When it comes to spring turkey hunting, persistence and patience will pay off. And while the ins-and-outs of turkey hunting can get complicated, the best place to start is with the basics. Here's an overview spring turkey hunting essentials.

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Clamorous gobbles echo over the landscape, surprising early spring's still morning. There is something special about spring turkey season. And to truly know the addictive nature of this pursuit, one must experience it firsthand. 

Effective turkey hunting often uses calls and decoys, bringing together wild turkey behavior and vocalization. It pays to learn how the two relate. Learning on the job isn't a good way to approach turkey hunting, so taking the time to study, learn and practice undoubtedly will pay off.

Calling All Toms

Turkey calls are designed to be user-friendly and easy to learn, but that won't make up for a lack of preparation. Knowing how to make a turkey sound is one thing, but mastering what calling technique (such as a gobble, yelp, etc.) to use and when to use it takes time and practice.

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One of the most interesting things about turkey calling is that a certain device or vocalization may be effective one day but not the next. For this reason, seasoned hunters often carry more than one kind of call. Also, they remain versatile for the duration of the hunt, changing the sounds they make until they find one that works. Thousands of turkey hunting videos exist online and are a great way to learn what turkeys sound like, how to call a turkey, and how they react to different calls.

If calling properly, a hunter should be able to attract a tom. But many hunters supplement their calling by using decoys.

Wild Turkey Sounds

From gathering poults (young birds) to finding a mate, wild turkeys make a vast array of sounds. Here are common calls heard in the turkey woods.

• Cluck: The cluck is one or more short, staccato notes. The plain cluck includes two or three single-note clucks. It's generally used by one bird to get the attention of another. It's a good call to reassure an approaching gobbler that a hen is waiting.
• Yelp: The yelp is a basic turkey sound. It is often delivered in a series of single note vocalizations and can have different meanings depending on how the hen uses it.
• Putt: The putt is a single note, generally used as an alarm. It could be several notes in sharp or rapid fashion, usually meaning the bird has seen or heard something that might be dangerous.
• Cut: A series of fast, loud, erratic single notes is referred to as cutting. It's a modified cluck and is a distinct, abrupt call with a somewhat questioning nature. It can be heard at a great distance and is often used by a single turkey looking for companionship.
• Tree Call: Usually a series of soft, muffled yelps from a roosting bird. Sometimes volume increases as fly-down time nears. It's believed this call is used to communicate with others in a flock.
• Purr: Purring is a soft, rolling call that turkeys make when content. It can usually be heard by feeding birds. This is not a loud call, but is good for reassuring turkeys as they close in on your position.
• Gobbling: The gobble is one of the principal vocalizations of the male wild turkey and is used primarily in the spring to let hens know he is in the area. Imitating a tom turkey's gobble should only be used with utmost caution, and probably avoided in areas with moderate to heavy hunting pressure.

Decoys

Knowing which decoys to use and how to place them may seem overwhelming, but for a new hunter, keeping it simple is the best approach. Flashy turkey decoys that spin and shake are fine but not necessary. It's not the decoy that attracts the gobbler; it's decoy placement and numbers. For this reason, new turkey hunters should opt for cheaper decoys.

The best place for a new turkey hunter to start is with a simple setup of two decoys - a jake and a hen. It should be obvious why a hunter would use a hen decoy during a spring turkey hunt; it's mating season. For this reason, hens are the best decoys to use during a spring hunt. Although a jake is a young male not ready to breed, a dominant gobbler doesn't want him interfering with a potential mate. Mature toms are not reluctant to enter a jake's territory.

Scouting

All the calls and decoys in the world don't hold a candle to being in the right location. And to be in the right location, a hunter must scout. Every hunter knows scouting is important, but not every hunter does it. And when it comes to turkeys, scouting is critical. Scouting for turkeys can mean anything from driving around and looking for tracks in the dirt to extensive groundwork searching for and reading the various types of turkey sign.

Hunters who go into the field armed with sufficient knowledge greatly increase their chances of harvesting a bird. Locating food plots, agriculture fields and open meadows is a great way to start. From there, search for turkey sign such as tracks, droppings and feathers.

• Tracks: Search areas where tracks will be noticeable such as along field edges and paths clear of leaves. Tracks will confirm that birds are in the area and maybe will help you understand where they like to travel. Turkeys have three long toes. A single track measuring 4.25 inches or more from the tip of the middle toe to the heel indicates a gobbler, smaller than that it is probably a hen.
• Droppings: A hen’s look like small pieces of popcorn while a gobbler’s droppings are larger and J-shaped.
• Wingtip Marks: When gobblers strut, their wingtips drag the ground leaving two parallel lines in the dirt, sometimes with turkey tracks visible between them.

• Feathers: Turkeys will typically knock feathers loose from their wings as they fly up to and down from their roosts. In western Oklahoma, tall timber areas littered with feathers mixed with droppings indicate a good roost site. In the east, larger wooded areas make identifying roost areas a little more difficult because the birds have more roosting options.

  While tracks, droppings, shed feathers and sightings of turkeys are all positive proof that birds are in the area, many hunters opt to delve further into business of scouting. Here’s what they look for:

• Roosting Site: Turkeys generally roost high in the branches of large trees and often spend some time gobbling before flying down at sunrise. Rio Grande roosts are often located on cottonwoods found along rivers, stream and creeks. Eastern birds may roost near water also, but may spend their nights high in ridge top pines. The ground below roost trees will be littered with feathers and droppings. While birds may not use a specific site every night, a roost tree with fresh sign is reliable indication that birds are frequenting the area. This is a good, centralized location to continue scouting, but most veterans prefer not to hunt near a roost. Turkeys spooked off of roost, they believe, tend to move out of the area.
• Fly-down Area: Turkeys, Rio Grandes in particular, prefer to leave the roost and hit the ground on a relatively open area. In the west, this may be a pasture or wheat field, while in the east it may be clear cut, grazed field or open understory beneath the pines. If a hunter can pattern birds coming off their roost, fly-down areas are excellent places to set up for a hunt.
• Display Areas: In the spring, gobblers spend much of their day strutting in a high visibility area such as a knoll, rise, bare ridge, old roadway or meadow. Look for concentrations of tracks and drag marks made by the wingtips of a displaying tom.
• Feeding Area: In some areas, turkeys feed randomly and are nearly impossible to pattern. In other areas, hunters can almost count on birds using particular field or draws where a food source is readily available. These also are good places to set up and wait.
• Loafing Area: Depending on weather, turkeys may spend their afternoons in sunny openings amid hillside brush or in cool, shady creek bottoms. These areas are often protected from wind and well used dusting wallows are often nearby. Late in the season when hens are nesting, toms are often lonely and vulnerable to hunters set up in a loafing area.
• Staging Area: Turkeys often congregate in a seemingly designated locations before moving together toward the roosting site. Difficult to locate except by visual observance, these areas are excellent ambush sites.
• Travel Lanes: Tree rows, shelterbelts, draw, creek banks, cattle or deer trails are all likely routes which turkeys take from one area to another during the course of a day. These too are excellent locations to plan a hunt.

Go Public

No matter the season, the main concern for many hunters is where to hunt. Public hunting areas should not be overlooked. Because of the Wildlife Department’s management efforts, turkey hunters have a legitimate chance to bag a spring tom on many of the Department’s wildlife management areas open to public hunting. Biologists enhance turkey habitat on WMAs by planting food plots; removing cedar trees around larger roost trees such as cottonwoods, elms and oaks; renewing plant succession by burning or disking; and planting mast trees such as oaks and pecans. Moderate grazing, like that observed on some wildlife management areas, can help enhance poult rearing and feeding areas.

With more than 1.6 million acres of public hunting land available to hunters across the state, deciding which WMA to visit for a turkey hunt may seem overwhelming. Hunters new to the sport should know hunting Oklahoma’s western half is a much different adventure than hunting far eastern and southeastern Oklahoma. For one, the birds are different. Rio Grande turkeys are the most widespread, inhabiting the western two-thirds of the state. Eastern turkeys are found in eastern and southeastern areas of Oklahoma. Hybrids are found where the ranges overlap.

Eastern Turkeys

Some hunters will argue hunting eastern gobblers is more difficult than pursuing its western cousin. It most definitely is different. Eastern wild turkeys are cautious, and aren’t as eager to run toward a hen (or a hunter’s yelp) as a Rio. Looking at the variances in habitat type, it is easy to understand their behavioral distinctions. Rios inhabit wide-open spaces and can see approaching danger. Eastern turkeys inhabit areas with thicker vegetation and broken terrain, making them vulnerable to “close quarter” ambushes from predators. For this reason, Eastern toms are less likely to respond to calls or gobble themselves, making hunting tactics much different than those used for Rio Grande turkeys.

The first rule for hunting Eastern birds is keep calling to a minimum, especially in areas of high hunting pressure. Mature bearded toms will simply quit calling after they’ve exchanged a few gobbles. Don’t make the mistake in thinking that the gobbling turkey doesn’t know where you are in a vast unbroken forest of pine trees. He knows your location. If the tom continues to gobble and appears to be moving off in a separate direction, you can try giving him just a few yelps, purrs or clucks with a different type of call (I.e. changing from a box call to a slate). But be conservative in your calling. Sometimes just the change in the tone is enough to seduce the tom into shotgun range.

Rio Grande Turkeys

A different tactic can be used for Rio Grande turkeys. Early in the spring season, before gobblers are call shy, use loud and aggressive calling. Toms may not yet be wildly interested in breeding, but mimicking a ready and aggressive hen is a good play. Don't be afraid to cackle, cut and yelp long and loudly. A Rio tom will often express how he wants to be called. An excited gobbler is best matched with an imitation of an excited hen, at least at first. A not so-eager bird is a good candidate for conservative calling.

Tips

Regardless of species, even with proper planning, practicing and research, situations may arise that even the most-prepared bunter wouldn't expect. It is important to be patient and persistent.

If you are out in the pre-dawn darkness and get a roosting tom to cut off your calls with a throaty gobble, be quiet and stay put. The bird knows exactly where you are. If he flies down from the roost and doesn't come to you, it could be that one or more hens is with him. If so, chances are he won't be coming to your calls, anyway. It is possible to aggressively call in the hens to your location, which theoretically will also bring in the gobbler. But this technique is usually tough to accomplish with high-pressured turkeys. As the season goes on, many hens will often leave a tom by midmorning to seek nesting sites. If this happens, he'll come back to the exact place that he last heard your hen calls from the roost. And it's likely he won't be gobbling when he comes searching for you. Full camouflage, absolutely no movement, razor-sharp senses and plenty of patience are needed to wait out these "high-pressured, call-shy" gobblers.

It doesn’t take much to over-call, which results in a hung up gobbler. When a gobbler answers right back to your call or cuts you off by gobbling as you’re calling, you’ve got his attention. If the tom starts heading your way, he will quit gobbling or gobble less frequently. If you call during this time, you are making the bird stop to respond to your call, and it may hang up. The bird may stop in its tracks trying to make that hen (or the hunter in this case) come to him. Remember: The main reason a tom turkey gobbles is to call hens to his location, not the other way around. What spring turkey hunters are essentially doing is imitating hens sounds to make the tom behave counter to the way it typically happens in nature.

If the tom hangs up out of shotgun range, you can quit calling altogether and hope that he gets curious enough to get closer, or you can change your type of call to produce a more seductive tone, or you can try to move to a different set-up location. Aggressive calling usually will not work with turkeys that hang up out of range. Moving to a different set-up is usually a risky proposition.

If you are in an area with other turkey hunters, extreme caution is required. Certainly, any hunters on public lands should assume that he or she is not the only hunter out on the area. Whenever a hunter sneaks toward a gobbling turkey, he runs the risk of being mistaken as game by another turkey hunter. Imitating a tom turkey’s gobble should only be used with utmost caution, and probably avoided on public areas and other areas with moderate to heavy hunting pressure.

At best, using a gobble call will often attract other hunters to your immediate area, and their movements may spook the very turkey that you are trying to call to your location.

At worst, imitating the sounds of a gobbling turkey may unintentionally place two hunters into a dangerous situation. The excitement and adrenaline rush of hearing a gobbling turkey may lead to shooting accidents in which hunters make the disastrous mistake of not properly identifying their target and what lies beyond it before pulling the trigger.

It may seem impossible that a human could be mistaken for a turkey. But most turkey hunters wear camouflage clothing from head-to-toe. This camouflage disguises the obvious silhouette of a human form. Add in the sounds of the gobbling turkey, crunching leaves, and movement of vegetation, and this situation can lead to one hunter mistaking another for a turkey.

Another prime safety practice for turkey hunters is to avoid wearing any item of clothing with red, white or blue on it. Those are colors that can be seen on a tom turkey's head.

If a hunter encounters another hunter converging on the same turkey, common sense says not to make turkey calls in an effort to alert the hunter to your presence. Waving your hand or other body movements can also compromise safety. The safest way to alert another hunter is with your voice: "Hey! I'm a hunter! Don't shoot!" If that spooks the turkey away, so what? At least both of you will be able to enjoy another turkey season.

Moving to a different calling set-up on a hung-up turkey can be productive, but again it should be done very cautiously. If two hunters are together, then one designated caller can attempt to dislodge a hung-up tom by moving farther away to call. Sometimes this "leaving hen" trick can induce a tom into following. By adjusting his angle, the caller can try to lure the tom in a path that converges with the designated shooter's line of fire.

The difference between collecting a mature turkey beard and coming home empty-handed is persistence. April weather in Oklahoma can change rapidly. Wet weather and sudden weather changes usually equal less gobbling activity, especially for Eastern birds. Also, these birds can be fickle. Hunters should have several plans, and he might need to switch to Plan B. As long as you do your homework, remain patient and be persistent, your turkey hunt will be a successful one.

Tap into Wildlife Department Resources

Every year the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation publishes a Gobbler Report and sends it to the agency's email subscribers. Normally published within a week of the youth spring turkey season opener, the report provides the most up-to-date status of turkey breeding and activity from every region of the state. The info comes directly from Wildlife Department personnel stationed across Oklahoma, giving insights to hunters who are making plans for opening day. To receive the Gobbler Report, make sure you're signed up to receive Hunting Updates emails from the Wildlife Department. If you've purchased a hunting license through the Go Outdoors Oklahoma online license system and provided a valid email address in the process, then you should be signed up already, unless you've unsubscribed. If not, go to the Department's Outdoor News webpage to sign up. 

You can also check out the wild turkey section of the Department's Hunting Resources webpage. You'll find additional tips and information about spring and fall hunting, as well as maps, articles and links with information that might help you in your quest as a turkey hunter in Oklahoma. 

We'd be remiss not to remind you also to read up on turkey hunting regulations for the season and area you plant to hunt. Spend time reading through the general regulations for hunting in Oklahoma, the section directly related to wild turkey hunting, and also the special area regulations if you plan to hunt public ground. That way, you'll be educated on what the rules are and how to comply. The regulations are available online here, or via the Go Outdoors Oklahoma mobile app for iPhone or Android. 

Finally, don't forget to obtain your hunting license and turkey license through your Go Outdoors Oklahoma online license system. Youth under 18 need only the annual youth super hunting license to be ready for whatever hunting opportunity comes their way. Whether resident or nonresident, the super license is the best thing that's happened for youth hunting in decades. We've written all about that here. 

-Sidebar by Michael Bergin, senior communication & education specialist for the Wildlife Department