures with an afternoon-killed bird, you’ve got a bit of time to decide how you’d like to prepare your bird.  In any scenario, keep him in a cool, shaded place, out of direct sunlight.  In most states, you’ve been required to legally tag him by now, but you also need to register that bird for your state fish and game department.  This is a crucial, and legal step, don’t forget to do it as wildlife managers rely on self-reporting of these statistics to help determine tag numbers and success rates.

If the weather is warm and you won’t have time to process the bird for a bit, at least remove the internal organs by making a small slice between the rear tip of the breast bone and the vent.  Reach in with your hands and remove the entrails, being careful to fully remove the heart, kidneys, intestines, and pesky lung matter.  Usually the lung bits nestle between the rib bones towards the front and bottom portions of the chest cavity, so it pays to run your fingers like a rake down the gaps of these ribs to pull out all the lung matter.  Especially if you’ll be cooking the bird whole, you’ll want this step done well. 

For me, the road forks at “to pluck, or not to pluck.”  An adult wild turkey sports somewhere between 5,000 – 6,000 feathers, and if you’d like to roast, smoke, or otherwise cook your bird whole, you’ll get the chance to pull out all of them.  I can tell you from hard-won experience that plucking a turkey is never as bad as you last remembered it, and goes quicker than you might expect provided you do so in the “sweet spot”; a period of time that persists one hour after kill time, and no more than 2-3 hours later.  Pluck too soon after you kill the bird and you tend to rip the warm skin when trying to pull multiple feathers.  Pluck too late, and you’ll find that more of the pin feathers stay with the turkey, making for a poor looking bird with inedible skin. 

Of course you can always scald a turkey to make plucking go more quickly.  This process involves removing the head and wing sections of the bird while you heat a large cauldron of water anywhere past 150 degrees or so.  At that temperature, you can soak the bird a good 20 or 30 seconds, but if you use boiling water, a couple seconds in the bath is all you’ll get before you start to cook your turkey.  Good kitchen gloves allow you to handle the hot bird and help with maximum feather removal.  I’m not a huge fan of scalding the bird, mostly on account of the extra materials and time it takes.  I’ll admit it probably does a better job than just my claws alone can, but I can do a reasonable job in quicker time without too much hassle overall. 

My process for plucking starts by timing it correctly, between one and three hours after the kill, and starts with removing the tail-fan, beard, and spurs for momentos.  To properly remove the tail-fan, collapse it and hold near the base above the vent.  It’s somewhat independent of the rest of the turkey’s body.  Grasp near the base, then slice between the vent and tail-fan base, then down to the backbone, being careful to leave some skin (with feathers).  It’s fine to come up the back a bit, as some of the nicest feathers for display come from there.  Pull the beard slightly, and cut just behind the waxy and fatty base, leaving just ¼ inch of that trim attached to the beard.  For the legs, straighten them, then cut the front of the knee joint and straighten firmly until you feel it dislocate.  Cut and remove the entire foot from here.

The tail-fan needs some careful attention and fat removal around the base of each feather, and there are some great online tutorials for this step alone.  Borax is the preferred preserving agent I use, and feet, beard, and fan each get a liberal dose while they sit and dry atop some cardboard in my garage for a few weeks.  Take a little bit of extra time here and you’ll always have options, but do it poorly, quickly, or both and you’ll find that bugs will get the best of your bird.

Remove feathers by the neck of the bird working back towards the breast and back.  I like plucking up to the wing joint before removing it.  Straighten the wing, then cut the webbed skin toward the open part of the joint before breaking it by hand.  From here, the knife does the rest of the work to fully remove the wing.  Continue until all feathers have been removed, and have a goal for this thing to be as pretty as a store-bought bird.  Remove any bird shot just below the skin, and if you haven’t already removed the entrails, do so now.  Lots of clean water is now required to wash your bird, inside and out until it runs fully clean.  If you have the opportunity to put it in some salty water and refrigerate overnight, it’s a good option.  My mother always preferred this with poultry and usually the salt both drew out blood and slightly brined the meat.

Of course you’re not required to pluck a turkey.  Especially when I’m traveling to hunt, it’s simply more convenient to pull back the skin and slice out the breasts.  The innermost portions of are the “tenders” and have a long, sinewy tendon that starts up near the wing joint and continues through the length of it.  I like to leave that tendon connected to the bird and slice the tenders off of it, both sides contain some of the choicest meat on the bird.  These are prime candidates for immediate cooking.  The legs come out easily by splaying them outward to dislocate the hip joints, then cutting between and down to remove the whole leg and thigh portion. 

Whole birds I wrap in freezer paper (several layers), tape up, and label well for the deep freeze, while breast meat I like to put in two layers of freezer bags.  Remember to label well if you are freezing, as different cuts deserve different treatment.  Breast meat cooks up very well, though definitely benefits from a brine of any sort to help retain moisture in the meat and add flavor.  The leg meat works really well when braised, especially in a crockpot.  Whole birds smoke very well, and can be roasted like your Thanksgiving turkey, but again, benefit from a stint in brine and continual basting. 

If all of this sounds like a lot, it can be, but the trick is to keep grinning.  Realize you’re among the lucky few who get to tag one, and take your time as you enjoy the process.      

Early Season Turkey Hunting Tips

Open patches of ground were key to taking this turkey, as they provided the best feeding areas for this gobbler’s hens.

Early Birds

“Birds of a feather flock together” has a figurative meaning, but in regards to early spring turkey hunts, the phrase applies in a more literal sense. Across the country, if you’re hunting early, you’re more often than not hunting groups of birds rather than individual toms. That’s especially true in years where unseasonable cold and winter weather patterns stretch far into spring, pushing back the breeding season and putting more state hunts into the “early” category.

Sure, you’re hunting birds that haven’t seen a decoy or its owner since last year at the earliest, but you’re also facing the hardest competition of all, and that’s a live hen. In the event of a late spring, mother nature applies extra pressure to pack in as much breeding activity when more favorable weather does come, making it that much more difficult to go against the real thing. For those reasons or more, you need a set of strategies to deal with the 80/20 rule, being that the majority of the turkeys are bunched-up in a very small part of available habitat.

A Fresh Scout

First and foremost, you can’t kill a turkey where they ain’t, so the value of scouting is dramatically more important early in the season compared to late. In the latter portions of the season, forlorn gobblers are wandering aimlessly, looking for the last hens of spring as the majority have been bred and are sitting on nests. Striking up a conversation then with a random bird is easier as they’re looking for you, whereas early, most toms have already found what they’re looking for.

Not all scouting is created equal, and especially with changing weather patterns and a rapidly progressing breeding season, the freshest information is best. While it’s good to have a flock located, along with a “Plan B” property or two to fall back on, the few days and hours directly before your season will provide the ultimate in actionable intel. You’re not just looking to find out what fields or openings these big flocks are working, you’re getting there early and keeping your distance, scouting with optics preferably. It’s difficult to beat multiple sets of eyes, and you want a vantage of the entire operation to see how the entire organism moves, retreats, and flows from one area to the next. You want precise information, like field-edge openings, funnels, and specific fence-posts or trees that the majority of birds move past.

Blind Appeal

As you hunt birds in these fields, even old pros of the turkey woods are well served by some sort of blind to conceal movements. Big groups are notorious for enveloping your position, as hens or jakes abound within range before picking you off, while the toms stay just outside of what it takes to put them down. In a blind, you have some flexibility to move, throw your calls in differing directions, and the ability to use scratching, hat-flapping, and other high-movement type calls you’d never be able to get away with out in the open. In the north, a blind will also handily house a small propane heater, something that may be a requirement for a sit of any length during the early youth seasons.

Perhaps the best part of this type of hunting early season, is that you’re going to see birds. Setting up in a well-scouted open area, where you are likely to see birds throughout the day, offers some unique insight into a turkey’s world. So much of what I’ve learned about calling, specifically what types of calls to make, and when, comes from the lessons learned huddled inside a blind as birds work all around me. So often we focus on gobblers and how they interact with your calling, how they decoy, or ways to best hunt them overall, we miss out on how much hens really run the show during the early part of the year.

All About the Hens

A lead-hen’s stomach, and the patterns she finds most convenient or safe, will often determine the manner and location of your hunting during the early season. From there, even if you’re in the right place at the right time, calling too aggressively or during the wrong time can have you shunned as a wise-old matriarchal hen leads her group of turkeys, gobblers and all, in the opposite direction. Flock talk then is of the utmost importance. Soft contented clucks, with some check yelps and purrs mixed in are the order of the early spring, especially with birds in sight, as you’re trying to mimic a group of feeding hens to fool the live hens, not an upstart jenny looking to steal toms.    

Roost Options

Field hunts can also be frustrating, sometimes taking you so close, yet still too far. For that reason, you also want roost locations, and not just general information, but specifics down to which trees the toms will favor vs. the rest of the flock. Keep in mind, it’s a dangerous play to be anywhere too close to these locations in-person, both scouting and hunting, but if your field or strut zone play is a low percentage one, your best bet is often to get on them right from the roost.

With early being the order of the season, think about getting within 100 yds of the roost a good hour or more before first light, minimizing your chance to spook birds. Cover is sparse early, so use your own best judgment on exact distances, but keep in mind that you may be hunting this group throughout the season, so it’s often best to stay conservative. Depending on how tight the toms roost to the hens, try to get near a reasonable landing zone or just off of it while putting your back to those hens. Avoid overcalling and hanging a tom on the limb, offering him just enough to drop out of the tree and hunt you down, without keeping him up on the branch while waiting for all the hens to fly down and saunter up to his roost tree.

Whether your move is a field-edge or the deep woods right off of the roost, early birds will test your patience and require you to hunt the hens just as much as the toms. If all else fails, see what you can do to get that lead hen talking. A loudmouth lead-hen has been the downfall of many a great tom, and do your best to mimic her. As her frustration and volume grows for the home-wrecker jenny you’re imitating, step on her calls and cut her off a few times. While it can be a last ditch effort, it’s often the deal-maker on a tough-hunting flock that won’t move any way but away from you.