This year has been a pretty humbling year for me. I have had to hunt a new public land due to closing the area I know very well due to flooding. Ive noticed a majority of the birds at this new area are silent and I've had them come in from behind me without ever hearing the drumming or anything only to spoke them because I didn't have a clue they were there. There is definitely a lot of pressure in the new area basically I find hen tracks and that how I have found the gobblers that I have found so far in this area. Any tips on hunting silent toms and highly pressured areas?
Mid morning, pay attention to detail. Concentrate on subtle sounds. Hope for the best!
Maybe try "throwing" all of your call sounds to your backside???
Set up where it would not be possible for them to come from behind or at least difficult, build a bit of a blind with brush to hide better.
Sit still and play the shadows!
I love killing silent birds, gobbling birds coming to the call are fun but they are the easiest to kill beside fanning one anyway.
It's really a rush when one shows up silent trying to sneak in and you whack em!
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Thanks a lot for the tips fellas. I'm going back after them this weekend. Every time I go to this area I always see lone hens regularly.
Seems to be the consensus from the public I've been hunting this year .... Where there have been decent gobbling birds in the past, it's dead silent this year. There are some birds there , fortunately for me they do drum..... I managed to kill one of them , and after seeing what he was toting I totally understand the silent treatment . I called Another one up a couple of weeks ago , he drummed one single time right below me , so I put my gun across my knee facing that direction . The woods were very wet that morning so hearing one walk was impossible . He popped up 90 degrees to my right 15 seconds later at 10 yards .... Had to let him walk. Had he kept drumming I may could have figured out where he would have crested the ridge but that's single drum coupled with wet leaves left me defenseless
Don't know if you have any good friends to take, but back to back eliminates the sneaky bird. As long as you both are still.
If alone, I try to set up with real thick behind me. Had one walk behind me gobble at about 10 yards and could not see him and then he circled me but never offered a shot. So it is not always fool proof.