Two Month Checklist

As I previously mentioned, turkey season begins in just about two months. For the seasonal turkey hunting veterans, that's plenty of time to prepare, as they likely already know how to call and possess at least some vague knowledge of where to find turkeys. If you're a newbie like myself two months is not a whole lot of time, and fitting all the pieces together (land ownership, scouting, turkey biology, calling tactics, rules and regulations) can be frustrating enough to make anyone swear off hunting for eternity.

So here is my list:

1) Learn how to produce various turkey sounds using a variety of calls.
2) Learn the fundamentals of turkey calling. What is the function of the cluck? Purr? Yelp? Etc? And when should I employ those sounds in the woods.
3) Find an area to hunt. For me, this will involve doing some internet research on local public hunting areas. I'll likely just draw a thirty mile or so radius around my place of residence (Ithaca, NY) to see how many public hunting areas fall within it and adjust it as necessary.
5) Find maps of the areas and try to narrow down where the turkeys might be, which is to say take a big long guess and cross my fingers.
6) Scout the areas that fall within that thirty mile radius. This step can take an infinite amount of time. Often, just finding routes in and out of the woods can take weeks. Finding turkeys at this stage is probably more a matter of luck.
7) More scouting.
8) More scouting.
9) More scouting.
10) Go hunting.
11) Repeat 7-10 in varying orders.