be available for the survival of a wild turkey. In addition, two
other criteria exist, notwithstanding the environment or the
subspecies — turkeys must have a combination of trees and
grasses. Trees provide food, daytime resting, escape cover,
and a roosting site. Grasses provide insects for adults and new
poults. Finding where these three requirements overlap or
touch each other in an area helps narrow the options for where
turkeys will be spending a signifcant amount of their time.
Remembering the open grassy fat near the roosting area
from the prior year, I decided this would be the ideal location
to set up (water, food, and roosting were all connecting at this
fat area). While the birds didn’t seem to spend every moment
of their day there, it was certainly a pivotal location where they
felt comfortable and spent a signifcant portion of the day.
Even though there was a lot of action near me once the
birds few down, none came to my decoy set on the eastern
side of the grassy fat. Te edge of doubt and reason started to
creep into my mind, but I fought it back by reminding myself
this had to be the spot based of of the available habitat within
their home range. Midmorning, as I was giving a few yelps out
to nothing in particular, a lone tom answered...close. I got
ready, and he strutted into 14 yards. A well-placed arrow had
my confdence soaring. An hour later, two more toms found
themselves in the area and closed in. Te frst one to give me
the shot fnished out my opening day double.
While it took me three years to fully understand how and
why birds move on this property, the knowledge gained has
supplied me with tag-flling confdence. I recognize what may
be the optimal wooded and grassy habitat for one area may
produce few to no birds in another. Diferent subspecies will
vary how they adapt to their specifc environments from re-
gion to region. Te key for an arrow-toting turkey hunter is to
get out there and analyze the habitat on their property to de-
termine where these “optimal” areas are. Ultimately, this will
lead you to patterning your turkey for success. ❮❮❮Te author and his wife hail from Sand Coulee, Montana.Above: With limited knowledge of turkey
patterns and habitat, I was able to arrow
this tom the frst year I hunted the prop-
erty. Below: My third year of patterning
turkeys produced this opening day double
within the frst 30 minutes.Understanding why birds travel where
they travel will lead to consistent
success.