MyOutdoorTV.com

Spring Scouting for Gobblers

With wild turkey hunting, how important is pre-season scouting, and how should hunters prepare for opening day? David Hale of Knight & Hale Game Calls says much of this movement happens just before hunting season opens, so he does most of his scouting the week before opening day.

Hale believes that from winter into spring, a gobbler goes through several changes in mood and activity, and it's important to understand these changes and tailor your scouting and hunting tactics to them.

"When turkeys actually break out of that winter mode, its really not that important as far as finding those turkeys a month or two ahead of time," he notes. "The real deal is to find them a week ahead of time when they're already broken up in their scout."

He adds, "From the time he comes out of his winter mode, until him going back into his winter mode, you've got about 90 days. There's about 4 or 5 transitions that turkeys go through during this time period so they're going to be changing every 15 days.

Actually, somewhere along there you come into the hunting time so you actually hunt and scout at the same time but you got to be able to recognize those transitions and move with them."