In the grand scheme of the outdoor world, “time” means different things—time of day, month, or even season. In pursuits such as hunting turkeys, when seasons dictate how the birds behave and whether you can hunt them, time means all of the above.

The ideal time to hunt turkeys would be within the first 2 hours of sunrise during the spring season. This is especially so, if you have scouted out where the toms are roosting the night before. They swoop down early in the morning from their roosting position, making this an optimal time for a shot.

To get down to the nuts and bolts of when to hunt turkeys, we will separate this article into multiple sections for each “time” to hunt turkeys. Wily and challenging as they can be, they are still wild animals with patterns and routines that can be studied and used to a hunter’s advantage.

Time of Day

First and foremost, hunters are concerned about the time of day they should be in the woods. While the birds don’t disappear at any given hour, hunting them at specific times of the day can provide a much better opportunity to harvest one.

(Pinetrees and solitude may earn a commission from affiliate links in this article.)

Morning

The best time to hunt is in the morning, specifically the hour or two after shooting light (the time of day in which hunting may begin). Wild turkeys roost in trees to avoid predators in the dark. Typically, the flock of birds will select a tree and sleep community in a single tree.

Scouting to find these established trees before the season will significantly aid a hunter’s ability to bag their birds when the season rolls around.

Birds will stay in their roost tree until dawn, at which point the entire flock will descend and begin their daily ritual of foraging and, in the springtime, searching for mates. Selecting these early hours to hunt makes sense from a stealth perspective.

Under cover of darkness, a hunter can set up or slip into a blind without the sharp-eyed birds noticing the movement. Using a pop-up blind or similar camouflage device can be a tremendous asset, especially when an entire flock’s worth of eyes will be scanning the area for danger.

Even if a hunter hasn’t located the roost tree, the increased clucks and yelps from the flock communicating at first light will give a better direction of where the birds are.

An interesting fact about the time to hear the most turkeys is: wild turkeys have the highest call rate when temperatures are between 60 and 69 degrees Fahrenheit. Whether this points to a season or a time of day, it is an interesting tidbit that can help a hunter locate and call in birds.

For the second two options: evening and afternoon, a caveat should be made that not all states allow turkey hunting afternoon. States such as New York, Virginia, and Missouri do not allow hunting afternoon. Check your state’s fish and game regulations to verify hunting dates and hours.

Afternoon

As many hunters leave the woods for the afternoon, they leave behind a fantastic opportunity to hunt birds more aggressively. In states where the early morning is still cool during turkey season, the afternoon is a time of increased calling and movement from Toms as they search for hens.

The hens who have also spent the past several hours looking for food and nesting sites will have spread out, making calling easier and fewer eyes looking for danger in any given ambush spot. Made bold by the rising temperatures, Toms will respond to all manner of calls. A form of highly mobile turkey hunting called “running and gunning” is ideal for afternoon turkey hunting. Rather than sitting in wait for a bird to stroll by, hunters call and listen. The hunter moves closer when a bird responds to the call, playing a backward cat-and-mouse game.

Afternoon hunting also provides a better opportunity to use decoys. The increased light allows Toms to see hen decoys that further add to their interest. While controversial, “fanning” is another decoy method that is highly successful in the afternoon. Fanning involves using a fake or real feather display that resembles a Tom’s tail feathers. Hunters can use this distracting decoy as cover and slowly advance on a stationary tom who will move closer or stay put in response to that perceived aggressor. This technique takes practice but can create heart-pounding encounters and incredible hunts when done correctly.

Evening

Last on the list chronologically and success-rate-wise, is evening time. While not as foolproof as the morning or as aggressive as the afternoon, the evening grants hunters a chance to capitalize on previous scouting finds and get one last chance at bagging a bird.

Just as a hunter can set up and ambush a flock of turkeys descending from a tree, a hunter can also capitalize on turkeys returning to the tree in the evening. Birds looking to round up the flock will increase their calling in the hours before dark.

From a personal standpoint, it is attractive to avoid getting up a 0-dark-30 on a day off to hunt.

Season

There are two seasons to discuss when talking about turkey hunting. Spring turkey season and fall turkey season. Only some states have both seasons, and each season is different in length. While we will speak generally about each season, there may be some secret spots or hot ticket states that get brought up for their standout turkey seasons.

Spring

Spring turkey season is what most hunters consider “THE” season for wild turkey. With deer season, having ended many months ago, hunters are excited to return to the woods in pursuit of anything they can.

With mating season beginning Toms and Jakes are just as excited to find romance. Spring turkeys spread out and can be a challenge to locate. The hens are looking for suitable nesting areas, while Toms are looking for breeding hens.

To keep the wild turkey population sustainable, hunters may take only Toms during the spring. While it would seem like excluding half of the available turkey population would create a challenging hunt, the Toms are so love-crazed they ignore almost anything except courtship and will respond to hen calls aggressively.

Some toms will charge headlong into clearings, gobbling and strutting to impress a hen decoy.

For a turkey hunter who can’t wait for spring season to roll around in their home state, there are six states that open their turkey season in March.

Hawaii (yes, Hawaii has turkeys) begins its spring season on March first. Florida comes in second with a season that starts April seventh in the southern half of the state and March twenty-first in the northern half. Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, and Nebraska all begin in the third week of March.

Fall

Traditional turkey season was a fall event. Just as the pilgrims feasted on a wild turkey from the woods of Massachusetts, many hunters take to the field each fall, hoping to bring one home too. However, the fall hunting season for turkey has fallen by the wayside in many places.

The fall season is only available in forty states. Many states that offer fall season allow the harvest of either a hen or a Tom. The harvest of either sex has led to population declines in some regions; as such, it’s the biggest driving factor for limiting the season.

Toms and hens are no longer breeding during this period and will flock up, increasing the chances of locating birds. The loss of leaves on the trees in northern states makes staying concealed in the late fall season difficult and often chilly.

The lack of vegetation and additional wildlife means that turkey calls travel farther, making drawing birds in or locating birds easier.

Month

In general, the month is a relative figure—the earlier the season, the less pressure on the turkey population. Turkeys hunted heavily for a month or more will become wary of calling and may have begun to move their routes between roosts and food.

In the spring, many hens are already bred by the end of the season. Toms, however, will still be on the lookout for young hens that may have only recently matured enough to mate. Calling for late spring birds can still produce.

For fall seasons, where birds are looking to fatten up for winter, later months may provide better chances to locate food, provided that snow holds off. Keying in on acorns or fresh-cut fields are excellent late-season foods for a hunter to consider.

A general rule of thumb is the earlier in the season, the better. However, hunters who spend more days in the field often end up harvesting more animals.

Turkey hunting is a uniquely North American hunt that pits the hunter against a surprisingly wily bird. The best time to hunt wild turkey is hard to determine.

Looking at the data and evidence provided by wildlife agencies and hunters, if a hunter had to pick a single block of time to hunt turkeys, it would probably be the first hour of dawn, during the opening week of the spring season.

For those hunters who can’t wait, that will mean a plane ticket and some bug spray to hunt the first week of March in Florida or Hawaii. For the rest of the hunting community, the season is never long enough, but I can start with scouting for roosting trees even before the season begins.

If you enjoyed this article, check out these articles from Pinetreesandsolitude.com:

(This article was originally published on Pintreesandsolitude.com. If it is now published on any other site, it was done without permission from the copyright owner.)

The Best Time To Hunt Turkeys