After a fairly hard winter with some pretty good amounts of snow building up, some turkey hunters were probably wondering how our wild turkeys endured the heavy snow. I can’t speak for the more northern portion of the state, but from what I’m seeing in our immediate area, they seem to have come through the winter in decent shape; I suspect that to be the case because every time I get in my vehicle, I’m on the lookout for turkeys and I’m seeing them. This past week alone, I spotted a couple of gobblers with a half dozen hens, and a day earlier, I saw a lone gobbler in the same area. Also, in the past few weeks, I have seen gobblers grouped up, and I have spotted some with hens. I’ve also talked with others who have seen some good-sized numbers of turkeys.

As the opening day of spring gobbler approaches on May 1, many of us are making preparations for this spring’s hunt, and locating potential hunting spots is high on the list of things to do. Actually, scouting out potential hunting locations is something I’ve already mentioned in my opening paragraph; every time I hop in my vehicle, I’m also on the lookout for turkeys, especially during March and April. Something that goes along with the looking aspect is the listening part of the search. Just hearing a gobbler sound off in the early morning is sometimes all you need to locate a potential spring gobbler site.

A couple of years ago, I took my granddaughter on a spring gobbler hunt. The site I chose for the hunt was based solely on the fact that on several occasions in the two weeks prior to opening day, I had spotted several gobblers and some hens in the field next to the woods. I spotted those birds from the road several hundred yards away. On opening morning, we sat at the edge of the woods, and after one series of hen yelps, three nice gobblers walked up to my hen decoy 20 yards away; her first gobbler is now mounted on her wall.

There are some differences of opinion even among turkey hunters as to the best way to “look and listen” when scouting spring gobblers. Some hunters prefer to avoid too much intrusion into their potential hunting area, especially in the last couple of weeks leading up to opening day. Obviously, they don’t want to upset normal movements and behavior by stomping all over the territory they intend to hunt. In an effort to locate gobblers by calling, many hunters will also limit calling prior to the season to only crow calls or owl calls rather than actual turkey calls. At the same time, I know of several spring gobbler hunters who will use turkey calls, and they will move carefully in and around their potential hunting grounds when scouting.

Actually, putting feet on the ground in your potential hunting spot does have some merit since this action will help to show where turkeys may have been feeding and maybe even tip you off as to roosting sites. If you can locate a good acorn crop, and that can only be done by walking the woods, you may also have a good hunting location come spring. Also, if you know where birds are roosting, that can be a heads up come the opening morning.

Something else that a lot of seasoned spring gobbler hunters do is to have more than one site for opening day. I had it happen, and I’m sure others have too that when you arrive at the spot where you planned to hunt, you find another vehicle already there or sit down to call only to find that somebody else is calling from the other side of the ravine. Having a backup site can save the day.