Fall Turkeys: A Bird Of Another Feather

By Scott Ellis

With summer winding down the arrival of archery, muzzle loading , early duck , and dove season is greatly anticipated. People are tuning bows, sighting scopes and plowing fields. It could also be a great time to tune those turkey calls for the upcoming fall season. That’s what I said, “tune your turkey calls”. Most states offer turkey as fair game during archery and all but a few offer a fall turkey season. (check your local game laws to verify your season and what is legal to take, gobbler, hen or both) Fall turkey hunting can definitely put your turkey hunting skills to the test.

When most people hear turkey hunting they generally associate it with a strutting tom and the beautiful sound of a gobble during the spring. Learning the art of fall turkey hunting not only increases your chances of putting a bird in the freezer for Thanksgiving dinner, it allows you to learn more about turkeys and how they live throughout the year, not just during the mating season. This can benefit the spring turkey hunter as well. By having more knowledge of your quarry, such as their pecking order, how to find them and their language, you can add more to your bag of tricks. Fall hunting requires more woodsman ship than calling ability. Locating your fall birds can be a challenge in itself.

The Basics: There are two basic angles to hunting fall turkeys. Hunting bachelor flocks and hunting what I call brood flocks. Bachelor flocks consist of mature gobblers and brood flocks consist of the adult hens and their offspring. During the fall, a hunter has to realize that he is capitalizing on a turkeys urge for companionship, their need to establish a pecking order and just overall curiosity. He is also putting his woods skills to the test by locating birds. Exploring for a viable food source and water is essential to finding your birds. Patterning birds in the fall can be quite challenging but putting food and water on the top of your scouting list will pay dividends. Turkeys will continue to use a food source until it is exhausted and will water in the same areas if available. Use this to your advantage. Traditional roosting sites out west are a sure bet to finding your fall birds but, here in the southeast I don’t feel are as common. This is due to the variety of roosting trees we have available here in the south. Put your time in the woods scouting for sign as in the spring. Look for tracks, dusting areas, and scratching. Keep in mind your more likely to find flocks of birds and not single birds, although finding a lone gobbler is not all that uncommon. More often when you find one, you will find multiple birds, whether bachelor flocks or brood flocks. Get in the woods and frequent areas that birds are likely to be feeding and you’ll find your turkeys. How many times have you heard deer hunters say “You should have seen all the turkeys I saw on the stand!!” Use this knowledge to your advantage.

Bachelor Flocks:

During the spring we all know that generally you’ll have your dominant gobbler and your subordinate gobblers in any given area that holds birds. During the fall , take away that breeding urge and your left with the same gobblers. These gobblers will often flock together, I feel for companionship. Don’t be confused there is still a pecking order with these birds, but they run together like a little gang with one bird being the “leader”. Now once you’ve gained knowledge on birds in your area or found them while scouting , your safest be is to set up and blind call or move and call.

Blind calling is referred to as sitting in one area and just calling randomly not engaged with a bird. Use gobbler yelps and clucks and call sparingly but with enough frequency for a bird to not get by you without hearing your calling. Basically every 10 to 15 minutes. Gobbler yelping is very similar to hen yelping but with a slower rhythm and a deeper tone. On paper it would look like “yawk”—-”yawk”—-”yawk”—-“yawk”—-”yawk”—-”yawk”. As opposed to hen yelping, yelp-yelp-yelp-yelp-yelp. Gobbler clucking again is similar to hens clucking but with a noticeably deeper tone. Throw in some deeper purring just to add realism. Once you get a response, call them just enough to peak there interest. Hopefully they’ll come in looking who the new guy on the block is. Hunting these birds takes an enormous amount of patience. Its almost as if your still hunting but adding some vocalizations into the mix.

Also, moving and calling can be effective just be aware of your surroundings. The fact that there is going to be less foliage on the trees and since the birds may not be as vocally responsive in the fall, could pose a problem. Without the birds giving away their location the chance of spooking them is much greater walking through the open timber. If the cover permits I would not discount running gunning. Just remember patterning these birds and hunting near feeding areas is going to put you in their living room. You can even build a blind to gain comfort and conceal movement.

Brood Flocks:

These birds have a very tight knit social grouping. Your going to have to capitalize on their gregariousness to bag your fall bird. Very similar to hunting bachelor flocks there are two basic methods. Blind calling and moving and calling or running and gunning. The type of turkey vernacular used is quite different than the calls used to lure bachelor flocks. While trying to locate or communicate with a brood flock, I’m going to do some assembly yelping or also know as a lost yelping, kee-keeing and kee-kee running. Assembly or lost yelping is the same basic call. They are both 15-20 note yelps given with a pleading sound. The assembly yelp is when a flock is scattered, the hen will begin these long series of yelps. This is how she gathers her brood. The lost yelp, is when a bird is all alone by itself and is looking for companionship. I don’t feel a turkey is ever lost but its just the name given. I feel its more of a locating “is anyone out there?” call. When giving these yelps just remember to visualize a turkey looking for “friends” and pleading to gain there acquaintance. Kee-keeing is the whistles of the young birds. The brood hen will kee-kee as well. It sounds like its spelled on paper. Kee kee kee—–kee kee kee kee. Kee kee running is the same whistle pattern but ending with a couple of yelps. Kee kee kee —– kee kee kee kee yelp yelp. Make a series of this call again ending with two to four yelps. Kee Keeing is best performed with a mouth call. For the beginner I would highly suggest a Quaker Boy Kee Kee diaphragm. It is a clear call that has two thin reeds with no cut and will whistle with ease. For the more advanced caller I would recommend a World Champ mouth. You can attain the same realistic whistle with a raspy yelp.

When blind calling your trying to lure the birds in by peaking their curiosity. After you have located where turkeys are frequenting, set up and begin your calling sequences. Whether they come to investigate the new comer or the brood hen feels challenged. Mix up your calling with several series of assembly/lost yelps adding in some cutting. The next series, give a chorus of kee-kee runs. Call quite often and even call with multiple calls. Again were trying to use a turkeys curiosity and need for companionship to coax them into gun range.

Scattering the flocks:

This is an age old tradition when hunting fall turkeys. I feel this definitely best accomplished by two hunters. Many times a hunter will get close enough to flush a flock only to have them fly off in the same direction and regroup before a hunter has a chance to set up and call them. If you’ve spotted a flock have you and a buddy come in from different directions, then running in spooking them. Hopefully they will scatter in different directions. Once you’ve scattered a brood flock wait and quietly listen for them to start yelping and kee-keeing. If the birds did not flush too far from where you scattered them and you start hearing multiple birds, set up right there and begin your calling. Call very often . Assembly yelping and kee-kee running will be your best bet. At this point do not be afraid to call.

If the birds have flushed to far to set up where the flush occurred, then reposition to where the majority of the flock escaped your ambush and again wait and listen for them to start calling Then begin your calling. In my opinion it is imperative that you do not start calling until the birds start calling. I feel this way you know the birds are calm enough to start the regrouping process.
If you’ve busted a bachelor flock rely on your gobbler yelps and deep gobbler clucks, but calling more sparingly. A bachelor flock has much less urge to regroup than a brood flock. Many times the gobblers will not regroup, hence seeing lone long beards sometimes in the fall. But, its definitely worthy of a valiant effort.

Just remember scouting is going to be your main key to success. Fall turkey hunting can be productive with or without calling. You have to know where the turkeys are frequenting and put yourself in the middle. Many times I’ve had fall flocks never respond to a call but my knowledge and patterning of the birds put me in a position to bag one with out ever making a sound. Other times the calling is what made the difference and definitely made the hunt more exciting. Fall turkey hunting generally doesn’t involve gobbling and strutting but hearing a bird kee-kee can be equally satisfying. It’s a sound that many hunters will never hear unless they put their time in the woods. Just know bagging a long beard, a jake, or even a hen in the fall is a great accomplishment. Many old timers will tell you spring hunting is great fun but the real test is bagging a bird in the fall. So, if you think you’re the spring turkey master, put your self to the test this fall………..