Bag your lowcountry turkey with these proven tactic
Turkeys in the southern part of South Carolina thrive in a unique type habitat with large swamps, small winding rivers and associated bottomlands, as well as pine forests interspersed with agriculture crops.
Just because the habitat is excellent, and an abundance of longbeards roam the area, doesn’t mean it’s easy hunting. In fact, the habitat carries as many challenges as it does opportunities. Hunters with the opportunity to hunt this area of South Carolina need an understanding of how, when, and where to work these gobblers to consistently get them within gun or bow range.
Danny Harrell owns and operates Cypress Creek Hunting Lodge (1-877-520-2245; www.cypresscreekhunting.com) and has learned how to effectively hunt these gobblers. Harrell operates two separate lodges, one near Garnett, SC and the other located on the Savannah River. This provides Harrell a wide diversity of knowledge of the habitat and experience on how to hunt lowcountry gobblers.
Harrell said knowing where the turkeys roost is essential to get the hunt started right.
“First of all, knowing where these birds are roosted before you hunt is crucial to success,” Harrell said. “For anyone hunting waterfowl in the lowcountry, early morning shotgun blasts often produce ‘shock gobbles’ from nearby turkeys. They’re often roosted near swamps, ponds and rivers, the same places where waterfowl are found.”
Harrell said they tend to stay in those general areas during the winter and haven’t strayed far by March when the season opens.
Scouting pays off
“Weather is always a key component for any hunting, and sometimes the weather warms quickly in this portion of South Carolina,” he said. “It’s common to have multiple days of warm weather prior to the season opening. And that can trigger good activity. The gobblers are almost always gobbling hard before the season. And by scouting and listening at dawn, hunters can find those locations and be in an area where gobblers are living during the early season.”
Harrell said one major shift in hunting over recent years has occurred with the population buildup of coyotes. The predators have made a huge impact on the gobbling frequency of turkeys once they fly from the roost and hit the ground during the early season.
“Years ago, birds would gobble like crazy on the ground during early season,” he said. “Now with so many coyotes, they’ll gobble hard on the roost, but once their feet hit the ground, they’ll usually gobble only a time or two. It’s simply a survival tactic.
“The pattern for these early season gobblers has shifted more to a silent approach, perhaps with one or two gobbles to entice a hen response, and then move in quietly,” he said. “I’ve been calling for hunters and have seen coyotes pick off a gobbler coming to the calls. So that’s created a big change in tactics in recent years.”
Harrell said gobblers typically have high interest in good calling from hunters during the early season. But hunters also must accept the gobbling is likely going to be subdued once birds are on the ground.
“Vigilance and patience are crucial, but even here during the early season, while we’ll green out before most of the state, the woods are still relatively open. And hunters scanning the woods can often pick up the gobbler sneaking in,” he said. “But in some instances, they’ll slip in unseen and simply be standing within range when we first see them.” Harrell said. “Prepare for this because unless birds are henned, they’re responsive to good calling. However, silent approaches by longbeards are common. Hunter movement must be kept to a minimum.”
Go deep
Harrell said typically the best places to find early season gobblers will be in the deep woods or swamp environments.
“Fortunately, both habitats are abundant in the Lowcountry,” he said. “But that’s why a hunter needs to roost gobblers prior to the hunt. Also, as the season continues, gobblers will move into new areas and eventually into different habitats as well.”
He said that one excellent attractant for the turkeys is a small plant that produces small yellow flowers, yellow jasmine.
“Hens in particular seem to love to eat this flower. And gobblers are trying to connect with hens,” he said. “If you’re in an area where plenty of this forage exists, it’s potentially a good place to be hunting.”
Another habitat that’s extremely common in the lowcountry, in large part because of pine plantations, includes controlled burn areas.
“A lot of hunters initially shy away from burn areas,” Harrell said. “But I’ve seen hens and gobblers walking around picking up toasted bugs while the area is still smoking or some scattered pockets of fire still burn. Turkeys love this habitat, and not only for the food. It improves their visibility tremendously, providing a better defense against predators. Don’t hesitate to hunt these type areas anytime of the season.”
Harrell said as the season progresses into mid-season, the early weeks of April also provide excellent hunting. The key is the decreased availability of hens (due to nesting), creates increased competition for gobblers.
“Not all hens start sitting at the same time. But after they lay all the eggs they have, they’ll begin sitting the nest,” he said. “It’s an incremental occurrence. But by mid-season, the number of hens available to gobblers has declined considerably. This has good benefits for hunters.”
Harrell said one benefit is that since hens are less available, and the numbers of available hens continue to dwindle, turkeys begin to gobble more often in the lowcountry than they do during the early season.
Decoys
“One factor that helps is that by mid-season, it’s not unusual for multiple gobblers to band together. This simply multiplies the number of turkey eyes scanning not only for a hen, but for threats such as coyotes,” he said. “But the woods are greening up big-time by now. So long-range visibility is impaired in many areas. This also dictates a behavioral change where gobblers will now frequent open areas such as fields, open woods, roads and burn areas that now have succulent green shoots growing.”
He said that by April, more than during early season, the use of decoy sets becomes more effective, in part because of the reduced availability of hens.
“During early season, before hens start sitting nests, gobblers are familiar with the hens in their woods because they see them and are often walking the woods with them,” he said. “That seems to make decoys, with calls from hunters, less attractive. But as hen numbers decrease, good calling coupled with realistic decoys is a recipe for success.”
The edges of wood lines along big fields, as well as edges of burn areas where some cover exists to hide the hunter, are potentially good areas for decoys, he said. The decoys give the gobbler a reason to leave the visual safety of an open area.
“Another possibility during mid-season is when a hen is with a gobbler in an open area, and I obviously can’t approach closer than near the wooded edge. I’ll actually work the hen,” he said. “If I can get her to answer my calls, I’ll coax her to my location, with or without a decoy, and she’ll have the gobbler in tow. It’s another set of eyes to contend with, but it’s a great way to get a gobbler within range.”
By the end of the season, other dramatic shifts in habitat and turkey behavior take place in the lowcountry woods.
Harrell said the woods are now flushed with green, and food sources become much more prevalent than earlier. Sprouts continue to grow in burn areas. Fields green out and offer not only green forage, but also make bugs and grasshoppers abundant too.
Food plots are now a prime target for turkeys, because they offer both succulent food sources, along with excellent vision for threats. Harrell said food plots of clover and oats are among his favorites.
“A lot of hunters seem to write off the end of the season as poor or difficult hunting. But that’s not been my experience most of the time,” he said. “The key here is to remember that by now a very high percentage of hens are sitting the nests and not available to gobblers.”
But gobblers are still in propagation-of-the-species mode. So when hunters find the preferred habitat of a gobbler, the odds of them finding receptive birds are higher than most hunters realize. But that doesn’t mean it’s easy.
“The turkeys have been pressured for weeks, but gobblers still want to be with hens. And realistic calling from areas where they’re already located can be highly productive,” he said. “It doesn’t happen every season, but it’s common to have very good hunting late in the season. And in some years, the last week of the season produces the best gobbling and turkey hunting of the entire season.”
Public land for lowcountry hunting
The Francis Marion National Forest consists of more than 258,000 acres of land, and provides turkey hunters the opportunity to experience the lowcountry hunting experience on public lands.
Charles Ruth, Deer and Turkey Project Supervisor for the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, said the overall habitat situation and turkey population is good.
“With an area this large, the individual turkey hunter must put in the legwork and scouting effort to be consistently successful,” he said. “Many of the management activities are good for turkeys, but the habitat will change every year because of timber harvesting and prescribed burning.”
Ruth said the prescribed burning process employed at the Francis Marion WMA enhances turkey habitat, but that controlled burn sites change annually. Hunters can locate them via windshield tours on open roads as well as walking into remote areas.
Check the hunting regulations at the Francis Marion WMA before hunting, and be sure you have a WMA hunting permit.
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