Poults are one of the worst things turkey hunters can experience while out in the woods in the middle of Spring Turkey Season. Newly hatched turkey chicks follow along behind their momma hen. It’s a sign that the breeding season is coming to a close, and the gobblers just won’t be seeking out new hens each morning. That means the hunting season is over, right? Wrong!
Hunting post-breeding is not ideal, but you can still put a big, handsome bird on your family’s dinner table. You just have to adapt your tactics to get old Mister Tom out in front of your gun. Here are a couple of tactics I’ve employed, for me to have enjoyed success under these conditions…
First off, you still have to hunt them practically. Suppose you’ve done your scouting and are familiar with their travel patterns. Try identifying locations along their favored routes that narrow, like a high ridge situated between two swamp heads or palmetto flats. Turkeys are just as lazy as we are and prefer the path of least resistance.
Keep your calling to a minimum. Ditch the excited breeding calls and focus on social calls. Clucks and purrs; try to reproduce the sounds of a contented hen out feeding in the leaf litter by your blind.
The next best advice I can give is to pick a fight with the Tom. If you have Jake decoys, place them only a couple of feet away from each other. Place the dekes facing one another and call aggressively with deep clucks and agitated purring. You want to sound like two Jakes fighting it out as they try to establish dominance and claim the territory as their own.
Old Mister Longbeard, hearing that, can get his dander up and come marching in to remind the youngsters who truly is the boss of those woods.
If you have any questions or comments as we work our way through the remainder of the season, feel free to drop me a note at [email protected]. God Bless, and good hunting!
