Moose Droppings

The Scouting Begins

Mar 25, 2008 @ 07:10 am by Moose

Turkey Season is approaching fast so this past weekend I got out scouting a bit. I know some are reporting they have been hearing some gobbling but I didn’t hear any. I walked a patch of woods that has always had a lot of sign; scratching where they scratch back the leaves looking for acorns to eat, droppings a gobblers has a J shape to it, and tracks usually find then in the mud and sand around stream crossings as well as on other bare dirt spots like roads and trails. I was surprised that I didn’t find much but I did find a fair amount of coyote sign. The coyotes are coming on strong in this area and it will not surprise me if one of us hunting this patch of land this season might not get a crack at one. The coyotes maybe putting some pressure on these birds but the lack of acorn this past season I suspect is the main reason there wasn’t much sign.

Another tract of land I hunt where we have some food plots had a lot of sign. The recent rains we’ve had has helped out a lot and the food plots are really starting to grow. The clover is coming on strong and the deer and turkeys are hitting it hard. The turnips that should of game up last fall are now growing and the leaves are getting stripped off these young plants as fast as they grow it seems. I believe that is more the deer doing that then the turkey. Plenty of droppings and tracks so this area looks promising for turkey hunting.
We went ahead and put up a blind to hunt out of and picked out a few more potential spots to erect some blinds. Rainy days are great days to blind hunt out of because the birds often will hit the fields and we can stay relatively dry in the blinds.

Once the season gets a bit closer the gobblers will start sounding off and we can get a pretty good idea about where they are roosting and hopefully find their strut zones. Like a bass the structure is important and once you know often the same area over the years will be used by different gobblers.

Turkey hunting is some of my favorite hunting so I’ll be talking a lot of turkey over the coming weeks and hopefully getting everyone fired up for the season. Whether you’re just a beginner or a novice I hope you can find some useful information to make you a better turkey hunter. If you got any questions about turkey hunting send them to me and I’ll try to get you an answer.

So hang on cause things are going to get fun.