I've been turkey hunting for about 7 or 8 years now, and since my father was never really into turkey hunting, I've had to learn mostly on my own. I'm starting to get better each season, but every year, I'm sure a lot of hunter experience the situation where a gobbler is burning it up to your calls(Henned up) and goes the opposite direction and keeps on going. I always get stumped during the situations, because most times, they will stop gobbling and it seems like they're in the next county. What do you guys do in these situations?
My first tactic is to try getting him later in the day, day around 10-11
Also, if you can piss off the hen she will come to you with gobbler in tow. I try it as the last resort.
Quote from: land cruiser on February 02, 2014, 09:31:04 AM
My first tactic is to try getting him later in the day, day around 10-11
Also, if you can piss off the hen she will come to you with gobbler in tow. I try it as the last resort.
Good advice. Once his hens leave him, he will be lonely and looking. This is the perfect time to kill him IMO.
Now, if this doesn't work, and you sense a pattern with this bird, beat him to where he is going the next morning. Chances are, he is heading to his strut zone, where he feels safe, and can display for his girls.
These are the things I would try if it were me.
Let him go on his way and the next morning be waiting in the place he went to.
Fall in behind them and try to figure out where they are headed, but pay attention, their not the only turkeys around. Put what you learned in your memory bank. Kill him on the next hunt. Chances are good their going to naturally head to that same general location, be it a field or open area in timber. They may not roost in the same spot but they will probably be heading to the same area they did the first day. He will be a lot easier to entice if your already close to where their heading.
If you want to kill him that day you have to hang with him. Try him every hour or so. If you can manage to get close and not behind him or them, you stand a chance. I wouldn't bother calling from where he was, usually not a productive tactic.
I agree with all the above. You can shadow them, but never had great luck with that unless it is late morning. In that scenario it depends on what breeding phase they are in. If hens aren't leaving him all day then your chances are much less, but if they are leaving him to nest at some point the late morning / mid day times may be very good. If you have scouted or are familiar with where they are going, you might be able to get around and in front of them if time and land allows. But, I wouldn't risk spooking them if not comfortable with that. It's often best to be patient and keep tabs on him over the next few days if you can. It's like flipping a switch sometimes and one morning he may be willing and ready.
You could also make a BIG circle on the bird and try to get in front of him. I have had some success with this tactic as well. You need to have a good idea or guess where he might be headed. If he has hens do not call, because the hens will more than likely just go in yet another direction. Also, if you circle him...go WIDE...if you cut the circle to tight you will get busted.
One of the posts mentions to "piss off the lead hen" to come in your direction. I've seen this in other posts before but how exactly do you piss off the lead hen? Do you interupt her if she is calling, give excited cackles or what?
Quote from: jims on February 03, 2014, 10:13:32 AM
One of the posts mentions to "piss off the lead hen" to come in your direction. I've seen this in other posts before but how exactly do you piss off the lead hen? Do you interupt her if she is calling, give excited cackles or what?
Very aggressive and agitated yelping and cutting over top the hen's yelping and cutting with the goal of upsetting the hen to the point she comes to you looking to establish the proper pecking order. I've been able to do this a few times, and each time the gobbler came in following the dominant hen. More often than not, aggressively calling over top the dominant hen and interrupting her did not change her mind, and she continued to move away from my set up. It's worth the try, but in a big woods setting seems like the hens prefer going somewhere else to be left alone rather than come looking for a fight.
Doesn't work all the time, or even a majority, but worth the effort at times.....If you are at least getting a little interest (ocassional gobble), walk away and cutt aggressively every 30 yards or so. If his gobbling increases or he seems to finally be closing the distance, slip back towards him and sit down. Sometimes the temptation of the hen leaving will entice him to leave the hens or lead the hens into your lap. This works best with two people if you can leave the shooter ready as one walks away.
The best example, and still one of my most memorable hunts, was an old, long-spurred swamp gobbler a friend and I had hunted for a couple of days. I had scouted him for a couple of weeks before season and we were very close to killing him the first two days, but just couldn't seal the deal. It was storming the third morning and my friend was set to return to his house (3 hours away) later that day, so we waited for a small break in the rain and slipped into the bottom. We got on the gobbler a short time later, but as usual he had 4 or 5 hens with him. And today he had flown across a slough heading the other way. We would get an occasional gobble, but nothing more. As the rain started to intensify again, I told him I was headed out to work. He decided to stay for a bit longer, so I told him to ease closer to the slough. I started walking away and would turn and cutt aggressively every little ways. I noticed a quick increase in gobbling. I had probably went about 125 yards and I heard my friend shoot. When I got back to him he said the gobbler appeared with the hens in tow. The gobbler pitched into the nearside creek bank and the hens followed in flight landing within 15 steps of him. The gobbler emerged from the creek and met his demise.
Side note: For 2+ weeks he was the only turkey I heard gobble in that vicinity and he roosted in a fairly small area. By the next morning another gobbler was playing role of the big boy tending his hens. I killed him that next morning. The only reason I went back in there was I saw a gobbler cross the logging road in the rain as my friend and I walked out the day before. I really think the first gobbler had the others too spooked to gobble much. if any, in his area.
Quote from: jims on February 03, 2014, 10:13:32 AM
One of the posts mentions to "piss off the lead hen" to come in your direction. I've seen this in other posts before but how exactly do you piss off the lead hen? Do you interupt her if she is calling, give excited cackles or what?
Lol that works like never for me....
If it's early in the day, I try to swing around in front of him. I sometimes switch calls on him in a new setup. If no, reponse, I try the first type of call again, just to see if it will fire him up again.
If he's gobbling all the time but headed fast in one other direction, I figure he has a hen leading him away or anxious to get to a strut zone. Either way, I make a mental note of where I last heard him and slip in much later during the day and set up. I'll call sparingly and just spend a few hours waiting and watching for him to slip in.
The third thing I do if I don't have any success the first day as get on that side of his roost tree the next morning and wait for him to come my direction. Calling may or may not happen depending on if there are any hens.
Last year i sat and called all morning. I moved to a different location and about mid day i ended up back to my origional calling spot and ran into the biggest turkey i had ever seen. He spooked but i learned something that day.
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Shootem in the back of the head instead of the face
Guesswho gave some good advice.
Depends on the situation and timing of the season. If it's early and toms are with hens all day I'll try circling to get ahead if nothing else works. If it's midway through the season I'll just linger and loaf in the area till he comes back, they most often do. If it's a spot I may not hunt again during the season I will be more aggresive than somewhere I can devote more time. If Tom does something once I will be there to intercept the second time. If he does something twice he is usually dead.
I've only had limited success once trying to circle in front of a bird, and I got there that time just as they did and spooked him.
My tactic usually depends on if the bird has hens or not, or should I say if I think he has hens or not. If he's not responding to me much anymore, my assumption is he has hens and I move on. I'll run and gun to find a bird that wants to play.
If he's still answering every call, I'm assuming he doesn't have hens unless I figure out otherwise (hear hens, etc.). If that's the case, I will bird dog him until he shuts down, hopefully because I put some hevishot in his noggin.
My thinking is, maybe he just wasn't comfortable going where you set up, so if you move, it might just remove whatever was keeping him from coming in. Maybe he hung up on some thick stuff and eventually lost interest. Maybe a fence, or he wouldn't leave a field, the list goes on. My first move when he moves off is almost always to go to where he was and set up there. If that doesn't work, I try and get in his core zone where you call so close that he's bound to come take a look.
Doesn't always work, but nothing does!
lots of good tactics mentioned here they all work at one time or another
Don't be afraid to try something different. It doesn't usually go the way it's suppose to, or the way you wanted it to. One things for certain...patience kills turkeys. And having patience is tough.
If you have the area to hunt, find another bird that will want to play. If not use what is happening today for a scouting session and set up accordingly tomorrow.
I've personally had a lot of luck pissing off the boss hen, to the point where she leaves the area & leaves the gobbler "stranded" & then I've killed the gobbler 'cause he thinks I'm the boss hen... In order to do this, you have to have confidence in your calling, and don't give it a rest while the boss hen is in your area...
The biggest bird I've ever killed was in a batch of about 5-6 gobblers roosted way up on a ridge, and the boss hen roosted over a big creek; on the other side of the creek was a pasture... The gobblers were coming across a clear-cut that had recently been logged - strutting & gobbling down the road beds, coming right to our setup... We had a jake/hen decoy setup in the roads in front of us (we were hidden in a brush pile leftover from the logging) & the gobblers could see the decoys as they approached us, heading our direction... Well, we went into some light calling, and guess who was right behind us, roosted in a tree? Yep, boss hen, and she lost her flippin' MIND!! Basically, what I did was GIVE HER H*LL for the next 30 minutes or so - every single aggressive call she did, I gave it right back to her! I think I broke my mouth call that morning... :) Well, this went on & on, and finally, she flew off her roost, over the creek & went into to the pasture & all the gobblers flew over to the pasture with her! We were like, "What do we do now??" & about that time, the boss gobbler flew BACK across the creek, into a logging road close to me, walked up to my jake decoy, and GOT THE JELLY HEAD!! *BLAM*! :)
Last year on the same piece of land, I was in a spot very close to that hunt, and again, the old boss hen had these 2 gobblers "hung up" early every deg'gum morning; finally, I gave her the same treatment as that other boss hen, and she blasted out of there after a few minutes - but THIS time the gobblers stayed where they were... My buddy & I were able to slip around in a wide loop & come into the woods where they were, and I busted one in the head as we came up on 'em... I yelped as we approached every now & then, and they gobbled right back -- in other words, we were doing what the boss hen did, and they thought we were her... Worked like a champ...
The point is - you've got to get in between the gobblers & the hens/boss hen, try & get the hens out of the way, so the gobbler(s) are stranded & they're sitting ducks. In case you haven't figured it out, I'm an aggressive turkey hunter; it doesn't always work, but I don't tippy-toe around during the spring; it's a 6 week season, I usually only hunt on the weekends, and I gotta make it count.
If you're not all that confident in your mouth calling, an aggressive series of calls on a box call ought to do the trick. Again, what I've done (with success) is mimic the boss hen; do everything she does, AND SOME! :)
It hasn't always worked for me by no means,but I have had some pretty good luck with getting the old boss hen all worked up and if you can get her coming your way,he will follow.
Quote from: jdlong123 on February 02, 2014, 09:00:48 AM
I've been turkey hunting for about 7 or 8 years now, and since my father was never really into turkey hunting, I've had to learn mostly on my own. I'm starting to get better each season, but every year, I'm sure a lot of hunter experience the situation where a gobbler is burning it up to your calls(Henned up) and goes the opposite direction and keeps on going. I always get stumped during the situations, because most times, they will stop gobbling and it seems like they're in the next county. What do you guys do in these situations?
First thing you need to figure out is what's caused him to run.....could be a variety of reasons.
A lot of times they go on a gobbling run because they saw a bugger in the bushes....leaving a lot of hunters scratching their heads because they just know there's no way that turkey could have saw them.
Could a coyote be stalking him when he holds his ground gobbling ?....happens a lot.
The hardest problem to deal with is if the gobblers following the real thing.....if so a bunch of crazy unnatural sounding calling generally doesn't work too well except to push the hens farther away.
Out'e door writers like to tell us that gobblers run and won't come to hen calls because they are scared of getting whipped by the dominate gobbler....nothing could be further from the truth. I view it as a lame excuse from a novice.
Best general advice i could offer would be....have patience, try and stay with him but don't let him/them see you.
Knowing when to walk away and try him another day comes with experience.
Sit down...and wait..and wait..and wait...and wait..I have NEVER snuck up on turkeys...in the past, in my novice years, I would haul outta there trying to get ahead, around or beside them only to hear a gobble right back where I had come from... most of the times, the birds saw me before I saw them.....now I scout for sign...call sparingly...and wait... think about it..how many times do you hear birds screaming vocally thru the woods ?? my experiences are.. very rarely...and did I say wait? for me, turkey hunting is all about testing my patience.. and perserverence
The walking away bird is tough to kill that is why in my pre season scouting I'm more interested in where the birds are spending there mornings than where they are roosting.For me to many people get hung up on trying to call in abird straight off roost in early season and that Tom if loaded with hens and the chance your calling him away is not that great not immposible but not great but if you know the areas/strut zones they are using before season opens then you can kill them consistently as long as you don't spook them. The mid day approach doesn't work well in my area in early season the Toms have hens all day long. Now if its during season and you didn't get to scout the most important thing is to not spook the bird just listen to where he is going and then be there next day if you try to chase him chances are you'll spook the hens before getting close to him.
I make sure everything is in my vest pockets so it won't come out and then get up and think about the terrain and where I can travel AND NOT BE SEEN and try to get ahead of the turkeys and not have to call to them. If you are set on killing this bird while he is with the hens then try to ambush him by being where he is going. If you want to call to him eat your breakfast/lunch and move on to the next spot you think he'll be at in the next hour or so.
My situation is similar to yours and I've learned turkey hunting on the fly myself. Everyone has pretty much nailed it as far as making a wide circle trying to cut the group off or waiting until later in the morning to try to catch him after his hens have left him. However, sometimes none of the above will work and I'll wait until midday and try and locate strut marks in the road or field edge I may have heard him in. If I can find where he was strutting and can hunt the same place the next day, I'll be there at first light and be waiting with subtle yelps or possibly aggressive yelps to get the attention of his hens of he is still with them the next day. If you're somewhere you cant visibly see strut marks still go and set up where you think he passed through at first light the next day and be patient. Good luck!
Im excited to throw the haint gobble at him!!!! This might drag in a hen with gobbler or fire him up to show dominance
Quote from: Pressured Gobbler on February 13, 2014, 03:25:22 AM
Quote from: jims on February 03, 2014, 10:13:32 AM
One of the posts mentions to "piss off the lead hen" to come in your direction. I've seen this in other posts before but how exactly do you piss off the lead hen? Do you interupt her if she is calling, give excited cackles or what?
Lol that works like never for me....
I killed my very 1st gobbler (20yrs ago) by doing this. I had no idea at the time what I had accomplished :D. I don't think I've managed to do it since.
As a last resort tactic, with terrain permitting, I have used the Gulvas Tease Tactic a few times with success. I use a mouthcall so I can sound like a excited hen going towards him. Again terrain permitting, bird in a bottom is excellent for this. As I approach the closest point to him where he can't see me, I continue to call there for a bit, then walk away while continuing to call. Then sneak back to the last point and go silent.
Many times birds that talk and walk are simply wanting the hen to follow him, try to make him follow you.