It may be obvious to most of you that you can't harvest a gobbler until you find him.  Finding turkeys is something that you have hopefully done well in advance of opening day.  There are times, however, when you will need to be able to go to a spot “blindly” and quickly find the birds.  There are a variety of calls available that will provoke a gobbler into sounding off and giving up his location.
Owl calls are the most popular locator calls available.  Owl calls are most often used at dawn to locate gobblers while they are still on the roost.  Gobblers respond to owls in an effort to reinforce their dominance in the spring woods.  The eight note, “who cooks for you, who cooks for you all” sound is the most widely used call for locating gobblers.  You can reproduce owl sounds with your natural voice or use any one of the barred owl calls on the market.  My favorite owl call is the Palmers Hoot Tube, shown in the picture to the left.  It is produced by Hunters Specialties and is available in plastic or wood versions.  It produces a very deep hoot and high volume, so the sound carries well.
Crow calls and a variety of other calls will cause a gobbler to shock gobble at almost any time of day.  Spend enough time in the spring woods and you will undoubtedly hear birds gobble to the call of a crow.  There are many good crow calls on the market.  Crow calls are most effective later in the morning when most of the owls have become silent and turkeys are on the ground in their strutting zones.
Turkeys will also gobble at pileated woodpeckers, wood ducks, coyotes, canada geese, roosters, cock pheasants, and many other loud noises.  The MAD Magnificent 7 is an excellent call that you can use to reproduce many of these sounds.  Sometimes, when you are certain a bird is in the area, you have to stand in one spot for ten minutes and give him three or four different calls until he responds.  Be patient.  These calls don't work all the time, but when they do, the payoff is worth the effort.
 

The debate on the best camouflage is endless.  Everyone has their favorite camo patterns, and for good reason.  Every pattern on the market has a time and place.  Look for a pattern that will blend into a variety of terrain and cover.  For spring turkey hunting, a pattern with some green in it will be best.  I prefer the patterns available from Mossy Oak.  Their Spring Shadow Leaf is great for the spring and early fall woods, and their Breakup pattern, the best selling camo pattern ever, is effective in any environment.  There are many other camo patterns on the market that will help you disappear in the woods.  Advantage Timber, Realtree Hardwoods, Skyline Apparition, and Trebark Bigwoods are just a few.  Most importantly, find a pattern you are confident in, and try your best to remain motionless in the woods.  The eyes of a turkey are tough to fool.  Camouflage yourself from head to toe and your success will skyrocket.
 

Decoys have proven to be one of the most important tools for any turkey hunter.  They can be your greatest asset or your worst enemy.  The problem is, you never know when they are going to work.  If you place decoys at a field edge near a roosted gobbler, you run the risk of him studying the decoys for a long time before flying down.  When a bird does not see the decoys move for 30 minutes, he may get nervous and fly down away from your setup.  Also, if you are set up too close to a roosted bird, he will be able to tell that your calls are not coming from the decoys.  This may also cause him to pitch down in the other direction.  Decoy shy birds are tricky.  If you hunt a bird one day and he responds negatively to decoys, forget a decoy setup at first light the next morning on the same bird.  Go in without a decoy, or hunt a different bird.
 Decoys seem to work best when they can be used with the terrain.  If you can set up with a gobbler just out of sight and call him to a spot where he will be able to eventually spot your decoys, you will have frequent success.  For instance, use small hills, terraces, or points of woods as objects to hide your decoys until the bird moves to a certain spot.  Many times, when a bird can see your decoys from his roost or his strutting zone, he will want the decoys to come to him.  Try your best to avoid this situation.
 Since you want to remain mobile when you are turkey hunting, you should buy decoys that will roll up and stuff into the game bag portion of your turkey vest.  There are several models available, and all of them work well.  Feather Flex, a division of Outland Sports, makes foam turkey decoys that are very light, will roll up to fit in a large pocket, and move in the wind.  Delta Industries makes rubber decoys that are a little more realistic and durable.  The disadvantage is that they are heavier and won't move with the wind as easily.  Sceery produces a line of inflatable decoys that roll up to the size of a handkerchief and can be inflated like a beach ball.  These are the most portable, but you must take extra care not to puncture the decoy on a fence or thorn. 
 You may want to consider more than just a plain hen decoy.  Most manufacturers are offering feeding hens, standing jake decoys, half strut jake decoys, or even jake decoys that can be placed over a hen to imitate two birds that are mating.  Most hunters will agree that when you place a jake out with a hen, the odds of a mature bird coming to the decoy setup doubles.  And I can almost guarantee you that the gobbler will move immediately to the jake, so make sure he is placed where you can shoot.
 

Delta makes the hot hen, feeding hot hen, and jake decoys to name a few.  They are made of a thin rubber material and will last a lifetime.  They are also ultra-realistic.

Foam decoys by Feather Flex are a bit lighter than hard-body or rubber decoys.  They lack the realism that a rubber decoy can give.

E.J. Sceery company introduced their inflatable line of turkey decoys in 2000.  They were a big hit.  They are ultra-portable and surprisingly durable.  Each decoy can be rolled up to the size of a handkerchief.  You can buy them separately or in a flock.

 It seems that every turkey hunter is much the same when it comes to finding places to hunt.  Commonly, I hear hunters complain that “it's so hard to find a good spot on private ground” and “the public ground is hunted so hard that the birds just shut up.”  Simply finding the right place to hunt is a major obstacle for some hunters.
 Most of us would agree that private ground on which you have sole permission to hunt is the greatest blessing of all.  You don't have to compete with other hunters setting up on the same bird at first light.  However, it is my experience that public land is sometimes under-hunted.  You have to do some extensive studying and spend some time at various public areas before the season starts so you can evaluate the number of birds on an area and the number of other hunters who may be planning to hunt the area.  If you do your homework, it is possible to find public ground that you will have to yourself.
 Even on public ground, you can have success by using unconventional methods.  Go to the spot about 10:00 a.m. when all of the other hunters are leaving.  Be aggressive, moving around until you find a hot bird.  Take the time to walk off the beaten path.
 

The author took this bird on the third Monday of Missouri's 2000 season at 12:48 p.m.  Proof positive that even late in the season, trophy birds can still be found on public ground.  You just have to be persistent.