Turkey hunting vs deer hunting: what a deer hunter already knows, and what will get you caught

What transfers from the deer woods

More than beginners realize. If you deer hunt, you are not starting at zero.

• Reading country. Terrain, edges, food, water, travel corridors, pinch points — the skill of looking at a map and picking where animals will be transfers almost completely. Turkeys use ridges, benches, field edges and logging roads for the same reasons deer do.
• Sitting still and shooting straight. Both still decide the outcome.
• The gun. Your deer shotgun is very likely your turkey shotgun with a different choke in it. What changes is the tube and the load — see what choke for turkey hunting.
• Clothing, mostly. Camo is camo. What you add is coverage for your face and hands, and lighter layers, because spring mornings warm up fast.
• Licensing and hunter education. Already handled, in almost every case. If you are new to both, IHEA-USA lists hunter education programs by state.

Five habits you have to unbuild

1. You are the one making noise now. Deer hunting rewards silence; turkey hunting runs on calling. The NWTF's ABCs of hunting wild turkeys is built around calling as the core skill, and it is the skill a deer hunter is most likely to be short of. Start at how to call a turkey for beginners.
2. Stop worrying about the wind, start worrying about your face. A turkey's defense is its eyes, not its nose. That means a bare face, bare hands, a shiny gun barrel and a shifting shoulder are the things that lose you birds. Full coverage is not optional.
3. Stop hunting from a stand, and stop hunting the edges of the day. Turkey hunting happens on the ground, frequently mid-morning, and often involves moving to a bird rather than waiting for one.
4. Forget the vitals. This is the big one and it has killed plenty of birds badly. More below.
5. Accept a season that is six weeks, not four months. Spring turkey seasons are short and tied to breeding behavior: the NWTF's breeding cycle notes breeding beginning in late February or early March in southern habitats and April in northern states, which is why your state's dates are what they are.

Is turkey hunting harder than deer hunting?

It is harder in the last 40 yards and easier everywhere else, which is why hunters who do both tend to disagree about this.

Easier: turkeys tell you where they are. A gobbling bird at daylight is information no deer ever gives you, and it means you can start a hunt by finding your animal rather than guessing. Spring woods are comfortable, days are long, and you can cover ground.

Harder: closing the deal. You have to persuade the bird to cross the last 100 yards into the open, in daylight, while you sit against a tree in plain view with nothing between you and an animal that notices a blinking eyelid. A deer that walks past at 25 yards is a shot; a gobbler at 60 yards that will not commit is the defining turkey-hunting experience.

The practical consequence for a crossover hunter: expect your first spring to be more about setups and patience than about calling skill. The most common beginner failures are collected in turkey hunting mistakes.

The gear you already own, and the four things you don't

Missouri's Department of Conservation keeps its turkey hunting equipment guidance short, and so should you. The honest list of what a deer hunter still needs is four items.

• A call you can run on day one. A box call or a push-button, not a mouth call. Ranked picks: best turkey calls for beginners.
• A face mask and gloves. The cheapest meaningful turkey purchase there is, and the one that fixes the problem your deer setup never had.
• Something to sit on, with a back. You will sit on the ground for hours against trees that are not shaped for you. A turkey vest with a seat solves this and carries the calls too — see how to choose a turkey vest.
• A turkey choke, and a patterned gun. A deer or waterfowl tube is far too open for a head-and-neck target at 40 yards. Fit a turkey tube, then prove it on paper: how to pattern a turkey gun.

Optional, and in this order after those four: a hen decoy, binoculars, a locator call. The full list is in the turkey hunting gear list.

The shot is completely different

Turkey safety is its own subject

This is the part crossover hunters most often skip, and it is the part with the highest stakes. Turkey hunting has its own safety literature for one reason: everybody in the woods is camouflaged, sitting still, and making turkey sounds.

Two rules you did not need in a deer stand. First, colors: the Pennsylvania Game Commission's safe hunting tips say “never wear red, white, blue or black clothing. These are the colors found on mature gobblers.” Check your undershirt collar, your socks, your glove liners and your cap logo. Second, never stalk a gobble — the sound you are walking toward may be another hunter, and positive identification before the safety comes off is absolute. The full treatment, including how to carry a decoy or a harvested bird, is in public land turkey hunting and what to wear turkey hunting.

The three purchases that close the gap

Assuming you own a shotgun, boots and camo, these three are what a deer hunter is genuinely missing. They are scored on the rubrics published with our First-Season Score — the call on the call rubric, the vest on the vest rubric, the mask on the apparel rubric, so the numbers are not interchangeable.

A realistic first spring

If you are a competent deer hunter, here is an honest expectation for your first turkey season. You will locate birds sooner than you expect, because they announce themselves. You will have birds gobble at your calling in the first week. And you will probably lose the first two or three to the last 80 yards — a bird that hangs up, a hen that leads him away, a shift of your shoulder at the wrong moment.

None of that is a calling problem, which is where most beginners look. It is a setup problem, and setup is the skill that transfers least from a stand. Spend your pre-season effort on three things: learning one call well, learning to pick a tree and a sight line, and patterning your gun. The sequence is laid out in how to turkey hunt for beginners, and the hub for the whole path is first season.

One last piece of good news for the deer hunter: the two seasons barely overlap. Spring turkey hunting fills the dead months between deer seasons, uses the gun you already own, and will make you better at reading the same woods you hunt in November.