I had my best success in the early mornings, and the least luck in the mid-morning to afternoon hunts. (weird) I had some of my best and exciting hunts in the afternoon (2:30-3:30). It's fun to catch an old gobbler alone and make him gobble. They put on quite a good show. I still prefer and mainly enjoy calling gobblers off the roost if I can. (I agree with all day hunting being sooo much fun.)
To me, early morning hunting means watching the sunrise, listening to the birds, hearing barred owls hooting, seeing wild violets and dogwoods in bloom, having deer walk up to me, hearing that first gobble and trotting to a set-up...etc. It is a wonderful feeling. In my view, deer hunting doesn't come close to the excitement of a strutting, drumming, gobbler crunching the leaves as he walks in with that blue and white head shining in the darker woods. I was taught turkey hunting by my dad, and he was a traditionalist turkey hunter who started in the early 1950's.
I can't turkey hunt anymore...but I had a lot of fun in the past. I called off the roost and killed nearly 100 gobblers in the hill country. I killed less than 10 in the evenings on river bottom country...but thy were among the biggest. My last turkey hunt was in 2000. I killed a 23 1/4 lb. gobbler with my model '97 Winchester...w/one #6 low brass load.
I rate turkey hunting (preferably but not inclusive to, the early mornings)as the best hunting there is. I miss turkey hunting more than you could ever imagine.
