turkeyfoot
Old Mossy Horns
I'm gonna give you some real good advice that some would call me an idiot for. When hunting mtn national forest birds don't waste time walking miles on end looking for scratching, droppings, or tracks. These are woods birds droppings in leafy woods are difficult to see tracks don't get left except in few places like roads which everyone walks and sees and they are very transient in feeding so you may find scratching and never see bird there again. Those scouting methods work great for 3/4 of state but suck and are mostly waste of time for ntnl forest mtn birds. These places aren't full of birds I can take you on miles of walking without hearing a gobble one so if you waste precious time then odds are you'll eat tags. Now the way to scout sparse populations of birds in heavy wooded rugged areas is what I said above go as many mornings as you can find as many roosting locations as you can and also be aware for most of the ntnl forest there isn't anything like farm fields or swamps to keep birds roosted same place day after day in spring some will but not all many will jump around and as season goes and hens get bred they'll really jump around for one reason they gotta travel to find next group hens to breed. Most important words I can tell you is an eastern turkey is and eastern turkey what changes the game is where they live and how they use the land. They will not use an eastern swamp or piedmont cut corn field like they will thousand acres of solid hardwood mtns. But once you find them you'll call to em just same and they'll eat jyst same. You don't need anyone pointing you in right direction you just need to get out and earn your spurs it'll mean more to you that way or at least does me.