It's a textbook pre-dawn setup on a gobbling bird in the South (big woods). You get to a comfortable range, personally I like 100-150 yards without him knowing and he's still on the limb. How do you start off? Do you do some tree yelps, perhaps a flydown cackle as it get's later, do you try to out call the other hens?
I always find myself second guessing my early morning setups. Did I call enough? He doesn't seem to be responding to my calls, did I call too much... etc etc
I've killed a ton of birds, but for some reason I am rarely confident on my pre- flydown calling.
Unless you are competing with hens, a little soft calling till he answers then shut up till you know he is on the ground. If you get too elaborate with it he will sit up there expecting the hen to walk to his tree before he flies down. Make him fly down and come looking for you.
If you got hens competing with you and if there is any distance between them and him, try to manover in between them. Flush them away if you can get away with it. If they are roosted right with him or if they get by you and get to him, you got a long waiting game ahead of you. If there is a better game in town, go play it and come back later.
Quote from: Skeeterbait on March 02, 2011, 08:51:40 AM
Unless you are competing with hens, a little soft calling till he answers then shut up till you know he is on the ground. If you get too elaborate with it he will sit up there expecting the hen to walk to his tree before he flies down. Make him fly down and come looking for you.
If you got hens competing with you and if there is any distance between them and him, try to manover in between them. Flush them away if you can get away with it. If they are roosted right with him or if they get by you and get to him, you got a long waiting game ahead of you. If there is a better game in town, go play it and come back later.
:agreed:
Quote from: Skeeterbait on March 02, 2011, 08:51:40 AM
Unless you are competing with hens, a little soft calling till he answers then shut up till you know he is on the ground. If you get too elaborate with it he will sit up there expecting the hen to walk to his tree before he flies down. Make him fly down and come looking for you.
If you got hens competing with you and if there is any distance between them and him, try to manover in between them. Flush them away if you can get away with it. If they are roosted right with him or if they get by you and get to him, you got a long waiting game ahead of you. If there is a better game in town, go play it and come back later.
could not have said it better myself!
:agreed: :agreed:
good answer skeeter
I always have trouble figuring out what to do when a bird has been answering my every call but doesn't commit. It appears he is coming in on a string but shuts up and not to be heard from again until he a hollow or two over, presumably with a hen or two.
Do I go and try to cut him off? Make his lady friends a bit unhappy with my calling? Or patiently wait there until he decides I'm "good enough"?
Quote from: Finch on March 02, 2011, 09:06:17 PM
Do I go and try to cut him off? Make his lady friends a bit unhappy with my calling? Or patiently wait there until he decides I'm "good enough"?
there is not a TRUE answer to that unfortunately...each bird is different as is each hunt, what worked the time before may not this time. IF IT WERE ME i would try to piss of the hen first but after a few calls you are not getting anything back from the hen then i would prob move to try and get around him if property lines allowed me to.
Personally I seldom ever call until his feet hits the ground. The only instance I ever do is when I know for sure he has hens with him and even then my calling is at a very minimum if I call at all.
Quote from: reynolds243 on March 02, 2011, 09:20:08 PM
Quote from: Finch on March 02, 2011, 09:06:17 PM
Do I go and try to cut him off? Make his lady friends a bit unhappy with my calling? Or patiently wait there until he decides I'm "good enough"?
there is not a TRUE answer to that unfortunately...each bird is different as is each hunt, what worked the time before may not this time. IF IT WERE ME i would try to piss of the hen first but after a few calls you are not getting anything back from the hen then i would prob move to try and get around him if property lines allowed me to.
I like your answer. :) I've never been one to sit down and wait when I know a bird is leaving the area with a hen or two. I always try to head them off but have rarely been successful. I love constant action during spring gobbler.
I have a good friend that lives in Lebanon. He lives near the cracker barrel guy's home (or one of them I guess). I think its near Wilson Boat Dock Rd.
Quote from: Shotgun on March 02, 2011, 09:50:11 PM
Personally I seldom ever call until his feet hits the ground. The only instance I ever do is when I know for sure he has hens with him and even then my calling is at a very minimum if I call at all.
So you make your presence known and then just wait him out? Has experience taught you to be patient when he hasn't gobbled in "a while" and just to wait him out?
thats cool finch i know where you are talking about...
Quote from: Finch on March 02, 2011, 09:06:17 PM
I always have trouble figuring out what to do when a bird has been answering my every call but doesn't commit. It appears he is coming in on a string but shuts up and not to be heard from again until he a hollow or two over, presumably with a hen or two.
1) He may have picked up sight of a couple of hens and left with them.
2) He may be scanning the area of your calling, looking for the source of your calling. Not seeing a hen (or maybe spotting you), he may have split.
3) He may be waiting for the hen (your calling) to come to him.
4) A decoy or two
may bring him in closer for a shot, but he still may hang up too far away.
Lots of "mays" and Maybes" in turkey hunting. Only the gobbler knows why he's doing what he's doing.
I have to remind myself all the time, turkey hunting is about putting myself in the best opportunity/situation to take a bird. Just pure luck takes many birds! IMO, turkey hunting is an art, not a science -maybe!
Sometimes I will give a few soft tree yelps and maybe even a flydown cackle with a wing. But normally I have a good idea of where the bird is going and try to set up where he wants to go when possible. If the bird hits the ground and starts away from me with hens, I'll try to fire him up while he's walking away. I do this for a couple reasons. #1-There may be another gobbler around that wants to come in silent. #2-If I'm sure he's gone, I'll leave and see if I can get another to play the game. If not, I'll go back to the same set-up location about 9:30 or 10:00 and try the early bird again. Especially in late season (when hens are nesting) he may return to the area to breed the hen that never came to him that morning.
This has worked for me a few times in the past, but a lot of times he'll just walk off and nothing else comes in and I wake up a couple hours later with a mouth call stuck to my lip and thirsty. I pull the skin off my lip removing the mouth call and flush a bird when I move to get the water bottle out of the vest. :o ;D
ha ha good one.. :turkey2:
I do much the same as Gobbling Buck. And with surprisingly similar results. :gobble:
Quote from: Shotgun on March 02, 2011, 09:50:11 PM
Personally I seldom ever call until his feet hits the ground.
Pretty much sums it up for me too. I won't call until his feet is on the ground and I've found that spot I think I can kill him at. That might be at flydown, or it might be three hours later.
:icon_thumright: Good Post..
I usually break out a 27 sequence squealing hen call. That gets them to run right to me... :TooFunny:
On a serious note there some great tips here. What I do, Like some mentioned allready. Tree call,soft yelps,see if I get his attention. I don't call allot when he is on the roost. When I know he thinks there's a hen I'll wait, hit him with a fly down cackle and a couple of yelps. If he gobbles I'm hoping he's interested. Wait for him to fly down and give him self away,before I make my next move. If he is commin in my direction it's soft feeding calls and clucks with some scratching followed by more waiting and Patience. If there are some hens to compete with who are vocal I'll kick it up a notch and call aggressive. If he hits the ground and goes the other way. I might do some cutting hard yelping followed up by a quick GOBBLE!(depending Ware I am) and shut it down and play the big waiting game for while. This has all SOMETIMES worked for me.
Quote from: Finch on March 02, 2011, 09:59:17 PM
Quote from: Shotgun on March 02, 2011, 09:50:11 PM
Personally I seldom ever call until his feet hits the ground. The only instance I ever do is when I know for sure he has hens with him and even then my calling is at a very minimum if I call at all.
So you make your presence known and then just wait him out? Has experience taught you to be patient when he hasn't gobbled in "a while" and just to wait him out?
I do not call while he is in the tree, becase my experience has taught me that calling to him in the tree typically does 1 of 2 things. Delays him pitching down or causes him to pitch down in the other direction. Now once he is on the ground and Like Guesswho said You must be in good position for the kill, then the game begins.
Set up at 100 to 150 yards like you said. Don't call until you know they are on the ground. They'll stay in the tree longer if they think your coming. Know where they like to go and set up where they want to go and try not to call them back to you. They are conditioned.
Quote from: Finch on March 02, 2011, 09:06:17 PM
I always have trouble figuring out what to do when a bird has been answering my every call but doesn't commit. It appears he is coming in on a string but shuts up and not to be heard from again until he a hollow or two over, presumably with a hen or two.
Do I go and try to cut him off? Make his lady friends a bit unhappy with my calling? Or patiently wait there until he decides I'm "good enough"?
Mimic the boss hen with your closest sounding call(box, slate, mouth) note for note and cut her off on her yelps. Otherwise it's to wait out the hens doing business.
When I have roosted birds I try not to call, but get the message out with my wing and scratching. You need to be sure you don't have birds roosted where they can see you move. I hunt hilly areas so its pretty easy to stay hiddin over a rise. The agressive wing stuff gets them wondering. Once he hears all that on the ground, get ready. It doesn't work all the time but does anything? I killed a bird the last day of the season a few years ago on state land in NY. I never made a call. I believe had a made a call, I would have never seen that bird.