3 Ways to Improve Your Turkey Setups

One of these important turkey hunting skills includes fine tuning your setups. If you’re struggling to get your first gobbler, or you want to take the leap from occasional to consistent killer, here are a few ways to make sure you have a foolproof setup next time you strike a bird.

Early in my turkey hunting journey, I made the mistake of plopping down as soon as I heard one gobble. I rarely made a good judge of distance and definitely didn’t consider the terrain or vegetation. I was so scared of bumping one off the limb that I’d dive for the nearest tree. Little did I know how detrimental those mistakes were to my success (or lack thereof). If you’re new to turkey hunting, this skill takes time to develop. There’s no way around it.

If you’ve roosted a turkey, you have the advantage of planning your exact setup the evening before, and you can use the cover of darkness to your advantage. This becomes more challenging when you go in blind and hear one gobble on the roost. Instead of ducking for the nearest cover, take a breath and try to determine the distance between you and that gobbler. Trust me, you have time even if he’s several hundred yards away. Let him gobble a few times so you can pinpoint his location before making your first move. If you can quietly close the distance to within 150 yards of his roost, go for it.

Even if you can’t close the distance before fly down or the terrain/vegetation won’t allow you, try to anticipate where that gobbler wants to go. Alternatively, wait for him to hit the ground, and then make your move. Turkeys have an incredible sight advantage from the roost, especially before the leaf-out. Once they hit the ground, use terrain and cover to your advantage.

Hunting turkeys on public land presents its own challenges. The same goes for heavily pressured private ground, too. If you strike a bird from the road or a heavily trafficked area, there’s a reason he’s still alive. Unless it’s opening day, he’s probably heard every call in the book. If you’re approaching him from the same spot as everyone else, you won’t fool that bird into your setup. Instead, approach that longbeard from a different angle.

This exact scenario played out twice for me and a buddy just a few years apart. We both hunted a popular public land spot that gets hammered every season. In this creek system, gobblers will roost within 300 yards of the road, which is where everyone approaches them from. It’s a classic spot where you can expect to hear turkeys gobble on the limb and pitch directly away from the road. However, my buddy and I, on two separate occasions, decided to make a loop around these turkeys, which added about a mile to our walk, and call them to the other side of the creek. In both instances, we tagged our birds shortly after fly down. It wasn’t the easiest approach, but it definitely made the difference between hearing a gobbler and killing one.

Turkeys are naturally wary. For this reason, the slightest inconvenience or hurdle can cause them to hang up. You’ve probably found yourself in a familiar situation: you strike a bird, he starts to close the distance, but then he hangs up just outside of range and eventually wanders off. However, a little more preparation can prevent this mishap.

Whether a turkey needs visual confirmation to close the distance or there’s a creek or thicket he’s unwilling to traverse, try to locate these obstacles and set up accordingly. If it’s as simple as a creek crossing, get on the longbeard’s side (if safe and possible). If you’re trying to call that bird through a rabbit thicket, position yourself on the other side or just off of it. In large, open creek bottoms, turkeys will hang up just outside of range if they hear your calling but don’t get a visual confirmation. In this instance, you can try to position some deadfall or a dip in the terrain between you so that the turkey has to commit.

For instance, I once killed a turkey in an open creek bottom using deadfall to my advantage. I positioned myself just on the other side of the downed top between me and where the turkey was gobbling. I directed my calls to the top side of the blowdown. Eventually, he strutted just to the other side of it and right around the deadfall when I leveled him at twenty-five yards. Had I not positioned myself around that tree, he probably would have hung up just outside of range when he didn’t see a hen.

It pays to have good calling skills, but I’d argue that your setup plays an even greater role in consistently killing turkeys. It doesn’t take much effort, just a little patience and creative thinking.