To Kill your quarry, know how he lives ( the life and strategy of killing Tom)

[eggshell]

Come late winter the turkey hunter's mind begins to ponder on the coming spring and dreams of how will this springs turkey season go. Just as we go through phases building up to turkey season ole Tom's going through pahses as well. The more we understand his life and world the more successful we will be in hunting him. I see a lot people asking variuos questions on how do a kill a gobbler when......

Lets look at what is happening in the woods, from tom's perspective, as we prepare for our quest:

Late winter/ first of spring: The days are getting longer and some are much warmer. Ole tom has ran with this bunch of guys all winter. He's scratched with them and fed with them, they talked about hot hens of past, but mostly they been a crew of guys. They have established who is in charge over and over. They look forward to spending each day together, but the old gobblers know what's coming and they start to show their stuff to and push around the younguns. They also mingle with the ladies and the kids a bit more. Those groups of teenage boys (jakes) have ganged up and run around like they own the woods, but they are about to be put in their place.

Then that day come and the boss wakes with that feeling and rips out a gobble. Game on! All the others chime in and then all the curtesy of winter flocks is forgot and the woods is filled with posturing and fighting. The boys begin to listen to the hens and jennys and drift towards them. Then the hens open up the fight ring and the woods has never heard so much Bitch calling and fiighting. The boys just watch and show off. Then some hens start flirting and sure enough one of the guys score. It's breeding season and every gobbler for himself.

Rarely if ever do we hunt in this season, but if we did our typical spring tactics would not yield a lot. What we'd need then is to get in the mix and challenge leadership. Those courting calls would get us little more than lip service. However, this is the time to learn turkey language and what your area population is like. Every bird is vocal. seriuos turkey hunters should experience this season at least a few times. It's a time of sitting listening and watching to learn.

My next post will be : Early breeding season

[MACHINIST]

Can't wait for the naxt posts.That was put very well

[owlhoot]

 :morning:good one , keep em coming.

[JLH]

That was a good read....looking forward to more.

Thanks.

[eggshell]

Early breeding season: So by now most of the other gobblers know who's boss and who has the largest harem. Likewise we've established who the boss hen. The Jennys are hanging out with the old girls but not participating as much. The jakes are running around humping anything that will stand still or just humping  for the sake of humping. Either that or picking a fight. The jakes will run to anything that sounds or looks remotely like it's humpable or fightable. These are your easy targets if your not picky. The frat boy two year old are prowling about and growing fond of being an adult. They are a bit over vocal and anxious to make their mark in the gene pool, after all it is there first spring as a real gobbler. Some sweet sexly talk will usually lure one of these boys to their doom. These boys are scattered around the fringes of the big house.  The party is on in the main room of the woods and that is where the girls are. All the old boys are there too. The day begins with the guys gobbling off their roost perch telling all  the girls where they are. The girls gather with there suiters and goods times are on. This is what I call the silent period. Throw all the sexy call you want, they won't lure ole tom away. Look at it this way: A guy has his main girl in his bedroom getting it on and the phone rings with a call from HOTTY Hen, does he jump up and leave his girl or just ignnore the unknown caller. That's right he ignores the call. No suggestive calling will get you much more than lip service.  So if you want ole tom's attention how you gonna get it. You don't you just piss off the girlfriend. Picture this, ole Tom and Hannah hen is getting it on and the hotty from across  town shows up in the bedroom doorway and screams at miss Hannah hen, you skanky ho bitch, let a real hen at that ole gobbler.  Then hannah spits back a reply and the hotty says wanna take it outside and flips her the the middle toe and says let go bitch. As hannah jumps out from under tom in pursuit of the hotty, where do you think ole Tom is? Yup he's right behind the girls. So if your lucky enough to find one of the frat boys whoring around your in luck and any old sweet talk will do. However, if you run into the henned up ole Tom, your way more apt to see him up close by bitch slapping his hen than promises of love. That or play the part of one of the frat boys trying to hit  on hannah hen. Either way the sweet whispers of love will pay less dividends than trash talk. As this phase closes, more and more of the girls are disappearingg to nest and by mid day ole Tom is running out of possiblities and he is more open to suggestion. The only other option is get in the big house before everyone gets up and set up and wait in the party room for an ambush.

Next up is mid season and the big show:

[eggshell]

The big show: This is what we live for. Most of our seasons coincide with the heart of breeding season and nesting. A large part of the hens have established their nest and are either incubating or going to the nest to lay by mid morning. The gobblers have fractured into their own turfs and the dominate birds have the best spots. Since many hens are now wandering back and forth to nest, competition for their affection is at it's peak. The party has moved out of the big house and the guys are hitting the bars to pick up any willing chickadees. Your goal here is to know where the bar is, it can be a bench or a ridge top or open field. Don't under estimate what a bar looks like, it may be a ten foot square of open woods on a small out crop of land. The bar is where Tom says it is and he has regular hens he meets there, but he is open to the new girl in town. So I say again learn where the bar is. You might get him to stray off path a bit if he's lonely, but he's headed to one of the bars. He may still have some girls hanging out at his pad and will go silent after fly down, but they don't hang around so come back in an hour or two and check the bars. If he never seems to want to play and has girls already around, just come back another day and sooner or later you'll catch him alone and he'll play. He also learns that certain sounding hens always bring trouble and when he hears her coming through the front door he's gone. So bring a different sounding girl (call) along some days and come in the back door. If he's not in the bar just have a seat and wait he'll eventually be there. As the days go on less of the girls stay over for the night and that makes him scream for company in the mornings. Now is when you want to get tight in the night and be the first to whisper in his ear in the morning. Actually it's never a bad idea to snuggle in as close as possible. Way to many hunters assume they can't get tight on a bird....my guideline is for every ten yards inside a hundred you can get your percent of success goes up 10%. Of course you have to have cover and not bust him. This is the season to sound sexy, perception is everything here. Think spring break on the beach, who do the guys flock to? Sure enough the hotty in the tiny skin tight bikini that seems to be flirt-in with every guy has a lot of attention. So pour on the hotness as there is no morals in the turkey woods, if you can convince ole tom your the hottest chick on the beach stark naked and laying wide open waiting for just him he'll drop his guard and come running. Just like spring break, be sure to hit all the bars as there are guys looking for chicks somewhere. so run and gun now, time to sit is coming later. As this season slows you'll need to slow and there will be on and off days. Sometimes you just have to go sit at the food wagon or sports bar and wait for some guys to show up.

Next is the late season and guys getting back to what guys do

[steveo]

That was great ......

[eggshell]

Late seasout : Almost all the girls are in the maternity ward incubating eggs. A few that have lost nest and late bloomers are wandering around, but most aren't getting with the guys. Some of the Jenny's are not going to nest and are a nuisance for hanging around and distracting tom. Tom has learned to be wary as these dad-blame hunters keep showing up and messing around his turf. Several of the bars have shutdown and some of his buddys have disappeared, heck he has watched his best running mate just fall over dead after a loud boom. He doesn't understand why some hens are always around those hunters, but he's learned to keep his distance from the loudmouths. He prefers to just go and sit in one of the bars and wait for one of those soft spoken girls. Some days he wakes up and just feels so horny he goes traveling to pick up a chick. On these days he throws caution to the wind, heck he hasn't had any action in three days! If your Joe hunter you count your blessing if your in Tom's woods this day, but you can't predict moods, so you have to just keep going. Tom will let his guard down a little if he hasn't seen hunters for a while so give him breaks and only drop in every few days if you can. Tom also likes to get back to normal turkey life more now. He'll breed any hen that shows up, but he's usually thinking of things like food and loafing with a couple guys by mid day. It's getting hot a lot now and he doesn't like sex when it's hot. So he'll hang out in the bar for a couple hours in the morning and then find somewhere to loaf. He'll tolerate company from some of the boys now and they'll spar around and figure out who's gonna rule the gang now that so many of the guys are gone. Heck even some of those pesky jakes are allowed in the fraternity. One of there fun things to do is gobble at each other across areas, they do this just to drive the hunters nuts, they have no intention of moving, it's just fun. The old boys are still taking care of some hens, but the two year old and jakes are almost done and just hangin with the guys. This is when the long spurred old boys are often killed.

So it's time to do more sitting than walking. You need to get in close to those loafing areas and learn where they are, they are usually in the same neighborhood as the bars. As breeding season ends the bachelor groups rebuild. So guy talk now needs to enter your calling repertoire. Gobbler yelps and even Kee Kee runs will often pay dividends. Throw out some gobbles now and then, if for no other reason than as a locator call. Ambush may need to become part of your strategy now as things can get tough.

That's it now time to put up the guns and bows and GO FISHING

[jbrown]

Awesome imformation

[zelmo1]

Good read and a great story. Thanks, Al Baker

[ElkTurkMan]

Awesome Thread!

[Texforce]

That there, is GOOD STUFF !!

[KYHeadhunter02]

Some funny and creative anolgies I had a guy tell me once that a gobbler acts like the hottest girl you find in a bar. The snobby type that all the guys are hitting on and drooling over. Shes stuck up and knows shes the best looking in the building.