This will be my 1st crack at turkey hunting this year (May 15th through the 28th). I here talk of people "roosting birds" the evening before. What's this all about?
I haven't had any luck roosting the birds, although I did tag out this year with two long beards, but my friends tell me that the birds will gobble at least once from the roost in the evenings. I've yet to hear it. I back tracked my birds from the fields that I had seen them in. It took me 4 mornings of hunting and listening to him gobble from the roost to locate him exactly, but I ended up setting against the tree one of the hens was roosted in. My best and limited advice is go out early and listen for gobbling from the roost and then try to get between him and the hens or fields depending on if most of the hens have already been bred.
I use a crow call or owl hooter about the time the birds roost. I can usually get 1 to sound off, its a headstart on where to head in the AM. Not a foolproof plan by any means, but it can help.
Usually around sunset here. I've got them to gobble at sunset, sometimes they won't gobble until near dark, sometimes not at all. BTW, a car horn can work as a last resort to get a shock gobble. I bumped the horn as I was getting out of the truck....it worked. :D
Just remember the phrase "Roosted doesn't mean Roasted". Sometimes it can help other times it's no help at all, but at least you know birds are in the area. My birds like to gobble from the roost in the evenings. I'd say it helped me get mine. I knew where he was roosted and knew where others had gone when they roosted there before. So I set up in the dark along the creek they followed. Never made a call and he showed up at 6:05 AM.
Steve, in my opinion roosting birds gives you a heads up on where they will be in the morning. I would rather have a bird roosted before every hunt but it doesnt always happen that way. You can generally hear them roost up or make em gobble, lets you know where you need to be come sunup, thats when they will get real loud. Good luck Steve, I am pulling for you on this one. Mines over so I am going to be rooting bigtime for you guys with seaosns still going.
Shultzy, good luck and have fun...Roosting birds can be a hit or miss type of thing. My best advise for you is to start scouting now for your season. Try and locate their roost AM or PM try and get some place safe where you will not spook them and just listen. Also, if you dont have any luck doing that try and see where they are entering/ exiting fields anytime of day. Turkey hunting is a blast, I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.
Steve, if you ever need someone to come out and roost birds. I'm officially done with school tomorrow at NOON. One weekend I can come out and show you a few tricks (not that I know all of them), you got the digits, just let me know. I'd venture to guess I've killed <80% after I've roosted a bird.
Stevo! Mornings are much more reliable. I have been to my turkey grounds a few times in the evening this season and heard nothing, even with an owl call and once I even honked the horn on my truck to shock them, with no results The next morning I drove to the same parking spot, shut my truck door and all hell broke loose. I was parked less than 100 yards from 3 roosted gobblers and had 2 more within a quater mile Good luck to you bro! p.s. Are you going at it with the stick & string?
Steve, roosting is just to get a starting point on your set up. Its frustrating when you go in blind, and the birds are hollerin 1/2 a mile away. The key after getting this starting point is to figure out where they like to go next after pitching down. If you can do this before the season then your already ahead of the game.
Steve-O, I would do some early morning scouting before the season opens up. Get out there where you think there going to be before sun up and listen for them to sound off. This will give you an idea where they're at. A lot of times they'll roost in the same area if not spooked away too many times. Once you find them go back a little later on and scout the area and find a spot to set up. Don't try and get to close to the trees, I try and set up no closer than 100 yards because it tough to get there in the dark without kicking them away. Also their eye sight is amazing and will pinpoint you from the roost when they're scanning the area for danger before they fly down.
well what i do is just sit in a fince row and wait to here them gobble then try to pin point the for the morning