How strategic planning and sweat equity will help you tag more public-land turkeys.
By Mark Kayser
“It’s not the calling. It’s the other hunters on the opposite side of the canyon that spooked those birds. Those turkeys have heard too many calls and I think those guys walked right into the flock,” I replied as my buddy held his head in his hands from disbelief.
It was day two of a three-day hunt on public land for my out-of-state friend. We heard turkeys. We even saw turkeys. Getting the feathered foe to cross within scattergun range of my buddy, though, was about as difficult as calling a dog back to you that’s treed the neighbor’s cat. Birds that didn’t want to come to the calls were being bumped and pushed by hunters unwilling to change up their public-land game plan.

If you don’t have private-land turkey hunting options, then public land is your backup plan. Begin by inventorying every public-land option in your hunting area. The largest public-land options in many areas from coast to coast are national and state forest lands. Photo credit: Chris Berens
It took another full day of hunting to tag a gobbler for him on the national forest, and in the end it was sweat equity that tagged the bird, not crafty calling. After pursuing turkeys, deer, elk and pronghorns on public land for more than three decades, my friends and I have discovered a system that increases our game sightings and success. Most of it is based on sweat equity, but if you add in a bit of common-sense craftiness, you can find turkey success on public land.
ARE ALL OPTIONS ON THE TABLE?
If you don’t have private-land turkey hunting options then public land is your backup plan. Begin by inventorying every public-land option in your hunting area. The big public-land option in many areas from coast to coast is the National Forest Service. It has approximately 193 million acres of land under its management, minus the 20 million in Alaska, and you still have millions of acres to explore. Next up with an ample supply of land is the Bureau of Land Management. It has authority over 270 million acres. Granted, much of the BLM land is in the West and Alaska, but parcels can be found nationwide, and it just takes a bit of research to discover a tract that may have turkey potential.
Other federal entities to consider include the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the lands they manage. These public lands are often associated with water projects, but the edge habitat they create is ideal for turkeys in many locales. You can also hunt some Bureau of Reclamation lands on various water project sites, plus National Wildlife Refuges. Speaking of military land, many military bases now hold hunts to help manage wildlife and for public opportunities. My son is at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and on every visit we’ve seen turkeys. He has a turkey hunt scheduled for next spring and some bases open their hunting to the public, such as Fort Riley in northeast Kansas.
Don’t forget about state lands either. States manage millions of acres of public land in turkey country. State wildlife areas, habitat areas, state parks, school trust lands and even state forests offer opportunities for public-land hunting.
Tennessee has 15 state forests for hunting Eastern turkeys. New York manages nearly 800,000 acres of state forest lands, and you can find state forest even between Minnesota’s 10,000 lakes. Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Florida also have state forests open to hunting. Did you know that Florida has more than a million acres of state forest lands scattered within 37 forests? There’s likely a state forest within driving distance for you to hunt.
Not only do states own land, but they’ve been savvy enough to lease land and open it to the hunting public in vast “walk-in” programs. States like South Dakota have more than one million acres enrolled and similar programs can be found nationwide. Montana’s Block Management program opened up more than 7 million acres in 2016. That’s a lot of territory to hunt in Merriam’s country.
And don’t overlook small offerings that cities and counties may have open to hunting. If the land is rural enough and requires wildlife management you may be able to hunt it. It only takes a handful of habitat-rich acres to appease a flock of turkeys.
Finally, research tribal hunting opportunities. Tribes are their own nation so they set their own hunting seasons on these lands. In fact, they are a nation within a state. That means they set their own hunting seasons and you can acquire a state-issued hunting license in a particular state, and also acquire a tribal hunting license in the same state. For turkey zealots it’s almost like heaven getting to add another turkey to the menu list.
The Bureau of Indian Affairs works with 562 federally recognized tribes with approximately 326 Indian land areas administered as Indian reservations, pueblos, missions, villages and other designations. Some of these lands are small, only an acre or two in size, while others are massive, such as the 16-million-acre Navajo Nation Reservation encompassing portions of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah.
As you might have surmised, most of the larger reservations are found west of the Mississippi River, although several eastern reservations and tribal lands offer opportunities for eastern and Osceola turkeys. For Merriam’s and Rios, the opportunities are numerous. Research is required as tribal laws vary and tags are oftentimes limited. Plan early.
MAP IT OUT BEFOREHAND
Scouting for public land options is easier than ever with new technology. Get a jumpstart and scout from home. You already know the benefits of using Google Earth, but you can take it a step further by incorporating hunting-only programs like ScoutLook Weather or OnX Hunt apps. These are just a couple of the dozens of map assistances available to the hunting public for smartphone and GPS use.
ScoutLook Weather gives you detailed weather, severe weather alerts and even wind-dispersion graphics. Combined with Google Earth you can mark great calling locations, note turkey activity, share hunting information and even measure distance or land areas right on your smartphone.
OnX Hunt also gives you a defined view of the ground you’re hunting, but its main purpose is delineating landowners. Depending on the state, you’ll have access to maps that differentiate public and private holdings, and graphics that detail land ownership information. You’ll be able to clearly see if a property is managed by the NFS, BLM or a private landowner.
This means that you don’t have to go down to the courthouse and snoop through the platbook maps of yesteryear. It also means that you can find those small properties that many overlook. A sliver of city, county or state land could offer great turkey hunting, especially if it borders a turkey preserve such as a park or urban boundary.
On one of my winter scouting missions I kept seeing a particular flock of turkeys around a farmyard. I knew the building site was off-limits, but the frequency of the flock sightings kept nagging at me. I pulled out a GPS on my next trip to the valley and discovered that a small portion of public land behind the farm actually touched the public road. Within seconds I had discovered my next spring turkey hunt simply by being inquisitive and digging for public access.
Like my farmyard discovery, it’s best to research a location in person. Everything isn’t as it looks on a map or even from a Google-Earth view. Viewing from above and even flying down a rural valley in 3-D mode may bolster your confidence, but seeing is not necessarily reality. That’s why you need to see it firsthand before planning a turkey assault. Canyon slopes may be steeper than expected, shale may inhibit easy travel and vegetation may be too dense to pass through. Roads that appear as navigable as your driveway may be boulder strewn, washed out or even closed by a managing agency.
Plus, satellite images are dated. They are not always current and many could be years, not months old. New developments, logging, wildfires and other phenomena could have occurred in the time since the image was recorded. You need to make a trip to the area or confer with someone who lives in the area, such as an official in charge of public-land management.
Several times I’ve scouted via online sources and then planned preseason scouting trips. On several occasions I can recall backing out from hikes because the terrain was too challenging, or the underbrush too thick for a successful turkey ruse.
ARE YOU WINNING THE HUNTER RACE?
Now that you have researched all of your public-land options and mapped it out from above, and on-site, you need to be prepared to win the race. What race? It’s the race to see who gets the best hunting location on public land.
If you’re hunting vast amounts of public land in the West, the race may not even exist. Thousands of turkeys scattered across millions of acres creates a dispersion effect. The same can’t be said about hunting turkeys on small parcels, especially those with limited turkey habitat that concentrate turkeys into small areas. Start with your hunt planning and schedule to determine the best days to hunt.
As a general rule, the majority of hunters have weekends off. This means that limited public lands in any zip code receive more foot traffic during this two-day window. If you have the flexibility to work weekends or extra vacation time, consider taking a day off in the middle of the week to tag your turkey.
Hunting during the middle of the week means fewer hunters, more relaxed turkeys and the ability to roam more land. It can quickly add up to a more successful hunt. If your boss isn’t going for that, then consider hunting mid- and late season. Most hunters use up their vacation time during the opener and the crowds decrease significantly as the days pass by. Fortunately, the turkey hunting tends to get better late in the season — if you can find a bird that was unwilling to go for a ride in a cooler. Nesting hens and lonely gobblers equals better calling situations when you do stumble across a gobbler.
After scheduling chores, take a close look at all of the access points to a property and its layout. You’re looking for a different entrance than the average hunter that will park at a trailhead in lemming mentality.
Most public areas have a designated parking area, but you may be able to enter a property from a right of way, a secondary gate or even through a cooperative landowner that adjoins the property. This gives you access to other areas of a public property and a head start.
The other truth is that much of your hunting competition is lazy. Hike beyond the half-mile margin and you will leave most of the crowd behind. Go a mile or farther and you could be subject to loneliness. Using different entryways to a property can give you an edge when achieving this goal. You can also obtain Maytag-repairman status by traversing rough country, ascending mountains and fording water. All of these obstacles deter the average hunter.
Unfortunately, some public-land managers force you to park in an assigned location. You may not be able to freelance your access. If that’s the case, you need to live a waste-collector lifestyle. Garbage collectors are up and at it super early, so follow them to the turkeys — or at least get up and going when they do.
If the other public hunters are waking at 5 a.m., you need to wake up at 4 a.m. Arrive an hour early and you can sneak into position well ahead of the convenience-store crowd. You can use this strategy to obtain great seating at a roost or to push into the farthest corners of a public parcel well before shooting light. When other hunters arrive and begin pressuring birds you’ll be front row to the action as turkeys join you in sanctuary settings.
Public-land hunting can be trying and frustrating, but with some planning and research you can find success with sweat equity and savvy ingenuity.
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