Question for the guys with patience.

[Paulmyr]

This is a question for the guys that have more patience than I can force myself to have. The question pertains to gobblers that show up at a later time from when you originally get a response from them. Looking for your thoughts on how a passing Gobbler responding to your calls compares to a Gobbler who shows intense interest but stays out of sight and fades off. Do you think one is more likely to show back up at a later time compared to the other?

[silvestris]

?

[Which Gun]

In my experience this year the birds that responded shortly off the roost have come back to check things out within 1-2 hours. I was still sitting in same spot waiting. On the other bird I won't wait on. Played with one last year that would not come in. My buddy sat up on path had bird gobbling come up to path fade away. I'd call he come to path fade away. We closed right up to him I'd walk away calling he'd come right up to path gobbling then he faded away. We did this for about 10 mins just quit calling he faded away we sit for awhile bird didn't come back while we were there.

[Number17]

I always assume the one that gives you a courtesy gobble has hens with him and he could be with them the rest of the day depending on the time of the year. It's a crap shoot whether or not he will ever come looking.
That bird that hammers and hammers back at you and then shuts up......get your gun ready and sit silent for an hour.  I've seen it too many times to not keep my butt in the same place.
Telemetry studies show that often 2-3 hours later that bird will finally show up, but I don't have that level of free time nor patience.

[Greg Massey]

I've had them coming back looking for me later in the morning as the hen's leave them to go nest. It's all part of the game with hunting these gobblers and turkeys just being turkeys. Does it always work no, like some said, they may come back within few hundred yards of you and gobble few times or they may come in silent. Mid morning can payoff sometimes in getting that gobbler between 10 clock til 1 clock.. some will say this is camping out on gobblers, but i say if you know you have heard gobblers that morning, i call it hunting gobblers. Sometimes you may have to use ever trick in your bag to kill that gobbler.  Patience's sometimes is the name of the game.  IMO

[Neill_Prater]

I have always said patience kills more birds than any other skill. I've set up just knowing a tom will eventually show up only to "waste" the entire day.

I've also left a set-up, more than once, only to get back to the truck and hear a gobble eminate from the spot I just left. That's when one often contemplates suicide, or at the least, giving up turkey hunting altogether.

I also have no doubt many more gobblers do eventually come to the call than are ever killed, even if you are still there. They slip in silently and watch, eventually seeing something they don't like, then just fade into the shadows.



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[Happy]

Maybe I am a weird one but the whole obsession with turkey hunting isn't as cut and dry as simply killing one. My obsession is getting one to play the game I want to play and then killing him. Therefore I ain't gonna set around bored and unhappy just for an end result. I would rather spend a day doing what I want to do and not kill a turkey then spend a day doing what I don't want to do and kill a turkey. Therefore my patience has its limits and I am good with it.

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[Dtrkyman]

Turkeys are like people in the regard they are all different.  I have had good success sticking around and killing birds later, some shortly after and others way later!

Some days I have patience and can wait em out, other times not so much, I just go with how I feel, sure you can "force" yourself to wait but if it is that painful to wait it takes the fun out of it.

[Paulmyr]

Maybe I am a weird one but the whole obsession with turkey hunting isn't as cut and dry as simply killing one. My obsession is getting one to play the game I want to play and then killing him. Therefore I ain't gonna set around bored and unhappy just for an end result. I would rather spend a day doing what I want to do and not kill a turkey then spend a day doing what I don't want to do and kill a turkey. Therefore my patience has its limits and I am good with it.

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I'm in the same boat as you. I have a hard time staying put as well. That said as I'm getting older them ridges are getting tougher and tougher to climb. I hunt public land in Se Minnesota. These tracts of public land are limited and usually have hunters in them. I'm less inclined to leave birds I know are around to find more willing birds. Chances are another hunter is already there especially on the weekend. If truck is already at the gate I'll go elsewhere.

@Silvestris I'll clarify a little as I think you could have some valuable input.

Situation one: I'm sitting and hear a Tom gobbling his way along a ridge line.  I call to him and get a response or 2 maybe even more but he continues on his way. He possibly has hens with him or he is just set on a destination.

Situation two: I get a bird fired up. He's definitely showing interest. I play the game for an hour or so and he never commits. He Seems to lose interest and fades away.

My question, is one more likely than the other to come back at a later time to check on me? I'm sure situational awareness plays I role in here. Did Gobbler #2 call up a hen and she led him away, possibly. Did he just lose interest and fade away?

  looking for thoughts on this matter.

[Turkeyman]

Too often I don't employ the degree of patience I know I should. I think when I get good responses from a Tom and he leaves me the best strategy would be to curl up and take a nap because he'll be back! Maybe I'll employ that this spring as opposed to trekking off looking for a more responsive bird. But I am what I am and tend to be more aggressive that regressive. Just a fault perhaps.

[silvestris]

How can one know for sure that when a turkey appears at a spot an hour or so after a hunter made a call that the turkey was coming to the call, or that the turkey just showed up?  I mean everything has to be somewhere.

[Paulmyr]

Studies have been done using gps tracking on hunters and gobblers to try and get a gauge on how hunting pressure effects turkey behavior. What they are finding is that gps tagged turkeys that are in close proximately to a hunter show back up to the exact location of a gps tagged hunter later in the day on a regular basis. Sometimes 3,4 hours maybe more later. Granted the are making an inference as to whether the hunter and the gobbler had an interaction. I find it hard to believe these birds are coincidentally returning to the same area.

[Paulmyr]

I actually witnessed it happen this spring in Ga. I had a tom respond 1 time my calling right after fly down. He proceeded to go about his business and traveled down into the creek bed on private land. He went silent for about 2 hours when he started gobbling again down in the creek bed. I moved on him because I thought I knew where he was heading and I could get to the creek on public a few hundred yds from him. I was wrong. Halfway through my move a sat and called for a bit. The bird came up out of the creek bed gobbling every 5 mins or so. Ignored my calling, came within about 200 yds from me and proceeded to go to the exact spot where I called to him and got only 1 response from him earlier that mourn. It was around 3 hours later from the time of the response to the time he made to my original calling position.

[Pluffmud]

Studies have been done using gps tracking on hunters and gobblers to try and get a gauge on how hunting pressure effects turkey behavior. What they are finding is that gps tagged turkeys that are in close proximately to a hunter show back up to the exact location of a gps tagged hunter later in the day on a regular basis. Sometimes 3,4 hours maybe more later. Granted the are making an inference as to whether the hunter and the gobbler had an interaction. I find it hard to believe these birds are coincidentally returning to the same area.

Do you happen to have the source for that study? Id love to read/look at that.

[Paulmyr]

It's one Micheal Chamberlain did. He talked about it on one of his podcasts. I forget which on. I'll see if I can find it.