I’m a deer hunter first and foremost- but I really have come to love turkey hunting. And as was demonstrated by our poll last week, it appears that many of you do too! That being said, I had to share a short story form this weekend thats a little more turkey related than we usually are.

My turkey hunting season here in Michigan opens up one week from tomorrow, and over the past week or so I’ve been getting the itch and have started some early preparations. I’ve been shooting the bow, glassing some fields and yelping away on the old slate call. But one of the most rewarding forms of preparation so far has been the work I’ve been doing with trail cameras this spring.

I run trail cams all the time for deer, but this spring I decided to use them to better understand when turkeys were visiting certain areas of my property. I did this by placing cameras in likely locations for action and then sweetened the deal by adding a combination of corn and BB2 in front of the camera. Because in this scenario I’m really only using the BB2 right now as an attractant for the turkeys, I’ve mixed it with corn to help increase the longevity of my BB2 supply. With a two parts corn, one part BB2 mixture I’m being conservative, but am still getting the strong scent and taste that attracts deer and turkeys like crazy.

So far this combination has been working like clockwork, with a boat load of different hens, jakes and toms coming into the camera on a consistent basis. I’ve gotten loads of trail camera videos and pictures, and I’ve now got a good idea of when these locations are prime for the turkeys in my area.

Now as great as this little strategy is – it seems to have backfired a little bit! Yesterday AND today (Sunday) I wanted to sneak out to a back corner of a corn field behind my house and put up a pop up blind. And on both occasions that I snuck out to this location, I’ve popped over a hill to find turkeys everywhere! Yesterday there were four gobblers strutting along my creek and heading towards the camera location. And then again today, I thought I was in the clear – when I got about 50 yards from my planned location for the blind and two toms came strutting out into the field. My blind prep hijacked at the last moment again.

So while my trail camera tactics have certainly been a success in regards to figuring out where the birds are, I now just need a trick to find out when the birds aren’t there, so I can finally get set up!

For more information on Big & J’s BB2 supplement and attractant – visit the Big & J website.

I was greeted last night with a nice surprise as I discovered some great videos on my trail camera, but I was excited for a much different reason than I usually am. It wasn’t the deer I was excited about on this trail camera pull, rather it was the frequent turkey sightings that got my blood boiling! Turkey season is raring across most regions of the US, but here in Michigan we don’t get started til April 23 and I cam chomping at the bit.

As I’ve gotten more into turkey hunting over the past few years, I’ve found it  to be a really great time, a very good excuse to get in the woods during the spring and a good warm-up for deer season come fall. In my opinion turkey hunting can actually help you as a deer hunter in several ways…

1. It Forces You To Get Out In The Woods: It is super important to be out in the woods this time of year, just before the complete overgrowth of greenery that comes with summer erupts. Being out on your property now will allow you to spot sign and do some additional scouting before the plant growth covers up old trails, scrapes and rubs. Be sure to keep an eye out for this kind of sign and in those slow moments do some brainstorming about possible new stand locations or new spots for food plots and other habitat projects.

2. It Sharpens Your Killer Instinct: Any time you’re in the high pressure moment of making a kill shot, it tests your mettle and the more opportunities you have to do this, the more relaxed you’ll become. Hopefully with a couple turkey kills and lots of practice, you’ll have a slightly better handle on your buck fever this fall!

3. Turkey Hunting Can Strengthen Your Decision Making and Strategic Thinking Skills: Again, this is an example of exercising a part of your brain now – that you’ll need again come deer season. Strategically thinking about an animals behavior and how you can take advantage of this knowledge is a key to both deer and turkey hunting success. Assess what you know about the turkeys and habitat on your property, make assumptions based on that information and plan an attack. When it all comes together (which we hope it will), look back at how your decision making process worked out and how you might be able to apply lessons learned to upcoming challenges during deer season!

So all that being said I have two questions for you, the Wired To Hunt Nation. First, I’d be interested to see what percentage of you whitetail freaks actually like to turkey hunt as well?

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Secondly, I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on how how turkey hunting can help you as a deer hunter. Please share your thoughts in the comments section!

Wired To Hunt is the deer hunting blog for the next generation….posting daily content related to deer hunting news, stories and strategies. I know this, you know this. But on occasion I can get distracted by other addictions and this time of year that comes in the form of turkeys. Now while turkeys are not deer, hunting them is certainly great preparation for the fall whitetail seasons. So with that in mind, I’ll ask you to bear with me over the next week or so as we bring you some bonus updates on our turkey hunting exploits! And boy have we had some!

Saturday night my buddy and W2H prostaffer, Corey Fall, was able to arrow a beautiful gobbler, while I captured it all on camera. This kill was particularly meaningful for Corey because on this same property, about 5 months ago, he got a shot at a real nice 3.5 year old Michigan buck. Unfortunately his muzzle loader misfired and only half of his powder went off. This resulted in a poor shot that only nicked the buck, and Corey was never able to recover it.

Yesterday, only a few hundred yards away from where he shot at that buck, Corey was able to close the deal on his first Michigan gobbler. The hunt was awesome and it was pretty crazy how it all went down. Not quite how we would have planned it, but we got the job done. 40 yard shot with the bow, a little chasing, a long search and finally some big smiles. Hopefully this will be a good omen for the rest of 2011!

Be sure to check back later this week for the full video of Corey’s hunt!

As I write this post, my hands are sweating with the anticipation of this weekends plans. Two days of strutting toms, thunderous gobbles and flocks of turkeys approaching my decoys. Like many of you, when I can’t be chasing big whitetails, I love hitting the woods for thunder chickens. With that goal in mind, I’ll be spending the better part of this weekend in a pop-up blind filming my buddy Corey in his pursuit for a big Michigan gobbler. Along with a whole host of factors, I imagine a big part of our potential success will be due to the proper use of decoys. That’s why I thought it would be particularly timely to post my thoughts on decoys for turkeys today. So I did just that on my Bowhunting.com blog!

That being said, if you need a momentary break from whitetails and you’re interested in my two cents on turkey decoys check out my 4 super simple decoy tips for turkey hunters!

4 Super Simple Decoy Tips for Turkey Hunters – Mark Kenyon – Bowhunting.com

To get an idea of what I went through during my first season, check out my post on my Bowhunting.com blog!

Tales of a First Time Turkey Hunter – Bowhunting.com Blog

To see the rest of my Bowhunting.com blog posts, click here.

I recently had this debate with a buddy and it resulted in me posting the same question to the folks over at Archery Talk. Which is more difficult to hunt? Deer or turkey? My thoughts were that deer probably take the cake because you have to consider the whole scent issue. But  a whole lot of other interesting issues were brought up in the discussion on AT. So lets take a look at examples from the two sides…

In favor of deer being more difficult:

-  Joehunter8301 – “…with deer you have the wind factor and any out of the ordinary noise and he is gone. on top of that deer move all night long so you dont know where he is in the morning unlike turkeys which you can roost and be right under them come daylight the next morning. now lets talk a jake turkey and a spike deer. still the same thing but most spikes wont run at the first hint of a human. jake turkeys will come into just about any calling and are not very wary at all. i still say its harder to kill a spike but not much harder. on top of that you can listen for the birds to gobble and give away their location….deer dont make a peep.”

-  GobblerDown – “…Turkeys are easier. They can be easier to find because they are out during the daylight, they gobble, and most times you can roost them. You can call them to you (sometimes). Deer will come in to grunts or rattling but that is lower percentage than calling in a turkey. Most of time if a turkey starts coming in you will get a shot, but a deer it seems more time than not you still don’t. You have a good chance of killing a turkey all day long. Many times deer won’t move at all during daylight. With turkeys smell is not a issue. I also think a deer is smarter than a turkey, but a turkey a lot of times it seems are scared of their own shadow. However deer can be the same way. If you gave me two days in the spring for turkeys or fall for deer and I had to bet the farm on killing one of the two I would pick a turkey every time.”

In favor of turkeys being more difficult:

- Beersndeer –  ”Im going to say probably turkeys more than deer. I feel that I can pattern deer alot easier than I can turkeys. Also if turkeys had any sense of smell we would never kill those dang birds.”

- Cornfed – “I do believe the “average” deer is a lot easier to kill than the “average” turkey. Turkeys seem to be cronic paranoids in my area and don’t have the curiousity that average deer do.”

So I’m curious where the Wired To Hunt Nation sits on this one. Deer or turkey? Cast your vote in the poll below and then tell us why in the comments!

Turkey season is staring me right in the eye and I can’t ignore it any longer. I woke up this morning to clear blue skies and a crisp bite in the air. I had a few extra minutes before I had to head to work, so like I’ve done the last week or so, I stepped out my back door and let out a couple crow calls. And bam! There it was. I got smacked right back in the face with a gobble, the first one I’ve heard this year. Just like that, my heart jumped a beat and my blood started speeding through my veins like a drag racer. I waited maybe thirty seconds and let out another “caw caw caw” and to my delight I was greeted with another deep rattle echoing towards me from the next property over. All winter I’ve been keeping an eye out for turkeys on my new farm, but unfortunately have not seen much on my piece of ground. I have spotted a few down the road, so I knew there could be some coming in and around my land, but I was still skeptical.

Things changed this morning though. As I heard that gobble ring across the fields, I knew I’d have a chance at measuring some spurs this spring. It’s been a couple hours since I heard that first gobble, but it’s still echoing in my head and my heart is still pumping with excitement. The fever has begun.

My turkey season starts exactly two weeks from today, but many across the States have already been able to get out and chase thunder chickens. So although Wired To Hunt is a deer hunting blog, I’ll certainly be featuring a few bits here and there about turkeys and my adventures chasing them this spring. We’ll always keep it relevant to a deer hunter though, there is a lot in common with turkey and deer hunting and there’s a lot you can learn by doing both. So we’ll try to cover a little of that too. So although I really hope you’re all out scouting for deer and setting up stands this spring, I won’t be too bothered if you drop a couple struttin toms too!

Speaking of struttin toms, Wired To Hunt contributor Matt White bagged a Kansas gobbler this weekend with his bow, so I’m sure we’ll be hearing about that soon!

First Time Turkey Huntin

I’m heading out this weekend to go Turkey hunting for the first time and if that’s not excitement enough, I have the added pressure of going with my girlfriends Brother-in-Law and Step-dad! This is my cry for help, I know there’s plenty of you guys out there with some great gobbler knowledge. I’m obviously confident with the basics of hunting, but I’m looking for some of that insight that you can only glean from getting experience. I’d love to hear from all of you, lets hear your best Turkey hunting advice for a beginner! Thanks in advance!

PS. If I get no advice from ya’ll and I totally flop this weekend in front of the watchful eyes of the family, I’ll make sure to tell you all about that too! haha.