I figure everyone has their own opinion, but just wanted to see when most of you start calling to a bird in the morning. Do you call while he's gobbling on the roost, or wait until you know hes on the ground? Just curious about others thoughts on this matter.
Thanks
I let him know I'm available as soon as I can. If I'm the first thing on his mind that morning I might have just hedged the bet a little.
jus my 2cents'
I normally wait until he flies down to begin calling. Every situation is different but I normally wait. Calling usually keeps him in the tree longer.
Quote from: Candyman on April 11, 2016, 05:47:10 PM
I normally wait until he flies down to begin calling. Every situation is different but I normally wait. Calling usually keeps him in the tree longer.
I agree, caling to a bird on the roost most of the time will make him wait the hen out. And the fact they have an advantage in the tree to see your calling location if the foilage isn't thick enough, as he then will be expecting to see a hen. About the only time I might call to one on the roost, is if I hear hens right with him, and he difinitely can't see my calling postion.
The night before. ;)
I like to tree yelp once or twice but I don't get fired up until he's on the ground. I usually always do a flydown even if it's only wingbeats with a turkey wing I carry.
If anything, just a soft tree yelp. After he flies down, it just depends on how often and at what volume. Every bird is different as well as the situation.
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I agree i wait until fly down. I let nature take care of the rest. I don't do all that crazy owl hooting and stuff. They are enough owls and crows to take care of all that noise making...The song birds of a morning can tell you a lot..
I go by gut feeling. Around here 95% of the time they have hens pretty close by. Now I don't call much when I do but best success for me when I do is a few tree yelps, wait a bit then a flydown cackle, wait a few more minutes and then some purring and leaf scratching. Now if the bird is really close I prefer to keep my mouth shut. Don't always happen but I try.
I agree wait until he's off the roost and on the ground unless theres other hens calling, do you guys do the fly down cackle when you start out? I've tried but i always screw up the sequence of cuts.
I start with a few light Cutts and then cackle pretty hard and short then trail it off at the end. Try to mimic the burst of air a hen expels when she pushes off the branch to fly down.
Seldom call a bird on the roost. I tend to let him fly down and call soft to take his temperature. If he's hot he will let you know, if he's not then we'll......long day
Main reason I asked is because when I blew my owl hooter this morning, I had a hen start yelping about 100 yds up the ridge from where I was at. I decided just to set up and hope that there was a longbeard roosted nearby. After a few minutes he started gobbling on his own, but there were a couple of hens that did short 2-3 note yelps while they were all still in the trees. I went ahead and make some soft yelps trying to mimic the hens. Once they flew down, the gobbler went silent but hens continued yelping on occasion. They worked down off the ridge but kind of diagonal to my location. They ended up passing behind me at around 50-60 yds with some thick vegetation in between us. I figured that he just didnt care about my calling because he already had the real thing in front of him, but it still made me second guess my setup and my choice of calling.
Your right. He didn't care about your calling. So your best bet is to try and bring his hens. Get them in and you win.
I let them start on their own. Plenty of owls and crows to get him firing off. Move in quiet and get comfortable. I don't call to one in the tree. Once he hits the ground , I do a fly down with a wing. If he is hot I throw in a cackle. If not , nothing but a wing. If hens are around , I try to identify the alpha and start working on her. No hens around I try to get him heading my way aggressively in order to get him close enough before the real deal shows up. If he don't like the aggressive stuff , I will back off. Silence on your part with the exception of leaf scratching now and then with barely audible clucks purrs and ever so soft yelp or 2 or no calling at all. Brief summary of how I start out.
Thanks for the replies so far guys. So what should I have done differently to bring in the hens?
I like to let them gobble on their own in case I want to move or reposition a bit. But I almost never wait for them to fly down. Around here beating the hens is the name of the game and I've seen gobblers that weren't called to at all stay in the tree forever trying to call in a hen. Usually if I wait till he's on the ground, it's already to late.
So should I have been more aggressive with my yelps, hoping to strike a nerve with the hens?
Quote from: brimmyfish on April 11, 2016, 07:48:37 PM
So should I have been more aggressive with my yelps, hoping to strike a nerve with the hens?
Not always. Nothing is really simple in this game! I play things by what the gobbler sounds like, the hens sound like, the time of year, and the terrain. And once in a while I play it right and get results!! Lol! It's really just personal preferance and experience in learning what works for you! If you ever get it all figured out then you are doing better than me!!
Farmboy is right. You have to feel them out. Some days aggressive yelps and cutting gets them riled up and headed your way. Other days it sends them packing the other direction. I always start soft and see if they respond the way I want and when it gets to the point I know I have nothing to loose I get more agressive. In your case about the time they were about to pass you I would have started cranking it up a notch.
I will usually call once or twice very softly just to let him know I am there on the off chance he does not have a hen with him.
Quote from: brimmyfish on April 11, 2016, 06:58:48 PM
Thanks for the replies so far guys. So what should I have done differently to bring in the hens?
Here is my experience when toms are with hens...
You are not going to steal a tom from hens he already has.
With another hen in the woods, the hens with the toms will either come looking to fight off the intruder, or take the tom away from her. More often than not, it would seem they try to steal him away in my experience.
Plan "A" is to try to get that hen worked up and territorial. I emulate the hen (if she yelps twice so do I, if she cuts three times, so do I). I also tend to call maybe a tad louder than the hen... And most importantly, it would seem that hen turkeys (just like women) hate to be cut off in mid sentence... I cut the hens off (interupt them) in their sequence.
Very often, that hen will be way ahead of the tom or toms when she comes in. This is one situation where a hen decoy can be beneficial, cause she will likely pick a fight. With no decoy, you have to keep that hen around until the tom comes in... If she walks past you, LET her and STOP calling. That tom will likely be shortly behind and will follow the same general path.
Now, if the hen takes off with the tom in the opposite direction, the last hope for me is to make the tom mad... That is when I might try to do a bit of gobbling mixed in with some excited hen calls. It has only worked once, but nothing else has worked for me at this point (although I am open to suggestions myself).
Frankly, I have not killed many birds right off the roost, but when I have, it is cause I called in the hen, or made the tom mad.
I still love being out there in the morning, cause... Well the GOBBLE! Gives me an idea of how many birds and where they are.
Quote from: brimmyfish on April 11, 2016, 07:48:37 PM
So should I have been more aggressive with my yelps, hoping to strike a nerve with the hens?
I struggle to stay completely silent in the tree, I feel that once he flies down he knows wheres he's going and im behind the curve I'd rather be in his head before he comes down unless I think he's physically gonna pitch into gun range. I usually do at least 3 tree calls to let him know where I'm at.
If Hens are talking on the ground I play Simmon says plus some... what that is whatever the hen says I try to do exactly that and then add a little something, usually aggressive at the end :funnyturkey: if she come back a little hotter than before I see and raise a little.
Hen: 3 plain yelps
Me: 3 plain yelps and two fast clucks
Hen: 7 more excited yeps
Me: excited yelp series plus a few cuts
Hen: Cutting and Yelping
Me: Interrupt her before she stops with cutts and yelps (woman HATE being interrupted)
During this I dont care if he's gobbling his brains out, going silent, gobbling at only her or only me.. If he wants to leave her thats fine but I'm trying to bring the hens with him in tow
Thanks for the response. When you say 3 tree calls, do you mean three series of tree yelps? I have heard a lot of different sound that people call tree yelps. Do you use 3-4 note shorter quieter yelps for your tree call?