Shrouded by the early morning darkness, I eased into a hollow in the trunk of an old locust tree which seemed to have been shaped with a turkey hunter's back in mind. Propping the shotgun on my knees I waited and watched the sun rise. Just after dawn, a hen walked within 10 feet of me, yelping softly. A tom followed soon after, and I shot him at 20 steps without my having uttered so much as a single cluck.

Dumb luck? Not this time. I'd begun scouting that bird long before opening day. I knew where he roosted, and I knew where he went to meet his hens in the morning. I'd learned to find my way quickly into these woods in the dark and I even had a comfortable tree picked out to sit against.

Turkey scouting often begins months before the spring season opens and lasts right up until the night before a hunt.

Fall and Winter: Where the Birds Are

You can start looking for place to hunt spring gobblers during deer season, with the following caveat: good spring turkey habitat may hold no turkeys at all in the fall.

Occasionally, you'll see turkeys in the fall in places where you won't find them come spring. Eastern birds move up to two or three miles from their winter range to their spring range, while Merriam's turkeys may travel 30 or 40 miles in the spring as they migrate from low to high elevations.

So, rather than looking for turkeys, look for habitat, such as fairly open, mast-bearing hardwoods interspersed with clearings, agricultural fields, and water sources. With western birds, pay careful attention to water. Locate seeps, springs, and stock tanks, and look for roost sites, too, especially ponderosa pines on eastern slopes.

Late Winter, Early Spring: Setting the Stage

The more familiar you are with the terrain you hunt, the better your chances of calling toms into range. I've wasted plenty of time trying to call up turkeys who were, unbeknownst to me, on the far side of impassable obstacles, including, once, a golf course.

Buy a US Geological Survey quadrangle map of your hunting area (write: USGS Map Sales, Box 25286, Denver, CO 80225). These topographic maps show elevations, water sources, and timbered areas. Carry a pocket notebook on scouting trips to record features of interest, then copy your notes onto your topo map at home. Mark creeks, sloughs, steep draws, brush piles, fences, and anything else that may prevent a turkey from coming to your call. By studying the map before and after trips to your hunting grounds, you'll build a detailed picture of the area in your mind.

Now is also the time to learn your way around the woods so you won't get lost in the dark. Look for landmarks you can recognize before dawn and memorize the location of that old strand of barb wire that stretches across the trail.

Spring: Finding and Patterning Turkeys

As the season approaches, the hens will gravitate towards prime nesting spots and the toms will begin to stake out their territories and gobble. Then you can look for actual turkeys to hunt.

Gobblers are big birds, and they leave big sign: 18-inch primaries, five-inch footprints, long, J-shaped droppings. Scratches in the leaves near mast trees tell you where turkeys have been feeding. Look for drag marks left by the wing tips of strutting gobblers; in dirt or sand they look like a mark you might make by dragging your fingertips on the ground.

Piles of droppings beneath the branches of a tree indicate a roost. While turkeys do not always roost in exactly the same tree, they often use the same general area. Mark on your topo map areas where you find plenty of sign.

Once you've determined where the turkeys are, get out in the woods at dawn and listen for gobbling. Note the direction a tom travels after fly-down; he's probably on his way to meet his hens in a particular spot. Later on, you may find him strutting and gobbling at the same time and place every day, too. Learn his routine well enough and you can be waiting for him.

The Night Before: Roosting a Tom

The final step in preseason scouting is to roost a bird the night before a hunt. At dusk, listen for gobblers gobbling on the roost, hens cackling as they fly up, and the unforgettable sound of huge wings lifting 20-pound bodies into the air.

Crow, coyote, owl, and gobble calls will make roosting toms gobble. Some hunters like to imitate the fly-up cackle of a hen, both to provoke a gobble and on the theory that the turkey will come looking for the "hen" the next morning. If turkeys roost close to your position, wait until full darkness to leave the area. The next day, arrive well before first light and set up near the roost in the direction you believe the bird will travel.

Although many successful hunters are happy only if they have several turkeys patterned before the season begins (so they have backups in case someone else shoots "their" bird), any scouting you can do is better than no scouting at all. One year I didn't bother visiting my favorite river bottom timber until opening morning, only to find my prime hunting spot under three feet of fast-moving water.

At the very least, you should know if you need to bring a boat.