My son wants to start turkey hunting this year and I have to admit I know little about going after them. But we'll have fun learning together. I've got a ground blind I'm about to take out of the deer woods and put in a field where I see turkey's almost every time I'm there. Anything I need to pay attention to when picking the location? Is it better to place it in the field or off in the woods a little bit? should direction of the sun be a factor? When I do see birds on that field they are always in the same corner....how close should I set up to that corner? The reason I ask is that it's on the opposite side of the field from where I normally come in to the field and it seems like I've heard to never walk across an open field when hunting turkey. I can cut through the woods but will make some noise doing it (especially with little man).

I know I've a got a lot to learn in the next month or two so this will probably be the first of many questions. I appreciate any guidance you can offer.

I've never hunted turkeys from a blind but they say they don't pay any attention to them, but if you're setting it up this early it shouldn't be a problem to set it up in the edge of the field. As far as walking across the field done it a hundred times just make sure you're in the blind a good while before daylight.

Place close to where you see the birds, a few yards off of it if you can if not you can put it close to the edge.

They don't seem to mind it as much as deer IMO.

I have used them a few times here and in Nebraska. I have killed birds on multiple occasions out of one in a skidder loading area where the blind was the only thing in the opening by a pile of limbs leftover from logging.

Them birds didn't mind, also used on youth hunts with no problems.

If approaching in the dark walk through the field, but get there before daylights cracking. Try to be as quite as you can considering little one. If during daylight stalk your walk through the woods slowly and look really good in the field before you bust up in it.

I'd want the sun behind me too if possible.

if a five year old gobbler pitched down into the same half acre field every morning and one night you put yer blind in the middle of the field....he'd still fly down the next morning. They just don't seem to see them.

I've bow killed several at distances measured in feet instead of yards. I "almost" believe you could snatch one by the neck from a blind if you were fast enough. I've thought about painting hens on the side of my blind.....

troy

Also, check your blind for critters before you get settled in. Trust me on this one...

this^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Please elaborate,

exactly what fred said, they wont look at it twice.

Got to my groundblind a few years ago well before daylight with high hopes. Had my decoy out in the field and was waiting for day to break when I heard kind of a rustling sound under my chair. I looked down and watched a snake crawl right over my boot and out under the edge of the blind. I jumped straight up in the air and knocked over the blind. Never did see a turkey that morning. Don't use blinds much after that.

That gives me the creeps just thinking about it.

I might have shat myself.

No need to put it out now while turkeys are still in winter mode. There's a good chance they will change thier habits before spring comes. Wait and see if you catch a gobbler strutting in a particular place more than once right before the season starts. Like Fred said it don't matter if you put it out the night before you shoot one out of it.

They don't pay any attention to them for some reason. I put one out in Iowa one afternoon it was misting rain and the only cover I had behind it was one skinny T post from a barbedwire fence. Turkey walked right up to it and never gave it a second look.

had a rattlesnake in a blind 2 years go as i was getting in before my daughter did and lets just say there are holes from a broadhead all in the blind to this day but the rattler lost the fight.

I have not used a blind until last year will not go to the wood with out one now. I have hunted turkey since the early 70's boy I did not know what I was missing. Also put out decoys close by.Oatsj

They don't care, put it wherever you want to.

Does being inside the blind affect calling. I'm not good enough with a mouth call yet so I'll like be using slate and box calls.

Not unless it is a shooting house.

They still work in a shooting house dont they?

Yeah, but it sounds like an air horn in a bathroom.

Turkeys dont seem to mind as much as you I guess.