i snuck within 60 yards of a roosted tom this morning, he was gobbling like crazy! just going at it. so i let a couple soft yelps out with my diaphragm mouth call and he shut right up. this is the second time this has happened. One was gobbling his head off and i snuck with 100 yards of him and let out some yelps and he stopped gobbling.
Too loud? Too close?
Maybe what you told him was to SHUT UP and he is hen whipped. :TooFunny:
I can't get any bird to cooperate right now in middle TN. They are so henned up it's ridiculous!
I have had 2 birds clearly coming straight to my setup and have had hens show up and move them just out of range. VERY FRUSTRATING!!!
are you on private land? I have seen them do this after they have been shot at, or seen someone calling. :newmascot:
no im on private land,
its one thing after another here right now. they will gobble throughout the day but they will only come to you if its an easy path for them! i heard they wont strut downhill either.
Without being there I obviously cant tell you what happened, but I would guess that you were seen.
I have never had trouble calling a bird downhill.
Keep in mind, birds have the canny ability to locate your call to the "T". As Ben Lee Rodgers once quoted "If you were to dig a hole and call form inside a turkey would look inside' Just a quote, as I'm sure they wouldn't, but they know your EXACT location.
With that if you were too loud and it was dark, a hen on the ground is not right with them. Use tree talk very softly in the dark, barely audible, by cupping your hand and throwing the call up behind you. They had to either see you, or locate your call on the ground in the dark.
Quote from: Lon0121 on April 22, 2011, 07:24:49 PM
no im on private land,
its one thing after another here right now. they will gobble throughout the day but they will only come to you if its an easy path for them! i heard they wont strut downhill either.
60yds is to close for me to easy to get busted.Pattern the birds...when toms are henned up i try to be as close to or in thier feeding route as possible it makes it easier to get the hens fired up.And if u get a tom hammerin like hell goin away with the hens theres a good chance he will be back later to see the honey he left behind. Dont believe they wont strut down hill it depends on what part of the season it is and how hot they are.I've killed birds doin all the things they shouldn't be doin.
60 yards is definetly inside the danger zone for getting picked off or spooking a bird with calling too loud or too early or...at all. If I have a bird's roost tree locked, and I still manage to get in to within 60 yards, in the dark, without sounding like a herd of elephants (shouldn't be using a light that close!), I DO NOT MAKE A SOUND until he hits the ground and is going away from me. I always try to set up where I think he's going to fly down to and more than one bird has gotten the old heavy shot death punch right after his landing gear hit the runway!
If you made it to 60yds you should have tried 20 more and just pulled him out of the tree. :TooFunny: :TooFunny: :z-guntootsmiley:
Since you knew where the bird was roosted I would have waited for him to fly down and waited to see if he would gobble. If he didn't gobble then I would call softly to let him know there was a hen nearby. If he wouldn't answer or come to your calls I'd try to see which way he was going and setup the next morning in that direction assuming he roosted in same area as before. Good luck and be patient!
Same here, Tom flew down and gobbled 3 times the 2 hens flew down. He strutted for 30 min about 100 yds away!! Hmmmmm