whats your guys game paln late in the season when your still chasing turkeys? Decoys? if so lone hen? Jake/hen combo? little calling or aggressive calling?? What has brought you luck late in the season??
This is a non generic question n imo has many answers. You'd need to qualify where you're hunting such as hard hunted land that never got much break. Hard hunted land that guys gassed off of.
The stage the birds are in varies too. Some years, like this one at home they're still hammering. I've been dealing w issues n can't take advantage but this late season should be good.
Other years the gobbling kinda dies down.
Where are you at? Where are the birds at?
The decoys to answer that question prob aren't needed unless you're sitting on a field. Should be thick enough the bird looks for you.
If you get one to gobble late it can be game on. As long as you do nothing stupid you may be the only game in town n have his undivided attn
I was fortunate to tagged out the first 2 days in OH with 2 nice LBs. I agree with you that there is a lot to consider. I was just wondering what everyones tactics are when it get late in the season. let just say THIS YEAR where things seemed to be delayed everywhere... so whats everyones game plan, set up, calling tactics to try and go out with a bang this season
Tomo I plan if I get out n get one to work to do nothing dif. Maybe play a little bit coy so he comes n looks for me if I hear no hens.
If I hear hens I'll try n call them. Same thing I'd do first day/last day being perhaps more cautious because I don't want them to smell a thief. If he hooks up n it's not overdone he'll often show up.
If he's been called like crazy you could have a tough road n need dif tactics like gobbler sounds.
Old time I'd get in the woods early late season, get close to a roosted, gobbling bird n do a fly down only w a hat. That n scratching leaves. He'd often pitch down silent n walk or fly into range.
It's something dif, correct? Who calls w no actual calls? This kinda thing you wanna try if they're spooky.
I'm sure other fellows have their methods
I start out early trying to peak their fading interest in the hens, usually just 45 minutes to an hour after flydown. If no luck with that I usually field hop and try to get a visual then adapt from there.
Depends how my season has gone. I am more likely to sit longer in a spot if the gobbling has faded. Call some and try to strike one, moving very slowly and not very far-sitting before I call again, not walking and trying to strike a bird. Sound like a hen that is just easing along feeding. It is not always fun, but it can be effective. Instead of being what they have heard all season-a hen loudly calling from one spot, be a moving hen, calling soft. I am more likely to do this if I already have one and let my nephews chase the morning loud mouths. It is risky, you may bust a bird, but if the season is winding down, I figure he has all year to forget about it.
Set up close and use gobbler calls and a Jake decoy. Or hen call with a hen decoy constantly until they show.
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Best time to hunt. Try to sound like a turkey hen. I don't need decoys.
Quotewhats your guys game paln late in the season when your still chasing turkeys? Decoys? if so lone hen? Jake/hen combo? little calling or aggressive calling?? What has brought you luck late in the season??
First you're gonna get the anti-decoy crowd up in arms!! :lol: :popcorn:
Late season, I push the envelope on getting close to the roost. Drop decoy use down to one hen. Soft calling. Lots of binocular use - I'm not above bushwhacking a gobbler.
That's gonna get the "if you can't call 'em in, you have no business killing them" crowd going as well!! :lol: :popcorn:
At any rate, try to mimic what is going on in your woods. You should do that all season long, but in the early season, with more gobblers roaming the woods, and more suicidal 2 year olds running around, you can get more aggressive. Later in the season I try to get more realistic and mimic nature.
:anim_25:
Believe it or not turkeys talk to each other all year round not just in the spring. Find what they want to hear and give that to them
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^^^and to top it off,you stir up the "old school" crowd. Everybody knows you can't call aggressive. Some soft yelps and put your call down.
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Happy cut me off. That was intended for rutnnstrutn. So I guess Happy fits in with the "I'll cut you off on public land" crowd. Lol
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:D . That's me I guess. In all honesty turkeys can still be called in at any time of year. I am not a decoy expert so I can't help much there. If you take the time to learn at least the basics of turkey behavior year round it will pay off with decoys or without.
My late season tactic has been curse the alarm out when it goes off and then curse everything out in the woods after climbing this hill that seems like I've been climbing all year and then go get a cup of coffee. It's been that type of year... :angry9:
Quote from: JK Spurs on May 20, 2017, 11:31:03 AM
My late season tactic has been curse the alarm out when it goes off and then curse everything out in the woods after climbing this hill that seems like I've been climbing all year and then go get a cup of coffee. It's been that type of year... :angry9:
:TooFunny:
Didn't work for me either...
I just keep going and be more patient....
Denny
I tend to do a lot less calling late season, and when I call I do it a lot more quietly.
Pretty much I use every option available. I'll ambush them all day if given a chance. I don't use decks much any way.
I get a lot closer to the roost late season and if I strike a bird that's not on the roost I get a lot closer than normal too. the foliage is a lot thicker late season and you can get away with getting closer. if he seems uninterested in hen talk try jake or gobbler yelping, and don't rule out gobbling. I tend to cover a lot of ground this time of year too, with the thick foliage I just cant hear them very far off. field hopping as Ronnie stated is a good bet if you have access to several, I only have mountain land so this is out of the equation for me. man... Ill say again, gobbling can be dynamite this time of year. the biggest thing any time of year is to be out there, if you don't go youll never know.
Quote from: Gooserbat on May 20, 2017, 12:54:48 PM
Pretty much I use every option available. I'll ambush them all day if given a chance. I don't use decks much any way.
If you accidentally kill a bird every 10 years by sitting and him walking by, that is ambushing. If you kill a bird because you knew where he wanted to be and got there first, gobbling or not, that is woodsmanship. IMHO
I actually use less patience(if that's possible) cover more ground, and call louder later in the season. Around here a lot of the birds that You heard earlier are dead. Sitting and calling softly where there used to be a gobbler is useless. Add the fact that the woods is fully leafed up and your calling is muffled and you can't see but 30 yards. In late season I'm covering ground and calling boldly. But then again I am usually at a loss as to where to find a live gobbler late in the season. If you know where a bird is then the sit and soft call might be best.
Quote from: g8rvet on May 21, 2017, 05:27:40 PM
Quote from: Gooserbat on May 20, 2017, 12:54:48 PM
Pretty much I use every option available. I'll ambush them all day if given a chance. I don't use decks much any way.
If you accidentally kill a bird every 10 years by sitting and him walking by, that is ambushing. If you kill a bird because you knew where he wanted to be and got there first, gobbling or not, that is woodsmanship. IMHO
Yep, I tagged out yesterday attempting an ambush, it turned into a spot & stalk... knowing their habits helps!
really just depends on the bird. I probably do more listening, less aggressive, only decoy in fields. The foliage allows you to get so much closer to one, but it also buffers the sound of his gobble so you can be on top of him before you know it.
Lots of varying answers to the question,...all of which are correct, depending on the place and situation.
Early season or late season, there are places where the worst turkey hunter on the planet can kill a gobbler,...and there are places where the best turkey hunter in the universe will not. All of the factors that have been mentioned already will play a role in success or failure.
Generally speaking, however, the more "control" someone has over the place they hunt, relative to the number of turkeys that are there, will play a large role in late season success. There are places where, by the end of the season, there so few gobblers left that are willing to come to a turkey call that the only realistic method of killing one of them is through ambush,...or by happening onto one of those few by trial and error. And conversely, there are places that get so little hunting pressure (for whatever reason) that hunting late season is no different than hunting the first day.
Being able to recognize which type of place you are hunting and then apply the right hunting tactics to that location often determines success or failure. Those tactics can vary widely depending solely on the place hunted.
My nephew is a Wildland Firefighter. He is on a detail in central Florida where the season has been closed for a while. He had a lunch break thsi weekend and was doing nothing, but he had a mouth call with him and was at a place that is loaded with birds. He got the owner's permission and called an Osceola in to 18 steps. Video'ed the bird strutting and gobbling like crazy. Even got him breeding a hen on video!
My favorite late season tactics - patience and perseverence.
Call for an hour then go to sleep,,we get to hunt Turkey's till May 31st here in Minnesota I'm hunting on memorial day every year,,they get smart by then,,call hard for one hour then fall asleep agAinst the tree sounds stupid but it works, if your asleep you ressist playing your nice calls,,woke up more then once with a gobbler out in front of me,,don't know maybe my snoring sounds like an old hen.
Late season tactics seem to vary with the gobbler trying to be coaxed in. I've had success with a gobbler decoy in full strut over a hen in the breeding position and a Funky Chicken with a feeding hen. I've also had those very same set ups intimidate from one to a group of three long beards, keeping them some 60+ yards away and finally walking off. For me, it's a crap shoot as to what decoy spread to attempt in the late season. If someone has a sure-fire technique, I'd like to hear about it.