Turkey scouting questions

[Mr. 16 gauge]

Well, I drew a tag for this year....I guess I didn't need too much luck; there were 529 left out of a possible 600 after the draw!:rolleyes:
It is for the third week of the season, but it was the only time I could get off, so...........beats working, that's for sure!

Having only turkey hunted a couple of times in the past, I'm wondering what my best bets would be for scouting, i.e. what areas? I am hunting state land, so I don't know if all that hunting pressure the first two weeks should make me look in certain spots or not. I have scouted the area before, so I kinda know where to look, but I'm wondering if I should concentrate on different areas than I have in the past.
I have a whole bunch of options: marshy areas, hardwoods, planted corn fields that were left fallow or only partially harvested, pine stands, open fields, and a mixture thereoff.
Also, one specific question: Do turkeys use the same roost tree routinely year after year?
Thanks in advance............

[Jack]

At least some roost trees are used year after year. I know of one roost tree that's been used for more than 20 years (not the same turkey, I'm sure). Just like with deer hunting, areas that have some attraction will draw game year after year- a good food source, a good strutting area, a good roost tree, etc.
By the 3rd week of the season, the birds will have felt some hunting pressure, I would expect (I don't know your specific area), so I would try to be as non invasive as possible - lots of listening for gobbling, and not much use of a locator call. Chances are, the gobblers have heard any call you can find, by the 3rd week of the season.
Look for open areas where a gobbler would strut- a cut corn field, a dirt road, open woods without a lot of underbrush. Finding a roosting area near one of those open areas would be a good start.
The classic (and easy) way to find gobblers if there are roads through your area, is to go out the last hour of daylight, park, and listen. Gobblers often gobble at dusk to get hens to roost nearby. If you can locate a gobblers roost, return before dawn and set up a few hundred yards away, near a spot the gobbler can strut. Often you can call him down off his roost.

[dovehunter]

Jack covered it pretty well. About the only other thing that I do is drive the farm roads on the places I hunt during the rain. At least around here I have noticed that turkeys seem to come out into the fields during the rain. They won't respond to calls during the rain but they always seem to come out into the fields and that's another good way to locate them.