Where do pressure turkeys go?

A fellow over on T&TH wanted to know how to mid-season scout pressured turkeys on public land. Here is my answer.




I have 200 acres of private land to hunt. It is not like your public land problem. However, I might have some ideas for you. You've gotten good advice so far.

I used to hunt private land adjoining Hocking Hills, a large state park complex in South Central Ohio. The farmer there told me after opening week, the turkeys all took to the sides of the roads and hid in the culverts. He was right. You can't hunt right at the road. You can't shoot across a road, but try looking in the odd spots where nobody ever hunts.

Whenever I spook a flock of turkeys seriously, they all seem to want to take off and fly to Hootin Holler. No, I'm not saying your turkeys are there, but Hootin' Holler is a large hollow that dominates over 50% of our property. You might want to scout down in the mouths of hollows for birds that other guys have spooked. Alternately, the birds seem to work their way back up through the side gulleys to get back home. Those may produce for you.

That's another tip I can give. I have no idea if what I'm giving you is true for heavily pressured birds, but my birds do come back to their familiar haunts. I have a loafing area that's about 150 yards from the house. It's under a big box elder. I can't help but continually bust The Big Tree Crew, just going about my business. A day or so later they're back. Good turkey hunters tell me there is no such thing as a honey hole. Phooey! I don't know if you're following the side story I'm relating about my ailing friend, O.T. O.T.'s got a lung condition that kept him in the hospital most of season. He was going to try and make it out the last week. I offered him that box elder, because I knew if he just sat quietly against a nearby hay bale, he'd eventually at least see one.

I am beginning to wonder how much pressure it really takes to make a bird leave it's home zip code. Angus shot at a gobbler during Yute Season. Two weeks later, I ran into the same crew. My lasts gobbler came from about 200 yards away.

Moose and I hammered a favorite fence line all season. We couldn't chase those turkeys out if we tried. I used it a couple of times, thinking I'd come out that way at mid day after taking a gobbler the first week. Nope! I busted a flock of hens with a gobbler in tow. All told, I got one gobbler, got my sights on a second, Moose got busted by a third, shot at a fourth and missed, and Angus was working one in Yute Season, before it faded. Then there's one flock that busted us before season and a second that busted me mid-season. That's a lot of action from one 200 yard stretch of fence.