Turkey hunting morning vs evening: which one a first-season hunter should pick

The verdict

This page is part of our first-season guides. We haven't hunted with the calls compared here. The timing advice is quoted from the National Wild Turkey Federation (NWTF), the legal hours from state agency pages, and the call descriptions from their makers, each linked in the sources.

Morning vs evening at a glance

Legal hours come first, and they vary a lot

Before you plan an evening hunt, check whether one is legal. The NWTF's all-day plan ends with the same reminder: “Make sure to abide by legal shooting hours in the state you are hunting.” Here is how four states set their spring hours.

Notice the pattern in those examples: the morning is open everywhere, and the afternoon opens late in the season, only on some land, or not at all. That alone makes the morning the default for a first spring.

The morning hunt: start at the roost

A morning hunt can start the evening before, with a bird you've roosted (more on that below). Get in early. The NWTF says to “arrive a minimum of 30 minutes before shooting light; 45 minutes is even better,” and for a roosted bird, to “be under the bird a half-hour or more before light starts to appear in the east.” Sit where he is likely to land: the NWTF's all-day plan says to “camp out over roost landing zones. These fly-down zones can put a gobbler in range.”

If you don't know where a bird is, first light is locator time. WoodHaven, which makes the Ninja Owl compared below, calls an owl hoot “one of the most trusted ways to strike a gobble at first light.” Once you're set up on a bird that is still in the tree, keep the calling small. The NWTF's advice: “Utter some light tree yelps if you want, but don't overdo it.” Our guide to how to find turkeys covers finding roosts before the season, and our best locator calls ranks the owl and crow calls.

After fly-down, the birds move. The NWTF notes that in the early morning turkeys “shift toward feeding areas that are further from their roost sites.” If your bird walks off with hens, that's not the end of the morning; it's the start of the next part.

Late morning and midday: the in-between

Where it's legal, the hours after the fly-down rush can still produce. The NWTF's plan for late morning is “light to moderate calling aggressiveness,” and when the gobblers are “all henned up, call to the hens instead.” For daytime locating, crow calls fill in: WoodHaven pitches its own crow call for everything “from early fly-down setups to mid-morning repositioning.”

Watch the clock. In New York, and for the first part of the season in Pennsylvania and Virginia, the hunt ends at noon. For how often to call once you're set up at this time of day, see how often to call turkeys.

The evening hunt: where your state allows it

In the afternoon, according to the NWTF, “turkeys are beginning to head back toward the roost,” and they “continue feeding until the last few minutes before fly-up.” An evening setup belongs on that route. The same article warns that hunting right at roosting sites can “mess up the next day's hunt,” and suggests sitting “along transition routes that lead to roost sites” instead.

Two cautions for beginners. First, legal hours end at a set time, a half hour after sunset in Pennsylvania's late season and sunset in Virginia's, so know yours and stop there. Second, fading light makes identification harder, and the rule doesn't change: the Pennsylvania Game Commission says to “positively identify your target” and be certain nothing is in your line of fire, between you and the bird or beyond it, before you pull the trigger.

Using the evening to set up tomorrow

Even where you can't hunt the evening, you can use it. Roosting means finding the tree a gobbler sleeps in so you know where to be at dawn. The NWTF's evening routine: “Find a good listening spot, and wait until the sun is low before trying to elicit gobbles.” When you're sure birds have roosted, “start with owl hoots to provoke a shock gobble,” and if that nets nothing, “wait a minute, and then make some fly-up cackles on a friction call.”

Then leave him alone. Another NWTF article advises approaching roosts “at safe distances (75-300 yards)” with cover between you and the birds, and says flatly that “bumping the bird is a critical mistake.” If your state's rules say anything about being afield after legal hours, follow them; roosting is listening, not hunting. The whole path, from roost to shot, is in how to turkey hunt for beginners.

The calls for each end of the day

You need three sounds across a spring day: an owl for first light and for roosting at dusk, a crow for daytime locating, and a hen call for the hunt itself. “Beginners usually find a box call the easiest to get a consistent sound,” the NWTF says, so that is the hen call here. Here is what we paired with each part of the day:

• WoodHaven Ninja Owl for first light and dusk. WoodHaven calls it “easy-to-run” and aims it at “close-to-mid-range locating at fly-down or in tight terrain.” Skip it for big, open country where you need reach.
• Quaker Boy Crankin' Crow for daytime. Quaker Boy says it “creates every crow sound easily and accurately” and calls the design “extra loud.” It is our top-scored locator call.
• Primos Waterboard as the hen call. Primos says it “works wet or dry,” which matters on rainy spring mornings, and that each side has a different tone. A new caller should learn one side first.

Locators help, but don't overdo them either: the NWTF warns that “using locator calls too much can draw attention from other hunters.” Box call alternatives, including ones made for beginners, are in our best box calls.

Which to pick in your first season

Put the two together and a beginner's week looks like this: evenings, listen and roost; mornings, hunt the bird you found. If your state opens afternoons late in the season, add an evening sit on a travel route once you've had a few mornings to learn how birds move on your ground. And whatever time you hunt, the setup is the same: our turkey hunting setup guide covers the tree, the seat and the gun.