Who uses a dog for fall turkey hunting?

[Batsto]

My English cocker pushes turkey all the time. I may get my fall permit and give it a try.  Any tips would be appreciated. We  also chase Beaver! 

[Stan Putz]

I have a dropper that I trained for fall turkey. Send me a PM if you want any tips.

[mazzgolf]

I've never done it - but I know the theory behind it. The hardest part is finding the flock. It's not enough to find one or two, you need to find the flock (because you are trying to break them up to force them to re-assemble again).

Once you find a flock then you (or the dog) needs to rush the center of the flock. You must ensure you get the center of the flock because you want the birds to flush in all different directions.  Otherwise, if they all fly off in the same direction, they remain together and won't have a need to find everyone and re-assemble.

Once you flush them in all directions, you sit close to where you flushed them and wait for them to come back. If you know how, you do the kee-kee call - which is either the "Hey, I'm lost, where is everyone?!" or "Hey, I'm over here, everyone come over here" call (I don't remember which it represents, I just know kee-kee! kee-kee! ).

You basically just sit and wait for the birds to come back to you.  This is why you need to flush them in all different directions - because then they will want to try to hook back up with their buddies, and if you kee-kee they will try to find "you". If they all fly off together, then there's no point. They are all still together as one flock, just hundreds of yards in a different place.

[Stan Putz]

A good dog wil get them ALL scattered, a lot of times they will just fly 100 yards, land in a tree, and wait for the commotion to die down.

Finding the flock CAN be tough, but if you have a general idea of where they go, that's a huge help. Hardest part, IMO, is getting the dog to sit still & motionless for a few hours while you wait for them to regroup. A dog that will climb in a bag is great, but mine won't have anything to do with it, I cover her up with a blanket.

[mazzgolf]

9 minutes ago, Stan Putz said:

Hardest part, IMO, is getting the dog to sit still & motionless for a few hours while you wait for them to regroup.

It seems I can't move my eyes without a bird busting me - I can't imagine how hard it is to get a dog to sit still and avoid being seen!

[Psehunter]

Never done it but watched some videos on it and it seems pretty neat...good luck with it,hope you get one with the dog.