BEEN HUNTING THE BOSS GOBBLER FOR 3 YEARS NOW CANT SEEM TO CLOSE THE DEAL WITH HIM I KNOW WHERE HE ROOST CLOSE TOO DONT KNOW WHAT TREE BUT CLOSE TO AREA HE WILL GOBBLE AND THEN ALL I HEAR IS HIS HENS AROUND AND THEN I CALL TO HENS AND THEN HENS TAKE HIM AWAY NOT SURE WHERE CAUSE HE SHUTS UP WHAT WOULD BE THE BEST WAY TO GET HIM ??? :fud: :newmascot: :gobble: :cross2: :angel2:
About all you can do is be persistent. He will have a moment of weakness at some point during the season. You just have to be there when he does. In the spring a gobbler is subject to engage in three things, breeding, fighting and sleeping. Catch him alone and his breeding instincts can get him killed. Catch him in the right mood and his dominating tendencies can get him killed. Don't be afraid to try different tactics, calls, approaches ect.
Quote from: guesswho on December 05, 2012, 02:43:51 PM
About all you can do is be persistent. He will have a moment of weakness at some point during the season. You just have to be there when he does. In the spring a gobbler is subject to engage in three things, breeding, fighting and sleeping. Catch him alone and his breeding instincts can get him killed. Catch him in the right mood and his dominating tendencies can get him killed. Don't be afraid to try different tactics, calls, approaches ect.
X2. 100% agreed. I have hunted turkeys off and on for two weeks or longer with very little receptive feedback from gobblers, then one day it is like flipping a light switch on and they are running over each other to come in.
Your post brought me back to a Tom I hunted for 2 1/2 seasons w/o closing the deal. This bird always seemed to be one step ahead of me and while I had a couple of close calls I lost out to Hens or something bizarre. One day in the 2nd season after many sleepless nights trying to figure him out I had a great set-up near his roost tree. I waited for him to fly down gave him a few suttle yelps and sat on him. Well in he was coming through the bottom I was in. He was about 25 yards or so from me taking a shot when a huge limb fell and spooked him. Last season the bird was at least 6 and he kinda went the way of being a Hermit. I believe he quit breeding and won't consider any interest in calling. I saw him this Winter and he don't even socilaize with the droves of mature birds. Anyway thanks for giving me the opportunity to recount a good one that got away. Good Luck with that Boss. Patience and Persistence and sometimes you will win
Persistance. Every Bad gobbler has at least one or two days a season they act stupid. You can only catch him acting stupid if your in the woods with him. I love chasing birds like this. In my younger days i would get wrapped up and miss other oppotunities because id be concentrating on this one bird.
My suggestion would to be to go after other birds, but go trolling at different times of the day for this old boy. Maybe go after other birds during the morning, then check him out late morning or even late afternoon. Dont give up on him, just dont devote all your time to him.
All good answers. Above all, don't give up. I assume that you do not plan to bushwack him. That would be the best way to kill him, but you wouldn't feel the sam as if you called him in.
Try some fighting purrs on him and if you have a wing , try and simulate a fight. Worked for me twice last season on old gobblers.
Catch him in the right phase of breeding and he can be had. I got on one boss bird the last day of the season. I had been to another piece of property all day. I got out of the truck at home and said "what the heck" I let out a string of cuts and sure enough he gobbled. he was at one of his strut zones. I was so tired from hunting all day that I almost didn't want to do battle with him. The woods were green and thick and I thought that just maybe I could get close enough to get him into gun range. I set up on him about 75 yards away and he would answer every call with thunderous gobbles. He was alone!
I moved 180 deg. on him and due to the foliage I got within 50 yards of him. He would move toward me but would never break out in the open. I stayed on him till nearly fly up time. He finally walked off still gobblin and as I got back close to the house I heard him fly up. I hope he made it thru the winter and I can do battle with him again.
I like the last part of the season best for killing old toms.
I'd say do something different than you've done. Sounds like you've put in your time on him, he may have seen the set-up and stays alive by staying away.
If you use only a hen decoy, try adding a strutter. Try a jake over a hen in a breeding position.
I've found that if I use the same call on the same bird I get less results. You may even have another caller come with you to sound like multiple birds, or just have them call. Everyone's cadence and rhythms are a little different.
Good luck.
I had that same problem a few years back. I hunted this one bird for three seasons and every time I thought I was in position to kill him something else happened and he always went the other way.
I finally killed him one day after not moving from his roost area. I didn't call to him at first light until he was almost ready to fly down. Then I only made a few soft clucks and purrs. As usual he went the other way.
I waited and didn't make another call until around 11:00. That's a long time to wait but it was the only thing I hadn't tried and the season was coming to a close. I brought a book along to help me bide my time.
I made a few yelps with my box call and immediately shook my gobble call. He responded. I waited until he gobbled five or six times and then made some soft clucks and purrs with my mouth call and then became silent.
After nearly ten minutes of silence I saw him slipping in. It took him almost a half hour to come into range. I took him when he came into a shooting lane at just over twenty yards. He fell within about five feet of his roost tree. I looked at my watch and it 11:49. In New York state we can only hunt until noon.
He became vulnerable after his hens left him and he headed back towards his roosting area where he felt comfortable. I'm sure this is something he had done almost every day of his adult life.
It was the most satisfying feeling I've ever had so try it and maybe you'll kill that bird.
In the past 10 years I've had to go after the Bird. Run and Gun so to say.
3 hunts I learned from.
1.One trick I learned is to set up on the point of a ridge if the bird is gobbling on one side or the other. When he comes around the side and if he doesn't like the set up or get hung up and turns away you can make a dash in the direction he is heading. 100 -150 or so and drop over the ridge and wait for an ambush. Dead Bird
2. I put a single hen decoy out with a string on it. If the toms come in and don't like what they see and turn away , let them get 60 yards or so and pull the hen in , use the gobble tub a couple times and wait. They get really pissed when they think another tom has pulled a hen away. 3 toms came back and were sounding off , not gobbling but letting the Tom they heard know to stay away. 1 dead bird
3. If you get a Tom hung up and you hear another maybe 300-400 yards off, move towards that bird , stop and call every 30-40 yards , hoping to get the one you moving towards to start coming your way but as it happens the 1st Tom can get jealous and very territorial and come running. 1st bird came running Dead Bird
option a. come back a few hours before dark, purr, cluck and scratch in the leaves every thirty minutes. stay alert he might come in silent. sit as close to his roost tree as you can figure.
option b. get a buddy. set up on opposite sides. One person be agressive, the other soft and sparing.
If these two things don't work, go hunt a different bird, and try him late in the season, or during the middle of the day.
A lot of good advice posted here. I'll throw in my two cents. As one poster already mentioned, I like late season for hunting those older birds. Your odds seem to go up. Most all of the hens have been bred and are nesting, and no longer give the gobblers much attention. However, a lot of those old birds are still just as willing to breed in mid-May as they were in mid-March. Try him early on his roost or mid-morning in late season, and you just might find him alone and willing. One other tip, if he is truly a boss gobbler, and the dominant bird in his area, challenge him. Set up close, make your usual hen calls. If he starts drifting away from you, slip back away from him 50-75 yards, yelp and cut a couple times, and follow that up with a gobble or two. If he thinks another gobbler slipped in and took away a hen, he might just come busting in to teach you a lesson. That tactic isn't highly successful, but on the occasions that it works you are in for a show. Good luck with him.
You have already done the most important part, locating His roost area. Be there well befor first light. If you can get between the Boss and His hens. When the hens start talking on the roost, flush them. Now let things settle a bit. Be the first hen He hears. If the Boss flushed and put some distance between Himself and the hens all the better. If He should gobble befor you make your first call, answer Him ASAP. If he responds give Him a couple of cuts . If he responds to you again , play hard to get, don't answer every gobble. When you do answer use just a couple of clucks, if He is coming at this point go silent. Scratch the leaves to let Him know you are there. If the boss hen starts calling get aggressive with Her . He will follow Her in to you. You may have go several mornings befor you have the proper position. Best to wait for a damp mourning thus it helps to get into position without so much disturbance. If the situation is not right just let them go their way without disturbing them, this will just allow you to know the travel route better. Go hunt another gobbler . Have patience , the morning will come when the conditions are right to harvest Him.
Every year I seem to pop a nice Tom the last week. But one year I was hunting a big ol Bird with the biggest paint brush you've every seen. Finally the last day I decided to set up across from his roosting tree on the edge of a field. It was the last 15 minutes of light I had only clucked every 20 to 30 minutes or so. As it were I started pulling my stuff together and decided to take one last look back down the field over my shoulder and when I turned to look guess who I saw 5 yards from me behind a tree with his head staring at me. I think he was just as surprised as I was. That ol Bird is still out there. But he is a quite one.
If you hunt him a morning or two a week, and you're serious about getting him, don't call to him for two mornings. Figure out what he does. Many turkeys I've dealt with have a couple roosting areas and a couple routes they take from each of those roosting areas. Pick out one or two each week and wait for the ambush. If you get a good visual and need to pull him only 30-40 yards, call 3-4 notes once or twice and leave it at that.
Persistence will help you get him, just don't spook him or educate him.
How Do you know it's the same bird from one yr to the next ? I've been chasing Gobblers for 25 yrs and couldn't tell one gobble from the other...guess if you could see his spurs you might be able to identify him individually...unless he has some unique characteristics .... :popcorn: