Posts

Improve Your Turkey Hunting Odds By Spring Coyote Hunting

Improve Your Turkey Hunting Odds By Spring Coyote Hunting

When two gobbling toms rumbled the early morning spring woods, my late friend and I decided we would have the best chance if we split the difference between the roosted birds. After quietly making our way down a wooded fence row, we made it within one hundred yards of each tom, then proceeded to get into position to begin calling.

 

As the sun lit up the spring woods, I knew it wouldn’t be long until we heard the beat of wings as the two toms flew off the roost. I amped up my calling by cutting and imitating a fly-down cackle on an H.S. Strut diaphragm call to entice them into coming closer. After a short time, we heard the anticipated sound of a turkey flying down and landing in the leaves. A few seconds later, I spotted one of the toms strutting his way down the hill toward the sound of my calls. Meanwhile, on the opposite side of the approaching longbeard, my friend stayed motionless as the other tom was still roosting a mere sixty yards in his direction. Trying to stay still, I was baffled when the gobbler heading in my direction suddenly went out of strut, then quickly went the opposite way, eventually out of sight. While trying to figure out what had gone wrong so quickly, I suddenly caught movement a few yards to my front. My instincts took over when I saw a coyote approaching where my tom once stood. After folding the coyote in his tracks, my twelve-gauge shotgun echoed through the bottom ridge. Unfortunately, the echoing of my gun resulted in the tom in front of my friend going silent until it eventually flew off the roost in the opposite direction.

If one has vast turkey hunting experience, it is easy to relate to the heartbreak and the aggravation my friend and I felt after a coyote ruined our morning of tagging a gobbler. Many turkey hunters have had coyotes attack their decoys or, as with our hunt, charge between the hunter who has been calling and the gobbling tom who is not too far ahead. Even though coyotes can be highly frustrating when turkey hunting, it is mother nature’s way for them to find an easy meal during the spring of the year.

Improve Your Turkey Hunting Odds By Spring Coyote Hunting

A coyote’s breeding season typically occurs from late January through mid-March. Once a female has been successfully bred, she has a gestation period of around sixty days before having her pups. With the peak of the breeding season occurring in mid-February, that would make their young scheduled to arrive mid-April to early May. Days before a female gives birth, and through the first several days of the young coyote pups being born, the mother’s requirement for more food increases drastically. During this period, it is typical for the male coyote to be a bit more aggressive as he is hunting for food for the mother and her pups. This is the reason for the increased coyote activity while hunters try to harvest a spring turkey. To help boost the odds for a spring gobbler and prevent coyotes from ruining a turkey hunt, it is vital to spend the month before the season hunting and calling coyotes. When coyotes are in search of extra food to prepare the female coyote for birth and later feed the young themselves, response rates to calls can be highly effective.

 

When hunting coyotes in March, it is imperative to focus on the territorial sounds they make, which symbolize the protectiveness of the area around their den sites, and the sounds of an easy meal. Using coyote vocals such as challenge and territorial howls signal to other coyotes that the area is theirs. If resident coyotes have settled themselves, they often will respond to see who has invaded their area. As for food source sounds, many animals also have their young in early spring. For that reason, using sounds such as baby cottontail, baby birds, and fawn distress all work excellently because they are the natural sounds heard in the wild at that particular time.

 

Due to the increased aggravation that male coyotes often have before their mate has pups, finding areas near a den can be ideal for hunting. As a good scouting tool, I have often placed one or two Muddy Outdoors Manifest 2.0 Cellular Cameras near areas where I plan to turkey hunt or where I suspect a den is located. When coyotes begin showing up on my cameras, I move in as quickly as possible and try to make a harvest. While finishing up the last portion of the coyote hunting season, focus on den areas and coyotes near a turkey hunting spot. By doing so, I have found that I have less pressure from predators when spring turkey season arrives in mid-April; less pressure from nearby coyotes means calling a gobbler into close range becomes less complicated. Improve Your Turkey Hunting Odds By Spring Coyote Hunting

 

spring turkey hunting

Spring Turkey Hunting Methods

Spring Turkey Hunting Methods and Tools

As with any outdoor activity, the better prepared you are beforehand, the more likely you are to enjoy your time doing it. The same is true for spring turkey hunting. In the unpredictable spring weather conditions, you never know what you will face. So if you’re wondering how to hunt turkeys in the spring, you need to decide how you’ll go about it first. This spring turkey season, take some time to consider your personal hunting approach and that can tell you a lot about how to stay comfortable the whole time you’re out.

Choosing Your Turkey Hunting Method

Let’s start with some spring turkey hunting basics. Everyone’s got their own way of doing things and personal preferences. But there are really only two styles of hunting when it comes to spring turkey hunting. You’ll either be in a ground blind of some sort or exposed on the ground. You could hunt them from a tree stand, but it’s not as common for spring turkey hunting season. Depending on which type of hunting you like to do, you’ll have to adopt different methods to stay comfortable in the field. Each has their own benefits and drawbacks, which we’ll discuss below. Take your pick and see which sounds better.

Ground Blind Hunting

Using a ground blind has a lot going for it for spring turkey hunting. A turkey’s primary predator defense mechanism, and thus its strongest sense, is its vision. When you move at ground level without any kind of cover, a turkey is very likely to spot you and that will be the end of your turkey hunt. Ground blinds are obviously one of the best ways to stay hidden and out of sight from such keen vision. Since there are only a few open windows, you can move around significantly more inside a blind without spooking turkeys away. That makes them such a great bow setup for turkey hunting; you can grab your bow and draw it without really worrying too much, especially if they’re focused on your spring turkey hunting decoys.

Blinds also have the added benefit of keeping you protected from the elements while you’re out there. Rain and wind can make for a pretty miserable time in the woods. But when you can hunker down inside a blind and stay warm and dry, you’re more likely to stay out longer. Obviously, more time afield can help increase your odds of putting a gobbler down for good. Since you’re well-hidden, you can also afford to sit very comfortably. The swivel ground seat from Muddy® is a great option for turkey hunting from a blind. It comes with a convenient carrying strap, is very stable, and can swivel 360 degrees to allow you to get in position for a shot quickly. It’s slightly heavier at 15 pounds, which makes it a good candidate for bringing the seat out when you set the blind up (ahead of the hunting season). It’s already colored black, so it will blend into the dark blind interior, and then you can leave it for when it’s time to hunt.

Of course, the primary drawback to this style of spring turkey hunting is that it isn’t as portable and adaptable as just sitting somewhere. If you notice lots of turkeys congregating on the other side of a field one day, it would take more effort to pick up and move your gear than simply moving over to the other side by yourself. Of course, you could always just move and hunt by yourself in that situation and then resort to your blind if the weather’s not great. You can combine the two methods to take advantage of different situations.

 Exposed at Ground Level

The other primary spring turkey hunting approach is to just sit in the woods or on a field edge somewhere with a good vantage point until a gobbler comes within range. Since you don’t have any concealment around you, this approach means you’ll need to really rely on your turkey hunting camo clothing and natural concealment opportunities, such as shrubs and long grasses, to hide your profile. That makes it tricky for bow hunting turkeys, so this approach is better for shotgun use. You’ll also have to keep your movements minimal and pay special attention to when you are truly not being watched (going back to turkey hunting 101). This can be a tricky catch-22 situation, because you can’t see what’s behind you, and can’t turn your head to check without potentially being spotted. One of the best spring turkey hunting tips is to set up in a good location with lots of cover behind you so you’re able to get away with a little movement when needed. While you could simply set up next to a large tree trunk to lean back against, sitting on the damp, hard ground for a few hours just gets old fast (and it gets old faster the older you are); it doesn’t provide great back support and will start to feel uncomfortable after a short time. Additionally, the best time to hunt turkey in the spring is often in the early morning when dew is thick on the grass and undergrowth. To help avoid these issues, the folding tripod ground seat folds up for easy packing and is camouflaged to use in the woods with some minor concealment in front of you. Being up off the ground a little can also help to produce some better visibility and shot angles around you while keeping your rear end dry.Of course, the downside to this style of spring turkey hunting and the controversial method of turkey reaping is that you are exposed to the elements and can be easily seen. Again, there are ways to mitigate that risk (e.g., good camouflage clothing, being aware of your movements, finding natural cover, etc.), but it is still a risk. As mentioned above, you can combine these two methods easily to take advantage of each scenario you face.

When you head to the field this spring, perhaps very soon, plan ahead for whatever situation you are likely to encounter. If you hunt on private land where the turkeys are not as perceptive and the weather forecast is grim, you should really consider using a ground blind equipped with a comfortable chair. If on the other hand, you hunt mostly public land, you don’t have much choice except to use a ground seat for turkey hunting in the open. But as long as you’re prepared for it, you should be alright.