The Other Season

Spring gets all the love, but autumn holds a secret: Fall turkey hunting is just as thrilling and challenging as its counterpart, and it has a unique appeal only known to true devotees. With more than 40 states offering fall turkey seasons, there’s never been a better time to join the fun. Try these tips to get started.

The Birds

Autumn hunting differs from the spring game. The turkey breeding season is long finished, and the landscape has grown lush with cover and food. Many hens have broods of quickly growing poults. Meanwhile, other turkeys have changed their habits and pared down their home ranges since spring. You’ll encounter three general types of turkey groups during fall:

Family flocks: Many hens are rearing youngsters during autumn. Family groups consist of a brood hen and poults of both genders. These groups often mix together to form even larger flocks, called creches.

Hens without poults: Many hens lose nests or broods and have no poults during fall and winter. Likewise, some young-of-the-year hens, or jennies, don’t breed during spring and are also without poults. It makes no biological sense for those birds to mix with family groups, as their survival needs differ, so hens without broods often group together in small flocks.

Gobblers: Mature gobblers often form bachelor groups in summer through winter. Male turkeys that are 1 1/2 years old (jakes from the previous spring; also called “jake-and-a-halfs”) typically form the largest flocks, as there are more of these birds on the landscape. If fall seasons extend into winter, you might encounter jake-only groups, as young-of-the-year male birds usually break away from family flocks in mid- to late winter.

Family groups, hens without broods and gobbler flocks sometimes associate together at food sources or other scenarios during autumn, but they don’t interact that frequently during many situations. In many states, you can target birds of any age or gender in fall, which contrasts starkly to spring hunting, when only male or bearded birds are legal. That opens new opportunities.

Getting After Them

You can pursue fall turkeys via several methods. Many hunters target young birds, using a traditional strategy of locating family flocks, and then running at them or otherwise surprising them so they scatter, and then setting up and using kee-kees and kee-kee runs (the calls of young turkeys) to reassemble birds from the group. Often, however, this strategy works much better when you can hunt with a dog (legal in many states), as the pooch helps locate flocks and often creates a better scatter, completely breaking up the flock so birds are more eager to regroup.

Some solo hunters approach fall hunts much like they do spring forays, trying to locate good roosts or areas where birds congregate and then setting up at ambush points and calling to turkeys. This can work well for family groups and hens without broods, as turkeys are very vocal in autumn—far more than during spring, typically. They’ll often respond well to clucks, clucking and purring, and plain or excited yelping.

Other folks target gobblers much like they would in spring. Instead of using hen calls, however, they call with gobbler yelps and clucks, and aggressive purrs and even gobbles to challenge the pecking order and lure a longbeard in for a tussle. You can also scatter gobbler groups and try to call them back, but adult toms often stay separated for long periods—sometimes days.

When in doubt, it’s never bad strategy to set up at good food sources and cold-call for a while. Fall turkeys have abundant forage from which to choose, but they often focus on recently harvested grain fields; areas with ripe soft mast (berries or other fruits); newly fallen hard mast, such as acorns or beechnuts; and pastures or grassy fields with abundant insects. The latter is especially important for growing poults, which require lots of protein.

Shells & Loads

Load selection for fall hunting doesn’t differ much from spring. Basically, you want a cartridge that, when matched with the right gun and choke, produces a thick, consistent pattern and enough oomph to cleanly kill birds at modest to longer ranges. Federal Premium HEAVYWEIGHT TSS shotshells loaded with Nos. 7 through 9 shot provide that and more.

Fall is also a great time to take sub-gauge shotguns afield, and TSS—which is about 56 percent denser than lead—makes 20- and 28-gauges, and even .410s, viable turkey killers. Just make sure to pattern gun, choke and load combos before heading afield to determine the best match and lock in your maximum effective range. Generally, you want to have at least 100 pellets in a 10-inch circle.

Give It A Try

This autumn, take a brief break from deer and ducks, and enjoy the turkey woods. You’ll probably find that turkeys in the red and golden hues of fall compare nicely to the birds of spring.