fall turkey

I just get a tag and deer hunt. If a group passes through like last year, I'll whack one again. No advice other than that.

Never hunted them in the fall. But I've heard it's a tough task to run n gun for them in the fall. Alot of people just get a tag in case a flock walk by.

I usually have a chance to kill a turkey every fall. Unfortunately my county doesn't have a fall season.

The vast majority of turkeys killed in the fall by hunters are "incidental shootings"...meaning a turkey happens by a hunter with a tag in his pocket. If the truth be known, I'd bet a large percentage of those insidental shooting take place near feeders or bait sites. Especially those killed by archery hunters. Just a hand full of hunters go in the field with the sole intention of killing a fall turkey.

I never had the desire to hunt turkeys in the fall although it's never really excited me to shoot them in the spring...I just like to hear them gobble. And because they don't gobble much in the fall, I always felt like killing one would just be one less gobbling bird the following spring. Some of that changed last year. A former co-worker and old hunting buddy called me in early November and said he had some vacation time to burn and asked if I'd be interested in doing some fall turkey hunting. I told him I wasn't overly excited about it but I would walk around with him and maybe help with the calling...my friend has killed dozens of turkeys with me in the spring.

Before the hunt we agreed...no gobblers and no jakes. If we were going to kill a turkey in the fall then we were going to help even out our lopsided gobbler to hen ratio. We started the hunt at first light in a mature stand of white and ponderosa pines which we knew attracted winter flocks. As the sun started to glow on the horizon, I let out a few soft yelps and a couple hens below us answered. I fired back with an assembly yelp and they became more vocal. As the sun began to rise we started to slowly ease towards the roosted birds. Our strategy was to flush them off the roost and then assembly yelp one back. Half the strategy worked...we flushed the birds as planned. What we didn't anticipate was how far off a turkey roosted 70+ feet up in a mature pine would fly when spooked...they may have crossed the Ohio River.

We left that spot and headed for a large stand of hardwoods in the WNF. We walked out a long ridge and let out an assembly yelp...a hen answered in the valley below. We quickly took off walking towards her calling as we moved. Within a minute we saw the flock of hens and jakes and sprinted at them. They flushed in all directions so we immediately sat down and let the woods settle. We began to call softly and off in the distance, one of the birds answered. We called back with an assembly yelp and within 30 seconds we had birds literally running towards us from all directions...my buddy shot this hen in self defense...



In all the years I've turkey hunted, I've never seen anything quite like it and to be perfectly honest, it was one of the most memorable turkey hunts of my life. If I’m not chasing a deer when fall turkey season comes in this year, I will definitely try it again.

Sounds like alot of fun Mike, Ive never tried it before but maybe one of these days.

Cool story, Mike.

Mike said:

I just get a tag and deer hunt. If a group passes through like last year, I'll whack one again. No advice other than that.

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exactly what I do however last year I didn't get a tag and on my 5 day hunt during the rut had turkeys in bow range every day :smiley_boos:

I have killed one turkey in the fall, and had the same type of hunt as Mike. I made some calls and she came charging me at full blast. Was it a great hunt? Yes. Will I ever kill a hen turkey again? Nope, I felt horrible afterwards and still do. That's just me though, we don't have a huge turkey population here like others may. Plus holding an 11 lb turkey kinda felt like robbing the cradle. I will still buy a fall tag, but it will be a Jake or Gobbler, and it will be with my bow.

I may try fall turkey hunting this year. I've never killed one in the fall on purpose, I too am an incidental shooter. I think it would be fun, and having never done it, I think there is a learning curve to go through. That should make it fun. Besides, I think I'm getting to the point of wanting to do something besides chasing deer all fall...I think.

I am so ate up with deer hunting that I don't want to "waste" my time chasing other animals.

Very cool hunt Mike. I might buy another tag but doubt it. I see a lot of turkeys while deer hunting but eating 4 spring tags the last 2 years is still in my crawl.lol

IMO, turkey tags are turkey tags! If you don't fill them in the spring you should be allowed to use them for the fall! Never understood their reasoning other than for them(ODNR) to make more money! Rant over....lol

Mike said:

I am so ate up with deer hunting that I don't want to "waste" my time chasing other animals.

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I agree! I love to hunt squirrels, but once deer bow season opens? It's ON!!!!

The hardest part of fall hunting is getting on a flock . Once ya do that and bust em up . Loud long assembly yelps and its game over . Those hens and young birds are better eating also imo

This is the 1st year for Fall hunting in SW Ohio. I probably could have shot (at) 50 during the 2012 deer season. We are over run with turkeys here. But have seen very few poults this year due to the wet Spring. So I'll shoot only a Tom and no hens.