What do you guys do when a bird hangs up on you at 80 yds and refuses to do anything except strut and gobble. Meaning the bird is by himself not with a hen. I'm the worst in the world the world to stay quiet for a while usually to no avail and I end up trying to stalk the bird which is almost always unsuccessful. Any tips or advice is appreciated. Thanks.
A visible decoy will sometimes work, he is expecting the hen to come to him with all that gobbling and strutting, you can also have someone with you calling to him while walking away..I had the same situation happened to me the last 3 days this morning he saw my dsd decoy and now he is in turkey heaven!
Question for you, are you hunting an open field where the bird can see you or your decoy from a long distance?
If you've ever had the chance to watch hens in a field, and a Tom comes into it, when they go to the Tom they never yelp, they will most times just go clucking or purring once eye contact has been made. If that Tom can see you and you start yelping at him you will lock him up bigger than Dallas!! If you have a bird that is coming into your set up and you can see him QUIT YELPING, just use clucks and purrs or whines and scratch in the leaves, but if you continue to yelp at him you will lock him up and he'll stay there waiting for you to come to him!!!
Quote from: WillowRidgeCalls on March 31, 2012, 02:36:38 AM
Question for you, are you hunting an open field where the bird can see you or your decoy from a long distance?
If you've ever had the chance to watch hens in a field, and a Tom comes into it, when they go to the Tom they never yelp, they will most times just go clucking or purring once eye contact has been made. If that Tom can see you and you start yelping at him you will lock him up bigger than Dallas!! If you have a bird that is coming into your set up and you can see him QUIT YELPING, just use clucks and purrs or whines and scratch in the leaves, but if you continue to yelp at him you will lock him up and he'll stay there waiting for you to come to him!!!
This.
If he is alone and is hung up.....shut up. I know it is hard to do especially if he shuts up too. If he really wants you, he will gobble occasionally just to let you know where he is. This happened to me this past weekend. I had some gobblers hammering at everything I threw at them but would not come in to my setup. I tried soft, loud, gobbling back at them...nothing worked. Finally as I gave them the silent treatment and after about 15 minutes two of the gobblers broke off and came out of the timber and into the cut over that we were hunting in. My mother ended up harvesting one of the birds. Silent treatment is a deadly call.
Quote from: WillowRidgeCalls on March 31, 2012, 02:36:38 AM
Question for you, are you hunting an open field where the bird can see you or your decoy from a long distance?
If you've ever had the chance to watch hens in a field, and a Tom comes into it, when they go to the Tom they never yelp, they will most times just go clucking or purring once eye contact has been made. If that Tom can see you and you start yelping at him you will lock him up bigger than Dallas!! If you have a bird that is coming into your set up and you can see him QUIT YELPING, just use clucks and purrs or whines and scratch in the leaves, but if you continue to yelp at him you will lock him up and he'll stay there waiting for you to come to him!!!
all the above
Quote from: handcannon on March 31, 2012, 08:33:29 PM
If he is alone and is hung up.....shut up. I know it is hard to do especially if he shuts up too. If he really wants you, he will gobble occasionally just to let you know where he is. This happened to me this past weekend. I had some gobblers hammering at everything I threw at them but would not come in to my setup. I tried soft, loud, gobbling back at them...nothing worked. Finally as I gave them the silent treatment and after about 15 minutes two of the gobblers broke off and came out of the timber and into the cut over that we were hunting in. My mother ended up harvesting one of the birds. Silent treatment is a deadly call.
Another good thing to use is a kee kee. That tells the Tom why your not running to him like a hen should. If you mix it up with some adult hen talk and kee kees any aduilt bird, hens and Toms will come looking for a lost poult.
If I am in the woods and I can move, I'll get up and walk away from him slowly while soft calling. When he realized the hen is leaving, he will usually break the bubble of his comfort zone. It's worked several times for me.
the silent call is still hard to beat.
Another thing that you can try is to gobble at him. While toms will sometimes resist the call of a hen, they will almost always respond to another gobbler that they do not know. Turkeys have a pecking order and this is very important to them. This pecking order is in place all year long. By hearing an unfamiliar gobbler, this tom will want to know why the heck this other tom thinks that he can encroach on his territory. I think it is important to note, that if you are hunting on public land, it may not be that wise to use a gobble due to other hunters. Instead, try yelping like a tom. The sound is a little different than a hen and can vary. I am big into using slate calls and to produce the lower, rougher sound of a tom yelping, I use the middle of the call instead of the outside. Also, a tom's yelp is more drawn out on each yelp as well there being a slightly longer pause between each yelp. If you prefer a diaphragm call, try one with a thicker reed. On a box call, one side of the box typically produces a lower sound.
when possible i will back out 40 or 50 yards calling as i go.then sneak back in a setup. if the Tom is convinced that the hen is leaving sometimes he will close the distance.
Alot of great points, I do the silent treatment. Or the walk/crawl away calling lightly.
Drives em nuts.
This happened to me this year and I did the exact opposite of the silent treatment. I had been calling to this bird and could see him strutting back and forth and gobbling at each call I made. I watched his reaction when I called and saw he would get more excited when I end my call series aggressively on my box call (Warbird's Wormy Chestnut). I would give a couple of passive yelps and follow these up with a couple of hard aggressive yelps. After a couple of series of this he started to me strutting and gobbling as he came. My grandson shot him with my 20 ga. Beretta and a load of Hev-13 7's at 25 yds. I know this won't work all the time but I had the advantage of seeing how he was reacting to the call and that made the difference IMO.
great info here guys. I had a similar frustrating experience in 2010. Me & a gobbler exchanged noises at 75 yds in sight of each other, and it left me exhausted and confused. Thanks for the info.
There are several things to do depending on the bird's mood. I will normally try and set up back inside the woodline a little ways and still be able to see the bird. If you're right on the edge he will expect to see a hen. Throw a series of yelps at him and go silent. I've waited them out as long as 45 minutes to an hour before they break and come. If he turns and starts heading away cluck and purr at him to see if you can turn him back. If that doesn't work start calling agressively. Slipping off in the other direction and calling like the hen is leaving will make them come at times as well. There is no set method for killing these type birds but usually less calling works best.
Go with a friend, you are the point person and have your friend set up 25 to 50 yards into the woods and have your friend call.... this should pull the tom in close enough to shoot... :turkey2:
Keep your gun up on one knee and hands on the gun. Lay your other leg flat and use your leg and foot to scratch in the leaves. They can't stand it, he will give in with time.
Just don't call and be patient. Patience kills old birds. Sit still and scan with your eyes, listen for his foot steps.
Stop calling when you know the bird has begun closing distance.
Have you ever watched a turkey hunt in a field where a bird is called to while enroute? He stops, gobbles, struts, and meanders around before resuming his approach.
You should NOT be calling to a bird you can see. No clucks, no purrs, no scratching because this allows him to isolate the area where the hen is located. He is no longer hunting you at that point and you have lost your tactical advantage by revealing yourself.
I give a hung up bird the silent treatment; sometimes it takes 10 minutes or sometimes it takes 40 but he will most often do one of two things.
Often, if you have chosen the right set-up, he will shut up (everytime a bird shuts up you should pay attention to it because it is a behavioral change that means something) and he will show up within range shortly after.
Or, he will leave you and head in a new direction while gobbling. This is fantastic because it means you haven't spooked him (like it sounds like you often do) and he is telling YOU where HE WANTS to go. You then reposition and kill him.
Stop thinking about the kill as something that has to happen immediately, back of your calling and
force your mind to become more process oriented and less impulsive.
Calling is a tool but you have to let the bird let react to it before you can decide what you do next. A lot of guys call their way out of a kill....
On hang ups I quit calling and wait. If he takes more than an hour to show up I sneak out and circle and try to locate him with a hawk or crow call and setup from another direction and switch calls.
:camohat:
I think alot of hang ups come from calling too much. Do you wanna make em gobble or do you wanna kill em? If you call to a close gobbler one time he knows where you are within 50 yards, the second time you call he's got you pinned to within 20 yards. The third time he knows what tree your leaning against. Once a gobbler shows he's coming your way shut up. I was at a seminar in the 80's that Jim Clay from Perfection calls gave, a question was asked "What call do you use when when a gobblers answered you and he's coming your way?" Jim replied I use the click call. The questioner seemed puzzled so Jim explained I click the safety off, shut up and let him come find me. Its worked for me over the years.
If you dont think its true try it some time call twice and see how close that bird can pin point you.
Quote from: FloppinTom on May 03, 2012, 07:30:17 PM
On hang ups I quit calling and wait. If he takes more than an hour to show up I sneak out and circle and try to locate him with a hawk or crow call and setup from another direction and switch calls.
:camohat:
I think alot of hang ups come from calling too much. Do you wanna make em gobble or do you wanna kill em? If you call to a close gobbler one time he knows where you are within 50 yards, the second time you call he's got you pinned to within 20 yards. The third time he knows what tree your leaning against. Once a gobbler shows he's coming your way shut up. I was at a seminar in the 80's that Jim Clay from Perfection calls gaveand a question was asked "What call do you use when when a gobblers answered you and he's coming your way?" Jim replied I use the click call. The questioner seemed puzzled so Jim explained I click the safety off, shut up and let him come find me. Its worked for me over the years.
If you dont think its true try it some time call twice and see how close that bird can pin point you.
I shot a bird last saturday that knew exactly where I was sitting. My decoy was out in the field but it was brushy and he didnt see it. He came STRAIGHT to my tree. I hang up once I know hes heard me talking to him.
I called to a bird with the sneed hot hen slate... he gobbled to it and he hung up about 75 yards away and I tried to do some soft talk to him clucks and purrs and he still wouldn't commit, but he would gobble... so I did the exact opposite of what you are suppose to do.... I got my jerry zebro bubinga/hickory box out and I yelped like crazy to him loudly... he broke strut and came right to the decoys and my buddy shot him ....this was about 2 weeks ago ... I just figured something different couldn't hurt...
I have never heard of yelping hard to a hung up bird with a box call working. What I have always done is sit still and shut up, at the most i will purr and cluck very very soft. That gobbler will more than likely come looking for you eventually. The problem mose hunters have is they get up and leave.
In the situation that is given by the OP I will do one of two things. I will purr softly on a slate which will often do the trick. If that doesn't get it done I give them the silent treatment which usually results in 1 of 2 things happening. The first is the gobbler gets tired of waiting for the hen to come to him and he will come on in to the calling position for the shot. Or he will move away from his strut zone gobbling as he goes. If I can determine that he has moved far enough away, I will move quickly to the strut zone and let him know that the hen finally got there. It has proven to be very effective many times on older cautious birds.
Not all, but most hang ups are due to a bad sit up. What I mean by bad, if a turkey can see a long way, he can see were the call is coming from, he will hang up alot of times. I know you can not always do it, but I try and sit up were I can not see more than 40 yds. If I can not see more than 40 yds. that means a gobbler can not see were the call is coming from, until he gets inside of that 40 yd. range. If one does hang up and I have had them do it to me, about all I will ever do is cluck and purr. If I can I will move. Move back, left or right sometimes just a short quick move will bring him in. Alot of times a move left or right works better than moving back. Someone behind works good but I hunt by myself 99% of the time.
:OGturkeyhead: :OGturkeyhead:
:newmascot:Had one walking a round top and he would not come down for anything. He never left the woods on that round top and when i went up, you can guess what happened. Gone flew away to the place i just came from. GRRRRRRR !!!! Next time.