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I'm going to set the stage for y'all.
It's the last day of season, getting hard to find a gobbler. I end up hearing one before fly down time. I go in get set up on him with in a couple 100 yards, he flies down goes the other way. I stay there just taking in the morning trying to enjoy as much as I can before it's over for another year. Around 9:30 i make a call and he cuts me off quick but he is still 300+ yards. Each time I called he's getting closer, all of a sudden hear turkeys walking up to me right coming up on the ridge with me, it's 5 hen together. By now it's probably 10:00 the gobbler is inside 150yards and coming.

I going to stop here and let you guys finish this.....

After there have been a few post I will finish the story. I would just like to know if anyone else would have played the way I did.
There is no right or wrong answer.

If you can see the hens coming at you and you know he is in tow, I will not move, gun up on knee, safety ready to push and no more calling. I'm down to mouth diaphragm only. Play quiet now, if you call, they pin-point your exact location.......let it play out from here.....

Quote from: Tom007 on April 01, 2024, 01:39:16 PM
If you can see the hens coming at you and you know he is in tow, I will not move, gun up on knee, safety ready to push and no more calling. I'm down to mouth diaphragm only. Play quiet now, if you call, they pin-point your exact location.......let it play out from here.....

Pretty much what I would do, as well.  Hunker down on the gun and try to be as inconspicuous as possible and hope for the best.
Now, seems like I have heard a feller or two say that in that situation they moved just enough to booger those hens off and, as extremely good fortune would have it, the gobbler also didn't get spooked off and kept coming.  That seems like a real long shot to me.  Think I will stick to "plan A" and, again, hope for the best...   :icon_thumright:

Yeah, agree.  Not in the spook the hens group.  I have had too many birds bring the gobbler in to risk the spooking technique. 

Quiet, hope the birds feed on by.  If not shoot their boyfriend while they are there. 

Almost identical (minus the ridge) to bird last year.  The hens were so close I did not even risk a yelp to make him pop out of strut.  They were at 10 yards, he was at 20.  Just shot him as he turned sideways to me.

Another idea would be let them all go by and shoot him the next day off the roost! 


APRIL FOOLS!   :funnyturkey: :turkey2: :z-guntootsmiley: :TrainWreck1:

Quote from: g8rvet on April 01, 2024, 02:46:53 PM
Another idea would be let them all go by and shoot him the next day off the roost! 


APRIL FOOLS!   :funnyturkey: :turkey2: :z-guntootsmiley: :TrainWreck1:

:z-winnersmiley:...... :TooFunny: but it was the last day.
No, really on a serious note might not need to joke about that. You might get the business for saying something like that if the right person reads it.

All i would do is purr to keep the hens with me in hopes he comes into range... If not and it's the last day, what a way to end the season ...

Because just hearing a gobbler on the last day in my area is pretty special anyway...


I see no need for one of the comments on this OP...

I'm going go on and finish it and this will probably start a new discussion.  There were a couple key points that I wasn't sure if anyone would pick up on. "The last day" and "5 hens came in together at 10 o'clock in the morning". Well I just sit there and let it unfold. He came on in one of the hens half way greeted him I guess that's what she was doing. They all headed on down the ridge right past me and that is how my last day ended last year. Why didn't I shoot ? Maybe I over think sometimes but I was quick to key in on all those hen being together that late in the year. You just don't see that where I hunt. We had a really big rain about a week before. My first thought was all those hen had lost their nests and bunched back up. They knew that gobbler was in the area and they were there for a reason. I've always been told that once a hen loses a clutch she has to be bread again for the next clutch to be fertile. It meant way more to for him to walk and be able to have a chance to breed all those hens again than killing him ever would.

Are the hens coming towards the gobbler or away from him?

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Well crap. You gave it all away before I read the rest.

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Quote from: Happy on April 01, 2024, 05:07:32 PM
Well crap. You gave it all away before I read the rest.

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Lol!!! Sorry

Quote from: Happy on April 01, 2024, 05:07:32 PM
Well crap. You gave it all away before I read the rest.

Good-looking and Platinum level member of the Elitist club

Lol!! Sorry about that.

If the hens are coming by me, and heading to the Gobbler I am going Do my best to make the hens go back the way they came from.
I have had hens do this several times, coming to 10 yards from me and turn and bee line it to the Gobbler, taking him away.
Y'all have a good one and May God bless.

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Quote from: Bottomland OG on April 01, 2024, 05:20:05 PM

Quote from: Happy on April 01, 2024, 05:07:32 PM
Well crap. You gave it all away before I read the rest.

Good-looking and Platinum level member of the Elitist club

Lol!! Sorry about that.

All good, but since you ruined my fun, I will throw another one out there. It's a real-life situation that happened to me.

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Quote from: Happy on April 01, 2024, 06:51:11 PM

Quote from: Bottomland OG on April 01, 2024, 05:20:05 PM

Quote from: Happy on April 01, 2024, 05:07:32 PM
Well crap. You gave it all away before I read the rest.

Good-looking and Platinum level member of the Elitist club

Lol!! Sorry about that.

All good, but since you ruined my fun, I will throw another one out there. It's a real-life situation that happened to me.

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I hope it ended the way you wanted it too. That was my last day of season last year and felt good about how everything played out as I walked off the mountain.

Here it is.
You're standing on a high point just inside the woodline of a large field. It's just breaking daylight, and you are hoping to hear a gobbler to go after. It's been a good year. You're down to your final tag and have about a week to fill it. This field is pretty decent sized. Prolly 300 yards wide and 500 yards long. The first gobble you hear is a jake, across the field, and to your right. You don't really pay him much mind, straining to pick up a distant gobble if nothing else. You're so concerned with listening that the crack of a gun makes you jump. You catch a turkey flying towards you from the other side of the field, only to watch it fold up and hit the ground about halfway across. It's not dead, but pretty bad off. You hustle across the field and catch up to the turkey, and it's almost dead, so you put a boot on its neck and yell across the field to the person who shot it to come get their jake.  About a half minute later, you hear them fire up an atv and take off at a high rate of speed. That leaves you sitting with a dead jake that you didn't kill. What's your move?

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Quote from: Happy on April 01, 2024, 08:00:08 PM
Here it is.
You're standing on a high point just inside the woodline of a large field. It's just breaking daylight, and you are hoping to hear a gobbler to go after. It's been a good year. You're down to your final tag and have about a week to fill it. This field is pretty decent sized. Prolly 300 yards wide and 500 yards long. The first gobble you hear is a jake, across the field, and to your right. You don't really pay him much mind, straining to pick up a distant gobble if nothing else. You're so concerned with listening that the crack of a gun makes you jump. You catch a turkey flying towards you from the other side of the field, only to watch it fold up and hit the ground about halfway across. It's not dead, but pretty bad off. You hustle across the field and catch up to the turkey, and it's almost dead, so you put a boot on its neck and yell across the field to the person who shot it to come get their jake.  About a half minute later, you hear them fire up an atv and take off at a high rate of speed. That leaves you sitting with a dead jake that you didn't kill. What's your move?

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The first thing I would do is call dnr and we would have to go from there.

A reasonable answer. Keep in mind that there are two officers in the entire county.
I know I didn't provide that info beforehand. I once called in and reported myself for tagging a deer incorrectly, and the officer couldn't believe that I was just trying to make it right and hadn't been caught. He told me he had more important things to do and to shut up and eat the deer.
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That would definitely throw a monkey wrench in your hunt. It sounds like you have the same 2 wardens that cover my county.

I think I would dummy up (Not something hard for me) and let the hens do the work for me.

Quote from: Greg Massey on April 01, 2024, 03:59:08 PM
I see no need for one of the comments on this OP...

Well, if you mean me then maybe you missed the other thread.   Or maybe you take yourself too seriously.   Or maybe you have no sense of humor.  Definitely a you problem.  If you think an obvious joke would affect the actions of an adult I don't know how to even respond.  (https://media0.giphy.com/media/krhW9yWEI0x0Y/giphy.gif)

Unless you did not mean me.  Then
(https://media2.giphy.com/media/H3arX25535xQ6ETguW/giphy.gif)


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Quote from: Bottomland OG on April 01, 2024, 08:31:31 PM

Quote from: Happy on April 01, 2024, 08:00:08 PM
Here it is.
You're standing on a high point just inside the woodline of a large field. It's just breaking daylight, and you are hoping to hear a gobbler to go after. It's been a good year. You're down to your final tag and have about a week to fill it. This field is pretty decent sized. Prolly 300 yards wide and 500 yards long. The first gobble you hear is a jake, across the field, and to your right. You don't really pay him much mind, straining to pick up a distant gobble if nothing else. You're so concerned with listening that the crack of a gun makes you jump. You catch a turkey flying towards you from the other side of the field, only to watch it fold up and hit the ground about halfway across. It's not dead, but pretty bad off. You hustle across the field and catch up to the turkey, and it's almost dead, so you put a boot on its neck and yell across the field to the person who shot it to come get their jake.  About a half minute later, you hear them fire up an atv and take off at a high rate of speed. That leaves you sitting with a dead jake that you didn't kill. What's your move?

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The first thing I would do is call dnr and we would have to go from there.

Yep, assuming I have cell service, I am calling the DNR/Game and Fish, explaining what happened, and asking them what they want to do. 
Now, in my region, there are plenty of areas in our turkey ranges that don't have cell service.  That complicates matters a bit.  In that situation, I think the best thing to do is to leave the turkey where it is at, mark its location, and drive to the nearest place with cell service and call. 

Some folks might pick up the bird, throw it in their vehicle, and head to the nearest cell service to make that call.  It is not a good idea to pick the bird up and transport it unless told to do so by those folks...could get a feller in a bit of hot water if transporting an untagged gobbler if he is stopped prior to making that call.  :icon_thumright:

Quote from: Happy on April 01, 2024, 08:57:30 PM
A reasonable answer. Keep in mind that there are two officers in the entire county.
I know I didn't provide that info beforehand. I once called in and reported myself for tagging a deer incorrectly, and the officer couldn't believe that I was just trying to make it right and hadn't been caught. He told me he had more important things to do and to shut up and eat the deer.
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But you did say you had a week of season left. What's the next curveball that this was your only day you could hunt that week .

I'm calling the CO/Warden/DNR whatever it is in that neck of the woods or field. Cuz I got a week left to fill my tag so I got time to tell them what's happening this morning.

Why did they run off? Tells me they were up to no good.

Also sounds like your officer would tell ya to keep it if he told ya to eat the deer.


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To answer the questions,
I had more time to hunt. I typically hoard my vacation time for turkey season. That's really not a big factor in this scenario, though. As far as why the guys ran off, I don't know. Roost shooting is not illegal in this state. It's definitely not something that a ton of people openly admit to, but I am sure more of it goes on than people know. There was a decent amount of distance between us, and I yelled pretty loudly, but maybe they couldn't understand what I was yelling and just assumed I was ticked off. As far as the wardens go, I have talked to both of them on more than one occasion. I wasn't worried about looking bad in the situation. They probably would have told me to take it home, and that would have been the end of it.

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O.K., I've got a real situation from about 22 years ago that I'd be interested how others here might handle it.  Some might know the outcome, because I posted it in this forum within the last 10 years.

Opening Day, you tag the gobbler you had pegged about 5 minutes after flydown to spend one of your two tags.  What a great way to start the season!  It's nice when a plan works out the way you hoped it might.  You have the entire rest of the season to use your last tag.

The next chance you have to hunt is the following Friday, which is Good Friday, and you have the day off.  You take your best friend (who mentored you) and set him up where you've seen lots of gobbler activity. You move off about 700 yards away, up on the ridge near where you killed your Opening Day gobbler.  Just past daybreak, a gobbler fires up close to where you set your friend up. Good deal! You're expecting a shot at any minute, but none comes.   Several munites pass and the gobbler sounds like he's getting closer.  You toss a few calls his way and he answers back immediately. He's definitely coming your way.  You peel back the hammer on the single shot and get ready for the shot.  The gobbler steps out from behind the young pines.  You cluck once on the mouth call to break him out of strut and it works.   

Looking down the barrel, bead on his wattles, you drop the hammer.  As you shoot, a slight movement behind the gobbler catches you attention, but the single shot's recoil changes your focus.  You look up and two gobblers are flopping where the one stood.  It turns out a second gobbler was following the strutter and he dashed up beside your bird the instant you shot.  You only have one tag left, what do you do now?

Jim

I wish I could remember my source but I read once a hen is bread, she stores enough of what she needs to lay about three clutches. They say only one breading is all she really needs for the season. When they bread more often than that it's possibly just for fun.

I'd have played it just like you did, silent and waiting, but I'd have shot. They don't need to be bred again. The viability of second nests goes down comparative to first nests but they can certainly make second and even third nests without being bred again. I'm not sure whether jennies are sexually viable (I've not seen research on that, though we know most jakes of the same age aren't). We do know some hens do not prioritize nesting or poult rearing, and that some hens even parasitize the nests of other hens to try and push their genetics into the fold. All that to say, there are lots of reasons the hens may have been doing what they were doing. I think it's a good moral compass you had guiding your reasoning but I don't know that the biology warrants the concern.


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