Henned up gobblers
Massachusetts
Do you guys have any strategies for gobblers who don't want to leave their girls or is it just a waiting game until they move onto to some new hens? And is there a typical amount of time a gobbler will stick with a hen before venturing out to see what the other ladies have to offer?
The only two tricks I do is use a mouth and slate call together to sound like multiple hens or to hear their direction of travel and try to cut them off. Lately though I quickly move on to find a receptive bird. Which lately seems like none! My multiple calling at once trick did work once on three toms that would not budge. I figured they weren't coming so I cranked up the calling loud and continuous and it finally worked after watching them stay put for 20 minutes.
Sometimes I move away from them and call again. Very rarely do I see a Tom before he is in shooting distance (as most hunts are in the woods). So I cant really tell if he is with a hen or not. I think (probably wrong) gobblers just want the hens to come to them. And sometimes moving 40 yards in the opposite direction and calling again is just enough to get the gobbler to break down and say, "Crap. She is leaving me. I better go get her." I am probably too simple minded in this strategy, but it has worked more than once for me.
Spike, the "cut them off" method worked well for me on opening day, but wasn't an option today, I basically ran out of woods to work with. Tempting him with a threesome sounds like a good plan.
Urban, moving the opposite direction sounds like a good idea also. With the woods still mostly bare, I could see a a couple hundred yards to where the birds were hanging out in someones yard. I was sitting right on the edge of the 500 foot mark calling and then looking with my binos. The tom would glance into the woods when I called, but showed no signs of wanting to leave his little lady.
I'll have to try both of your methods, walking away while using two calls and see what happens.
Nice ideals to try here,.. thanks
I save my turkey fantails. I have a fantail in my bag of tricks when I am turkey hunting. I sneak up as close as I can to the henned up gobblers (crawling, creeping, hide behind something). Take the fantail out and start flashing it so that the male turkey sees the flash of the tail (like a kabuku dancer with their fans). You are hidden but the male turkeys see the flashing fan and it makes competition. This works 70% of the time for me.
I either do zero calling for 20-30', do the multiple calls thing, OR, the walk away thing, OR, I couple those and call really loud and ridiculous. It pends the bird and how hot he seems.
The bird/s I called in today (and the one I missed :(...) were the most visual experience of that I've ever had.
Got him going on a ridge across a stream, just barely in hearing range. I hauled butt not wanting to call on the way. I get close, call, and he's moved a couple hundred yards, is now to my left a hair and within 100yds. uh oh. No room to work due to laurels, and he gobbles for a while, got close enough to hear drum when he gobbled and then he decided to cross the powerline for no reason I could think of. I hook around thinking I could go up the hill all the way, get on the other side, cut back to the SE and cross the powerline undetected to try and cut him off... But a hen was standing on the powerline and he was just gobbling at her like crazy. so I was foiled. (there was the reason he went across the powerline in the first place)
They worked towards the house I opted not to shoot towards the other day and I figured were gone for ever. So I explored a section of powerlines away from them calling really loudly just to see if anything else would respond. And eventually I hear more gobbles coming from where he was headed.
I get to the power line and am about to try and sprint across when I see him enter a cart path on the other side following the hen, who apparently wanted to know what the really loud hen looked like.
She came up past me, and I was, to put it mildly, toast. I was squatting to avoid being seen (she surprised me), 3 feet off to the side of a 1-2 foot wide walking path going through super dense laurels. Two new toms cross the line, and suddenly I see a turkey literally about 4 feet away - rather than coming up the open powerline (didnt he read the turkey book), he, amazingly, walked up the same path in the laurel I had, saw me, gun in lap looking the other way from about 4 feet and literally flew as far as I could see down the powerline instantly. The other two frittered about within 10yds, just catching glimpses through laurel, finally got into the grass, walking away at 30 and I just flat pulled the shot. After being fully squatted for literally 5 or more minutes, I just was not steady - I think. Oh well. No harm that I could find. Other than my ego.
BUT... given the view I had of the birds returning... They wanted nothing to do with me until I walked away. They liked the loud calling, but, especially, the walking away. It's worked for me before, but this was the first time it worked where I could see a lot of it unfold. Pretty amazing.
I have also tried Urbans trick a few times but did not work out. Hell I even tried belly crawling to him but lost sight.
Man, exciting morning, Will!
Sounds similar to my hunt Monday morning. I was walking a drainage along the edge of a field where I could be mostly unseen from any turkey that might be in the field or in the woods, calling every hundred yards or so. Finally, some turkeys started sounding off in the woods, probably just 30 yards from me, but behind some thick cover. No time to get a decoy out. I called back and forth as they gobbled a few times. Then an ornery hen hopped up on a log squaking like mad, trying to find the other hen. If I had only heard and not seen the hen, I would have thought it was some guy just going crazy on a box call. The gobbles and hen yelping went on for 15 minutes, but the gobblers all stayed out of view in some thick stuff before shutting up, but still out of my view.
There is another drainage that runs through the middle of the field, so sprinted through it across the field and ran just inside the woodline to cut them off. Threw out a hen decoy real fast, made one calling sequence and I was suddenly surrounded by birds. Two birds strutting in the field, multiple toms and jakes around me and out of view multiple hens yelping. Luckily I had the perfect little pocket in a small pine thicket to tuck into and a huge oak 10 yards in front of me that I was able to use to conceal myself while I slipped out of the thick stuff for a shot.
I'm not sure if it was cutting them off, them hearing the call coming from a totally different direction or being able to get the decoy out in time, but they acted very differently after setting up the second time.
back when i had turkey in my blood ....#1 bow and or henned up bird trick is to locate them in evening and get in real early as close as possibly .....in the direction you expect them to fly down....call little to non....let em stroll past you
Jd nailed it! roost them and get in real early and set up within 40 yrds! That's exactly what I did on my goobler this year especially on presured birds. It's a chess game and sometimes i win but most of the time I lose.my best advice is know where the birds want to go and be there.
Don't let them get in your head, leave him alone and come back later. When there done with her, they'll be looking for more . My bird yesterday walked away from me from the roost, went back later and I could hear him gobbling when I got out of the truck and I smiled to myself. This morning the bird we roosted last night walked away from us and I just told my son he would be back, well all of a sudden we here a gobble in front of us about 400 yds away from a big swamp and when he came out he started to double gobble and walk as fast as he could. I had been calling all along, sparingly though, just to keep the other bird interested. When he got about 40 yds into a corn field from the swamp a big hen popped out behind him, looked like a scene from a whore house. I started cutting to him and he went bizerk, he crossed a corn field, around a 1/4 acre pond, over 2 hilly hayfields, and around a fence to get to us. My advice is don't over call and don't push them. Turkeys are so stupid that there geniuses, they all find a way to get to us at some point. Good luck everyone and again, please hunt safe.
All good advise...some better than others. Each has a place and time in your bag of tricks. The more experienced you become the better chance you will have at usingvthe right technique at the right time. Good luck boys and Hunt safely
Took the advice of Jdr and Deanman tonight. I've got a Tom roosted and a spot to sit picked out. We'll see what happens in the morning!
Good luck, hsfc... hope you get him.
I've done the multiple calls thing too (as well as moving away)...sometimes you have to get really aggressive and make him think you're a rival coming to steal his hens (the tail fan thing above....or slate/box/plunger yelps combined with mouth/diaphram gobbles). you basically have to luck out and get him confused enough to forget his hens and come in for the fight.
works maybe 10% of the time. most of the time they take their hens and move on.
Hick, I tried gobbling at him this morning. I'm far from being a good caller. It sounded like I was trying to save my life after inhaling a diaphragm call. I'm sure that didn't help my situation, haha.
