Earlier this week, we kicked off our 2025 Strut Reporters coverage by breaking down the five key phases of the turkey breeding season and asking our experts—15 of them from all around the country—to pick the key dates when turkey hunting will be at its best in your neck of the woods. Now, with the year's first spring gobbler seasons opening or about to open in the Deep South, it's time to take a closer look at the earliest phase of the season and the tactics and tips you need to fill your tags.
Like many of you, I have have weeks to wait for my own opener here in Minnesota. But the truth is, I don’t have to be hunting to be excited right now. I love knowing that another season has arrived somewhere in the country and that the gobbling and strutting and all the other facets of spring turkey behavior is ours to enjoy from now util the start of summer.
If your season just opened or is about to, all of the information below applies right now and will help you get the 2025 hunt started with a bang. If you have weeks to wait, like me, you might want to bookmark this page, because what's below will be just as important for you once your opener comes. Here's a breakdown of the first phase of the turkey strut, how to hunt it based on what the birds are doing, plus five key hunting tips from our experts.
Strut Phase: Pre-Breeding
In this opening phase, you'll often find birds still hanging in winter flocks or in the initial stages of the flocks breaking up. Just like a whitetail buck, a turkey gobbler is ready to breed a hen almost regardless of season, but the hens are having none of it yet. Consequently, many birds will be flocked up according to sex, with hens and jennies running together and toms and jakes doing the same. These same-sex flocks will mingle at times, and gobblers being boys, they’ll do their best to impress hens enough to kick-start breeding. Sometimes they are even successful, especially in the latter stages of this phase .
One of the most important things happening now is the final determination of the pecking order. While birds work out hierarchy throughout the year (one of the most serious gobbler fights I’ve seen occurred in late October), things can really ramp up as the breeding season approaches. Expect toms to duke it out to see who wins the “boss gobbler” crown, and don't be surprised when the hens get after each other, too.
It should be noted that in many areas of the country, this phase might already be in the rearview when the hunting season opens. States that have early openers for their latitude—like Nebraska, Delaware, and much of the Upper Midwest and northern plains states—are most likely to see flocked up birds during opening week. In the Deep South, on the other hand, turkeys might have passed through this period in late February or early March. And in states where hunting seasons don’t open until May (think the northeast), flocks may have broken up before it’s legal to hunt. But remember that cold spring weather can conspire to revert turkeys back to pre-breakup mode. In my home state of Minnesota, for example, we’ve had snow (sometimes piles of it) and cold coincide with our mid-April opener. Flocks that had been breaking up nicely suddenly form again, and they usually won’t disband until conditions moderate. I’ve seen the same behavior when I’ve hunted prairie Rios and mountain Merriams more than once. In other word, you need to be ready to deal with this behavior no matter where you hunt.
Related: Strut Reporters: The Best Times to Hunt Turkeys This Spring
How to Hunt the Pre-Breeding Phase
There are periods of the spring when soft, subtle calling might be the best bet for coaxing in a gobbler. This is not one of them. You're dealing with multiple birds, often of both sexes at the same time, and there’s gonna be some turkey talk happening. If you can’t raise your voice, you apt to go unheard or ignored. I like an aluminum or glass pot call with a hard striker or a long box with some rasp to it now. And be ready to employ gobbles, gobbler yelps, and fighting purrs, too. If you stumble into a gobbler flock mixing it up, it's usually better to sound like another tom ready to fight than a coy hen.
Getting tight to turkeys is important right now, too. Birds hanging together rarely want to travel far to meet another turkey, as they’ve got plenty of companionship all around them. In my experience, gobblers are pretty vocal in the evening now, and I’ve had good luck roosting birds during this phase. One word of caution: Foliage and leaf cover is often pretty sparse early in the season, so if I’ve got birds roosted, I’ll get an extra-early start to get close to them before setting up. For birds you want to set up on later in the day, be extra careful about using terrain and cover to move on a tom.
Food can still be a big deal now, especially if the weather turns cold, snowy, or rainy. Birds may revert to winter mode and get serious about eating again. Look for oak stands or other hard mast trees that might have nuts leftover from fall, farm fields that still have waste grain, and of course any source of new greens (rye, alfalfa or winter-wheat fields) where turkeys might stuff their crops. Birds can also switch up roosting sites in weather events; I live in bluff country, and windy days will almost always funnel turkeys to roost on the lee side of slopes and often low on the hill, and they may seek out pines and other conifers that offer some relief from the elements.
Once you get on birds, gobblers can be quite receptive to the right calling and tactics during the pre-breeding phase. Keep in mind that they are eager both get started breeding at a time when most hens are unwilling, and they are also ready to fight for breeding rights. With that in mind, here is how five of our expert strut reporters get it done.
Related: The Best Turkey Shotguns of 2025
5 Expert Tips for Hunting Early Season Turkeys
1. Will Brantley, Mid-South
“This is the best time to pattern an individual gobbler and challenge his dominance with a jake or strutter decoy. Fanning and reaping work very well right now, even if the tactic has fallen out of favor with some turkey hunters. It's up to you if you want to try it, but if you do, now is the time.”
2. Joe Slaton, Southwest
“We can deal with some big flocks on our opener. I’ve seen flocks consisting of three gobblers, the same number of jakes, and as many as 45 hens. Well, you’re not calling toms away from that many girls, so I pay almost no attention to their gobbling. When I hear a bossy or aggressive hen, I focus on mimicking her calls and volume. I’m counting on her to come over, wanting to clean my clock, and drag the whole flock with her.”
3. Shane Simpson, Upper Midwest
“Early season usually means flocked up birds, which can really be tough if you rely on traditional calling. This is the time when your repertoire as a caller comes into play; I’m pulling out multiple calls and trying to sound like a flock myself. I want aggressive hen yelping and cutting, gobbler and jake gobbling and yelping, and fighting purrs. The more you can sound like a group of turkeys, the better your chance of calling in a group of turkeys.”
4. Steve Stoltz, Northeast
“This is my second-favorite time to hunt, but it has its challenges. The biggest one to me is depth perception; because of limited foliage and leaf cover, gobblers sound much closer than they actually are. But you have to be super careful because you don’t have that cover to hide your movements if you try to cut the distance. Learn to use terrain features to hide your approach, be okay with setting up a little farther than you might like, and call aggressively. Oh and success at this phase can be really weather-dependent; if you get good weather, you need to be out there."
5. Phillip Vanderpool, Deep South
“Birds are often past the pre-breeding phase when I start hunting down there, but a cool front or rain can interrupt breeding and send them back into pre-breeding mode. When that happens, I’m either talking to farmers or ranchers and asking where they see birds, which is often near a cattle-feeding operation. Openings, like pastures and meadows, can be a great place to set up now, as turkeys avoid the thick stuff in bad weather where they can’t see or hear very well.”
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