To make long story short, I have been drawn for the first-ever turkey hunt in Quebec, Canada.

I know very little about hunting turkeys.

Situations is this:

I was assigned a specific property to hunt- there is no turkey sign BUT about 700 yards away, I did see three turkeys and lots of turkey sign. Unfortunately, we are stuck with our property. It consists of a grass field of 10 acres, a 10 acre swamp- beaver pond and another 25 acres thick brush, with some mature pines and maple.It is bordered by more scrub brush on all sides except across a farm road where there is an apple orchard.

The area where I saw the birds and sign was a part cornfield and part mature tree area.

1. Is is possible, using only calls, to attact these birds from 700 yards away?

2. How would you hunt my area?

3. Where on my area should I try to set up?

Thanks guys!

Any other tips are welcome

Are you using shotgun or rifle?

If shotgun, are you limited to #6 size?

10 and 12 gauge Shotguns only.

I just bought a new SBE II, LH, 12 gauge, 3.5 Magnum- along with lots of turkey targets for patterning.

We are limited to 4, 5, 6 shot size any manufacturer or handloads.

No electronic calls, no baiting, no hunting after Noon, must register turkey same day between 12 noon and 2 pm. 6 days only starting on April 25th.

Hope this helps thanks!

BTW, we are allowed decoys- remote control or plain. No live birds though.

You have your work cut out for you!!!
Get and use a turkey call. Ask around to see what type most hunters use in your area, get several decoys, use Hevi-Shot for taking your turkey, be camouflaged to the teeth, have a good blind, set up as close as you can hide to their location, set your decoys out where they can see them and not you, and good luck!!!
Jeff in Texas

Early in the season several decoys are better than one single. At least three but five is better. This will help.

1. Do not place the decoys too far apart. Hens groups are naturally tight units before the flocks start to break up.

2. Do not put a jake decoy in the middle of a group of hen decoys. Real hens do not allow this intrusion.

3. Do not place all the birds with their heads up. Preferably have only one bird with its' head up. The rest should be in "feeding" position.

4. You are describing a very small area you are hunting. Strive to put your decoys in an area that the birds at a distance can see them.

5. Build or put up a comfortable blind and stay in it all morning. Your calls will cover the size area you are describing there is no reason to move around.

6. Bring a book to read and settle in till noon. This will keep you from over calling. Limit your blind calling efforts to every 10min.

7. Resist the temptation to answer every gobble if you hear one. Turkeys do not call and move at the same time. Answering everytime is a sure way to hang one up unless it is very anxious.

9 out of 10 birds will sneak in unannounced on this setup, so be ready and good luck!

Bon Chance Mon Ami

A couple of additional tips:

1. Try to get there the next few evenings just before sunset - stay until almost dark. You may be able to find out if the birds are roosting in one particular area.

2. You MUST be in the woods and ready no later than an hour before sunrise. Most of my spring Toms have been within the first hour of hunting (in NY it starts 1/2 hour before sunrise to noon). Plan on hunting right up to noon, if necessary.

3. You MUST think like a woman playing hard-to-get (hard as that may be). Remember that standard practice is for the Toms to strut and gobble, attracting the hens TO HIM. You want the Tom to come TO YOU. This requires planning and patience.

4. The single most important thing to remember is that most of the time IT IS BETTER TO CALL TOO LITTLE THAN TOO MUCH. Double this rule if the Tom begins heading your way.

5. I've seen several turkeys escape certain death because the shooter shot over the head - remember your pattern and don't take your cheek off the stock to look over the end of the barrel.

6. Skip the mouth reed calls - too late for you this year. Many of the calls that require only one hand to use are actually pretty realistic.

7. Don't forget to enjoy everything else you'll see during the day - the many warblers returning, coyotes, fox, deer, hawks, etc. Bring binoculars.

Good luck - I'm hunting Pennsylvania turkeys next week, NY turkeys the following.

Oh, yeah, back to your original questions:

1. Yes, it is possible to pull them in from 700 yds. away, but it might be hard to get a call to carry that far if the wind is not in your favor.

2. How would I hunt it - try to find out where they are roosting at night - get near there long before sunrise. If no luck roosting, think about where the hungry HENS would travel during the day (look for sign).

3. The orchard sounds tempting. If you use decoys, they will have to be in a spot where they can be seen - hopefully from a distance. This sounds common sense, but I always set up where I have a clear shot where I hope the birds will be - no sense setting up with a thousand saplings in your way.

Get a tape that has a Real Hen calling or a pro calling like a hen. Listen several times and try to replicate the sounds. I believe the easiest call for a beginner are box calls, push calls, and pump calls. Although, some hunters can work a slate pretty well right from the start.

Once you feel you have it down, you may want to record your own calls and listen to them. Sometimes you can get a better idea of how you sound by listening to yourself on tape.

When it is very early (daybreak) call very softly. I use a soft 3 note yelp followed by soft chirps and purrs when it is still low light before the sun comes out. If you see a Tom heading your way, don't call, he will most likely come right to the decoy when he spots it.

Like the others mentioned, you can definitely call too much. If I'm calling blind, I just call every few minutes w/ some purring and chirping inbetween.

An excellent way to get a gobbler to talk on up in the day is to cut real loud followed by 4-5 loud yelps (They can't hardly stand it).

If you see a Tom accompanied by some hens and can't get him to come your way, don't get discouraged, it is very hard to pull one off his hens. The best thing to do on a henned up Tom is to try and get in front of the direction they are headed and wait(be very careful not to come into view of the flock, they spook easily). Sometimes I make huge loops to head off Turkeys just so they don't hear or see me.

If you have a bird coming in , be extremely still, they can see like a hawk.

Successful Turkey Hunting is mostly being in the right place at the right time w/ alot of good luck.

Good Luck!

Reloader

I would like to thank all of you for helping me out.

As our hunting areas were assigned to us, I didn't think we could make a change; however, after speaking with the Conservation Officer about lack of turkey habitat and sign, he agreed to reassign me another area.

New area: 150 acres, mainly apple orchard and field, bordered by a mixture of large maples to smaller scrub brush.

I got there one evening this week and did not find any turkey sign at all- we even called during an almost full moon to try to locate them using owl and snow geese calls. No luck, but it was a windy night.

Our six day season starts Monday morning and I want to check it out on Sunday morning early- to try locator calls before first light. Maybe this will get them to respond?? I probably should leave before first light as the season would be only 1 day away and IF there are any turkeys, I don't want to scare them off.

Any new thoughts on this are appreciated.
Cheers,
CL

P.S. I also bought an H.S. Strut Beard Collector box call, several DVDs etc. to learn as much as possible.

No time for this now, but this is an excellent CD to listen to over and over - many good sounds that you can practice to. Here's the link with a sample clip:

http://www.rayeye.com/springcd.html

Good luck - post pictures of your gobbler, or at least post the highlights.

You have one thing going for you. The turkeys have never been hunted and are not going to be difficult to call. I take hunters out every week of our six week season. The later in the season it gets, the harder they are to call as they get extremely call shy. First off, being that they were never hunted, they will come to a decoy from a long ways away IF they can see it. I have seen them come from over a quarter mile. You need a box call as they are the easiest to operate. I prefer the Lynch Raspy old hen or the Lynch foolproof. I remove the rubber bands as they just get in the way. Quaker bor makes a good call called the Grand old master. The above mentioned calls are very realistic. I don't like the new never needs chalk calls as they are almost impossible to purr with. There are many good slates though I prefer the Primos variety with the yellow top called frictionite. Don't try to get too fancy with the calling as these turkeys are not experienced yet. You can get them to gobble on the roost the last 10 minutes of light with an owl hooter. I don't usually do this anymore and just prefer to go at first light and listen for any gobbling. It invariably starts right when the first crow or goose opens up. The owl hooter works right at sunrise, too when they are still in the trees. You don't need a blind, but it helps if you have to sit there all day. I use a child size bag lawn chair as sitting a long time on one of those ground cushions is really hard on the back and legs. The chair is brown and gray and the turkeys do not seem to be bothered by it. I have created a blind for the chair and can put uncamoed hunters in it and last week had 2 hens within 3 feet and they didn't see him.It is just a 12 foot piece of camo mesh that I bought at Walmart. I fold it in half and tie a string to one of the folded corners and tie the string to a tree. It drapes over you and works just like a headnet as it is the same material. The mesh goes in the chair and when you fold the chair it is inside and carries real well. I made a strap to sling the chair over my back and the whole works weighs 3 lbs and is noiseless to set up.