2024 Fall and Spring Turkey Hunting in California's San Diego County's Cleveland National Forest, and San Bernadino Hunting clubs and Ranches

  2024 Turkey Hunting Map and Report also Hunting Clubs, Private Ranches in San Diego, Imperial, San Benito, San Luis Obispo, Monterey and San Diego

  Central Coast Turkey Areas Mapped:

Turkey Hunting  Maps and reports in Southern California

   San Diego County Turkey Hunting Improves in National Forests!

THE NATIVE population of Rio Grande turkeys has increased the past couple of years. Thanks to back-to-back good breeding. seasons,  good carryover of jakes and big toms and lots of

private ranches where turkeys can get away from hunting pressure, the outlook for years to in the southern portion of the Cleveland National Forest is very optimistic.

"Turkeys are doing very well in San Diego County and we are seeing an ever increasing dispersal of birds into new areas each year," state wildlife managers there.

Over the past few year; spring turkey hunting pressure has been very high in San Diego County on open hunting 'land within BLM boundary lines and of the Cleveland National Forest.

Private Ranches in San Diego also are heating up the writer suggests sites he has made for his real estate clients (mostly ranchers) to help them keep their properties after purchase...has lots of SoCal ranches, exclusive and not well known..

  Access to hunting in San Benito varies, you may want info for access to join a network private ranches, hunting clubs in that area and statewide. They sponsor this blog and we highly recommend it, and your family can accompany you.

GET MORE INFO

Latest News Turkey Hunting Cleveland Forest 2018 and San Diego Hunting

Turkey-hunting opportunities that dried up so to speak, with the on going drought that has ensued the last few years. That should change soon. But San Diego County  still has fair or more hunting in the Descanso and Palomar ranger districts in the Cleveland National Forest. On private ranch land there are much more turkeys towards Palomar Mountain.

See More below on HOW TO SCOUT FOR TURKEYS 

 

 SCOUTING FOR TURKEYS

Hunters should study the habits of wild turkey and take every opportunity to scout an the grass is green on the hills, this is the right moment to take a .22 and hunt for ground squirrels. They are harder hunting than you might think.

 The skills you develop on these little rodent pests will serve you well later on in the year for cottontail rabbit hunting, and in the fall, the stalking skills you practiced in the spring will help you bag that deer this year.

Look for ground squirrels along the edges of cultivated land (make sure you have the landowner's permission to hunt) or in the rocky foothills of the desert and the Cleveland National Forests.

 It's almost impossible to walk up to a turkey hunting in the mountains of San Diego County, so do most of your hunting once you have picked out a spot to set up. Turkey Hunting on the move will do nothing more than keep pushing birds farther away from you.

As the second peak season starts winding down, gobblers begin searching out any remaining non-nesting hens or those hens whose nest may have been destroyed-by predators or the elements. During this period, which traditionally takes place the last two weeks of the spring season, toms will be expanding their area in hopes of locating a cooperative hen. This could mean that a tom coming off a roost might travel as many as 10 miles a day looking for a breed able hen. This is when calling a lone tom into a decoy becomes more effective.

Also at this time of the season, hunters will start seeing more jakes on the move as they become more mature and develop breeding instincts, thus becoming competitors to bigger gobblers that still maintain a strong breeding urge.

Speaking of different species for hunting in California , another site to use is , where you can get maps to public and private ranches, no strings attached, and contact info too....

 

2024 California Spring Turkey Hunting Info and Hunting Maps & How to Hunt Turkeys

2024 Spring Turkey California Hunting, How to Hunt Turkeys and Hunting Ranches and Clubs California & Oregon

Update: Nonleaded ammunition is  required statewide when hunting wild turkeys with a shotgun for the upcoming 2024 spring wild turkey season. Leaded gasoline is still OK if you have a flamethrower. Big yuck.

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California 2024 Spring wild turkey season opens on March 30, 2024 and through May 5, 2024.

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The spring sun is shining, green  grasses are growing, snow melt is swelling streams and  turkeys are talking in California!  And that means it’s time to get ready .  Only bearded birds may be taken during the spring hunting season, when shooting hours are from one-half hour  before sunrise to 4 p.m. each day.

These hours give hunters  the best opportunity to call toms which are most active in the  early morning hours, yet it enables the birds to have a break  from hunting pressure in the afternoon. 

Wild turkeys can be found in 37 counties in California  with the largest populations located in San Luis Obispo,  Mendocino, Yuba, Nevada, Butte, El Dorado, Calaveras,  Tehama and Shasta counties. Scattered populations have also reside in Lassen, Mono, Alpine, Siskiyou and Kern  counties.

 In these latter counties, although mainly a creature  of the foothill belt, flocks have been located at high elevations, apparently adapting to habitat mixtures of pine, oak,  juniper and wet meadows. 

  Much of California foothills are privately owned and  permission is required to hunt on such property. (We have over 200 ranches and hunting clubs in California and Oregon, see our web sites below).

Turkeys were  initially planted on private property throughout the state in  1970, and much of the best hunting can be found on private  lands today. But the Rio Grande strain has adapted so well in  California that they have spread out onto public lands, creating some excellent hunting opportunity. 

Counties like San Luis Obispo and Monterey are loaded  with birds, but unless you have access to a private ranch, it’s  darned difficult to find a place to hunt. 

San Luis Obispo  County has more  turkeys than any  county in the  state, yet it doesn‘t  rank among the  top six counties as  far as harvest  goes . That‘s  because hunting  pressure is relatively light and access difficult so few birds are taken.

 Counties that shot the  most turkeys last year were, in order, Shasta,  Tehama, El Dorado,  Placer, Butte and  Mendocino.us are  taken.   Public access is good in most  of these counties, so we recommend hunting them.  How do you find turkeys in these counties? Scouting is  the most important factor in bagging a bird. Look for turkeys  in these foothills between 500 and 2,500 feet elevation, where  stands of oak and hardwoods mix with grasslands.

By driving  back roads before the spring season and checking for tracks in  the dirt, hunters can get clues to where turkeys reside.

 Once a set of tracks has been located, get out and walk the  area. Note the topographic composition. Turkeys require  water daily and leave signs around springs, stock ponds or  streams. A secluded grassy seep at the bottom of a steep  ravine, surrounded by oaks and digger or ponderosa pine, can  provide ample food and escape cover. 

Shasta County offers some of the best public access for  turkeys in the state, thanks to the Shasta National Forest.  Shasta County is the best public hunting ground in the  state. (See our Shasta Lake Hunting Map blog listed on the right side of this page)

Top areas can be found on the ridges  above Shasta Lake. Big Backbone, Pit River, McCloud River  and Squaw Creek are all productive.  Tehama County has fair hunting available on the Tehama  Wildlife Area, but better hunting can be found on private  property. Dye Creek, Mill Creek and Paynes Creek all have  birds in the eastern half of the county. The west side has birds  too, and flocks are already being spotted in the foothills from  Rosewood south to Plakenta. 

The west slope of the Sierra Foothills - from Butte to  Fresno County — all have birds available and finding them is  a matter of finding a public place to hunt. The Spenceville  Wildlife Area in Yuba County allows public hunters.

 

 Lake Sonoma Wildlife Area has some public hunting  available this year and ranches from Cloverdale down to  Sebastopol have plenty of turkeys on tap.  South of San Francisco, the best hunting can be found in  the Diablo Range around Hollister.  Birds are available in Monterey, San Benito and San Luis  Obispo counties, but you'll have to get access to private land. 

       

Los Padres National Forest has turkeys.  The mating season for wild turkey  begins in late February, lasting through  June. Gobblers use clearings in the forest for strutting grounds, gobbling  to attract hens.  In March and April, dominance begins the pecking order for individual flocks take place in glades at  meadows.

 When the spring breakup occurs,  hens will leave the flocks and form their  own bands. That drives gobblers crazy,  so they head out wandering around,  searching for mates to breed. Problem  is, hens are out building nests so gobblers spend their time calling hoping to  get a response. That’s when hunters can  use their calls to lure lovesick toms!  Listening from a good vantage point  when turkeys are talking — usually  dawn and dusk — is another way of  determining if there are birds in the  area.

Blow a crow or owl call and listen  for a response.  Hunters should be in the field before  sun-up when the season opens. If a gobbler sounds off, move carefully to  within 200 yards of its approximate  location and start off with a series of  hen yelp-calls from a well-concealed  stand. Be patient.

Another thing hunters should take  note of during the spring season is the weather. A lot of long sunny days can induce hormonal  changes in big toms through stimulation of their pituitary glands. As the  season winds down, the effects of these  changes can become quite pronounced,  making a wary gobbler more susceptible to artificial hen calls than earlier in  the season.

ln fact typically the  best hunting occurs during the last two  weeks of the season when temperatures  are warmest and hens are sitting on  nests.  The last two to  three weekends are much better. Early  on, , the gobbler has  all his hens, but later in the season when  the hens are bred and on the nests, the  gobbler spends more time calling and  looking for his flock.    

We are your source for Hunting in California and Oregon, public and private. Our sites include FREE maps for access for Turkey Hunting, as well as FREE contact info for 100's of Turkey Hunting ranches, clubs, and Public lands.  Our network of Hunting ranches is exclusive, available nowhere else, sourced from our long years of ranch land sales. We help our old customers keep their lands, and you get to benefit, with properties from 1000 to 40,000 acres in size.

 Deer Hunting zones with hunting properties are shown, and, in addition, Pig Hunting ranches, Duck Hunting Clubs, Duck Hunting refuges, all with FREE maps. We list Pheasant Hunting clubs for planted and wild upland birds with FREE phone contacts. We have broken our Turkey Hunting info into hunting guide operations, or those that are self guided.

  

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 Spring gobblers  have supernatural vision.  They don't have eyes, they  have dual 400-power spotting  scopes  Turkeys also seem to know your  human form better than your own  mother knows it, and can pick you  out of indecently heavy cover.  What’s needed is something to  divert the gobbler’s attention from your position while he approaches  the sound of your call. Decoys are  about the greatest boon to spring tur-  key hunting since the box call.

 Decoys preform two important  functions They are attractors: once  you have called a gobbler into view  of that decoy, he will fall instantly in  obsessive, possessive love with that  decoy.  The decoy really brings in the  toms close.

With a decoy, gobblers frequently hang up and get  reluctant at 50 to 100 yards out After  all, they are used to having the hens  come to them. Decoys bring them in  close — close enough to get right on  top of that deke!  Decoys also divert attention away  from the hunters; when he's looking  at the decoy, he can’t be looking at  you. That really takes a lot of the  pressure off.

Here are a few tips from turkey  guides on decoying spring gobblers in the North State:

 1. Place the deke in a clearing,  with good brush cover for the hunters behind it

Make sure there is a  good clear field of vision of 100  yards or so along the avenue from  which the gobblers are most likely to  approach. The sooner they spot your  decoy, the better.

2. Place the caller a bit off to the  side from the decoy, not directly  behind

3. Place the hunter on the  flanks of the caller, so they don‘t have  to move much to get a likely shot.

 Start calling when you are set  up in your blind — but stop turkey calling once that tom sees that lane. He‘ll  take it from there. Only if he loses  interest should you use a soft coaxer.   The best decoys  have their necks  down, not up. Down necks on a hen  communicate a kind of submissive,  come-hither sex message. Heads up  mean danger - look out.

 Make sure hunters wear full  camo, keep still and sit in position  with shotguns resting roughly in the  direction you expect the birds to be  coming from.  Plot a shot grid around the turkey decoy  so you know your range. It’s easy to  get excited about a 70-yard shot that  looks like 40 yards Pace off some  distances so you know your shot  grid.  Use these turkey decoying tactics in your  favorite turkey hunting area and  you’l1 score! Try Shasta, Tehama,  Butte, Yuba, Nevada, Placer, El Dorado, Mendocino and Monterey  counties!       

 

 

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Free 2024 California Turkey hunting info, MAPS, Monterey, San luis obispo, Santa Barbara, Hunting Clubs and Ranches

 Free 2024 Central Coast Turkey  hunting info and MAPS & 500 plus Hunting Clubs and Ranches California and Oregon

 One of our Maps for Central Coast Turkey Hunting is listed here, with inside tips of where to go. We have FREE with zero strings attached hunting maps with over 500 Hunting Clubs and Ranches in California and Oregon. All have Contact info for Turkey Hunting as well as Boar, Pheasants and Fly Fishing. We also list Public Land and BLM areas for Hunting in California and Oregon

 

      Turkeys roam Los Padres forest  and more- there’s some  Merriam turkey hunting available  south of the Bay Area, particularly in Monterey, San Luis Obispo  and San Benito counties.  Turkeys are doing quite well in this  region, where birds have been transplanted by the Department of Fish and  Game.  The emphasis of the program has  been to move birds directly to public  land or to areas of private land where it is reasonably confident the plant can  expand in numbers.

We have 15 Hunting Ranches in the Central Coast region to 8800 acres, click on the information below to get more information. They are affordable and family camping friendly.

Some of the best hunting can  be found on public land in the Los  Padres National Forest, but private  property in the region is worth hunting  too.  Some of the best turkey hunting  -and pig hunting for that matter - can  be found in the Los Padres forest, particularly in the southern one-third of the  area south of Plaskett Ridge.

Prewitt  Ridge is another productive area. Both  are located between Highway l and Fort  Hunter Liggett. Campgrounds are  located at Plaskett Ridge and the gravel  roads and trails that branch out from  these campgrounds are good places to  hunt turkeys

Hunt the border of the Fort Hunter Liggett around Alder Ridge. Look for  birds around Alder Creek and Villa  Creek, or head out of the Willow Creek Campground.  Look for fresh droppings under roost  trees and you can quickly determine if  turkeys are using the area.

 Acorns will  be a key, but water will be even more  important.  Once you spot turkeys, you can bust  them up with the help of a dog. Once  they flush, take a well-camouflaged  stand and try some “peep” calls. Yearling turkeys will be quick to call and  hens will often respond. It will be difficult to fool a big, old gobbler, so shoot  anything bearded that comes within range. 

 

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