Hey guys. I'll be going out in a few days for my first fall hunt. I just bought a crystal pot call and it sounds great! While sitting in my blind, what calls should i use to bring in turkey? It will be a "blind" call as i've seen the turkeys on cam but don't know where they come from or what part of their journey my current blind spot is. I also just bought a jake/hen decoy set and hoping it gets here by the time i want to go out. I plan to setup while it's still dark out in the morning. I'll be hunting with a bow... if that matters. I'll try to keep the decoys within 30 yards. Also, how should i set them up and should i put them both out or...? Thanks! Trying to have a successful or at least learning experience on this trip out.
Also, how often do you call out and do you do say a yelp, then cutt, then purr or....? Do you call continuous until you get a reply? a few times an hour, etc etc
I'm not trying to sound like an a$$, but this sounds like a recipe for disaster. Tends to be a lot harder hunt in the fall. Why are you wanting to use a bow? If you've got a really steady, predictable pattern with a good food plot and birds coming in every day I think the blind could work, but otherwise I'd ditch the blind and try to just get on the group assuming you've got space to roam. If you don't have space to roam and are tied down to a single spot, again, if it's not a super predictable and everyday pattern it's going to prove a very difficult hunt. They'll be grouped up. You could try to bust them up and set up as they come back together, but I'd suggest finding the group (they're loud in the woods right now since they're all together; get to good vantages and listen for scratching), pushing tight, and challenging the dominant hen with cuts and yelps. She's going to want to keep everyone together and another hen challenging that direction of travel can often get that dominant hen, and any following toms or jakes, into range.
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I have a bow to hunt with and am proficient with it and I like the challenge. I don't own a shotgun. I honestly know little about the birds on this plot. It's 90 acres and they've come through this spot many times, but where they roost, I dunno. Is the blind really a waste of time? Decoys a waste?
Quote from: suzukigs750ez on November 15, 2021, 09:06:48 PM
I have a bow to hunt with and am proficient with it and I like the challenge. I don't own a shotgun. I honestly know little about the birds on this plot. It's 90 acres and they've come through this spot many times, but where they roost, I dunno. Is the blonde really a waste of time? Decoys a waste?
If you're dead set on the bow then I think the blind is helpful if for no other reason than that it will conceal the draw. I tend to prefer not being tied down to a location. Mobility is one of the best tools of a turkey hunter unless you're just in a place where the patterns are dead set. I'd personally want the ability to track the group down. Fall hunts are an all or nothing scenario so often because they're grouped up into winter flocks. All the birds will likely be together. Since you're pretty set on the blind and the bow, I'd run a hen decoy and again try to piss off the dominant hen in the group. She's the one running the show. She's the one dictating direction of travel. Challenge her and get her pissed off and you're likely to get her to you, and if she comes she may very well bring the whole group. Cuts, yelps, and fighting purrs would be the way to challenge her. The second she starts talking back, copy the sounds she's making, and cut her off mid sentence. If you're not confident in your calling, though, silence kills a pile of turkeys. If you're in a place they're frequenting daily use the set up to kill them rather than the calling. I'd do one of the two, get really aggressive and challenge the dominant hen or go silent and try to get the set up right.
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Can't stress enough how helpful I think those Lovett Williams recordings would be in helping to familiarize yourself with the sounds turkeys make at different points in the year and how they're using those calls.
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Shorten your learning curve and get the Denny Gulvas Fall turkey hunting dvd
Tomorrow is the day. If i have no luck, which i'm hoping i have plenty of luck, as long as i learn something for the next outing i'll be happy. I've been listening to the NWTF sound files and trying them out on my slate. I learned Kee Kee and Kee Kee Run last night. I was about 75% success, had a few weird sounding ones. Realized i was loosening my grip.
Quote from: suzukigs750ez on November 17, 2021, 07:07:59 AM
Tomorrow is the day. If i have no luck, which i'm hoping i have plenty of luck, as long as i learn something for the next outing i'll be happy. I've been listening to the NWTF sound files and trying them out on my slate. I learned Kee Kee and Kee Kee Run last night. I was about 75% success, had a few weird sounding ones. Realized i was loosening my grip.
Keekees are lost calls and real good if you're covering ground trying to locate birds or have busted birds apart and trying to pull them back together. Don't know how it will fair from a stationary position, but I was thinking with your decoys you might jake yelp / gobbler yelp some. That can be a hell of a good call this time of year. Put super simply, think a slowed down, lengthened note yelp. Instead of the yop-yop-yop quick hen yelp, it's more a yawmp—yawmp—yawmp. Some good tutorials on gobbler yelping on YouTube but that could be good with your decoy set up of jake and hen. Best of luck. Worst case, if the blind gets tiresome hop out and cover some ground. Get to good vantages and listen for scratching. Winter flocks with the leaves down are a loud procession moving through the woods.
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Sounds like a plan! I'll probably stay in 5-11 or 5-12 and cover ground for a few hours. I can do the jake/gobbler yelp, it's easy enough!
I got my first Turkey this morning. Called them in from behind me and got a hen. Mimicked her and some strutters followed too.
Quote from: suzukigs750ez on November 18, 2021, 09:51:34 AM
I got my first Turkey this morning. Called them in from behind me and got a burn. Mimicked her and some strutters followed too.
That's awesome! Post a pic if you get a chance. Congrats!
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Congratulations, my grandson shot his first this spring with his bow.
congrats, you know this going to become addicting too, don't you
As soon as I packed out I wanted to go back in. It is addicting! After an hour of calling and hearing them around me they came in. At first I was mimicking the dominant hen, then she started to mimic me. It was funny. Arrow made it through both breast and into a dead branch, also nicked the left leg an inch or so in. She came down leading a pack of six other birds. Two fanned out at one point. I had one shot, literally between short saplings on the ground between leaves. Maybe 6" hole to shoot through. She didn't go ten yards. I have it on video but it's a 5 minute video. In the Video you can see the arrow come by the camera, through the opening and hit the Turkey. Very pumped.
(https://i.ibb.co/2tcTR8q/14963-D1-C-9-DF3-433-F-85-F6-AC9355-B9-E657.jpg) (https://ibb.co/C7Vf4JB)
(https://i.ibb.co/1ZMnMjf/8-FF200-EE-A799-4411-BAA0-829932-A77-B76.jpg) (https://ibb.co/VVxNx5W)
free image upload service (https://imgbb.com/)
It's a feat to take a turkey with a bow, but it's a hell of a feat to do it in fall especially being your first bird. Congrats! Whatever you do PLEASE take the radius bones out of her wings.
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https://youtu.be/e-gfwcxIBbg
Quote from: ChesterCopperpot on November 18, 2021, 01:47:40 PM
It's a feat to take a turkey with a bow, but it's a hell of a feat to do it in fall especially being your first bird. Congrats! Whatever you do PLEASE take the radius bones out of her wings.
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Thank you! I thought about the wingbone call AFTER I left. I cleaned it up and packed it out in the woods. The wings didn't make it out. I will get them in the next one.
Quote from: suzukigs750ez on November 18, 2021, 02:50:53 PM
Quote from: ChesterCopperpot on November 18, 2021, 01:47:40 PM
It's a feat to take a turkey with a bow, but it's a hell of a feat to do it in fall especially being your first bird. Congrats! Whatever you do PLEASE take the radius bones out of her wings.
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Thank you! I thought about the wingbone call AFTER I left. I cleaned it up and packed it out in the woods. The wings didn't make it out. I will get them in the next one.
Go back now, it'll be worth it.
if it makes you miss your supper, it'll be worth it,
this would be one of the very few times it's acceptable to get a burger at Wendy's to eat on the way.
if your not going to make a call for yourself, send them to EZ on here and have him make you a call from your first turkey.
Congrats on your fall turkey, great job
If your still reading this, turn off the computer, grab a flash lite and go get your wings
I'm going to venture out tomorrow and get them. Hopefully it's still there when I get there. I can't believe I forgot!
Dang man, go back for that gobbler. Good job
I got my wing bones today. I cut them with as much bone as I could while I read about the process. They're boiled and cleaned and for the most part I got the marrow out. The large one is very difficult to remove the marrow. But I got them!
Good job getting the wings back,
the biggest bone, the humorous shouldn't have marrow in it, only a webbing of thin bone.
don't over boil trying to get that out or use bleach on them
I boiled for fifteen minutes after cutting the ends off. The large bone is a pain to clean out but the others went easy. I'm going to let them dry and try to fit them. Should I use clear epoxy to seal them together?
Quote from: suzukigs750ez on November 19, 2021, 02:10:49 PM
I boiled for fifteen minutes after cutting the ends off. The large bone is a pain to clean out but the others went easy. I'm going to let them dry and try to fit them. Should I use clear epoxy to seal them together?
I would take the radiuses, the smallest bones, and send them to someone like Tony Ezolt. Hen bones are about as rare as hen teeth and make the best suction call mouthpieces there are.
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Contact information please? I have done nothing with them otherwise. Hen bones are rare? Without sounding stupid, what's that mean? Tom wing bones are larger?
Quote from: suzukigs750ez on November 19, 2021, 04:31:44 PM
Contact information please? I have done nothing with them otherwise. Hen bones are rare? Without sounding stupid, what's that mean? Tom wing bones are larger?
Tom and jake bones are substantially larger. Make a huge difference on the mouthpiece, huge huge difference on sound. Hen bones are the gold standard for bone mouthpieces and yes they're rare in the sense that most states hens can only be taken in fall, if taken at all, and most folks are still targeting bearded birds during that season. Tony goes by EZ on here. Send him a message. He makes incredible wingbones and Jordans.
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Congrats on your bow kill. Beautiful beech woods on the video, what state?
Save those wingbones on all your birds, but as CCP says, those hen bones are the holy grail.
Thank you all! I live in Connecticut. I am lucky enough to be one of only two allowed hunters on 90 acres of land. Yes, first kill with a bow and first Turkey with a bow and actually... ever. I need to get better with a pot call, I'd like to be able to kee kee and kee kee run and talk to the toms. One of the things I noticed was that morning it was very foggy which is obviously moisture rich so my crystal call was squeaking. It sounded horrible but I was still able to call them in somehow.
@ez I sent you a PM a bit ago, if you're reading this.
I think I'm going to go back out Sunday, I want to quit my job and day hunt now! Lol
Quote from: suzukigs750ez on November 19, 2021, 08:19:47 PM
Thank you all! I live in Connecticut. I am lucky enough to be one of only two allowed hunters on 90 acres of land. Yes, first kill with a bow and first Turkey with a bow and actually... ever. I need to get better with a pot call, I'd like to be able to kee kee and kee kee run and talk to the toms. One of the things I noticed was that morning it was very foggy which is obviously moisture rich so my crystal call was squeaking. It sounded horrible but I was still able to call them in somehow.
EZ I sent you a PM a bit ago, if you're reading this.
I think I'm going to go back out Sunday, I want to quit my job and day hunt now! Lol
Moisture can be hell on a call, especially a pot call, and even more especially a slate call. I think eventually you'll want to move to diaphragm calls for the simple fact that if you want to continue to hunt with a bow that's something that requires two hands in a way a gun doesn't. Obviously you shoot a shotgun with two hands but I can run some other calls holding a shotgun. With a bow and a diaphragm you could be full draw and still hitting those last few closing calls if you had to.
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I have a two reed diaphragm call but can't for the life of me make it sound like anything other than a strangled Turkey. Yesterday I called to the last possible second and then put the call down, drew and by the time I drew she was around the tree and I was holding waiting. I did wish I could have kept calling I think I could have got them further in.