Backpack Hunting Public-Land Turkeys

Is your next gobbler waiting 10 miles deep in a remote wilderness area? Here’s how to get him

Eastern hunters sometimes view terrorized turkeys as a net positive. Egos are inflated by the belief that “my gobbler is smarter than yours.” Truth is, turkeys are turkeys, and whether or not they’re “call-shy” is influenced more heavily by repeated conditioning than genetics.

But I’m not too proud to admit it: I much prefer hunting for naïve gobblers. To find them, I seek birds that are subjected to minimum hunting pressure. For the most part, that involves backpacking in road-free wilderness areas.

You Have a Place to Hunt

There are some 110-plus million acres of designated wilderness areas in 44 of the United States, and roughly half of these lands are found in the Lower 48. The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service manages some 20.7 million acres of National Wildlife Refuge in 71 areas, and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has 8.7 million at 222 sites. The U.S. Forest Service has upwards of 36.3 million acres in 442 areas.

Wild turkeys don’t live in all of these places, but they do live in a bunch of them.

The largest swatches of public land are naturally found out West, but some are scattered throughout the eastern half of the country, too. These areas of road-less real estate allow you to leave the masses behind and hopefully discover some “clueless” turkeys that haven’t been subjected to the kind of hunting pressure that makes them wary and frustratingly difficult to hunt.

Why Backpacking?

Strapping on a backpack stuffed with 50 to 60 pounds of camping gear, hunting equipment and food, and then trekking 8 to 10 miles into rough-and-tumble terrain isn’t for everyone. But that’s kind of the point. Slog far enough off the beaten path, and you’ll automatically ditch 95% of your competition. Minimal hunting pressure equals more willing gobblers, and in some cases, higher population densities.

Buy now: ALPS OutdoorZ Hunting Packs

Get Prepped

Tripping into uncharted wilderness may sound straightforward, but obvious logistical issues lay ahead. There is specialized gear to assemble: You need a comfortable, well-fitted pack to carry your truck; a lightweight backpacking tent, feathery sleeping gear, cookware, mini-stoves and lanterns, water filtration and storage. This constitutes a considerable investment if you don’t already backpack recreationally.

If you’re new to this, the best place to start gathering equipment is in a well-equipped sporting goods store with qualified employees who not only can help fit your pack properly but can recommend reliable, weight-saving gear.

You should enter this venture in reasonable physical condition, too. Be honest: A couple months in a gym might do you some good. Five miles into unforgiving wilderness is a bad place to learn you’re physically unprepared.

All my western wilderness turkey hotspots — New Mexico’s Gila, Arizona’s White Mountains or northern Idaho — have reliable, running water. This generally means a trout creek, which is also handy for supplementing dehydrated meals and providing a spot to fly-fish at midday. Breeding turkeys need water daily, and if a stream is stable enough to support trout, turkeys can flourish. The best creeks have wide bends and benches with open meadows, which are great strutting areas. Ridge points or high benches with mature timber for roosting are also beneficial. Put those pieces together, and you’re probably onto a good spot.

Bring a Buddy

I’ve enjoyed countless solo backpack trips, but sharing the experience with a reliable and even-tempered hunting buddy is preferred. The No. 1 reason to recruit a backpacking partner is safety in the event of unforeseen injury. But a partner also lightens the load. One person can carry the main tent while the other hauls rain fly/poles; you can cook while your buddy gathers firewood. Camp chores are shared, and the camaraderie makes for a more enjoyable experience.

You can’t exactly run into wilderness areas for a quick looksee, so you must lean on hunches and knowledge of regional habitats when you’re planning an expedition into a new spot.

Marking Your Spot

Modern turkey hunters have many resources for finding such areas. Old-fashioned paper maps are a good start. U.S. Forest Service maps reveal access trails, land ownership status and waterways. U.S. Geographical Survey maps show contour lines that reveal things like meadows and benches. Once you have narrowed prospects, online aerial photography sites provide further detail of topography and vegetation density.

Go here: The ScoutLook Hunting App

And here: The onX Hunting App

A call to a regional wildlife agency or Forest Service office can also be valuable. The more focused your questions, the more useful the answers. A government employee might not be able to tell you which tree your next gobbler roosts in, but thanks to game surveys or a fire-fighting crew’s actual sightings, he or she could confirm that a particular drainage indeed harbors turkeys.

Really, that’s all you need to know to get started.

Realtree turkey hunting. Realtree on Facebook.