Sunrise Success: Shooting that Early Morning Gobbler

Sunrise Success: Shooting that Early Morning Gobbler

By Ryan Graden

There is nothing like stepping out of the front door and meeting that cool spring breeze with my face on opening morning of turkey season. It’s like Christmas all over again. In the excitement of putting my gear on one item at a time, I begin to role play what might happen in the early hours of this morning. I begin to go through my “checklist of success” as I get ready to step into the woods. And what brings it all to the pinnacle of the moment? That first lone gobble! There is nothing like that for sure!

I’ve been hunting Eastern turkeys in the Iowa timbers for over 20 years now. And to be truthful, I’ve come a LONG way! There have been a lot of mistakes, mishaps, and hat-throwing frustrating moments as I’ve molded into the turkey hunter that I am today. Thankfully, over the years, I have figured out the “equation” that works for me when it comes to bagging a big Iowa tom. And to be honest, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure this stuff out. But it works, and that’s what I’d like to share with you.

But here’s the kicker…I am an early morning hunter! I believe that this is the best time of day to take a bird of your choice and I’ll tell you why.

The Hunt
A few years ago I made a bold move to commit to taking a turkey with my bow. Now, for some of you I’m sure you’re thinking, “That’s no big deal. I do that every year!” Well, my hat’s off to you if you can! But at the time, I’d been a shotgunner when it came to turkey hunting and to take the risky move of using a bow seemed daunting. But, I like a good challenge and that’s what I had set my mind on.

As I prepared more and more I realized that if I wanted to use a bow, for me, I HAD to do my homework! In order for the stars to align allowing me to fill my bow tag, there had to be some serious preparations done. I also knew that if I was going to pull this off, I had to be able to get my rear out of bed and be ready to greet the sun as it rose from the depths of the horizon. As I get older, that’s getting harder and harder to do!

This hunt I chose to use a blind and decoy setup. I also knew that I had to get to an area where there were a ton of birds. In other words, I wanted those toms to be competing to “meet” me the morning of my hunt. I had taken my bow to the bow shop a few weeks prior too. I wanted to make sure everything was tuned and ready to make the shot that I needed if and when the time came.

I was able to secure permission from a local family I knew who lived a few miles from where I lived. I knew that their timber and farm property carried a hefty population of turkeys which would give me the advantage that I hoped for. And now, it was time to put into practice all that I knew to make this hunt a successful one.

Do the Legwork
One of the most important things that I think a turkey hunter should do is to get out to the woods in the late winter. Call it a nature hike, looking for sheds, or just a remedy for spring fever, when you’re out in the timber you need to look for the “turkey sign” that will tell you if this area is worth your time.

In the spring, February and March, I personally like to do a lot of shed hunting. And the areas that I key in on are those timbers just along the edges of fields, CRP ground, or hay fields. And when I am looking for these treasured items in the timber, I’m also looking for turkey sign. Tracks, scratched ground, and roosting spots. If an area has a lack of this sign, then it’s not worth your time in the spring. Turkeys are creatures of habit. They have the areas that they like. The areas that have food, roosts, and very little pressure from anything like man and predators. When you find these particular signs in the timber, you might want to give that area a thought when it comes to your spring hunt.

By securing this particular farm to hunt on for my bow hunt, I had done the legwork. I knew without a doubt that this was turkey haven! I saw more turkey tracks than deer tracks, the left over beanfields were scratched bare, and I’d always see them fleeing into the woods from afar as I walked into the property.

Pick Your Season
Here in Iowa, residents have some unique options to choosing the right season to turkey hunt. In total, we have four seasons that are offered to us. As a resident, you can choose to purchase a tag for one of the first three seasons. A second option is to purchase a second tag for the fourth season. Or a third option is to purchase both tags during the fourth turkey season. Makes it hard to choose when to go doesn’t it?

Here’s what I do. Since I like to hunt early morning, for me, it is not in the way of my work schedule. I can usually get in and out of the woods by the time that I need to be to my office. But I also want to make sure that I’m hunting the season where the birds are being the most vocal and active. In order to figure that out, once again, I put in my time.

About 3-4 days prior to the first turkey season dates, I will get out to the timber about 30 minutes before sunup and take my coyote howler or my hoot owl call. I like to get near the edge of the timber and just let out a call from one of those two calls. Then I wait and listen. If those tom turkeys start to gobble, and continue to do so, I’d better be investing in a first season tag. If they’re quiet, then I’m going to wait for the second season.

If I’ve chosen to pass on the first season, I will continue to test the waters through those days of the first season in hopes that the second season will show some promise. Once I hear what I want to hear, I make a beeline to the local tag distributer to get what I need.

In doing this, I’ve been able to put my feet to the ground at the right time for success. It’s always much more fun to hunt when you’re hearing what you want to hear. And that fun will grow exponentially when you see that tom turkey come in all strutted out because he is hot and ready!

Pick Your Place
Like I said, I am a diehard early morning turkey hunter. I know that men and women will argue that the mid to late morning is the time to go and I understand their argument. Frankly, they probably have had the success to prove it much like I have too. But, calling a tom from his roost before the sun is completely up…now that is exciting!

In order to make this happen, you need to be out there at the right time and in the right place. Picking your place always starts the evening before your hunt. If you truly want to increase your chances of success, once again, put your legs to use and get out near the timber in the last 30 minutes of the day. The turkeys will be roosting at about this time and making a lot of noise in the process.

On some evenings, it won’t even be necessary to use a locating call such as a coyote howler or a hoot owl. Sometimes if turkeys are flocked up properly, you’ll hear the hens and the toms calling to each other. But locating their presence lets you know that they are there and that’s the place to hunt!

Once I’ve located a vocal tom (or more), I plan my set up. I will look for a bit of an opening such as a field, meadow, or a clearing in the timber. That’s where I’m going to set up my decoys. Then, I look for my place to sit. If I’m gun hunting, I like to sit by a big thick hardwood. If I’m bow hunting, I’m finding a place for my blind that will blend in to the edge of the timber. Preferably allowing me a few angles to shoot from.

When morning comes, I begin to call at that 30 minutes till sunrise mark. No locating calls. Just soft, faint, and dainty hen calls. I try to space them at about 5 minutes apart with short calling runs at that. Just nice easy clucks as if to say to the roosted toms, “It’s time to wake up and come right to me boys!” Trust me, when you do it right and that tom is in the area, he will be on a string from the get go!

Once I get the answer I’m looking for I increase the intensity of the call. Especially if there are competing hens calling too! You need to be the boss hen telling all the other birds what to do. And that is, most of the time, your greatest challenge.

Success
Getting back to this bow hunt, it was my first morning out. As I have done before, the evening prior I went out to this property to try to spot some birds in hopes of visually following them into their roost. As luck would have it, I saw two toms accompany two hens right from the field’s bean stubble into the edge of the timber. The sun was just 10 minutes from setting and I knew that those toms would be roosting in that vicinity.

Because I was hunting out of a blind I took the opportunity to set it up that evening right as the sun was going down. I was careful not to make too much noise. I knew that if I didn’t have the blind up that evening I would be crunched for time the next morning or might make too much noise in the process. Once it was up, I placed my decoys inside the blind and left.

I was in the blind 45 minutes prior to sunrise that day. When it hit that 30 minute mark (legal shooting light) I let out my first few hen calls. As if he was echoing me back, one of the two toms I had seen the prior evening fired off a booming gobble from his roost about 100 yards behind me in the timber. I called again, he answered. And not too long after that, I heard him fly down and gobble every step of the way to the edge of the timber.

Once he saw my setup, he was hooked. I didn’t even have to call anymore. He strutted from the edge of the woods for a solid fifty yards right to my decoys. As he continued to show off, I pulled my Matthews DXT to full draw and sent my carbon express arrow right into the crease of his strutting wing.

All of a sudden he bounced into flight toward the other edge of the timber heading straight for the trunk of a giant white oak tree. He smacked into that tree with all 23 pounds of flesh and feathers and fell dead as a doornail at its base. The early morning tactic had proved profitable once again!

What Should I do?
What should you do? That’s something you’re going to have to figure out. I won’t lie to you. Not all opening mornings go the way you want them to. And getting out early morning after morning will wear you to the core.

But if you have the endurance and the strength to do that to yourself, go for it! It’s a proven method to me that I don’t foresee changing in the near future. In fact, I will be bringing my two oldest daughters on their turkey hunts this spring using the same methods.

Who knows? Maybe you’ll find out that mornings are a little more enjoyable when you’re calling in huge Easterns in the Iowa wilds. Aim hard and shoot true. And as always, share your story! Good luck!