Roosting Turkeys

[charlie elk]

If you’re able to watch the birds fly up; try to pay attention to where the hens fly to roost, and where the gobblers fly up. If they fly up far enough apart, you may able to sneak in early the next morning and set up between them.

best way to do it. then you're in the hot seat

If they are far enough apart I will go to the hen tree after dark and flush them out of the area. Then the next morning I have the gobblers to myself without all that female interference.

Most evenings I setup and call (using turkey calls not locater calls) usually on a ridge or point where hearing is good. I find gobblers will frequently hear my calling, start moving my way and roost closer to where I want them in the morning without hens.
On occasion a gobbler will come in offering a shot; then he gets roasted instead of roosted.
All day hunting is legal in WI and I don't quit hunting until the buzzer.

[turkey junky]

thanks for mentioning to hunt all day "wear legal" & to make contact & try to call the gobbler to you when you roost a turkey for the next mornings hunt charlie!!! bout time a read a roosting technique just listening from afar & owl hooting a few times really doesnt work a hole lot of the time unless you have a fired up gobbler & in those cases you likely will not even have to use locator call to strike/hear a bird gobble he will be gobbleing on his own...

i never used to think that highly or even bother to roost turkeys because i relied on the fact that i hunt the same peace of land every year so i would go trout fish or just take a nap but we have more & more family hunting the land more & more so them EZ mornings are few & far between now days for us so i had to step up & start going out in the evening & actually put n a bird to bed for the mornings hunt... & at first i thought this sucks i can see birds & they wont gobble how do i know if there is a gobbler in the area if i didnt make actually see turkeys fly up??? so i started using coyote howlers,owl hoots,woodpecker calls,hawk,peacock,crow,gobble shaker, because a lot of things i herd was u dont want to call to a gobbler if your not hunting them? & at the time MINNESOTA didnt allow for all day hunting so i stayed away from turkey calls for roosting turkeys but once the all day hunting went into effect in MN & especially once i started hunting out of state wear hunting was legal till dark i would take my gun out roosting with me & started using turkey calling to try & locate gobblers & i started hearing more & more gobbles in the evening & i also started to figure out i could strike a gobbler pretty late in the evening & i could when & wear terrain allows call my way pretty damn close to the gobbler on the limb & then i would call to him near wear i wanted to set up in the morning a little after dark make em gobble & want to maybe think about heading my way once first lite comes in the morning... then in the morning a will get to the same spot wear i wanted to call from & kill him at the nite B4 nice & early & i may make maybe 1 set of calls near fly-down time in answer to the gobbler sounding off close by i may put out a hen decoy? i most of the time just get in sit there no calling till the gobbler flys down then i try & entice him in with a few timely yelps & or scratching in the leaves... if i hear other hens i may do a fly down cackle & call a tad bit more... in more open terrain out west i will add a hen decoy for sure & set up in site of the roost but not write under the roost if there are many many birds using the roost witch is the case a lot i dont want to spook the flock to shoot 1 bird if i can help it... i hunt with my father & i will likely try & take him back there & try 4 a bird so i dont want to wreck it for us or any other hunter that comes after me...
especially on public land witch i now hunt most of the time id say 98% of my hunting is on public land & many times im hunting new peaces of land & i need to rely on roosting turkeys for a decent chance at success only having a set amount of time to hunt on many of these out of state hunts plus the more time you are out in the woods with a gun hunting turkeys the better chance you have of tag n a gobbler...

anybody can stop on the side of a dirt road or or field edge & listen look & owl hoot sometimes that doesnt work so we have to step it up & find a bird & put him to bed we all should have more then 1 strategy for roosting turkeys same way we have more then 1 strategy for hunting turkeys i figure... im about to add a elk bugle call to my collection lol...

[stankyolgobbler]

im about to add a elk bugle call to my collection lol...

Actually not a bad idea if it's common in your area...even though I don't think the elk are bugling much in the spring. On that note though, I am good about using unorthodox locator calls during the spring. They are unorthodox in that they are not what most hunters would just go out and buy but they are common around here and something that the turkeys are used to. I have a property on a big creek that runs off of my local lake and I use a wood duck call to get the birds hammerin' right at dawn. I also have a property I hunt out in the rural areas around my neck of the woods that is mostly pasture so in the mornings and even up in to the day I'll do loud cow mooing. I have gotten pretty good at it and the birds love it!

[charlie elk]

The elk bugle is one of my secret weapons. A few years ago on a MN hunt in a new area I had not scouted nor had I ever set foot on; things started out silent. Found myself on a valley road with huge bluffs on both sides and few vehicles in the parking areas. Obviously those trails leading out had hunters on them. So I just pulled over on a deserted strip of the road by this time it was quite light with the silence continuing and a storm threatening I pulled out my elk bugle. Before I got done with my first series the hillside above me erupted with gobbles.
After an hour's climb I setup on a ridge point; within 20 minutes 5 gobblers showed up fighting each other on their way to me.
That 24 lb bird felt like 50 by the time I arrived back at the truck. A truck full of fellow hunters stopped and told me about the elk they heard and how pleased they were the MNDNR was releasing elk in the area. I just smiled. I knew there were no elk.

Even on property I hunt frequently I will go out in the evening calling like a hen telling the gobbler where she is roosting. As fly up time comes around I do fly up cackles. In my mind I see this as a form of audio baiting. Even if I don't hear a gobbler roost that evening I will return to the same area in the morning to start listening and locating. Most of the time there is at least one gobbler in the immediate vicinity.

Rarely have I ever had any luck using a locator call to roost birds or find roosting birds in the evening. Occasionally gobblers may sound off but usually that does not tell me the exact tree they are in, rather just the general area.

[turkey junky]

exactly charlie there is locating a gobbler for the morning hunt & then there is roosting a gobbler by knowing exactly wear he is roosting & or what tree he roosted in... lots of hunters think they are roosting a turkey but they are just locating a birds general vicinity & that helps but not like knowing the birds roost & the likely areas he is to fly down & or travel after fly down u tend to figure that out or at least get a good idea of what he likes to do after fly down if you can find/locate the roost tree & plan a attack for the next mornings hunt after you roost the bird...

i to will do the fly up cackle & soft tree yelps like a hen has flown up to roost if i feel there is a gobbler in the area that will hear me... even if i dont think there is a gobbler close by i will often do a fly up cackle & let out a few gobbles B4 i leave the area after trying to roost a bird in hopes of a gobbler hearing me & heading my way the next morning... i think if you fire up a bird at roost time & then get into that area the next morning you have a great chance at that gobbler especially if he doesnt have hens roosted with him... after you make contact with the gobbler the morning after you roosted him with hen calls in the same general area you were calling from the nite B4 the birds tend to get really excited & work your way fast it has worked for me 3-4 times & should have worked another 3-4 times i just wasnt smart enuff at the time to know to go back & hunt the area i had located a gobbler from the nite B4 i would either set up wear i thought the bird would show up or go to a closer gobbler witch happens many times the morning after you go & roost a bird you hear 1 way closer & think man hes dead & sometimes that works out but many times that gobbler u roosted last nite is gobbleing his brains out i have learned to just go to the bird i roosted last nite its at least a good starting point not to be ignored... i have figured that much out... lol

man out west i have ran threw all my locator calls trying to get a gobble out of birds i know are in the area only to have the birds ignore me & only gobble at real coyotes & or barn-yard rooster chickens crowing, geese make n noise & or the local loud mouth farm dog barking at any & everything? i have also needed help from the local herd of cows in a area to elicit gobbles from hush mouthed toms... also 1 year a farmer had some hogs & they had a feed barrel thing with a metal lid/top the hogs had to nudge to get food out of & when ever that metal top banged or squeeked a tom would gobble near by??? sometimes they only gobble to what they want to gobble to???

stankyolgobbler i think a elk call would/could work in any state if they have elk or not if the turkeys are just shock gobbleing to the call... i also use a wood duck call to get gobblers to sound off from time to time i should use it way more as it dose work ive seen woodys cruz n around the big oak trees looking for a nest site in the trees & herd them whistle & make birds gobble a few times down in SE MN... i also will & have mooed like a cow more times then id like to admit!!!

thats a good 1 charlie about them MN boys in the truck happy the MNDNR was re-stocking elk down in the bluff country MN!!! lol no wonder they didnt have a turkey a charlie??? it is scary there was that many folks down on a peace of public land in SE MN bummer... were you down in old 349 or???

[camo_junkie0611]

Actually not a bad idea if it's common in your area...even though I don't think the elk are bugling much in the spring. On that note though, I am good about using unorthodox locator calls during the spring. They are unorthodox in that they are not what most hunters would just go out and buy but they are common around here and something that the turkeys are used to. I have a property on a big creek that runs off of my local lake and I use a wood duck call to get the birds hammerin' right at dawn. I also have a property I hunt out in the rural areas around my neck of the woods that is mostly pasture so in the mornings and even up in to the day I'll do loud cow mooing. I have gotten pretty good at it and the birds love it!

Hey "stanky" I'm glad to see that there are other folks out there who have gone with some unconventional locator calls...I was starting to think I was a little "weird" as far as my locator call choices are concerned. I too use a wood duck call for locating turkeys and it DOES work in certain parts of my hunting land (i.e., near sloughs, creeks, flooded timber, etc.). It has made gobblers sound off when nothing else would (crow, owl, peacock, coyote, woodpecker, etc.). I've also got a couple of other secret weapon locators that have worked on several occasions -- a goose call, a regular old duck call, pheasant call, squirrel barker, and a few others I'll keep close to the vest... . Can't give away all my secrets!!! Also...I've got a buddy who can do a perfect imitation of a donkey braying and we have located many a gobbler that way (that is...if I can stop laughing long enough to continue hunting). Just my 2 cents...don't spend it all in one place.

[turkey junky]

oh yeah ive tried the duck & goose call they never produced for me yet??? also the pheasant call i forgot to mention but any wear i hunt turkeys & pheasants overlap they will & do make gobblers sound off on a routine basis!!! so i should get 1 a pheasant call... ive got gobblers to sound off while using a predator call a few times... also a silent dog whistle beleave it or not... lol that was in the 1st turkey book i got a long time ago... also many times while we were having to much fun at night in turkey camp we have got birds to sound off while having a beer & listening to the radio rather loud from camp lol guess that is just another of camping out under the stars with-in hearing distance of wear you plan to hunt the next morning...

[swpatrkyhunter]

I hunt the same area year after year as well so I have a general idea where to start looking for the roosts. The birds in my hunting area stay to the same roost locations and usually stick to the same trees, but with changes in landscape and predators in the area sometimes they will move around the hillside. In areas where I don't know where the birds roost And I plab to hunt it sometime during the season, I will scout the area and look for signs of where they might roost. Feathers on the ground next to trees. Turkey crap along the sides of trees, And Sometimes if I think I have found a tree that looks like a good roost site I will look at the branches with my binoculars to see if there are any marks from the turkeys toes. When I find trees I beleive to be roodt trees often I will wat and watch the area to see if birds come in and what trees they fly up into. By doing this not only do I see where they are roosting for the next day but I also see where they are traveling from so I can get a start on finding the travel route or at least one of the travel routes they follow. Keeping a jurnal and writing down key things helps alot too. I will write time of day, weather conditions, ie: rain,wind, temp,etc. I also take note of any signs I may notice of predators. Coyote, bear scat for example. Turkeys are kind of wary over just about everything. Avoidance is what they will use as their best defense. Sometimes birds won't respond to locator calls when in the roost. Just their nature. Also if your out and it is just getting dark look to the tree tops for siloettes. Good luck!

[shaman]

I'm going to throw an idea at you. It works. I've tried it. However, I cannot say this idea is going to work in every circumstance, and it may be too much math for most hunters, but it has worked for me.

Let's say you have a bunch of turkeys roosting in the same spot every night, but you don't know where it is. Get out your topo or Google Maps and your GPS and a lensatic compass. When the turkey gobbles, take the compass and shoot an azimuth of where you hear the gobbling. Next shoot the azimuth of another place close by, preferably somewhere on the other side of the turkey. Set a waypoint on your gps where you currently are and walk to the other place. When you get there, set a waypoint, and shoot another azimuth at the turkey.

Now the solution of where the turkey is should be a simple high-school geometry problem. You've got two angles and a baseline and the distance of the baseline. Triangulate. There will only be one solution, and depending on how long your baseline is, you may find yourself within feet of the roosting tree. I've tried it with a 100 yard baseline and been able to take my Garmin Etrex and tell it to put a waypoint so far away at such-and-such bearing, and VIOLA! (Who invited her?)

Where this has come in hand has been where there has been a question as to whether the roost is on my property and therefore worth pursuing, or well off the property and not worth pursuing. By walking a hundred yards from the back of the house and spending about 5 minutes doing my cypherin' I can say for sure whether that gobbler's on my place.

Another place I've used this is down in Southern KY, where there may be 500-800 feet of elevation between you and the gobbler you're hearing. If I do my cypherin' and figure out that birds calling from across a half-mile gorge, I'm probably not going to go after him.

[Treerooster]

I'm going to throw an idea at you. It works. I've tried it. However, I cannot say this idea is going to work in every circumstance, and it may be too much math for most hunters, but it has worked for me.

Let's say you have a bunch of turkeys roosting in the same spot every night, but you don't know where it is. Get out your topo or Google Maps and your GPS and a lensatic compass. When the turkey gobbles, take the compass and shoot an azimuth of where you hear the gobbling. Next shoot the azimuth of another place close by, preferably somewhere on the other side of the turkey. Set a waypoint on your gps where you currently are and walk to the other place. When you get there, set a waypoint, and shoot another azimuth at the turkey.

Now the solution of where the turkey is should be a simple high-school geometry problem. You've got two angles and a baseline and the distance of the baseline. Triangulate. There will only be one solution, and depending on how long your baseline is, you may find yourself within feet of the roosting tree. I've tried it with a 100 yard baseline and been able to take my Garmin Etrex and tell it to put a waypoint so far away at such-and-such bearing, and VIOLA! (Who invited her?)

Where this has come in hand has been where there has been a question as to whether the roost is on my property and therefore worth pursuing, or well off the property and not worth pursuing. By walking a hundred yards from the back of the house and spending about 5 minutes doing my cypherin' I can say for sure whether that gobbler's on my place.

Another place I've used this is down in Southern KY, where there may be 500-800 feet of elevation between you and the gobbler you're hearing. If I do my cypherin' and figure out that birds calling from across a half-mile gorge, I'm probably not going to go after him.

I have done this, but in a little different way.

I have marked 2 different waypoints on a roosted gobbler and got the compass direction from those points. The wider the angle you can get the more accurate you will be BTW. I have a mapping sysytem on my computer that shows lat/Lon coordinates and could mark the coordinates from the 2 waypoints on the map. Then I drew a line at the coresponding compass direction from each waypoint. Where those lines intersect is where the gobbler is roosted. In real world application I have been accurate from 20 to 60 yards.

Another way to do this is with a GPS that can "project" a waypoint. From where you are standing you get a compass direction and a range of how far the gobbler is (you can use a laser range finder if you are so inclined). Then you enter that into the GPS and it comes up with a new waypoint at the point you just estimated. Still doing 2 different angles on the roosted bird is better if possible.


This is practical for me in mountainous country when you are hearing a roosted bird go off across a valley on another hillside. Makes it a lot easier to get into a good position the next morning.