Tom henning up early?

[Marc]

So you got a tom that you know is joining hens right off the roost...

Normally I do not like to call to much to them on the roost too much...  But, when you know he is hooking up almost as soon as he hits the ground...  Do you all get more aggressive on the call?  Maybe a flydown cackle???

Last season I had this happen to me on a number of occasions early in the season.  Tried staying quiet, and tried getting more aggressive. 

When I started calling aggressively so did the real hens...  Seemed like when I did a bit of aggressive calling the hens hit the ground earlier and took the toms with them (away from me).  I was hoping to call the hens into me, but it never worked out that way...

If I stayed quiet until they were off the roost, I could not call them off of the live hens...  (Although they would continue to gobble).

Tried waiting them out a couple times, but they seemed to follow those hens around all morning (being early in the season)....

[dejake]

How long a period do you mean by "wait them out"?.  Lots of times, if he answers your calls, then goes off with hens, he'll be back between eleven and noon.  That's been my experience.  My father taught me that when I was younger.  I didn't like that lesson at the time; I had little patience.  I'd say to him, "let's go try another spot".  He's just say, 'stay put, he'll be back".  He was usually right.

[dirt road ninja]

If you know he is with hens, it's tough to call him very far. I'll either get as close as I can and try to call him a short distance or get where the want to be and wait on them. Another tactic would be to gobble at him and try and provoke a fight.

[Happy]

Personally if I know a Tom has hens then I am usually more agrees I've on the call. Now I have found that early in the breeding cycle the hens tend to be more amicable and so I usually try to stick with yelps and clucks to bring them in. At peak breeding it gets more difficult and the hens more than likely will head the other way when you get agressive but sometimes it works. Course there are no hard rules with turkey hunting and you have to feel them out and go from there. Now if you have the tom roosted a little distance from the hens then common sense should tell you where you need to be. That's about as close to a slam dunk as your gonna get.

[DTGobble]

Its really hard to compete with the real thing.  Sometimes the hens will come to you dragging the gobbler(s) behind, sometimes they wont.  Most effective ,if possibe, is to get where they are going first and wait.  I know this is over simplified but it works for me.

[The Woodsman]

Move on to another gobbler..... don't get hung up on trying to kill them, they can waste a lot of hunting time.  Others will be willing to make your day.

Denny

[silvestris]

When he is roosted near hens, I have had good luck hitting him with one loud series of assembly yelps the second his feet hit the ground before he has had a chance to assess the situation.  It is one of the rare times that I yelp loudly, and then just one series of about 8-10 yelps.

[Marc]

Some really good advice guys...  Thanx!

TreeRooster, you use any special call for those fighting purrs?

[Ihuntoldschool]

Many times early in the season especially when there are so many hens available, he won't fly down until he sees "his" hen (s), knowing that they are coming towards his roost anyway. This can be tough. One thing to keep in mind early in the season often times there will be 2 or more  mature gobblers roosted nearby that will join a group of hens very early, right off the roost. The dominant bird will naturally do the majority of the breeding. Now while the boss bird is busy breeding hens that sub-dominant bird is vulnerable and many times will slip back into your calling and check you out. Chances are he will slip in silently or if he does gobble it, won't be much so you have to be alert and ready for this.  Sometimes patience pays off.   You describe a tough situation that occurs all the time.

[wvlimbhanger]

This is really good right here.

Many times early in the season especially when there are so many hens available, he won't fly down until he sees "his" hen (s), knowing that they are coming towards his roost anyway. This can be tough. One thing to keep in mind early in the season often times there will be 2 or more  mature gobblers roosted nearby that will join a group of hens very early, right off the roost. The dominant bird will naturally do the majority of the breeding. Now while the boss bird is busy breeding hens that sub-dominant bird is vulnerable and many times will slip back into your calling and check you out. Chances are he will slip in silently or if he does gobble it, won't be much so you have to be alert and ready for this.  Sometimes patience pays off.   You describe a tough situation that occurs all the time.

I would also add 2 things.

1)  Scouting pays off in this situation big time.  If you know where the hens are wanting to go you can set up there or along the route they may travel.  Light soft calling to make them think part of the group is already there is all you will need to do.

2)  If you have other places to hunt and you want a more responsive bird leave the henned up one alone for a few days and check back from time to time as the breeding phases change. 

[Dr Juice]

When I know a Tom is roosted with hens I employ at least three fly down cackles and soft yelping. This tactic has worked for me, not all of the time but what do I have to lose ... Nothing. Last year me and my cuz scored on two Toms whom followed in 5-hens looking for the intruders. 

[TRG3]

After 25+ years of hunting turkeys, I've come to realize that, off the roost, usually the real hens will take the gobbler in the opposite direction of my calling. At rare times after fly down,  I can challenge the dominate hen and she will drag the gobbler in. At other times, when the hens take the dominate gobbler away from me a sub-dominate gobbler will leave the flock and silently sneak in to my decoys. Most often, however, the gobbler and hens will go in the opposite direction from where I've set up; therefore, I rarely set up near the roosted birds. Instead, I set up my decoys where I think they will be going to breed (grassy or open field) based on several years of hunting these areas. These spots are often 200-300 hundred yards away and sometimes barely within hearing distance of the gobbling while on the roost. I generally reply with my gobble tube accompanied with a few yelps, giving the indication that a strange gobbler and hen are already there, both of which challenge the peck order of the flock. Generally, from the roost the gobbler will answer my calls, after which I usually reduce or quit calling. From this point on, the flock may show up silently or the gobbler may sound off all the way from the roost to the field. Last season, the first gobbler I took started out at least 300 yards away. I called as explained previously. In a half-hour or so, he silently came to the far edge of a 20 acre picked bean field only to come a runnin' (never gobbled) when he saw my Pretty Boy! The other tom I took gobbled several times on his way in, again some 30+ minutes after flying down and coming in a circular route 300-400 yards in length. I take a comfortable ground lounger and wait, sometimes three hours or so, if necessary. Be sure that you've got a well-concealed spot in case you go to sleep and a gobbler decides to sneak in and beat up on you decoys, as happened to me a few years back. Yeah...I got him!

[Marc]

A bit of background on my situation...

I have a couple properties to hunt...  One is a deep canyon that normally holds a number of birds, and is a good piece of property (probably about 800 acres)...  Never heard or saw a bird on there last season, and I believe it was due to our drought...  Had a couple birds that I pulled from adjoining properties, but never sealed the deal (got ruined by coyotes a couple times).

The property I spent the most time on, had about 5 toms on it before the season, and after the season, I only heard or saw one tom...  He was with a group of about 15 hens (that was the largest group I saw him with), and all season, I never saw him alone (although at times, there might have only been one or two hens with him)...  I hunted early mornings, late mornings, and afternoons (till legal shoot time at 4 pm)...

Gotta' say, I have never wanted to kill a bird as bad as I wanted to kill that bird on the second property...  He lifted my hopes on several occassions, but I was always quashed at the end....

I tried aggressive calling, light calling, gobbling, no calling, etc...  The gobbling almost worked once, but his hens took off the other direction and he followed...

Thank you all for the replies and insight...

[Dtrkyman]

I love getting in a pissing match with an old hen, has worked for me many times and when it has not it was sure fun, I copy everything she does and amp it up as I go, boy can it get the boys talking, even when they have been quiet!

You get the ole boss mad and she is coming, beats the piss out of my stuffer deke often!