Pattern Your Turkey For Success
54 >BOWHUNTER APRIL/MAY 2015
areas within this home range depending on the season and
habitat available. Figuring out this pattern of movement on the
property you hunt is key to arrowing a bird.
My frst trip to the property brought unbelievably short-
lived promise. I arrived on opening day with enough time of
work to make a long weekend out of the hunt. Afer talking
with the landowner and getting all of his knowledge about the
birds, I set out with decoys, blind, bow, and confdence. By the
end of the frst day, a couple of things were apparent: Tere
were plenty of turkeys on the property, and I was no closer to
putting an arrow into one than if I’d stayed at home.
Early the next morning, I went out with two goals: to learn
where the birds roosted, and why they traveled the particu-
lar pattern they traveled. Locating their roosting area proved
to be easy. Tere were nearly 60 birds in the fock, and the
racket they created just afer frst light carried quite a ways.
Te tougher part was determining why they did what they
did once they were on the ground. As it turns out, there was a
cow pasture and calving lot to the west of their roosting area
that seemed to be their prime objective, due in part to all of
the available food lef by the cows. Once done there (usually
by about mid to late-morning), they broke up into smaller
groups and headed this way and that...with no apparent
method or reason. However, as I would later learn, they were
heading for timbered areas, which allowed them to rest for
part of the day. An hour and a half before they went to roost,
I got a break which aided in forming the big picture. Te
smaller focks that had been meandering around throughout
the day gathered back into one big fock on an open, grassy
bench just above the roosting area. Tis last piece helped me
to realize that generally all of the birds roamed approximate-
ly a mile to a mile and a half from their roosting site (giving
them a core area of 800 to 1,000 acres), and they seemed to do
this in a circular pattern. While not always concentric, therewas far less randomness to the movement of the fock than
had frst appeared.
Te third morning, armed with my newfound knowledge,
I positioned my setup between the calving/feeding lot and
their roosting area. A series of sof yelps had a big tom hooked.
Once he closed on the decoys and I’d released my arrow, I real-
ized the pattern of their movements was critical to my success.
Te second year’s results built of my initial spring’s mis-
takes. I began to see there were some general requirements for
optimal turkey habitat. Tese criteria are explained in detail
in a book titled, “Te Wild Turkey Biology & Management,”
by James G. Dickson. In summary, adequate moisture has toKnown roost-
ing areas can
be very helpful.
Equally important
is knowing what
and why the
turkeys do what
they do once
they fy down.