Just some tips from my experiences.
When setting up decoys, make sure they are visible. I tried to be sneaky and put my decoys up in the grass along the treeline at the edge of a field last year. About 200 yards away, another hunter had set up a decoy out in the open part of the field. Sun comes up, the gobbler who was literally right above me, flew down and ran straight to his decoy and died. Looking back at it, my edge placement was a bad angle for the gobbler to even see my decoys. Had the other hunter not been there, it might have worked out, but...
When setting up decoys, put them in a good shooting lane. Once I set a jake up on my right side and a hen on my left, thinking that a gobbler would come in from the left and try to get to the hen to cut off the jake. I'm right handed so that would have been a nice easy shot. Well the gobbler came in from the left, but then circled around out of sight to come in to my right to confront the jake... And I had the jake set up so close to me that I was pinned down and couldn't get off a shot.
I have brought turkeys in to single jakes, single hens, groups of 2 (jake and hen), groups of 3 (two jakes and a hen) as well as multiple decoy sets with toms and jakes and hens. I also had a gobbler coming in on a sting to my calls until he saw my jake and then he hung up. I think he must have been at the receiving end of some abuse from another gobbler in the recent past.
Last one about decoys. Make sure you set decoys up in way that the real live turkey is distracted away from you. I once had a set up where there were two possible approaches, so I set up one set of decoys on one approach and the other on the other approach. Good old tom comes along to one set of decoys, but before I can react, he sees the other set of decoys, and in order to see them he has to be looking right past me. Sadly, I was locked down and couldn't move to shoot. If the second set of decoys hadn't been there he would have probably continued on to the first group.
As far as calls go, I have used box calls, slates and mouth calls. I will usually have all three with me because I can make them sound like unique and different birds. The box call is the easiest, but most limited. The slate is very versatile and not hard to use. I really like the mouth calls because I can use them without movement. I keep mouth calls in my truck and this time of year I will practice with them on my way to and from work. It is a good time to make all the stupid noises you want without risking spooking birds or having your wife hit you with a frying pan.
I am an overcaller. I know you shouldn't call all the time, but I just can't help myself. I should point out that I have called in 5 birds that I wouldn't have even known were in the world that way though. I was just yammering away to pass the time and all of a sudden I got a bird responding or showing up out of nowhere. Of course, once I knew they were in play, I stopped calling as much and tried to just play a broken up game of call and response with them. All 5 of those birds got a ride home in the truck.
In terms of blinds. If you have them well brushed in and/or in a good ambush spot they can be very nice. They can help with the temperature, they can disguise your movements and they can muffle your natural noises. However, they need to be really well brushed in or put up well in advance of using them. Turkeys notice changes to the environment and they will be leery of a camouflage tent that just appears overnight. If it has been there for a long time or it is obscured by a lot of brush, vegetation they may be less leery.
The other downside of a blind is that you can't really make a move. If you have been sitting in your blind and you can hear turkeys that just aren't coming to you, you might be able to move to a different spot to make a play on them. But not if you have to break down your blind, then set it up in a new spot and then rebrush it in. Too much time too much noise and movement.
If you have the ability to scout the area/turkeys you will be hunting you can get a good idea of where they will be during the day. Sometime you can even find out where a turkey has roosted for the night and slip in to be near that tree in the morning. That's not a sure thing. He will likely still be there in the morning, but he might not fly down and come over to you.
Good luck on your hunt. It is truly my favorite kind of hunting. I hope you have a fun and rewarding season. Be sure to share your stories and pictures.
