Fall turkey hunting can be just as exciting as spring. Having a flock of jakes stampeding into your fighting purrs will get the heart pumping as much as a close range strutting spring gobbler. Fall is a very busy time for most hunters and fall turkey hunting often takes a back seat to deer, waterfowl and upland hunting. What does this mean? Well, often you will have the woods to yourself if you're a dedicated fall turkey hunter. This is good for many reasons but perhaps most importantly it gives you plenty of time for fall hunting which is necessary if you're planning on taking a fall gobbler. Which brings us to the most important aspect of fall hunting, patience.

Patience, while important in spring hunting, is at least twice as important if you plan on hunting for a fall gobbler. Busting up a flock of hens and poults and calling them back in can sometimes be over in a couple of minutes. Gobblers, however are a completely different story altogether. In the fall, gobblers could care less about hens and are only somewhat inclined to flock together with other gobblers. Fall gobblers usually cannot be called in using hen yelps, cutts or cackles. Instead, you have to sound like a gobbler to call in a gobbler in the fall. This means using low clucks, gobbler yelps, fighting purrs and even gobbles to attract a fall tom.

The techniques consistent from spring to fall are good scouting, woodsmanship and correct calling. I've found the most important part of fall turkey hunting is spending a lot of time scouting birds. If you can find a flock of either hens & poults or gobblers and pattern their movements, it's much easier to succeed using any of the fall techniques. It's always easier to call a turkey to a location he wants to go to anyway