Thunderous gobbles echo through the silhouetted tree tops on a still cool Spring morning. My heart pounds in rhythm with each step I take to close the distance. I slip into the base of an old cedar, and pull my face mask up over my nose, resting my Benelli a top of my bent knee, I take a deep breathe. The anticipation is almost to much to bear.
For those East of the Mississippi this is our Elk season. Dynamic calls from a rut crazed male, run and gun set ups, and a considerable amount of patience and humility all wrapped up into a nice tidy package we call turkey season.
I hear the bird fly down from its roost, which sounds more like an accidental trip and fall accident where he slammed into every branch on his decent. He hits the ground fired up, gobbling at every turn.
I yelp.
He responds.
I sit quietly.
He responds to the still vastness of empty sounds.
I work him for over twenty minutes, then as if someone had turned off a light switch he goes silent. Eventually I see his bright ruby head, accompanied with a few hens, crest a ridge going away from me, and disappear to the other side.
Its a sinking feeling. One that can not be countered by strategic moves, or exceptional calling skills, neither of which I am equipped with anyway. In past years I would sit in the woods and make desperate calls until I felt the last bit of hope fade away along with the morning dew. But recently I have found a new way to combat the snub from morning gobblers: trail cameras.
We have all used trail cameras to pattern deer. Food to bed, and bed to food in early fall. Pinch points, fence crossings, and doe bedding areas during the rut. But what I have realized, any many before me, is that turkeys are much easier to pattern than mature buck. You just need to know where to look.
Patterning Turkeys
After the morning courting, gobblers tend to find them selves lost, and looking for another mate. They typically will not wander aimlessly through the woods gobbling in hopes of hearing a receptive hen. They seek places in which they know other hens might be congregated.
Using trail cameras allows you to get a pattern on when and where turkeys frequently visit, giving you an advantage of understanding their daily patterns.
Field Edges
It is no surprise that Turkeys love to be in the open. The inability to smell, and their exceptional eye sight makes fields a destination in which they feel safe, and have the ability to see for a long ways. During days in which there are high winds, or rain, you will often find fields to be a destination that turkeys will congregate. The inclement weather makes it very difficult for them to use their second best sense, their hearing.
Fields are also a great place for Tom to strut, in order to entice hens to them. Typically mid to late morning is the best time to find here.
Trail Camera Set
Field edges can be a difficult place to set trail cameras for turkeys, especially when you are dealing with large corn fields. The trick is to keep you cameras high enough in order to get a view of as much of the field as you can, but low enough to the ground in which a turkey close enough, will still be able to activate the PIR sensor on your camera.
Trail Camera Settings
First and foremost, I always use timelapse mode in these situations. The idea is to get an understanding of if or when a bird will enter the field, and from what direction they come from. If you are simply using your standard PIR system, you will miss the opportunity to see birds (even if they appear simply as black dots) from the other side of the field.
With the Timelapse mode I set the camera to take a picture every 15 minutes during daylight hours. Turkeys in general move at a very slow methodical pace, and a photo every 15 minutes, is likely to catch them in or near the field. Taking only 4 photos every hour will cut down on the amount of blanks you will have to filter through a well.
If you have a camera that allows you to also use your PIR sensor along with your timelapse mode, take advantage of that. You never know if a bird will walk by your camera at close range, and you would not want to miss out on that.
Logging Roads and Two Tracks
Many times, especially on public land, there is not a lot of open fields for turkeys to congregate. Logging roads or old two tracks often provide the same ability for turkeys to see longer distances, and have a sense of comfort in their ability to see potential danger.
Trail Camera Set
The problem with using two tracks for trail camera placement is that there could be miles of tracks to cover, and pinpointing an exact location can become extremely difficult.
Searching for feces, dropped feathers, and tracks are a great place to start. The longer a bird spends in one place, the more sign they are likely to leave, so using a little bit of woodsmanship goes a long way in deciding where to place your camera.
Using a two track on public land can also be problematic for theft. Be sure if you are going to place a camera in these locations, that it is well hidden, and you utilize lock boxes and python locks.
Trail Camera Settings
The settings you use in these situations is entirely dependent on your circumstances. If you are monitoring a long straight section of two track, using timelapse mode might be beneficial. However you might want to increase the frequency of photos. While a turkey could spend a good deal of time on a two track, they are only a few feet from disappearing back into the woods, and you would completely miss any opportunities of a photo.
I personally try and break down a two track and figure out what smaller section they are more likely to use. In doing so I rely on the PIR sensor to pick up movement, and I often will use video mode to try and capture direction of movement. Typically 15- 20 second of video will give you the information you need.
Creek Crossings
Some times it is extremely difficult, if not impossible to get a turkey to cross a body of water. Other times it becomes a part of their daily routine. I have had instances in which you could set your watch to 10:20 and watch the parade of turkey’s fly across a medium size river.
Unless you have seen them actually do this, it can be hard to predict where they will cross. The depth of the river and the width of the river have no bearing, unlike what you would find with deer. Turkeys however need a place to land. So if there is a small clearing on one side of a body of water, you might luck out. Looking for drop feathers can also determine if an area is used as well.
Trail Camera Set
A simple camera placed at waist high on the potential landing side is all you will need in this situation. The goal is just to find where they cross water. It is a valuable piece of information you can use for years to come.
Trail Camera Setting
Turkeys, despite what you might think, move quickly through the air. And once they hit the ground, their momentum keeps them going for a short while. The best thing you can do with your camera is to use your video mode. This will allow your camera lens to stay open, eliminating the possibility of motion blur. Whenever you are setting a camera in an area where there is a high likelihood of faster motion, using video mode is a good idea. Taking photos in these situations is more difficult for your camera to detect the speed in which the shutter lens should move, often providing a blurry photo.
Feeding Areas
Turkeys in general are opportunistic feeders. They will eat anything from bugs and nuts to berries and bird seed. The key for setting up your camera on a food source is to find a destination food source like soft mass such as black berries, choke cherries, huckleberries, and wild grapes. If your property doesn’t have a go to soft mass food source don’t panic, they also will indulge on hard mass crops such as beach nuts, acorns, and hickory nuts. The important factor is to find a place in which turkeys will not just browse on their way through, but are inclined to go out of their way to fill up, this will ensure a more frequent, patternable visit.
Trail Camera Set
There is nothing special about sets near and around food sources. Just keep in mind that turkeys are smaller animals than deer, so placing a camera closer to the ground will create a better angle for your PIR sensor to pick up on movement.
Trail Camera Setting
The settings you choose in these feeding areas are completely up to your personal preference. If you decide you would like to use still photos, make sure that you have a burst count of at least 3 and don’t feel uneasy about setting your delay between photos for a longer period. Turkeys will hang around a feeding site for quite a while, and the object is not to get a photo of every single bird that walks by your camera, but rather to know that they frequent these areas.
I personally enjoy running my settings on video in this situation. I use a shorter 15 second recording time, and 10 minute delay in between videos. This allows me a better understanding of which direction they approach the food from, as well as if will give me a larger scope of how many birds are in the flock, without filling up my SD card.
Dusting Sites
Dust bowls, also known as preening sites, is one of my favorite places to set up during the late morning and early afternoon. Turkeys need to dust their feathers in order to keep their feathers in good condition. Flapping their feathers in the dust keeps them from becoming greasy and matted. Every bird does this on a daily basis from the time they are a Poult at the age of 4 days old.
Trail Camera Set
Dusting bowls are very easy to spot, and even easier to set a camera up on. The small 2 foot section of bare earth is exactly where the bird will be sitting. You can either set a camera higher in a tree and face it directly down to a particular bowl, or if you have multiple bowls in one site, you can attempt to angle your camera in attempt to cover all of them from more of a ground level perspective.
Trail Camera Settings
Very similar to setting your camera over a destination food source, dust bowls are going to attract a lot of birds, and they will stay around for quite a while. Again the settings in these situations are your personal preference, but if you have never watched a turkey actually dust themselves, this ritual is worth using video mode for.
Strutting Zones
Strutting Zones are sometimes difficult to find. They can be in a variety of different locations and habitat. The only common theme among them is that it is a place in which a gobbler will feel comfortable enough to fan out in attempt to show off in front of hens. Typically in these locations they ave the ability to see in all directions, such as a field edge, open timber, or on a ridge top.
While these areas are sometimes easiest to find with your own two eyes, if you do find one, they present the best opportunity for some great photos.
Trail Camera Set
These areas are difficult to set you camera on. It is very different than finding a scrape in the woods for a big mature buck. These strutting zones are very fluid in exact location, and sometimes takes a little luck to come up with a good photo. With that being said, even on a field edge near a strutting zone, I keep the cameras closer to the ground. There is little you would gain from placing your trail camera high in these situations, and the best photos are those at eye level.
Trail Camera Settings
100% of the time I use hybrid mode in these locations. Hybrid mode on your camera is a setting that will allow you to take one photo, and then it will record video after. It is the best of both worlds. If your camera is not equipped with hybrid mode, I would simply use video mode. There is something amazing about the way a gobbler struts and fans himself that should be captured on video. If you still want a single photo, you can always pause the video and abstract a single frame for a photo.
I recommend using longer videos, and setting your delay to no more than 1 minute. While you will get some valuable information about a turkey’s patterns from these locations, I treat these areas a great opportunity for some amazing footage.
Travel Routes
Once you have found some of the destination sites such as dust bowls, feeding sites, and strutting zones, it is easier to connect the dots and find a travel route. Knowing these travel corridors allows you to figure out the last piece of the puzzle to patterning turkeys.
While there are instances in which turkeys like being around thick cover, for the most part they enjoy the ability to use their best survival tool, their eye sight. Old growth forests with an open forest floor in which they can see ahead of them. Drawing a line from one destination to the other and figuring our which travel routes would create a more safe passage for a turkey will give you the best clues as to finding their travel routes.
Trail Camera Set
Setting your camera at ground level and assuring that you have the ability to have an unobstructed view of a potential travel corridor is key. These can be logging roads open conifer stands, or benches along a creek.
Trail Camera Settings
In these situations I focus my camera settings completely on photo mode. There is no other information I need from travel routes other than confirmation that they are in fact using them. You can set your photo burst as high as you would like, and I often have a shorter delay between photos, around 10 seconds.
You can use which ever settings you would like, but the important thing is to confirm which route they use in between destinations.
Roosting Sites
Roosting sites could be the most important aspect of patterning turkeys. If you know where they layup for the night, the chances are you will be able to make a play for them in the morning.
Finding roosting sites is not as difficult as it may seem. Often times Turkeys will roost in the same general are as the night before. The key to finding these places is turkeys prefer taller mature hardwoods that have plenty of cover.
Trail Camera Set
Turkeys are the largest ground nesting bird with the ability to fly, but it takes a lot of energy for them to lift off the ground. Typically when selecting a roosting site, they prefer to have a sort of runway in which they can build up momentum in order to lift of the ground. This can be open fields, power lines, and open timber.
In these areas is where you want to set your camera. You don’t need to know the exact tree they perch in for the night, just the general area in which they are roosting. Setting a camera angled to the runway they are using will give you the best angle to capture footage.
Trail Camera Settings
Typically turkeys are going to roost just before dusk. At this time of the day lighting for photos can be tricky. Depending on the angle of the sun, and the shade produced by near by trees the light metering system on your camera may be tricked into thinking it is darker out than it actually is. This creates a chain affect in which your camera will essentially produce night time photos with the flash system on your camera. If you couple that with the faster movement of a turkey running in order to lift off the ground, you will likely have a lot of motion blur in your photos.
For this reason alone, I will use video mode in these situations. Your video mode will not need to determine the shutter speed the way a photo will. Essentially your shutter will be left open for recording video, giving you more light on the photo, and essentially eliminating any motion blur.
What Trail Cameras To Use For Turkey
Running cameras for Turkeys can be a lot less expensive than what you would need for deer. Turkeys in general move at a much slower rate than a deer, there is not a need for quality night time photos and typically you will use them during the warmer part of the year, eliminating the need for any high end camera technology.
If you have some really nice cameras already for the use of deer, by all means feel free to use them, but if you are in search of a good camera for turkeys, all you need is a camera that takes quality day time photos and video.
I personally would recommend the Moultrie Micro 32i series game camera. It takes good quality day time photos, and uses 720p 30 FPS video. The resolution on the video will not be movie quality, but the frames per second keeps the video from feeling choppy.
I have also enjoyed using the the Stealth Cam Wildview. It also takes very reliable day time photos. This camera is a solid camera for static sets for deer as well, in the case you are looking for a multi versatile that will fill your need for both seasons.
When To Check Cameras
Checking cameras for turkeys is not as difficult as you would find for deer. You don’t have to worry about scent, you don’t have to worry about access routes and staying away from bedding areas. The only thing that you need to know is that the best time to check cameras is at night after they have roosted.
When doing this, you will not worry about bumping into them on their daily routine. Once a turkey is roosted, that is where they will stay for the duration of the night.
The only camera that you will have to be very cautious of checking is the one near their roosting sites. Turkeys in general don’t want to move from their tree at night, it will open them up to a lot of danger. If you move into your camera set quietly, without lights and keep a safe distance from where they are roosted, there will be little to no risk of spooking them out of their area.
Once you have all your cameras checked, it will be easy to set a plan for the next day of hunting. Follow the time line of the turkey’s day, and you will surely find yourself in a great situation the next morning.