Just my opinion- but I think that the toughest gobbler to hunt is the one who slinks up to a heavy field edge and moves no more. This happened to me on one of my very first Spring hunts in 1990. I was set-up in a small clearing and moved to call again and saw just a small patch of white move ever so slowly and then disappear. That was the gobblers head and I never saw his body at the heavy field edge. I have seen that just a few other times since 1990. I am convinced that this is an OLD GOBBLER and that many hunters- even some veterans never see that white head peeking through some heavy foliage at the field edge. Indeed- this is a learned skill much like an old squirrel walking on a power line and over heavy traffic. I have had much better luck with the 2- year olds on field hunts. Hope everyone enjoyed the Winter Turkey Talk.
The hardest bird I've ever hunted stayed in a fresh clear cut last year. He would roost either in a few of the beech trees left in the cutover or any of the various Creek bottoms running through the cutover. The cut over is huge close to 700 acres. He never rooster in the same spot two days in a row and it was impossible to set up on him before he hit the ground because he could see you coming for literally a mile.
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I've seen them field hop down here. They get to where they can see the field, gobble, strut, look and repeat several times before moving on to the next field. Sometimes doing this from as far away as 100 yards or so. Then some gobblers will walk into the field and do this and hang around for hours. Me and a friend watched one walk to 20 yards from a field and sit down for over an hour. Once a couple hens showed up he got up and went to the field and join them. I have not noticed any correlation of age and these actions.
Any gobbler with a hen.
the hardest bird to hunt is a dead one.
The second hardest bird is the farmers bird that's stuck in a pin. Hunted a bird a couple years ago for 3 days. He'd gobble his head off but wouldn't budge. On day three I made a decision to move in as close as I could only to find I'd been wasting my time chasing a tame bird inside a pin. Talk about feeling like an idiot. Didn't even know there was a house there. Heck, I'd hunted that farm a fair amount the year before and never heard a peep. The pin looked new though so it may have been a new addition. He wore a path out along that fence trying to get out though.
Quote from: wvmntnhick on January 06, 2017, 03:57:49 PM
the hardest bird to hunt is a dead one.
The second hardest bird is the farmers bird that's stuck in a pin. Hunted a bird a couple years ago for 3 days. He'd gobble his head off but wouldn't budge. On day three I made a decision to move in as close as I could only to find I'd been wasting my time chasing a tame bird inside a pin. Talk about feeling like an idiot. Didn't even know there was a house there. Heck, I'd hunted that farm a fair amount the year before and never heard a peep. The pin looked new though so it may have been a new addition. He wore a path out along that fence trying to get out though.
The exact same thing happened to me several years back. Same story almost exactly except in North GA. A white domestic gobbler. I felt pretty dumb. Made me want to kill that dang turkey even more.
I have had some old birds play that game, because of the farms I hunt I see this fairly often but have also learned to give them a few weeks and hit them late season, we have 6 weeks we can hunt and have tagged an number of those old birds in those last seasons. Once them gobblers lose their ladies I can start talking what they want to hear.
Here's one of those old birds, and killed him at 15 yards in a tall hay field where the only thing I could see were fan tips in the field coming in.
MK M GOBL
The neighbor lady lives in the middle of about 100 acres of wood and small, isolated fields. Her ground is posted and she feeds about 50 lbs. of corn a day out by her garage................
Birds that roost 500 yards away fly down................gobble their heads off.............then take off on a bee-line straight to the corn pile............... because that where the hens go, too.
Last year was the worst. Day after day I was within 80-100 yards of them on roost. Could NOT stop a single one from leaving for the corn pile. With the property lines being where they are, there's really no way to get between them and their destination.
So, I guess I'd say the hardest one to kill is one that has 30 hens and a 50 pound corn pile. Yep,
Quote from: wvmntnhick on January 06, 2017, 03:57:49 PM
the hardest bird to hunt is a dead one.
The second hardest bird is the farmers bird that's stuck in a pin. Hunted a bird a couple years ago for 3 days. He'd gobble his head off but wouldn't budge. On day three I made a decision to move in as close as I could only to find I'd been wasting my time chasing a tame bird inside a pin. Talk about feeling like an idiot. Didn't even know there was a house there. Heck, I'd hunted that farm a fair amount the year before and never heard a peep. The pin looked new though so it may have been a new addition. He wore a path out along that fence trying to get out though.
This is classic! Great story.
Well a bird with hens can be tough but I'd say trying to get one to break that imaginary wall they sometimes hit is the hardest for me.
Quote from: quavers59 on January 06, 2017, 12:57:19 PM
Just my opinion- but I think that the toughest gobbler to hunt is the one who slinks up to a heavy field edge and moves no more. This happened to me on one of my very first Spring hunts in 1990. I was set-up in a small clearing and moved to call again and saw just a small patch of white move ever so slowly and then disappear. That was the gobblers head and I never saw his body at the heavy field edge. I have seen that just a few other times since 1990. I am convinced that this is an OLD GOBBLER and that many hunters- even some veterans never see that white head peeking through some heavy foliage at the field edge. Indeed- this is a learned skill much like an old squirrel walking on a power line and over heavy traffic. I have had much better luck with the 2- year olds on field hunts. Hope everyone enjoyed the Winter Turkey Talk.
I don't understand why hunters seem to insist on hunting on the edge of a field, but I think it may have to do with their insistence on the use of decoys. I have had success sitting 40-50 yards off of the field and by telling him what he wants to hear he will frequently come looking.
One that is henned up and happy! However that can also be the means to his demise.....get speakin to that boss hen which leads to a full blown argument with her coming to lay the smack down and poor little love sick gobbler comes dragging along to his death! It doesn't always work but I've done it a lot with great success!
God bless
Yep, any Tom with girlfriends.
henned up is not the worse for me as they can often be patterned the toughest to me is that ne that will rarely gobble all year you'll hear him on roost few times he'll fly down and give you an occasional gobble through the morning but never commit either your coming to him or he eventually completely shuts up you catch glimpses of him he doesn't have hens and no interest in moving toward your best variety of calls. I've seen these birds on occasion over years they usually stay woods I always figured them to be old birds that have come in and been shot at
One that doesn't gobble and lives in and around thick woods. He's old and no longer the dominant bird, probably had his butt whipped and is reclusive.
One that fly's up into trees and gobbles like crazy, but he won't come or fly down to you and expects you to come to him. When he does fly down it's always in opposite direction and away from calls then he'll just wait and strut until hens come to him.
A public land clear cut loving long spured punk that likes to gobble and stand in the open 100 yards from the nearest tree. Never did kill him. I learned that some times when I take it personal with a bird I'm defeating myself. The turkey never takes it personal and he just does what he does. I have to know when to hunt him or leave him be and find a more willing victim.
A bird that would stay on the roost sometimes as long as 3hrs after daylight he would gobble from the roost but would watch all the other birds fly down and move off often letting them drift a few hundred yards away before he would sail down to meet them once they were out in the middle of large fields. Any sense of something amiss he would shut up and fly back up into the timber and disappear without another sound and would stay gone for the entire morning only to resurface hours after noon close. Bird lasted years doing that until my buddy and I finally caught up to him with a split set using decoys to make him nervous enough to fly down in the timber and he walked right up the hill into my buddy. Miss that dang bird now
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I hunted one older bird in Franklin County, NC that lived on some higher posted land across a beaver swamp from the side I had rights to hunt. Other hunters pressured him from the south side of the creek like me, but he'd do the same thing every time, Get to within 80-100 yards of the edge of the swamp on a ridge and strut back & forth across the higher, flat ground waiting for the girls to come to him. Plenty of hens did too, and dragged my opportunity off with them. He must have heard most calls a human can make, but he waited on the real thing. I saw him 4-5 times, and had him answer me with loads of gobbles, I just couldn't sweet talk him across the water. He never got closer than 115-120 yards. If I could have set up on the ridge on his side of the swamp, I bet it would be game over pretty quickly.
Jim
Some public land birds I hunt, the roost on the TN side of the line, fly down and immediately head for private land on the KY side. I think I'm more ready for them this year.
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One on the "other" side of the "Big Muddy" river.
I don't understand why hunters seem to insist on hunting on the edge of a field, but I think it may have to do with their insistence on the use of decoys. I have had success sitting 40-50 yards off of the field and by telling him what he wants to hear he will frequently come looking.
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This is exactly how I feel. I guess it depends where you hunt n how much pressure the birds get. In the area I live the hardest gobbler to kill is a field bird. Now I don't hunt heavy edge areas, turkeys don't seem to often walk over to an area potential predators can hide to ambush them n hang out near this area, but field areas alone are tough. Birds typically fly down into the field or single mindedly plan on displaying there and are tough to call. It can happen but the same bird in the woods is much easier.
The use of decoys is the only real reason in my opinion to be in a field. In fact you could simply drop dekes in the right area n never call to kill the birds, if that is the way someone hunts so be it but besides a bird varying in toughness to kill day to day throughout a season, certainly without dekes any bird in a field is tough.
Number 1- Turkey that will not fly down until it sees a hen.
Number 2- Turkey that flies down way out into a field and stands there and gobbles and struts until the hens come to him.
Number 3- Turkey that flies from tree to tree until it sees a hen before going to the ground.
........ just to name a few
Quote from: warrent423 on January 09, 2017, 10:09:09 AM
A Gobbler that has reached 4 years old or better on heavily pressured public ground ;)
Yup,...Any bird that has been hunted enough (public or private) to associate turkey calling with danger. Most of the time its the old ones,...but on hard-hunted ground, even the two-year olds will wise up after a few bad encounters. That is the only way they survive to reach those older years.
Once a hard-hunted gobbler reaches four, however, the odds of killing him by relying strictly on calling tactics goes down precipitously.
The one that got away
The 7 year old gobbler lolololl.Does any one remember the story of the life of that gobbler,told by himself,saw that on a couple sites and it was awesome!!If someone can repost that thank you!!What a great read!!
These jokers here get right out in the middle of the field on a high spot and stay there. No way to get to them and the hens go right to them. If you put a blind there the next day they're a no show.
Quote from: GobbleNut on January 09, 2017, 03:55:01 PM
Quote from: warrent423 on January 09, 2017, 10:09:09 AM
A Gobbler that has reached 4 years old or better on heavily pressured public ground ;)
Yup,...Any bird that has been hunted enough (public or private) to associate turkey calling with danger. Most of the time its the old ones,...but on hard-hunted ground, even the two-year olds will wise up after a few bad encounters. That is the only way they survive to reach those older years.
Once a hard-hunted gobbler reaches four, however, the odds of killing him by relying strictly on calling tactics goes down precipitously.
I think your assessment is spot on. There are plenty of 2 year olds that due to something that occurred within their short life, they are scared of their own shadow and will convince you that they are an older bird by their actions.
I won't claim to know too much about the older birds because I've not killed a pile of them. I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that there isn't a huge percentage of birds that make it into those years. There are just too many things that can end a toms life that doesn't care how old a turkey is and they aren't all packing a shotgun.
I think a high percentage of birds that guys claim to have hunted for multiple years ("I've hunted that tom for 5 years") aren't hunting the same bird year after year but just that particular location consistently holds a dominant bird that they've convinced themselves is the same turkey. Whatever attracted one tom will likely attract another when he is gone. I'm not suggesting that it doesn't happen, but I think a lot of the claims are false assumptions.
As far as all tough to kill birds being older birds or all two year olds being easy...............I have killed a number of Easterns back home that took a considerable amount of time and effort to kill (usually multiple days sometimes spanning over several of the split weeks in IL's season structure). In each case I was convinced that the bird would be a hook spurred tom that had years of experience. On a few occasions that was the case, but on a number of occasions the tom turned out to be a two year old (maybe three) that for whatever reason, likely some experience he'd had within the last few weeks, he didn't act like the stereotypical 2 year old. I'd bet that is the case on a lot of the toms that get away. Heck some of the long spurred birds I've killed ran at me like a fool and I would have sworn they'd be a 2 year old. I just hit them at the right time. I think most older birds act like older birds, but there are more than enough younger birds that act the same way whether it's genetic programing or some sort of event that caused it.
Just my 2 cents (maybe that was 3).
Speaking of hens, a factor that rarely gets discussed is the role hens play in whether a gobbler can be called or not due to their past experience with turkey hunters. If you hunt where there are large numbers of hens in the area, there are going to be those hens that have witnessed many a gobbler getting "jelly-headed" right in front of them.
Anybody that does not think that those experienced hens will skedaddle,...and take a perfectly willing gobbler with them,...when they hear a strange hen calling in the distance, is fooling themselves. I have seen it time and time again.
If you hunt relatively open country and can actually watch the reaction of a group of turkeys when you call to them, you can often tell right away if you are dealing with experienced hens or not. Get into a group that has some older hens (in an area where those birds get hunted very much) and they will often take off like scalded cats at the first peep from an unknown hen that they can't see.
In those situations, the problem is not that the gobbler is not willing to come, or that he won't leave his hens to do so. The problem is that the hens have been through the ringer enough times where they are going to go to high alert and either take off the other direction in a hurry, or start moving deliberately away from the calling they hear. Any gobbler that is with them is either going to go into alert mode himself, or just follow along behind them,...even if he is totally oblivious to why they are leaving.
I have witnessed this scenario many a time: I have called to a group of birds (from a location that I was confident in) only to have some of the hens immediately go into alert mode; the gobbler(s) with them become aware of both my calling,...and the fact that some of the hens are acting suspicious; the gobblers reaction is pretty clear,...he is considering whether he should start towards the call,...or should he be concerned about the hens reaction; most of the time the hens win out and he follows them away,...either in a hurry (if they do so) or just strut along behind them;
The moral of this is that, when you can observe a group of turkeys when in a calling situation, take note of how the hens react to your calls. It will give you a clear idea of how you should approach trying to kill any gobbler that is with them.
it depends on the day of the week. wise bird today, complete dummy tomorrow.
The one you didn't hunt the morning you felt like sleeping in.
The way my season went last year, every bird I tried to hunt!! Lol