First time turkey hunting

Looking for tips ect on turkey hunting my brother and I have never turkey hunted before any tips are greatly appreciated!

Daleas88 check you p.m.

Without a doubt the ONE thing that will screw you up 99 times out of 100 is the bird seeing you. Be patient, don't move and get out of sight. When you think its time to pick up and move...BE PATIENT, DONT MOVE and LOOK AROUND....Do it again just to make sure. I cant tell you how many times Ive decided to change spots only to have one spook that was on his way. Also get a call now and start practicing.

I was at Fleet Farm tonight and saw they had flyers for Turkey hunting and food plot management seminars. They are free and also have door prizes and a grand prize as well. Might be worth the trip for a new hunter to see what can be learned. Lots of locations and dates. Starts at 6:30. http://www.fleetfarm.com/about_us/news.jsp?newsId=hpasp3600003

Lots of great information here! The one thing I can add is to be patient. If you have a bird working and then he just shuts down, be patient. Sometimes they are coming in quiet, sometimes they found something more interesting. Chances are though they will come back to check out what they heard earlier. I've missed out on several birds because I got up to move only to have a bird take off that I didn't see. Oh yeah, be prepared to become hooked instantly as well! First bird I ever shot came from behind me. He gobbled less than 20 yards from me. The hair on the back of my neck stood up and I have been hooked ever since!!! Good luck and let us know how your first season turns out.

Scout your area to hunt late in the winter the leftover snow and mud will help you locate tracks. There is always a sweet spot in their territory that they meander through. Early in the season the toms will be all about getting some! The hens will be more interested in eating. The toms will follow the hens as they roam. Some will break off from the group and mate while others stay on the fringe and wait for one to be receptive to their advances. One thing for certain is that they will show up where least expected. Half the time I don't believe they know or care where they are going. The only predictable times are early and late in the day, going to the food and coming back to roost. Try and stay about 50-100yds away from their preferred roosting area, lesson not learned by me several times. They have no problem covering a lot of ground in a day just roaming around. Calling is important but after many hours in the woods listening to them they make all kinds of sounds, but seldom do they make them for long. Most live hens sound much worse than my call. A couple of yelps early and some softer yelps every 30 mins works most of the time. Be ready for a coyote to show up, I see one most every season. Blast them if you can there will be more birds around next year if you do. Expect to blow it early on in your hunting excursions, but try and learn from your mistakes. Some hunters have killed big 4yr olds on their first sit and think it is easy. Others go all season without an encounter with even a hen. Work as a team with the gunner between the tom and the caller, just make sure you are positive of your partners location!!!!!!! Learn some thing every time out and enjoy the spring woods, it's amazing what is going on out there in the spring time. Good Luck, mac da gaff

Read, watch videos, practice calling etc. Biggest thing is to go where there are turkeys. Scouting now while there is snow on the ground is a lot easier than not having snow. Get permission to hunt places now. It's fairly easy getting permission for turkeys and getting it a couple months in advance is easier than closer to the season. I always like to have permission for at least 1000 acres. Chances are birds you see now will scatter and move in the next couple months but at least you know they are in the general area. Spend the day or several days, if convenient, before you hunt scouting. Start out by listening in the early am for gobbling. Then watch where they come out in the field and watch where they go. Chances are they will continue a similar pattern for a few days. The night before a hunt watch to see if the bird(s) you plan to hunt roost in the same spot they did when you scouted them in the am. If you find a cluster of several toms and hens, mid-late morning the hens will eventually leave the toms and go in the woods to a nesting area. Without hens, toms are easier to draw in. So I'd skip leaving for lunch. In the evening watch or listen to where they leave the field to roost. The next morning set up somewhere near where they come out into the field. Just don't get too close to the roost. Easy on the calling. I'll make a few calls early just to let a Tom know a hen is nearby. You'd be surprised at how long they will remember a couple soft calls. The only times I will call a lot is when there is competing with real hens. The biggest thing is to be mobile and have a variety of places to hunt. Turkeys change there patterns without warning, so you'll need to adapt. Plan on being frustrated more often than not. I would recommend getting some leafy camo. Best thing I own for turkey hunting. Turkeys might be dumb but the are extremely wary and don't give you a second chance. If they see something they don't like and they bolt. If you are using a blind, set it up a couple days or week in advance to let them adjust to it being there. I'd use that first thing in the am and then go on the move without the rest of the day. For me turkey hunting is addicting. As much as I love when things go right, I love the frustration of them doing something I didn't expect and having to adapt.

Doesn't seem to be that many offered this year. http://dnr.wi.gov/files/PDF/pubs/WM/WM0279.pdf

Where can u find these turkey semimars??

Time. Get up early and go practice calling before the season. Some say that is will educate the birds...fair enough....but you will be able to practice all the things you have read about and watched on the videos. Personally, I like to go to areas I have never scouted and hunted and do my practice calling. It servers two purposes...practice calling and scouting. yep, time is the most important factor in my opinion.

Good suggestions below. I also recommend one of the turkey clinics. Went to one about 12 years ago before my first season. I didn't know anyone at the time that hunted them and they were only in our area for about a year. I scored on the last day of the last season. Keep with it. If you have lots of room you can try locating them with gobbles but be very careful using a gobble call as hunters could key in on you. Also suggest at least a blaze orange cap if hunting public or anywhere you may encounter other hunters when walking around. When you sit just put it in your pack. Try several different calls as sometimes they will only answer a certain call and ignore the others. Box calls are easiest to learn and operate. I also like slate calls with various strikers and my favorite are an assortment of diaphragm calls. They take practice though. Good luck and have fun.

with all of todays electronic media info is out there in gobs magazineslike turkey and turkey hunting are full of great info go to your nearest sporting goods store (cabelas, scheels) and buy some calls more than one and a couple of differnt types including a mouth call and practice A LOT when you start driving people nuts that means you are almost practicing enough watch videos and try to imitate the pros also pattern your gun out to 40 yds or more try differnt choke and shell combos maybe you and a friend can share the cost welcome and good luck

Go to a turkey seminar. It will put you light years ahead.

A good way to locate turkeys is by finding turkey scratchings. Turkey scratchings are areas where the leaves are kicked up and cleared away. The turkeys do this in search of food like nuts and bugs. Another good way wait for snow and walk the land looking for turkey tracks. Turkeys tracks have three long toes in the front and a short toe in the back. Turkeys usually like hardwoods and open areas so they can use their best sense their sight to their advantage. Have the farmer ever see turkeys in his farm field because turkeys often feed on bugs and seeds in farm fields. If you are in an area where deer baiting is allowed maybe spread out some corn and put up a trail camera over it to see if any turkeys come in to it. If the farmer allows this set the camera about a foot off the ground so the turkey triggers it. This just to see if you have any turkeys because its illegal to bait in turkeys and hunt them. Maybe try to google turkey sign. So if you can walk the land you can recognize where turkeys have been and areas they use. If you can give a description of the land set up maybe we could help you with areas might be using. turkeys might be.

How do we find them? Lol might sound dumb and if so I apologize, I just dk much of anything about hunting lol I think there are turkeys on the farm my brother works on but I'm not 100% how do we figure out if there are? Aside of sit there all day and watch and wait or maybe we have to do that idk! Haha

Find where they are feeding and sneak in there before light and wait for them to show up. In the spring if they are vocal you can try to run and gun technique. Locate the birds and try to get in front of them or if close enough try to call them in to your spot. Turkeys eyes are really good so match your camo to the area you hunt. Decoys in my experience is they can work great some times and other times they could spook the birds and every thing in between. I always have calls with me and make sure you practice before heading out. You can google on how to use the call you want. I always use a mouth call.