If you have any advice from the do's and dont's on turkey hunting, PLEASE SHARE WITH THE REST OF US.
#1. Turkeys are the most unpredictable creature on earth.
#2. When I first got into turkey hunting, people always told me that turkeys would NOT walk through thick stuff; high weeds, DOWNED TREE TOPS, come down hill. ALL THAT IS BULL%^&$. THEY WILL, AND WILL NOT HESITATE TO DO IT. Missed a chance at a big ole longbeard because of the above mentioned. Would have been my very first bird or second bird.
Yeah I busted alot of them mythes that we were told when me and Wes started, folks said you can't call in a henned up gobbler, I killed 2 of them this past year, one of them braught his lady in with him.
If I was to give advice on turkey hunting it would be to know the bird your hunting, read, study and ask questions, no matter how dumb you think it sounds, then forget about half of it, cause an old turkey will teach you all you need to know. Get out in the woods and look for birds, see what their doing, eating and staying. Alot of what I learned about turkeys was from sitting in a blind and just watching hens, and anyday in the turkey woods is a good day, weather you kill something or not.
Keep things in perspective, relax and enjoy yourself. It's supposed to fun!!
dont over think the situation. Like Dan said sit back relax and have a blast
i relax when he's takeing a ride with me in da truck
:icon_thumright:
Quote from: moore on February 09, 2011, 10:43:01 PM
this may sound stupid, but when hunting in a blind bring a piss bottle to relieve yourself.Last year I was hunting in my blind while bowhunting them birds and I had long beard come in silent and behind me.I open the door to take a piss and the PUTT PUTT there he went.The next day NO coffie for me and bring the piss bottle
happens everytime
if i was going to give someone advice I'd say find the birds and buy a blind
I've just about quit hunting from a blind if i do I'm usually out of it in an hour i like to move around
When you guys get these call's take em with you when you're driving to work, etc. "Better if your alone" :whip2:
and learn how to call "softly". Loud calling=hung up birds. I'm not saying to not call aggressively. You can be aggressive and quiet if aggressive is what you want to do. Another tip: If you're running and gunning and you've stopped to make a few call's don't do so without having a tree picked out "before" you call. You might have to dive for cover if you get cut off by one. Whenever I get a response from a distant or somewhat distant gobbler I always answer rt. back with another series of yelps with more excitement to "take his temperature". If he answers again you will learn a lot about the situation. A lot of times it's hard on that first response to get a direction so a second response helps a lot in figuring out if you did hear a gobble and where it came from. You can tell if that first one was a shock gobble, a curtesy gobble or the real deal. If he cuts you off on that second series start looking for a good place to kill him.
By just reading this, I can tell you have spent some time in the woods Dan. Stuff like this ONLY comes from being out there and not been read somewhere. This is where you separate the turkey hunters from the wannabies. That is some great advice. Also learn how to use the mouth call with a box or slate at the same time. Make it sound like two hens talkin. It worked for me two years ago on opeing morning, had a mouth call in and used a slate call at the same time. I would yelp on one and then cutt on the other one, cutting the yelp off or vice versa. Had two gobble at about 150 yards below me, after several attemps using a locator. I set up and called one more time to see where they were,they ended up being less than 60 yards below me. They came in runnin up that ridge and I shot him at twenty yards. Needless to say I was back home before the storms moved in. If you don't get a response from a locator call, don't be afraid to try different stuff.
I run two and sometimes 3 call's all the time. It's a great tactic. Speaking of runnin and gunnin I developed a style of it about 15 yrs. ago that has really been productive for me over the yrs. I usually will pick out a nice tree and sit down first and then I set my call's out around me with my box call's on my left and my pot call on my rt. I carry my mouthcalls in one of those old squeeze rubber change purse's. You can fit 4 of them in there. It's crowded but they will fit. When I sit down I'll grab a mouthcall and put it in and then grab either a box or my pot call. I usually start out with a series of soft yelps to be sure one isn't on top of me. It happens! I'll wait a few min. and then I get serious. My favorite combo is kee kee'ing with a mouth call and answering with a box but I do all sorts of combo's. I'll get pretty serious with this first series that I run (after my soft calling) and will call for 2-3 min. but have called for 5-6 min. many times. I also get pretty loud a few times but kind of vary my volume. At some point I go silent and set my box or pot down. I always have my Encore lying on my lap and that's where I leave it. I actually time my next sit (I'm serious) I click the stop watch feature on my watch and I wait 10 min.-silently. I've killed birds sneaking in during this time but the action usually happens with my next calling series. When I call again my favorite tactic is to do a ground cackle like the one on the video on my site that follows the owl hoot. If a gobbler is headed your way he will shock gobble "almost" everytime. If one gobbles close I might cluck or do a two note yelp but I'm mainly trying to get eye's on him. Whether I pick my gun up or not depends on the situation. More times than not I'm not picking it up until it's go time. I like having my hands free for my binoc's, leaf scratching, my call's, etc. etc. Good advice-probably not but it works for me. If I don't get an answer to my ground cackle I'll usually call again for 1-2 min. and then hit the watch again. This time I usually wait about 5-8 min. and call again. This time I usually grab a different call than what I've been running like my long box, alum. pot or a different mouthcall and I will do you yelping on it. If I don't get an answer I'll wait a min. or so and maybe yelp softly 3-4 times and if nothing I'm heading to my next spot. In Ga. I usually know where I'm headed to next but if I'm in unfamiliar territory I'll usually move 2-3 hundred yards and do it again. I call this a slow run n gun. It's a killer tactic. You'll be shocked at how many birds you will kill between 10-20 min. and how many you'll kill that just sneak in without a peep. Everybody wants to kill a hard gobbling bird but there's also satisfaction in killing those sneaky one's too and lot's of times they will be older birds. If you have a hunting buddy you can do a variation of this by flanking each other about 100-150 yds. apart and calling back and forth to each other. Buddy hunting is really deadly. You just have to work out a few details before hand and have some signals worked out like a certain call if you see one or it's time to move and where you will meet up when you move.
dang dan, thats great advice
dan the man
Quote from: mfd1027 on February 10, 2011, 08:14:51 PM
My favorite combo is kee kee'ing with a mouth call and answering with a box.
I will give that a try this year. I have done the kee kee on a limited basis but last year I really worked on gettin the sound right. I think I can do just about perfect everytime now. Those 40 minute drives back and forth to work really pay off when learnin to use a mouth call. I can see very similar hunting tactics between us. The slow runnin and gunnin thing is more what I do. I don't have the patience to just set next to field waiting on a bird to show. People laugh at me for all the calls I take with me, I have to watch out not to clank when walkin around trying to locate a bird. :TooFunny: As for box calls, I only have one and I leave it at home, unless my boy wants to go and use it. He is in the process of learning the slate call, so hopefully he will be able to assist me in calling this spring.
Dan that's some good advice there, I try to do some of that to, but generaly while walking, I'll get a mouth call out and do some soft yelling then do some aggressive yelps and clucks, me and Wes double team when hunting early mourning, we do a fly down ruteen that kills birds, well,,,,up untill Wes started hateing to hunt with that is. :'(
i just hunt with you bc i have too.......
the fly down is awsome
I really want to follow you guys with a video camera. lol :fud::character0029:
i'll follow you dan
Quote from: gob09 on February 10, 2011, 09:34:50 PM
i just hunt with you bc i have too.......
the fly down is awsome
Because you have to???? Dang your hard on my feelings.. :z-loveshower:
Gobble??? This is a controversial call and some folks get all upset if you advise people to use it. Just use common sense. I use gobbles and "gobbler yelps" all the time. Gobblers come to the gobble call. I use it to create jealousy. I gobble/gobbler yelp with a mouthcall so I don't carry a shaker or use my box call to gobble with. There's lot's of gobble call's out there. If you mainly hunt public land learn how to gobbler yelp with a mouthcall. I use a heavy reeded 2 reed call with a really deep pitch and i usually yelp with a 2 note sequence. yelp yelp. Maybe I'll try to record a gobbler yelp so you guys can hear what I'm talking about. I've thought about adding a line to my call's of the exact call i use. I wish I had had a camera with me last year on one hunt because I had a mature bird cross a field coming rt. to me and he yelped the whole way but always with the same yelp yelp sequence. It would have made awesome footage. I will usually add a gobbler yelp in a scenario when an approaching gobbler is just taking too long to get there. I usually turn my head 180 deg. away from my last contact and I'll either gobble or gobbler yelp. It doesn't always work but on those that it does work on it happens quick. I'm not real good at gobbling with a mouthcall but good enough to kill birds with it.
i was huntin with my cousin last year on AEDC it was getting late and all we seen was a hen that came in to ten yrds. when we was gettin ready to leave he gobbled and we got a response we barely heard it and it was almost roost time so we left i wanted to go to him but being in the middle of 40,000 acres after dark aint fun with a scardy cat like him i beleave he went back the next day and killed one close to where we were at
I have heard a gobbler yelp before but it sounds like hell in my opinion. I have tried to duplicate that sound but with the calls I got, I can't get the sound he made out of any of them. I am interested in the heavy 2 reed mouthcall you are talking about. How could I get my hands on one of them? Your the only person that I have heard talk about a mouthcall you can gobbler yelp with. PM sent.
I've got you covered Dustin. I made a few refinements last night and think I've got it perfect. If the video comes out any good I'll put a link on here for you guys to critique. lol Man, I wish I would have recorded that gobbler yelping last yr. the only vid. I can find on the net is at wild turkey zone and it's lousy.
Quote from: mfd1027 on February 12, 2011, 10:20:51 AM
I've got you covered Dustin. I made a few refinements last night and think I've got it perfect. If the video comes out any good I'll put a link on here for you guys to critique. lol Man, I wish I would have recorded that gobbler yelping last yr. the only vid. I can find on the net is at wild turkey zone and it's lousy.
Great deal, can't wait to give it a try. I'm sure it will sound great. Thanks. I will definitly let you know what I think.
Lots of good information here. Already have gotten some info I'm going to try this spring, primarily the use of the keekee which I thought was primarily a fall call, and the gobbler yelp. I hunt state land so I'm still not going to use the gobble.
Dan, When you talk about calling softly, how softly are we talking? Are there any good ways to gauge how loud you are calling? I know it would probably be hard to put into words.
How did the video turn out on the gobbler yelping Dan?
Dustin. I recorded a short video just to see how the call sounded and I think it's gonna be fine. The key to gobbler yelping is more about cadence/pitch than anything. You want to sound totally different than your other call's with a deeper pitch and slow yelping. I try to yelp 2-3 times really slowly and the call I made up makes up for the pitch. I found something interesting with the call. It has a pure cutting sound which is kind of neat. I think you could run a neat sequence yelping on a box or pot ,followed by some cutt'n and then turn your head and do some gobbler yelping. I'll see if I can put something together tomorrow. Before I put something out there I want to be sure the call runs with the same pitch after I let it dry out on the counter top over night. I know you will have to break it loose to get the tone rt. for gobbler yelping.
Josh. I don't think you can learn to call too softly. It's great practice to learn how to call at an almost inaudible level. Anyone can learn to call loud. Learning how to call softly is what separates caller's. You'll probably hear more gobbles if you're a loud caller but you'll kill more gobblers if you call softly. Soft calling keeps them looking and they will advance farther when they're looking for that hen (you). In some ways I think they're a lot like us in the way they find us. As noise (yelping) goes in their ears they expect to see a hen within a certain distance from where they're at and if that noise is pretty loud they expect to find that hen pretty quick and do what some folks call "hang up". If they can barely hear a noise (yelp/cluck/etc.) they will move farther from where they are at to get closer to that hen and therefore get closer to you. BOOOOM!!! Learn how to do those soft little yelps, clucks, etc. Purring is tough to get rt. but if you can purr by all means purr. It took me a long time to learn how to yelp just one time but it was important to me because I've heard hens do it so much when a gobbler gets close and they're doing that single clucking they do when they're on that "final approach". It also took me a long time to learn to love the silence gobblers nearly always exhibit on that "final approach". We all want those birds that gobble all the way to their death but it just doesn't happen that much. Like i said before I just leave my gun on my lap and wait em out nice and comfortable. I love it when I hear footsteps and that "loud" single cluck.
Don't forget the best soft/close call of all time"scratching in the leaves". Man, I got my heartbeat up!!! lol
Well its happening again, waddells is swellin up, beard is stickin out, heads gettin short on blood and turning white with a little blue. May start gobblin with all this warm weather. :TooFunny: :TooFunny: :TooFunny: :TooFunny: :TooFunny: :TooFunny: :TooFunny: :TooFunny: :TooFunny: :TooFunny: :TooFunny: :fud: :newmascot: :smiley-char092:
Quote from: harvester on February 14, 2011, 02:14:01 AM
Well its happening again, waddells is swellin up, beard is stickin out, heads gettin short on blood and turning white with a little blue. May start gobblin with all this warm weather. :TooFunny: :TooFunny: :TooFunny: :TooFunny: :TooFunny: :TooFunny: :TooFunny: :TooFunny: :TooFunny: :TooFunny: :TooFunny: :fud: :newmascot: :smiley-char092:
:TooFunny:
Quote from: mfd1027 on February 13, 2011, 10:44:51 PM
Dustin. I recorded a short video just to see how the call sounded and I think it's gonna be fine. The key to gobbler yelping is more about cadence/pitch than anything.
When you gonna let us see it.
It was more of a sound check than anything. If I'm going to put something on Youtube which is what I have to do to put it on here I need to look a little more presentable. I'll see what I can do tomorrow.
as long as it sound's good dan we can look over you in your boxers sittin in that awesome looking chair :goofball:
Quote from: gob09 on February 14, 2011, 08:08:25 PM
as long as it sound's good dan we can look over you in your boxers sittin in that awesome looking chair :goofball:
:TooFunny:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXZTA-ljq0w
I just walked out to the trailer and shot this. You'll have to excuse the attire. lol
sounds great Dan im going to try and get the wife to order me a few of your calls
You'll have plenty to play with as soon as I get those dang plastic clamshell cases so hold off Wes. They were shipped on Th. so I expect them tomorrow. I've got my fingers crossed.
Sounded great, I think that will help bring in a few more of them stubborn longbeards that want to hang up just out of range. I have noticed that if there is a boss tom around somewhere close, the subdominant toms seem to sneek in or just stay out of range and gobble there heads off. That may very well be the ticket right there, they will think it will be a jake coming in and run right on in to the end of my barrell. :z-guntootsmiley:
Sounds good Dan, how do you that, I worked on that today and couldn't get a good yelp.
i think it's the caller not the call Rick
Oh no!! Rick, I'm having a flashback that's a Rem. question. :TooFunny:
Quote from: mfd1027 on February 15, 2011, 10:46:14 PM
Oh no!! Rick, I'm having a flashback that's a Rem. question. :TooFunny:
i almost peed myself :TooFunny:
now dan you know that was cold :TooFunny:
Quote from: gob09 on February 15, 2011, 09:23:49 PM
i think it's the caller not the call Rick
Smart aleck, I wasn't talking to you now was I...
Quote from: mfd1027 on February 15, 2011, 10:46:14 PM
Oh no!! Rick, I'm having a flashback that's a Rem. question. :TooFunny:
[/quote that's just to funny right there Dan.. :TooFunny:
this is a public forum i can jump in if i want too...
sorry rick :-[
Quote from: gob09 on February 16, 2011, 07:44:24 AM
this is a public forum i can jump in if i want too...
sorry rick :-[
Now my feelings are hurt, you calling me a bad caller which ain't no surprise really, and Dan haveing flash backs of Remy with my questions,,, :'(
:TooFunny: :TooFunny: :TooFunny:
You fellas aint right. Don't be pickin on Rick just because the can't get it right. :TooFunny: :TooFunny:
Sorry Rick. I just couldn't resist. :lol: OK, what is it you want to know?
This perhaps one of the best threads I have ever read. Seriously this is outstanding info. It's great to be here guys.
Quote from: Hawken on February 16, 2011, 06:08:41 PM
This perhaps one of the best threads I have ever read. Seriously this is outstanding info. It's great to be here guys.
Feel free to share of your knowledge with us.
How many of you guys carry a set of hand pruners with you turkey hunting?
I do and use it very often. In fact I consider it a very important piece of gear.
Quote from: Hawken on February 16, 2011, 07:21:06 PM
I do and use it very often. In fact I consider it a very important piece of gear.
yep i forgot to mention those i have some fiskars that work great and for christmasmy wife got me a AVID turkey tool that has a saw on it
I'll throw something out here. I hunt a lot of state & federal ground, and what I am finding is usually less equals more. Less agressive and softer calling, and sometimes less calling in general. When moving through the woods SLOW DOWN, you can still cover a lot of ground, but do it very slowly and LISTEN. Another handy thing I have learned is when walking fire breaks or old logging roads try to stay in the shadows and again go slowly. When going around a corner have your gun half way ready.
Leadership just can't get any love these days :bike2:
I carry a set of pruners in my vest and use them alot, they are probaily the most inportant tool I carry besides TP.
Quote from: Hawken on February 16, 2011, 08:29:18 PM
I'll throw something out here. I hunt a lot of state & federal ground, and what I am finding is usually less equals more. Less agressive and softer calling, and sometimes less calling in general. When moving through the woods SLOW DOWN, you can still cover a lot of ground, but do it very slowly and LISTEN. Another handy thing I have learned is when walking fire breaks or old logging roads try to stay in the shadows and again go slowly. When going around a corner have your gun half way ready.
Wes are you listening to this..
Yep- pruner's and a folding hand saw. Don't leave home without em.
"Setup". It's a term that we all use that is related to, "hopefully", the last place we plunk our butt's to get ready for that final approach where we hope to kill our gobbler. Setup is not something to take lightly and paying attention to detail at this critical point in the chase will pay off big. Deciding where to sit, what tree, so on and so on is a lot easier on property you know well. On public land it can be a nightmare. So many times on unfamiliar land we setup in a great looking spot only to have that gobbler stop just out of range and then find out, after the battle is over and he's walked away, that there was an obstacle between your "kill zone" and the gobbler. We scratch our heads and come up with all kinds of reasons why we didn't kill him "hens-always number 1-lol", "too much calling", "not enough calling","wrong call", "he saw me", "predator", "other hunter", "etc", "etc". Anytime I'm not successful on a bird I always ease up to where he "hung up" to find out what made him stay there. You'll learn a lot about turkey hunting just doing this one thing and secondly I've killed a lot of birds calling them back to that spot but this time I'm either waiting in the hang-up spot or close enough to it to kill him. It's going to happen on public/unfamiliar land so don't get discouraged, use it as a learning experience. You haven't done anything wrong you just happened to pick an ambush spot that didn't work. On land that your familiar with "hang-ups" shouldn't happen as often. Just a few example's of "things" that will cause birds to hang up would be: a body of water (stream, creek, river, pond, flooded roadway or large puddle after a hard rain), a fence, thick undergrowth (be careful after greenup-places that turkeys will walk through during the early season are now places they hang up), blow downs (trees, etc), something as simple as a log can hang em up. When I strike a bird or am moving in on a roosted bird I get real serious about setting up. The first thing I ask myself is will a turkey walk through this stuff. I want good visibility. Unless i know the exact tree a bird is roosted in and the exact tree I want to sit at I give gobblers a little room when hunting a roosted Tom. I figure he's got visibility up in that tree (think about how much our visibility is when hunting out of a treestand) and if he see's me the likelihood of killing that Tom that morning are pretty slim. I also want the room so I can slip into my setup undetected and so I can survey the surroundings and pick out the best spot to kill him. I usually setup about 100 yds or so from roosted birds and that's a rough figure. Understory can make a big difference in how far or close I get. i will always err on the side of caution. If you think about it a bird can easily glide 100-200 yds when he pitches out of a tree so even the 100 yd. mark is relatively close. So, the first question is will a turkey walk through this stuff. If you don't think he will "move". Many times I've walked away from birds to find that perfect spot, sometimes I move left or right if I know there's a better spot to kill him in. I call "very" sparingly at this time. If I've had a response and I have a general idea where he is I'll make my move before I call again. I'll move on birds that I know are coming if I don't like the spot I'm at. A lot of times that little move alone will make a bird commit. If he was coming where you were and expecting to see you there and the next time he hears that hen she's moved off to one side or the other he'll put it in high gear to find you. I think they have the sense that the hen is either moving away or she's also looking for him and now if she's in a good spot for the meet up he'll come trotting in. Turkeys like visibility and gobbler's like to show off (strut) where they can be seen. Enough on visibility. Just take note- visiblility is a good thing. Now for the exact setup. Be careful with the tree you pick to sit at. I always look for one that has a nice looking flat spot or even a curved spot on the trunk that I can lean back on comfortably. I also check for roots, a big root underneath your butt "sucks". Check both left and rt. of where you plan to sit and see if you can slide either way easily. It happens all the time. I "hate" chairs or those little elevated webbed seats for this reason. I've got a bunch of them hanging in my shed-lol They don't go turkey hunting with me anymore. I use a Big Game cushion that's thicker in front and slopes downward toward the tree. I love it. I can slide off of it easily if I need to adjust left or rt. Look for sticks, limbs, pine needles, leaves, etc etc and rake em out of the way. I prefer to be sitting on dirt if I can and that includes the area out to where my feet are. I clear out a "lot" of room. Being able to make moves in relative silence is nice. Be careful about having cover out in front of you. I like having cover out in front of me but the closest I want any of it is beyond where my feet are when my legs are straight out in front of me. I also make sure there's nothing that will interfere with me swinging my gun. It really suck's when you pick a tree that's in the rt. spot only to find out that your gun barrel hits a tree that's 3' in front of you when you need to swing your gun left or right. It's also best to sit with your left shoulder toward where you expect your gobbler to show up (for rt. handed shooter's). If you face directly at that spot it's really hard to swing rt. if it's necessary. With your left shld. facing that sweet spot you can easily swing 180 degrees without having to move your butt. Essentially you've increased your coverage area from just over 90 degrees to 180 degrees when you sit with the forend shoulder facing the area you expect your gobbler to show up. Will I give up the forend shoulder toward the bird scenario for comfort/cover, you bet, but I do pay attention to it. As far as gun up on knee in the ready position or not I'll leave that up to you. I don't sit that way. I like to be comfortable so I just lay my gun on my lap. If I'm comfortable I know that I'll get my chance to make my move. Many times I'll have birds in range but I'll just be sitting there with my gun on my lap. lol Probably not the best advice. That's how I do it. I hate getting all cramped up. lol I don't use a vest anymore. I will unbuckle my fanny pack and set it somewhere out of the way. I take my boxcall out of it's holster, pot call out of pocket with one striker and set my mouthcall carrying case on my leg. I use one of those rubber change purse's for my mouthcall's and I usually already have one or two in my mouth. That's rt. a lot of time's I will have one against my cheek and be running the other one. A call that a lot of folks would be well seved by that gets overlooked a lot is a push pin. I have 3 of them and I usually carry one with me. It's an old Quaker Boy and it's caused the death of many a turkey. An "easy clucker" is also a great "killing" call. Sometimes all you need is a single cluck and a good single cluck on a mouthcall is not all that easy to do when you're all excited and breathing hard. You don't want to be using a two handed call (pot/box)when they're close. Get yourself a pushpin. Mine happens to have a really neat little yelp to it too. They have a reputation for only being for beginner's and kids and I can tell you from experience that's BS. They're killers.
Sorry this post is so long!!! As you can probably tell setup is pretty important to me.
That is great information Dan, thanks. I have a question that has been bugging me: Say you are hunting state land and you know where you have seen birds the last few days, but don't know where they are roosted. You are there well before light and you know where you want to set up. With not knowing where they are roosted, how far in do you go, do you go to where you want to be quickly and quietly and setup? Do you play it safe until light so you don't bump them off the roost?
Josh. If, you've seen these birds later in the morning and you have an idea of where they roost you're in good shape. Try to figure out the route they're using to go from roost to where you saw em and setup somewhere along that route. That's probably oversimplifying things. If you're worried about busting them off the roost be conservative and hang back until that first gobble and if you can move up on em a little do it. For every bird i've killed off the roost I've killed 10 later in the morning. Being successful at killing a bird off the roost requires special circumstance's and if the stars aren't aligned just right you can ruin an entire morning if you get too aggressive.
Thanks Dan, I plan on doing much more scouting this year. Last year I knew where I saw birds during the day, but I didn't actually call my bird in until mid afternoon, so I didn't know if by going deeper into the woods (trying to avoid other hunters) before light I risked scaring more birds away than it was worth.
Thanks Dan, that is some more very good advice. Having to set on those roots or rocks sure do make for a long hunt. Make sure you give yourself time to clean you out a good spot to set. It may only be for five minutes or an hour or longer. :icon_thumright:
Keep'em coming fellows
Quote from: moore on February 17, 2011, 03:22:48 PM
I in the turkey woods at sunrise and start hunting when they are already on the ground for the most part.I got a question for you guys,when did you get out in the woods ,and when do they come off the roost. can you for the most part predict what time they come off.Last year I had this big gobbler came off the roost way past sunrise
I prefer to go out when you can barely see how to walk without a flashlight, unless I know where he is roosted, which is very seldom, then I would go in well before light, like deer hunting. Setup and wait until I hear him or can see ok, then I will start off with a few light yelps but mostly clucks. After I get his attention, I hush until he gobbles a couple more times, trying to make him think I didn't hear him. After that I start gettin a little louder, just enough to say hear I AM. Then I wait on his next move unless I hear hens near him and then I will copy everything they do. I want to act interested but I'm not coming to him. Turn your head and call just a bit more, like your facing the other way. If he gobbles back just sit back and wait. Most of the time he will commit and come on in. As far as predictin when they will come off roost, there is no real way to predict that. I have seen them still on the limb two hours after good light and be on the ground at first light. They are waiting on the limb for the hens to come to them. I hope my answer will help and maybe somebody else will add to it.
write all you want danyou have some awesome advice ive been knowe to clean a good size area too thought i was just being too paticular
For me personely I like to get in there about 1 1/2 hrs before light if I can, espeacaily if I have a long ways to walk, gives me time to get there and get a good set up going, plus I'm just so slow and if Wes is with me, it gives me time to catch up, (don't it), If I know where the birds are at and know sorta where they're going I'll set up somewhere in their path.
Keep the great advice comeing Dan, it helps.
Hey do any of you guys have a problem with all your mouth calls sounding the same? I have noticed and was also told that no matter what diaphram I'm useing they all sound the same.
Any suggestions?
LOL- Long PM sent. :z-paddy-smiley113:
Quote from: unclerick on February 18, 2011, 09:16:36 PM
Hey do any of you guys have a problem with all your mouth calls sounding the same? I have noticed and was also told that no matter what diaphram I'm useing they all sound the same.
Any suggestions?
No not really. I have been gettin different sounds out of all of mine. What kind are they, how many reeds etc...
Dan would probably be the best person to answer this. I don't have much advice unless I could actually hear you use them personally. Sorry.