Been hunting a 600 acre ranch this season (as well as another ranch I do not want to take any more birds off of)...
Four ponds with 2 of them being significantly large and two ponds that are about 100 feet long (interestingly, it would appear that the turkeys are avoiding the bigger ponds because of nesting honkers). Rolling oaks and scrub brush is the terrain.
The birds have not been very vocal in the last couple weeks, but we always seem to pull them just over the hill... Can't seem to make them come over whatever hill we decide to put between us and the roost. (I have tried walking away and calling, and the birds circled around my father and followed me, and still would not break whatever hill was separating them from me).
These birds have not been shot, and should be stupid easy to kill... I have killed two nice toms on a much more pressured ranch, and I basically want some revenge...
This morning, I set up on a pair of toms that I have been chasing with my father... The dominant tom has been quiet for some time now, and I had no idea where he was...
Birds were double and triple gobbling on the roost, and I kept quiet till I heard them fly down.
Well this morning, those two toms came about 20 yards away from me, and I could just see the tops of their tail fans over a small knoll (talk about frustrating). Birds were much more vocal this morning, and the big boy started talking from the far end of the ranch I was on... He came in from a different direction than the other two toms...
As he approached, the other toms gave him some ground... He was coming at a quick pace, stopping to strutt and gobble, and I could clearly see him the whole time, but I knew he had not seen my decoys. He got about 60 yards away, saw my hen and jake decoys (DSD hen decoy, and quality half-strut jake), gave an alarm sequence and took off...
He came back to the same area that the first two toms were at, strutted there for a bit (once again extremely frustrating), and moved off (still gobbling)... I decided hit the pond I had seen them at in the opposite direction they left me (trying to play hard to get), and they were still responding but getting even further...
Driving out, I saw the two toms about 100 yards away from a hen, and looking for a place to park, there was the big boy another 100 yards away... I parked over the ridge, and pushed them pretty hard (as I thought it would be my last opportunity to hunt)... They had completely shut down when I left...
The two birds I did kill this season were without decoys, and I am inclined to leave them at home tomorrow, as the wife gave me the ok...
Any advice is appreciated. I will take any advice... You guys could probably have me hopping around on one foot and flapping my arms, cause I sure do not know what to do...
