The Florida Turkey Hunting Guide

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Written by Mark Mussett Wednesday, 10 March 2010 18:52

Turkey hunting is a blast.  Few other outdoor endeavors can evoke the emotional ups and downs brought on by chasing an adult tom.  In Florida, hunters enjoy the unique challenge of pursuing the Osceola, or Florida turkey, considered by many to be the most difficult subspecies to bag.  Though any time spent in Florida's springtime woods is bound to be memorable, a successful hunt takes a ton of preparation and a little luck.

On public land, the task often requires coping with added challenges of pre-season access, hunting pressure from other outdoorsmen, and the inability to personally manage the land as you might if it were private.  While we all (probably) wish we could spend every waking moment in the woods (at least when we're not fishing), this may not be practical. Still, investing what time you can before the season starts can make the hours spent hunting more productive.

Osceola turkeys are notoriously tight-lipped.  While a great many come into view strutting and gobbling, still countless more go the entire day without uttering a sound.  Another quirk of the Osceola is to gobble on the roost for as much as an hour, only to fly down and go mute.  The reasons for this behavior are many.  Some of the common and accepted theories include:

1) Thick, swampy or brushy terrain, in which the birds are often found, also hosts a myriad of predators.  While a tom may feel secure 20 feet high in a tree where he can observe the woods around him safely, gobbling loudly on the ground will not only alert hens to his presence but also coyotes, bobcats and just about anything else with ears.  Remaining quiet and utilizing areas where other turkeys share habitat can ensure him another level of safety while on the ground.

2) Hunting turkeys in the spring involves tricking turkeys into behaving contrary to nature.  Many toms, especially in the early season, are 'henned up'; they may gobble on the roost and fly down only when hens are seen or heard very close by.  If you can pull a gobbler away from hens, you're among the greatest turkey hunters on the planet.

3) Hunting pressure is often thought to influence turkey behavior.  While seeing humans in the woods or even being shot at might spook a turkey, he's not likely to pack up and move to a different zip code.  After all, the habitat, food abundance and proximity to receptive hens which drew him to that habitat in the first place haven't changed.  A survival strategy for the wiley birds may be to hush up.

4) See number 1.  That same habitat, coupled with humid conditions may muffle the sound of a gobbling bird.  Veteran hunters from different localities are routinely surprised when they travel to Florida, hear a bird and move to get into position, only to spook their quarry, originally thinking the bird was much further out than he actually was.  In some situations, a hunter may miss a subtle, distant gobble completely and spend the day unsure about the presence of birds in his hammock.

Dealing with quiet birds who seem to turn their beaks up at your calling by 8:00 in the morning can be demoralizing, and lead a hunter to abandon his patience-oriented strategy.  If you've done your time in the woods, however, and established productive habitat or located birds in advance of the season, you'll have armed yourself not only with camouflage, calls and a weapon, but also the confidence often necessary to work a bird into range.  If the birds are there, eventually you'll have an exciting encounter, hopefully culminated by carrying out your hard-earned trophy.

ROOSTING LOCATIONS

Turkeys, and Osceola turkeys in particular, love to roost in a safe location.  While they may roost in pines, cypress trees or mature hardwoods, one common requirement for a desirable roost is proximity to water.  Even in years of drought turkeys will roost over dried creek beds or pond edges.  It is beneficial to spend midmorning and afternoon periods in the areas where you hunt searching for good roosting locations.  Turkeys may not roost in the same tree every night, but odds are they won't spend the night too far from the same stand of trees they are in the habit of using.  Look for sheltered, mature stands of trees.  Then look for droppings and feathers.  If you find plentiful large, white bird droppings on the forest floor in the right kind of habitat, you've located a good roosting location.  Fortunately, the birds are typically most talkative when they wake up, and right before they shut their eyes for the night.  Arriving early in the morning or well before evening twilight in a perspective roost location and quietly listening will put you in a situation to hear birds naturally talking, rather than answering your calls.  In these situations, augmenting your search with owl, crow, woodpecker, coyote or peacock calls can help spark a response from a nearby turkey.  Come opening morning, if you're in a good established location you can hunt with the confidence that you'll be able to hunt birds tight to where they sleep.  Remember, turkeys often go for a drink right after flydown or right before flying up to a roost.  Also, they may roost over water but they fly uphill or make for dryer ground as soon as possible.


Make sure to look for mature Pine trees with low sprawling branches.


Seeing turkey scat on vegetation at the base of big trees is a sure indication that the area is being used as a roost.

STRUTTING LOCATIONS

Spring gobblers want to be seen, contrary to what a lot of hunters might believe after chasing turkeys through a swamp.  A mature turkey can hide very easily even with sparse calf-high vegetation nearby.  When attracting a mate, though, they rely as much on their flashy plumage as their booming gobble.  While hens have sharp eyesight, the toms still prefer open ground in which to strut.  Locating pastures, old growth forest understory with minimal underbrush, plowed roads and firebreaks, harvested timber clearcuts, or recently burned areas will help you establish where the turkeys spend their day after flydown.  Searching leaf-strewn clearings for upturned leaves and linear, uniform drag marks, as well as scat and feathers can help you establish if birds are using it as a strutting ground.  Finding  prints, scat and feathers in sandy and muddy terrain will tell you the same.  In either case, tracks heading multiple directions and of varying age (fresh tracks will not be covered with leaves, for instance) indicate an area routinely used by turkeys.  These locations may be right on top of roosting habitat or relatively distant.  Strutting locations are integral to many hunter's spring strategies, as birds will use them throughout the spring and multiple times each day.  After breeding hens in the early morning, toms return to such places to look for more action midmorning and into the afternoon.  An added benefit to this habitat is that silent toms can be seen from a greater distance than in denser cover.  Bear in mind also that in windy or stormy conditions turkeys may be even quieter and will spend most of the day in open areas such as strutting grounds, relying on their sight when the wind and movement in dense cover interrupts their hearing and makes identifying predators from sweeping bushes very difficult.  If you find yourself faced with an impending late season cold front, targeting exposed open areas may be your ticket to bagging a bird.

Finding a nice grassy area on the edge of a thick Vegetation can be a perfect Strutting Spot. Once you get set up, make sure to mark some physical items around you to ensure that you know how far of a shot you are about to take.

FOOD

Turkeys are omnivorous.  Studies of the Wild Turkey in Florida, a work by Lovett Williams and David Austin, identifies a variety of plant life and invertebrates as being present in the diet of a wild turkey.  The authors found that among adult turkeys, over 83 percent of food ingested was found to be plant matter.  With that said, identifying habitat with abundant food supply will help you in your hunting.  Palmetto berries, corn seed and acorns are just some of the common foods sought by turkeys.  In some management areas, food plots or nearby private agricultural lands supply turkeys and other game with seeds, grains and nuts.  One food especially favored by wild turkeys is chufa, a plant grass-like in appearance which bears subterranean tubers similar to peanuts.  Turkeys also feed heavily in pastures.  While observing turkeys scratching and pecking at the ground will give you positive identification of a turkey feeding area, simply finding berries, small fruits and acorns on the ground should tip you off that you are in the right neighborhood.  Feeding areas are particularly good places in which to call in hens and flocks of multiple birds.  Subtle purring and soft clucks will help attract turkeys to a feeding area.  If an early-morning gobbler has ignored you and taken off with a harem of hens, repositioning to meet them at the feeding grounds later in the morning can be a deadly tactic.

ONE MUST-HAVE TOOL

Regardless of where in the Osceola turkey's range you hunt, one extremely important tool which allows you to evaluate habitat and game much more efficiently is a set of binoculars or other enhancing optics device.  Trying to pick out a dark-colored burn among cypress knees or burned palmetto stumps from any kind of distance is a daunting test of your observation skills.  If you're searching for birds to hunt that day or at another time in the season, you'll do well to boost your chances by searching for live birds in habitat you've deemed adequate.  Scanning dried marsh or fields, pastures, burns cuts and woodlines from your vehicle, bicycle or by foot with your chosen optics can allow you to spot movement or turkeys much more quickly and at a greater distance than you would be able to with the naked eye.  Sitting in an area and scanning with optics through denser turkey habitat will also help you spot turkeys moving which you may otherwise miss.  A lot of the time, the turkey's innate wariness and keen eyesight will allow him to see you before you see anything more than a white ball barely visible above the palmettos 100 yards out; binoculars can help even the score.  And while you cannot shoot a turkey after 1:00 pm during the spring season in Florida, remaining in the woods (where permissible; review the regulations for the specific WMA you hunt and ask Florida wildlife conservation commission staff when unsure) after shooting hours provides a fantastic opportunity for reconnaissance gathering.

Using a good set of binoculars will save you time and save your hunt.

BEFORE YOU GO

Again, time on the ground is the best tool for establishing the habitat you want to target for your spring gobbler.  However, two key tools for narrowing down your prospects from what might be a dauntingly large tract of land are the area biologist, and aerial imaging.  The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission website contains links to contact staff members.  Politely asking for advice on general features to search for, or what portion of an area to key in on can lead you to a very helpful dialogue.  Do not necessarily expect GPS coordinates to a gobbler hotbed, but advice given by biologists and other staff will help you expedite your search for spring hunting excitement.  Furthermore, perusing maps and aerial images, some available from the comfort of your computer desk, will help you identify key features.  Looking for river bottom, creek beds, large or small openings and fields, planted pine tracks and accessible paths into the forest can allow to plan for and use your time in the woods more efficiently.  Do not solely rely on such reference material, however, as the Florida landscape may render outdated images unhelpful to your search.

1) Don't be afraid to call, but don't overcall.  Hen Osceolas may not hammer out 5 or more yelps in a single calling sequence.  More often, 2-4 yelps will be heard when a talkative hen is nearby, followed by a long period of silence.  One yelp every 15 minutes to an hour may even be sufficient.  Turkeys hear quite well; calling loudly on a calm day may cause a gobbler to hang up, thinking you are much closer than you are.  Keep it soft unless you're throwing out fighting purrs.

2) Don't give up early.  Late in the season, or late in the day you still have a shot if you're in the woods.  Florida's spring turkey hunting season runs from mid-March into April.  Just because the toms seem impossible to call early in the season doesn't mean they won't run straight to you after most of the hens are on the nest.  And remember, just because birds may shut up or not seem interested after the early morning, midday can be a great time to pull them in.  Don't let Florida's often hot spring temperatures lull you into thinking the breeding season is done; I've called in birds in 95° heat in the last couple weeks of April.  And trust me, all the birds were not shot opening week.

3) Be patient and sit still.  Osceola turkeys have a habit of showing up after a long bout of silence only to gobble 30 yards away.  More common still, they may not answer your call but still come in to investigate, circling your location repeatedly in the process.  Sitting stark still and waiting him out may be the tickets to success.  Don't be surprised if he comes in behind your set up.

4) Decoys. Love 'em or hate 'em, they may provide your gobbler the extra confidence he needs to move into range.  If you use them make sure they are well within your comfortable shooting range.  One word of caution:  In the author's opinion jake or gobbler decoys should never be used on public land in Florida or any other state; they should be used with great caution on private land.  A legal-bird, even if it is a decoy, can be a tempting target to another hunter who does not see you.

5) HUNT SAFE, HAVE FUN!