I will be making my first attempt at calling Easterns this Spring. I have called to Rios for the past 25 years, and was wondering - what differences, if any, should I expect from an Eastern Tom? I appreciate any input, and Good Huntin' !!
Any answer will be general in nature because every single gobbler is different. So from my experience Rios gobble earlier(while still dark) and more on the roost. Rios also are more concentrated on the roost I've seen 10 or more Rios roosted together which would be very rare for Easterns.
Easterns are usually not as numerous as Rios so you'll likely have fewer Gobblers to deal with and fewer hens. The actual calling of the two is not much different same calls for each bird and depending on your experience. If you've hunted lightly pressured Rios in good populations and try to hunt hard pressured Easterns on public land there will be a sharp learning curve. If however you hunt well populated private land Easterns it may not be any harder. The Rios I've hunted had only a few options for roosting which made finding them easy Easterns don't normally have such defined roost areas unless you happen to be hunting farm land were roosting areas are limited.
The only real answer is you have to find the birds get close to the roost and from there calling is not much different, I would say tone down the frequency and volume to start, and from there it's still turkey hunting. On the difficulty scale I'd say your going from easier to harder Rios to Easterns.
Thank you, sir. That is just the kind of info I was hoping to get. Appreciate ya !!
Quote from: Phillipshunt on January 22, 2019, 12:48:27 PM
Any answer will be general in nature because every single gobbler is different. So from my experience Rios gobble earlier(while still dark) and more on the roost. Rios also are more concentrated on the roost I've seen 10 or more Rios roosted together which would be very rare for Easterns.
Easterns are usually not as numerous as Rios so you'll likely have fewer Gobblers to deal with and fewer hens. The actual calling of the two is not much different same calls for each bird and depending on your experience. If you've hunted lightly pressured Rios in good populations and try to hunt hard pressured Easterns on public land there will be a sharp learning curve. If however you hunt well populated private land Easterns it may not be any harder. The Rios I've hunted had only a few options for roosting which made finding them easy Easterns don't normally have such defined roost areas unless you happen to be hunting farm land were roosting areas are limited.
The only real answer is you have to find the birds get close to the roost and from there calling is not much different, I would say tone down the frequency and volume to start, and from there it's still turkey hunting. On the difficulty scale I'd say your going from easier to harder Rios to Easterns.
What state will you be hunting in? It will certainly be a different experience dependent on what state you are heading to.
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Eastern OK
It has been several years since I hunted public land in eastern OK, but the biggest problem we had was just finding a gobbler to hunt there. Unless things have changed in the time we hunted, responsive gobblers are few and far between. Of course, if you have access to private land with assurances that it holds gobblers, that eliminates that problem.
If you are hunting public land, I would do everything possible before you go to find someone that is willing to give you at least some general idea of where to start looking. Going "blind" and thinking you will find birds easily is likely to be tough, based on our experience there.
As for calling differences, I can only tell you what worked best for us the times we were there. If we could get on a roosted bird (which was rare), we just used the standard roost hunting tactics,...conservative stuff. During the day, our strategy was to cover lots of country and use aggressive cutting/yelping series trying to get gobblers to respond. If we could get a response to that kind of calling, we found it was pretty likely for those birds to come in to investigate just by giving them enough of that to keep them coming.
Following this thread as I will be going to OK in 2020 or 2021
Quote from: LaLongbeard on January 26, 2019, 07:54:59 PM
If your talking South East your more likely to be hunting Easterns or a hybrid rather than true Rios. Oklahomas Eastern population have been down in recent years. I hunted western and North Western public land for Rios. I did not find them at all difficult to locate. Water....that's it water find the creeks and the draws along creeks and you'll find the turkeys or your in an area without turkeys. Again once you've found the roost there still turkeys hunt accordingly.
All the maps I looked at said the same about mixed birds, going into Kingfisher and Grady counties and maybe some more depending on how it goes.
Easterns can be a little harder and rios usily only have one roost tree, but easterns usily were they find themselves in the evening is were they roost.
Quote from: Texforce on January 22, 2019, 11:25:20 AM
I will be making my first attempt at calling Easterns this Spring. I have called to Rios for the past 25 years, and was wondering - what differences, if any, should I expect from an Eastern Tom? I appreciate any input, and Good Huntin' !!
25 years is plenty of experience I don't think you will change much once you get there and experience the variables. Topography, pressure, bird numbers and breeding stage. Good Luck!