Not sure if its the blind, the decoy's or bad luck! I kill one every year with the gun, FRUSTRATING!
There I'm done ranting.
Anyone have any great ideas?
Maybe try some different tactics. Like spot and stalk, Heads Up Decoy, etc. Dont limit yourself to just a blind and decoys.
I just got back from a hunt where we used the Heads Up Decoy quite a bit. It really made things come together quick!
I have a B-mobile with a Jake tail fan that spins like a strutting tom via remote control.
Then I have a she mobile for a hen and another foam one.
I'm hunting from Sunrise to about ten (working half days in the office when I can hunt)
Calling is some soft tree yelps and then some yelping after fly down. As it gets later in the morning I call less maybe some yelps every 1 minutes.
Today I probably have at least 15 gobbling around me and still couldn't get one to come by in range.
But you also may just need to relocate your blind to an area the turkeys naturally tend to pass through. Instead of trying to call them into an area they don't normally use. Examples could be locations that are just into the woods at the inside corner of a field. Or off the end of a fenceline. Or at the foot or head of a long shallow draw in the middle of a woodlot. And etc. Just watch where they travel naturally and they should show you where to set up. Sometimes a good masking backdrop behind your blind may help if they are blind-shy. That's pretty rare for turkeys though. They're mostly dumb as a rock.
If you are in a spot they like to strut, they will be back. I just call every 15-20 minutes...a few loud yelps out each side of the blind, a half strut jake where I want to shoot, and a hen set for visibility from a distance.
I'm in a corner they like to travel and where I have seen them strut a lot, just not when I'm there.
I have killed several in this location with a gun every year, I'm wondering if the birds there do not like the strutting Jake.
I've seen mature birds shy away from a setup just because of the presence of a jake decoy.
Jakes can gang up and be real mean to mature birds.
First rule of waterfowling (and turkey hunting): be where the birds want to be. Much easier to call them to where they want to go.
Decoys: I have had really good luck with DSD jake and a no-name breeding hen. Just yesterday morning, a tom jogged in from 100 yards to check out the jake and breeding hen.
Calling: I find box calls and slates are much easier to use.
Timing: If you can set up right below the roost tree, that works great for early morning. Otherwise, I try to sit until 10 or 11. A lot of birds will show up after that first morning rush. But I understand. I try to quit by 10:00 many days too..
Blind: some turkeys care. most do not. I have had birds run in this year with my blind sitting in the open at the edge of a field.
Turkey hunting is wierd. It is very hard. You'll come close a zillion times. Then, some bird will really want to die, come charging in, and beg you to shoot it. You just have to keep going and eventually it will happen.
I think turkey hunting is pretty tough. Seems like they always go opposite of where the blind is!
It seems like they are only dumb when I carry a gun forth season!
Yes I have seen birds come close and then shy away. I don't think a can make that 40 yard shot at a walking turkey.
I'm not sure the dates of the archery Iowa season but nothing says you can't use a bow during shotgun season? In Nebraska last year it was super tough during archery season....birds were flocked up, scared to death of blinds, and wanted nothing to do with decoys. A month later during shotgun season thing changed DRAMATICALLY!
Turkeys tend to flock together off the roost and may head off in a different direction. Toms following.
Later the toms/tom may leave some of the hens and go wandering on their own and be more agreeable to check out our calls and decoy setup later in the morning and day.
My best, Paul
Who knows what causes one bird to trot right into the decoys while the next one sees it and trots away? I do know that if I have them shy away 2 or 3 times in a row, I either switch up the decoys or just don't use any.
I bet a certain turkey master is clawing at his keyboard wanting to get in on this discussion.
But I have considered buying a pet hen turkey, name her henny, and train her to walk about until she finds a gobbler then return to the spot that I released her. Kind of like playing fetch with a dog, but with a hen turkey and the ball or stick is a gobbler. At least that is the going joke between me and my wife at this time, as I have been unbelievably frustrated during the last season as well as the beginning of this one isn't looking a lot more promising. So I am probably not in a great position to give great advice, but what the heck.
Maybe tone down your calling a bit. Turkeys can hear a lot better than most give them credit for. I have heard from numerous veteran turkey hunters to give a few clucks every 30 minutes or so. I don't know how the birds are in your area, but where I hunt, other than on the roost, it is extremely rare to hear a turkey hen yelp, it is usually low clucks and purrs. Not always but most of the time.
Also, I was thinking the same thing about your timeframe. Right off the roost, most groups have a destination in mind an pretty much head off, without much reliability. However after around 9 a.m. they seem to split into singles and doubles and start sporadically scouring the woods looking for a mate. I would say if I wanted to bowhunt from a blind, I would get up around daylight, do what I needed to do, then sit from around 9 or 10, until 1 or 2. Maybe even 3 or 4. And if you are fully aware of preferred roost areas, you may set up a couple hours before dark and intercept as they make their way back to the roost.
As far as the decoys. It has been my experience and I get the same from other hunters that I know, turkeys either seem to love them, or they totally ignore them, or in the worse cases, they run from them. I have no clue why they do any of these things, but it is a tough call, because the day you don't use them, they may would have worked, and the day you use them, the birds run away at the sight. I don't know. You just have to use your best judgment. The problem I see with the lone hen is that the gobbler knows that the hen is supposed to come to her, so if he is within sight of the decoy, and she doesn't come to him, he may lose interest, expect something - as everyone nowadays seems to use a decoy - or simply figure that maybe she will come when she sees he isn't going to run to her. Who knows.
It's kind of funny. There was the discussion a couple months ago about how dumb turkeys were, and how easy they were to hunt. Granted a lot of this was due primarily to one particular member blowing his own horn and spreading his achievements as if he had cured cancer. But turkey hunting in general, in my experience can humble a hunter to the core. I have had the good fortune in the past where I shot numerous birds in my state as well as a few other states, then helped family and friends take numerous birds, all in the same year. I kind of got bored with it, it became so easy. But with my experience through the last several years, I am beginning to wonder how anyone could ever kill one of the danged things.
I am still contemplating my pet turkey, henny.
Good luck, and let us know how it works out for you.
I will echo Todd's comments on calling. I only give a couple yelps at a time sporadically through out the day after fly down. Just enough for the Tom to zero in on my location. Then I'm patient. He'll come looking eventually. The birds I hunt are heavily pressured and not very vocal. stick with it and you'll get your chance!
It's fun to chase gobbles early but patience is the most deadly technique. Finding a strut zone or pinch point or visible location for your decoy spread also is key. Spot and stalking stutting gobblers with the HUD fan later in the morning is also a nice change from camping out in the blind for hours.
Keep after em! Dave
If you just wait patiently, the birds will eventually show up.
I can't count how many times that I wanted to move. I was sure that no birds were ever going to come. or I was sure that the birds were in the next ridge over. But I just stayed in my blind. I solved suduko puzzles with a pen in a book.
Sure enough. After a while, a group of birds show up and work in to my decoys and wound up in the back of the truck.
Patience is the key...
