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I was trying to get my son his first gobbler this morning. We were hunting a small piece of private in WI that gets a fair amount of pressure. The woods is mostly pine with rolling hills and was select cut a few years ago so it is kind of a mess in spots with all the brush leftover from the cutting process. Anyway we were hunting a ridgetop and 2 were gobbling right away off of the roost probably 200 yards away (I can't get closer than that as it is private). I was able to call them to within 50 yards fairly quickly but they never got closer and slipped back over the hill where we couldn't see them. I called and they responded for over 5 hours. At times we could hear them get fairly close but never actually saw them again. They would respond and get fairlly far away at times and then come back and this drifting and then getting closer went on all morning. I tried every call in the vest and they gobbled to almost all of them but would never come in quite close enough. I tried soft and aggressive. Sharp cutting seemed to get the best verbal response but they still didn't come close enough. Any suggestions on what I might have done differently? We may go back there tomorrow.

Thank You!

Sometimes the best calling is no calling at all. The way you describe the situation seems to me that those turkeys were playing on instinct. In the turkey woods the Gobblers gobble and the hens go to them. If it were the other way around the hens would be gobbling. Sounds to me like they were waiting on you which is the way nature intends it to be. By sitting there calling you were reinforcing to the Toms that you were still there, you were interested, and they gobbled to get you to come on over. If you stop calling there's a chance they will come looking for you and close that distance into gun range trying to find that hen that seemed so eager not so long ago.

I was calling for my son today as well. I'm also in Wisconsin. We had a bird at somewhere around 30 yards but he didn't get a shot because he couldn't clearly see head and neck through the young maple growth.
Toms gobbled on the stick this morning but went quiet when they hit the ground with hens. We trailed behind them for most of the morning hoping the hens would go to nest leaving the toms lonely. (Very big big woods public ground) at around 10 I decided to loop around in front of them in an effort to get a crack at them. That was when we had the one and only opportunity.
We had to head back to the truck at 11:30 due to other obligations.
There are birds gobbling but imho and judging by what I witnessed. I think mid day hunts might be the answer right now. I don't know how long you guys stayed out but if you have the opportunity to hunt late mornings through afternoon that might help.


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Quote from: Paulmyr on May 07, 2022, 05:53:48 PM
Sometimes the best calling is no calling at all. The way you describe the situation seems to me that those turkeys were playing on instinct. In the turkey woods the Gobblers gobble and the hens go to them. If it were the other way around the hens would be gobbling. Sounds to me like they were waiting on you which is the way nature intends it to be. By sitting there calling you were reinforcing to the Toms that you were still there, you were interested, and they gobbled to get you to come on over. If you stop calling there's a chance they will come looking for you and close that distance into gun range trying to find that hen that seemed so eager not so long ago.

Also agree with this as a possibility. The quiet treatment wouldn't help in our situation unfortunately. We just weren't quite sexy enough....


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Quote from: Paulmyr on May 07, 2022, 05:53:48 PM
Sometimes the best calling is no calling at all. The way you describe the situation seems to me that those turkeys were playing on instinct. In the turkey woods the Gobblers gobble and the hens go to them. If it were the other way around the hens would be gobbling. Sounds to me like they were waiting on you which is the way nature intends it to be. By sitting there calling you were reinforcing to the Toms that you were still there, you were interested, and they gobbled to get you to come on over. If you stop calling there's a chance they will come looking for you and close that distance into gun range trying to find that hen that seemed so eager not so long ago.

Yes I definitely thought about this. There were times when I wouldn't call for 30-35 minutes but maybe I should have waited longer.

Quote from: Paulmyr on May 07, 2022, 05:53:48 PM
Sometimes the best calling is no calling at all. The way you describe the situation seems to me that those turkeys were playing on instinct. In the turkey woods the Gobblers gobble and the hens go to them. If it were the other way around the hens would be gobbling. Sounds to me like they were waiting on you which is the way nature intends it to be. By sitting there calling you were reinforcing to the Toms that you were still there, you were interested, and they gobbled to get you to come on over. If you stop calling there's a chance they will come looking for you and close that distance into gun range trying to find that hen that seemed so eager not so long ago.

I would add to that when a turkey is coming your way he's doing what you want him to do so let him do it without interruptions. If he starts to fade left or right a little calling to try and get him back on track may be in order otherwise let him come. When you call to him you tend to trigger that instinct that tells him if he gobbles and displays eventually you'll show up.

What was your set-up?   Decoys and a blind, no blind and decoys, no blind or decoys?   

if they're coming towards you, get up if you can and retreat 50-100 yards. call quietly a bit as you do so. i only try this when they've clearly hung up previously

make them think you're leaving and maybe you'll trigger some panic in them to get them to commit

Don't know how old your son is or if it was a possibility to leave him by himself, but if so I'd have made clear his ranges, told him not to shoot till they reached those ranges, dropped back, and tried to pull them onto him. To me the greatest advantage of hunting with someone else is the ability of one person to move. Don't know how old he is so that might not have been a possibility.


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Quote from: guesswho on May 07, 2022, 06:09:05 PM
What was your set-up?   Decoys and a blind, no blind and decoys, no blind or decoys?

A blind and no decoys. I'm not sure if a decoy would have helped based on the direction they came from as visibility is limited and I don't know that they would have seen it based on the best place to put it.

Quote from: bigriverbum on May 07, 2022, 06:14:54 PM
if they're coming towards you, get up if you can and retreat 50-100 yards. call quietly a bit as you do so. i only try this when they've clearly hung up previously

make them think you're leaving and maybe you'll trigger some panic in them to get them to commit

This definitely is something I should have tried!

Quote from: ChesterCopperpot on May 07, 2022, 06:25:22 PM
Don't know how old your son is or if it was a possibility to leave him by himself, but if so I'd have made clear his ranges, told him not to shoot till they reached those ranges, dropped back, and tried to pull them onto him. To me the greatest advantage of hunting with someone else is the ability of one person to move. Don't know how old he is so that might not have been a possibility.


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He has limited experience but we definitely could have tried this and will when in a similar situation again. Thank You!

With your setup a blind and no decoys( and i understand the use of the blind since you had your young son with you) I would think once you got them to gobble and you knew they were coming the best thing to do is to go silent. Don't call at all and make them look for you. To quote some of the other members," Sometimes the best calling is no calling at all."
Had you not be in a blind and your son was old enough to be left alone I would have walked away raking some leaves as I went and calling softly as if leaving the area and possibly drawing that gobbler in.

Hunting smaller properties, or with children, when it is more difficult to strategically move on a bird, I tend to keep the calling far more subtle...  Clucks, purrs, and contented yelps...

I feel, that the more aggressive I call, the more those toms expect the hens to come to them...  That subtle calling is more of an indication of the presence of a hen, that hopefully generates curiosity.

And drumming...  I am probably in the minority here, but drumming birds can be tough.  If they are drumming, they are basically saying "COME TO ME!"  I had several drumming birds (both with my daughter, and hunting by myself), that were just over the rise, that I could not "talk" into breaking that rise... 

I chased a pair of gobblers last week from Sunday until yesterday in New York. Same scenario, very limited gobbling over these few days. They would never come close to me, staying a safe distance away. Yesterday, after finding their fresh sign on a muddy logging trail, I set up on the trail at daybreak. At first light, they both gobbled. I did 2 fly-downs, they gobbled. After they  hit the ground, they gobbled at me very sparingly, never coming close. Finally, at 7 am, it started to rain. I figured I would go for broke, so I took out 2 push pins and did a fighting purr sequence. They hammered back before I even finished, it was unreal. Silence ensued for about 5 minutes, when a crow sounded off and a thunderous gobble in the thick cover right in front of me almost knocked my hat off. All the sudden, there he was strutting toward me. He knew right where the sound came from. I shot him at 35 yards. The fighting purr changed the game here for me, It was amazing to hear them hammering at that sound.

Quote from: Paulmyr on May 07, 2022, 05:53:48 PM
Sometimes the best calling is no calling at all. The way you describe the situation seems to me that those turkeys were playing on instinct. In the turkey woods the Gobblers gobble and the hens go to them. If it were the other way around the hens would be gobbling. Sounds to me like they were waiting on you which is the way nature intends it to be. By sitting there calling you were reinforcing to the Toms that you were still there, you were interested, and they gobbled to get you to come on over. If you stop calling there's a chance they will come looking for you and close that distance into gun range trying to find that hen that seemed so eager not so long ago.

^Well put. To kill a gobbler you gotta get him to hunt you. As much as we love the back and forth conversation, I'm a big believer in shutting up completely once he's answered you a couple times. In my experience silence is usually the clincher to making him think he lost you and will convince him to come looking. No one knows for sure if those 2 gobblers would've come the rest of the way in- sometimes they just hang up on a hunch that something isn't right. But if that scenario presents itself again, I would strongly recommend going dead quiet. Might take what feels like an eternity for him to show up and get in range, but more times than not, he will. Just gotta stay patient and ready. Best of luck in the future!

Quote from: ChesterCopperpot on May 07, 2022, 06:25:22 PM
Don't know how old your son is or if it was a possibility to leave him by himself, but if so I'd have made clear his ranges, told him not to shoot till they reached those ranges, dropped back, and tried to pull them onto him. To me the greatest advantage of hunting with someone else is the ability of one person to move. Don't know how old he is so that might not have been a possibility.


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This will most probably work in your scenario provided there isn't a physical/natural barrier that's hanging them up.

Less is more.  I'd back away 50 yards and make a last call and sit.