How would you have played this one?

[Timmer]

Hi all,

Where I hunt there is a pretty strong turkey population.  The struggle I normally have is getting the toms away from hens, just about any time of the day.  I learned early on to call less frequently and in a less excited manner works most often.  Over the years I've also gotten better at calling in the hens and bringing the toms in tow.  I had a crazy situation this year that I'm wondering what I could have done differently. 

My kids and I hit the field well before sunup.  We were in a blind we had put out the afternoon before, on a field edge looking out to a field corner, which is more of a triangular point.  I had out one feeding hen and a one submissive jake decoy.  We are in MN river bluff country, with long steep wooded hillsides on all sides of the fields.  We had 4 gobbles on the roost, 3 of which seemed really close, and the 4th just a bit further away.  I didn't hear any hen yelps, which is unusual.  When I could clearly see my decoys, I made a soft tree yelp and got a response from all 4 birds.  When I was confident the gobblers were on the ground, which was probably around 15-20 minutes after my call, I made a louder, but not excited yelp and got cut off by at least 3, if not all 4 birds.  I'm a bit ADHD and struggle to not over call, so I actually use a watch to make sure I have ample time between calls.  I didn't call at all for the next 30 minutes.  During that time, 2 gobblers worked their way away from us, and 2 gobblers worked their way up the hill gradually coming closer, gobbling frequently.  I thought for sure we had 2 birds coming in on a string, slowly but surely.  Given my experience, I would have put my chances at that point at 90%.  That was the start of a crazy interaction that went on for several hours.  My next call was a mix of purrs and soft yelping.  I was immediately cut off by the 2 birds.  In the next 30 minutes, the birds were gobbling frequently, and were coming in, although fairly slowly.  Again, I waited 30 minutes before my next call and did more of a soft yelp.  In that time they continued to gobble frequently.  I would guess from a distance perspective they worked their way probably within 50-70 yards.  They were still below me, so they couldn't see the decoys.  A few things struck me at that point.  One was that they had definitely hung up.  Also, the frequency of gobbling had increased, but the gobbles weren't over each other anymore.  It appeared 1 of the 2 birds had left.  At that point what I believe to be 1 remaining bird gobbled incessantly.  No exaggeration, 2-4 times PER MINUTE.   My 3rd call was again a mix of purs and yelping.  I gave it yet one more 30 minute period and called again.  His gobbling just kept going and going but he didn't budge.  At that point I felt calling infrequently and softly wasn't working as it had been over 1.5 hours of them coming in.  I switched tactics to more frequent and excited calling.  I called every 10-15 minutes, mixing assembly calls, cutting, 2 calls at once, etc.  The darn bird just sat and gobbled his fool head off for well over an hour with no movement.  Then he stopped gobbling.  At that point I knew he was either coming or going, so I stayed at it.  I called every 10-15 minutes for over an hour and nothing showed. 

So, how might you have played it differently?   

[Jmbradt3873]

Was there some terrain feature that stopped him from closing the distance? I.e. fence or creek

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[Timmer]

Was there some terrain feature that stopped him from closing the distance? I.e. fence or creek

Just the steep hillsides.  Given this is the standard terrain in this area with cropland on top of the hills, I don't think coming up hill inhibits them like it might in other areas.

[Jmbradt3873]

I don't know unless a hen showed up. I mostly hunt the swamps in Fla, sometimes the hens will roost away from the gobbler and not show up til later in the morning. Chased one last week like that he gobbled for 3 hours til he finally met up with the hens. We covered 2 miles of dim roads before the hens met him around 930, then not another peep. He would answer every call I was making, he even gobbled when my slate call fell on the edge of another call, til 930 when the girls showed up.

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[Happy]

Just something I have noticed over the years and maybe it's just me and my mind is cracked. But if a gobbler gets the high ground near you and it has good visibility,it has a high probability of causing a hangup. He is quite possibly gonna stand up there, gobble, strut,and wait, especially if you keep calling to him. This factors into my set-ups.

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[GobbleNut]

We all second guess ourselves in situations like that.  Fact is, there may or may not have been something you could have done differently that would have changed the outcome, but it is all speculation.  In every encounter with a gobbler (or gobblers), there are umpteen different approaches you can take.  When we choose the right one, we are geniuses, and when we choose the wrong one, we are schmucks.  All we can hope for is that our genius wins out every once in a while!

In the end, we go huntin', play the game, and hope that little round ball lands on the square we happened to choose that day! 

[btomlin]

I'm a big fan of "leaf scratching" when I get a hung up gobbler or any timber gobbler for that matter.  I feel it just adds a lot of realism between calling sequences and adds to the confidence of the gobbler that there is an actual hen making those calls.

P.S.  I must really be ADHD because there is no way I could only call every 30mins....or even 15mins.  LOL

Stay after em!

[tlh2865]

Just something I have noticed over the years and maybe it's just me and my mind is cracked. But if a gobbler gets the high ground near you and it has good visibility,it has a high probability of causing a hangup. He is quite possibly gonna stand up there, gobble, strut,and wait, especially if you keep calling to him. This factors into my set-ups.

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Had a bird do this to me a few weeks ago. Been after the same old gobbler for 4 seasons now. Thought I heard a distant gobble in a bottom between two ridges about 300 yds to my right. I'm set up with decoys out in a small clearing on one of the ridges. I hit him with two cutts and a few yelps and he jumps on me. I thought I was in business. This gobbler climbs the opposite ridge, which is more open, and proceeds to strut and gobble for the next hour in sight of me and my decoys about 100 yds across the bottom. I couldn't move or he'd see me, so I just had to watch the show.

[g8rvet]

What Happy and Gobblenut said.  I have added a gobble tube to my vest.  And we used it this year to kill one.  One bird was walking away gobbling after he circled us and two birds were shadowing him gobbling about 100 yards away.  When we realized the first was leaving we "yelp yelp yelp - GOBBLE" and the two birds made a beeline for us.

I had one last year refuse to walk through or around a puddle that was about 50 yards long and less than an inch deep.  Within 500 yards of that same spot, one flew over the 100 yard wide river to his death this year.  Turkeys being turkeys I reckon.   

[GunRunner]

Gobblenut nailed it 100%.  Don't over analysis it.

GunRunner

[Marc]

I agree with Gobblenut...  Maybe you did nothing wrong...

Frankly, I do not hunt fields, and have no idea if my observations are even applicable (I do hunt some meadows and small open areas of "natural pasture" though).

I found that the dramatic increase in hunting pressure certainly changed bird behavior...  I had far more birds "hang-up."  I also noticed that most of the birds that did make those last few steps often did not do so gobbling, they did so drumming...   I had birds that never gobbled, come in drumming...

I noticed that hunting open pastures and meadows that usually produce harvested birds, produced birds hanging up on the edges, waiting for that hen to come to them...

My tactic change was to hunt areas that were more heavily wooded on the edges of the open areas...  Somewhere where it would not be so unusual for a hen to be "heard and not seen."

[Harty]

We all love to play the game and often throw the "kitchen sink" at em. Regardless of of the change ups  more often then not we lose! Which is why we are so elated when we do win. Take solace in that you got to participate in what sounds like a pretty good game and that the ending was not unlike many of mine....

[TRG3]

While it doesn't always work, knowing that the peck order puts each gobbler in his place, on a hung up tom I often follow some yelps with my Primos gobble tube to entice a hung up tom to check out the intruder who has just moved in on "his" hen. It worked twice for me this season. I find it most effective (1) when two or more subordinate toms slip away from the flock to challenge the stranger and (2) during the late season when the dominate gobbler has no hens coming to him and a stranger has moved in on a new hen in his territory. My decoy set up of a jake or stutter over a hen in the breeding position probably helps.