onX Hunt: The Best Advantage for Hunting Spring Turkeys

Wild turkey hunters love turkey hunting gear, and we fill our vests with it. But sometimes, the most important element for solving the spring gobbler riddle might be in the palm of our hand.

onX Hunt can help hunters in many ways before and during the turkey hunting season. Most folks know about the scouting advantages onX provides, including showing public and private land landowner information, and intricate terrain features that give hunters knowledge of an area before putting boots on the ground. Some hunters, however, might not realize the benefits of using the app during hunts. And although it might seem counterintuitive to reach for your smartphone when a bird gobbles, the info available via a quick onX session can make the difference between success and an unfilled tag.

Compass Mode for Coursing

The Hunt Apps compass mode feature lets you see your location and current direction on the map, basically acting as a compass on your phone screen. It helps you navigate by visually aligning your phone in the direction you want to go and estimating distances to specific spots on the map. The feature uses your phone’s compass to display orientation. Most smartphones have three magnetic field sensors fixed perpendicular to each other, which work together to find magnetic north. You can also use compass mode to mark waypoints at various distances and directions from your location. These features provide obvious benefits for spring turkey hunting, especially when coursing the location of a gobbling bird and trying to formulate a stealthy approach to a good calling location.

First, some background. To use compass mode, open the Map Tools menu, and then tap the Compass Mode button. As you turn your phone, your compass heading will be visible at the top of the screen. Use that to navigate. View the readings on the left side of your screen to find your distance to specific points. When you want to lock the screen to your current orientation, tap the lock button at the bottom right corner of the screen. Then you can turn without changing your compass orientation. To mark a spot, tap the Rangefinder button and drag the red slider to that point. Then tap the Waypoint button to place a waypoint. You can also use the Location button to center the map at your location and display the compass. Hit the Exit button to leave Compass Mode.

After you become familiar with Compass Mode, you can use it to mark where a turkey gobbled or where you spotted a strutter. Then you can use it in conjunction with the map to navigate to a calling or ambush setup, taking the best path based on terrain and skirting around potential obstacles—all while keeping track of where you last saw or heard the bird.

In Practice Afield

Let’s examine some potential turkey hunting scenarios in which Compass Mode and the Rangefinder tool might help.

First, imagine that you’re listening in the pre-dawn at a high point in big timber, and a bird gobbles along a ridge 200-some yards from your position. Obviously, you want to slip tighter to the turkey without spooking it and then find a viable setup where you can work the gobbler on the limb and immediately after flydown. Just as obviously, stumbling around in the dark woods while attempting a sneaky approach probably won’t work.

Open onX and tap Compass Mode. Scan the map to get an idea of where the turkey is roosted—say on a point of timber overlooking a ravine or perhaps the edge of a relatively open hardwood flat. Use the Rangefinder tool to gauge the distance to the bird, and then view the map to formulate a quiet approach that will keep you out of a gobbler’s sight. That might be a creek bottom, an old logging road or ATV trail, or even a slight terrain rise that can let you slip closer undetected. Then, viewing your map, execute a swift, stealthy move and set up on the roosted bird. Getting closer to the turkey and being in a good calling position won’t guarantee success, but it's a far better strategy than yelping randomly at the gobbler from a poor setup.

Now, imagine a late-morning or early afternoon situation. The woods have gone quiet, and you’re trying to locate a willing gobbler. If conditions are right, with enough foliage and folds in the terrain to hide your movements, you might consider walking and calling to strike a bird. Or, in more open situations, you might opt for a cold-calling session in an area where turkeys likely congregate.

In either scenario, open Compass Mode and study the map. If you plan to walk and call, view routes that will hide your movement and place you in optimal calling positions along your travel, such as small openings, points in timber, long oak flats, or areas where terrain wrinkles let you call unseen and make a gobbler search for you. Then, use the Rangefinder tool to plot the distance to ideal calling spots and plan out your approach. Remember, you’ll want to avoid being skylined while walking and stay as quiet as possible. Also, don’t be tempted to call unless you can set up immediately and work a bird within range. It’s always wise to have a tree or other cover close where you can sit quickly if a bird gobbles nearby. Likewise, don’t call from spots where a turkey can potentially see the source of yelping from a long distance (Spoiler: If he doesn’t see a hen, he won’t come within range).

If you opt to sit and call for a while, use Compass Mode in similar fashion. Identify likely spots—the intersection of logging roads, an open gate between pastures, a long point that juts out from a hardwood ridge, and similar features—and then mark the distance to those areas and plan a clandestine approach. Then, set up, get comfortable and plan to call for an hour or more. Hint: Start your calling session with soft, subtle stuff in case a bird is nearby. Ratchet up the intensity a bit as the sit progresses, within reason, and run several calls to see which one might strike a gobbler’s fancy that day. If a distant bird gobbles at your yelping, you can even use Compass Mode and the Rangefinder to get a fix on its location and slip tighter if necessary or sneak to another calling location that takes potential hang-up obstacles—a river or cattle fence, for example—out of play.

Other Advantages

Of course, onX Hunt offers spring turkey hunters other advantages. For years, I’ve used it to drop Waypoints at the precise areas where I’ve shot gobblers. That might seem like overkill, but through time, it creates a blueprint of areas that have produced success. Viewed after several seasons, that outline can provide handy clues about areas where turkeys like to travel, roost or come to calling. And it also identifies areas that haven’t been productive.

I also use onX Hunt’s Crop Data Layer, which lets you identify various types of crops growing in an area via a color-coded map overlay. This feature is especially popular with upland bird hunters in fall, but it has benefits for spring turkey hunting. In ag country, that can reveal crop fields that might attract spring turkeys, such as harvested bean or corn fields, hay (alfalfa) plots where turkeys might seek insects after green-up, and even clover plots, which typically green up before other vegetation and really attract early-season birds.

And most hunters—whether you pursue turkeys, waterfowl, big game or something else—take full advantage of the Hunt Apps mapping and property identification features. This can be critical for spring turkey hunting, whether you’re hunting a large chunk of public ground that borders private plots or searching for small patches of public land that other hunters might overlook. It takes the guesswork out of identifying property boundaries and terrain features and puts you a step ahead for in-person scouting or navigating a new area for the first time.

Veteran turkey hunters know that the spring game requires many skills used together, including calling, woodsmanship, listening and coursing, proper decoy placement, and the ability to recognize situations and react accordingly. The many features in onX Hunt might not help you yelp in a hard-headed longbeard, but they quickly let you identify potential hotspots, lock down the precise location of a gobbling bird, allow you to slip into a good set-up spot, and avoid hazards and hang-ups while repositioning on birds. And considering the unpredictable and ultra-wary nature of wild turkeys, those benefits are huge advantages in the spring game. Keep your phone and Hunt App handy in the woods this spring. A quick session with the app’s easy-to-use tools could put you face to face with a longbeard—instead of stumbling along the way and blowing that chance to give a gobbler a free truck ride.

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