any advice?

[Steve_In]

I reccomend [font=arial]"Turkeys to Learn By, Volume One" from Cody calls.  It has several tracks of recorded turkeys along with a discription of the call they are making.  Most of the call companies have instructional videos on using calls.  I have one from HS Strut "Mouth Calling 101" that is good.  The calling is the easy part.  As others said field time around turkeys is more valuble.   And most of all you will need LOTS of paticence.
Good luck.
http://www.codyturkeycalls.com/

[cajunmoe]

I was searching the net for some calls and found that HS Strut sells starter kits for the box,slate and diaphragm calls, they all have an instructional dvd included. I can pick up all three for around fifty bucks. Anyone think that's a good starting piont for calls?

[silvestris]

Which town do you live in?

[cajunmoe]

I live about two miles west of Jeanerette.

[STEROIDCHICKEN]

BE PATIENT....don't get discouraged because it will come often. learn from your mistakes. good luck on your adventure and welcome to the club.

[Tail Feathers]

Find you a DVD called "So You Want To Be A Turkey Hunter?" and watch it a time or two.
Scout a lot, especially as season gets closer.  Don't call to the birds before season, it educates them.
Have fun and go get after them!

[silvestris]

Jeremy, I hope you have deep pockets as you will have to drive quite a ways to find turkeys from Jeanerette.  The closest public areas to you will be Sherburne WMA and Indian Bayou.  Both have reasonable turkey populations. 

I would suggest using a boat on Sherburne and you will probably need feet or perhaps a bicycle on Indian Bayou.  Both are located in the Atchafalaya basin.  You can use the LDWF website to get info/maps for Sherburne.  Sherburne has some pretty good fishing so you can fish and use a GPS between now and turkey season to create waypoints to likely hunting areas (you will want to have the waypoints so you can get there before daylight).  A trip or two  in early March on good gobbling mornings should put you in good locations.  Get quad maps of the area and carry a compass & GPS so you always know where you are.

Indian Bayou is controlled by the Corp of Engineers.  Their office is in Krotz Springs and my information is that those folks are real helpful in pointing you in the right direction.

I know Sherburne has lottery drawings for the first part of the season and the same may be true for Indian Bayou.  Even with the lottery draws, expect human competition.  It is the nature of the beast for public Louisiana hunting.

Good luck.

[silvestris]

As for books and/or learning tools, were I a neophyte, I would go here:

http://www.midwestturkeycall.com/detail ... n=1&link=D

There are a couple of other books I would recommend once you are good and started, but Tom Kelly will not steer you wrong.  You will feel that you know enough to have a sporting chance.

[cajunmoe]

Hey silvestris my pockets are good, time is my biggest issue. Sherburne is big and I won't have enough time to get familiar enough to hunt in the spring. I think I will take cut n run's advice and hunt with a camera instead. That's if I am lucky enough to find live bird's. Thank you for your help silvestris. Don't hesitate to send more advice my way. 

[silvestris]

No property is too big if you take it one section at a time.