Somebody explain this to me

[bnew17]

Had a unique experience last weekend and wanted to see if anybody else had experienced it before. Morning starts with me set up on a roosted bird. I see one bird fly down followed by another. They flew down different directions and bird #2 gobbled as soon as he hit the ground and immediately started working away from me. The terrain was
Open and would not allow me to get around him soni tried to flank him to no avail. He was on a mission somewhere. He covered a few hundred yards in a matter of 30 min. I eventually saw a group of hena in the area he was in. I then heard a bird behind me 500 yards and i knew exactly where he was so i took off after him and this is where it got interesting. I got to the area and set up. There is a 15-20ft wide creek to my right with a 50 yard wide strip of land between the creek and a river. To my luck the bird was across the creek from me. Soon after i settled in with him i heard a hen with him. He would gobble at me but was not moving so i stayed quiet for 10 min raking the leaves with nothing. I figured a last ditch effort of getting really aggressive with yelps and cutts may make him fly across the creek. At this point he is probably 100 yards away and out of sight. I knew if i could get him to cross the creek i could kill him. He was eating it up, double gobblinng and cutting me off and finally flying over the creek. I get the safety off and still cant see him but estimate him to be 60-65 yards away. He continued to gobble and strut in circles for 15-20 min drumming the whole time. I didnt want him to hang up more ao i stayed quiet raking the leaves every few min. About 15 min after he flew over i hear yelps and clucks over my left shoulder. Frustrated i look only to see 2 jakes moving towards the lone gobbler. I think this will work to my advantage and make the gobbler finally commit. Wrong...as soon as he sees the jakes they start moving toward each other and as they meet, at about 60 yards, the gobbler turns and walks away from me with the jakes. I was left dumbfounded. I have never heard a jake yelp and cluck before. Both jakes had knub beards. I have seen several bearded hens on this property this year and part of me thinks maybe these were bearded hens although the bearded hena i have on camera have 8-10" beards. What should i have done differently and has anybody else had this happen before?

[bbcoach]

You probably couldn't have done anything that would have changed the outcome.  You got to him, called him over a creek (which hardly ever happens) and got him to 60 yards.  I would say, he didn't see a hen so he left.  Would a hen decoy sealed the deal, maybe, maybe not.  You never know what that walnut sized brain is thinking.  We try to match wits with these birds and most of the time we lose but that is what keeps us going back.     

[Cutt]

Maybe they were gay? If you could of had the jakes come towards you, or hang around you for a bit, I bet he would have come? Once the jakes commited going to him, he probably read them as not intrested, so he wasn't? As said, hard to tell why they do the things they do at times, but have heard gobblers, gobbling and closing towards each other. When given the chance setup in a straight line between distant gobbling birds.

[howl]

It may be childish, but I tend to throw things at turkeys that bug me. I just call over the putts and then get back to business. It works often as not.

[mikejd]

Sounds like a great hunt. And all of your ideas worked so thats also good. As for the yelping cutting jakes I have had that happen to me as well.  I one time thought I was calling in a hen wich I often try and do to get a tom to fallow. Well I see this hen coming from about 200 yds across a field, all the time she was yelping and cutting. Dont you know when she gets to me shes a jake. Those are the hunts we remember. Your not likely to forget this one either. Good job getting him to cross the creek.

[SCGobbler]

No sir,  I think you did everything correct.  Sometimes it just doesn't work the way we want it too.

Sent from the Gobbled's Roost, formerly the Totem Pole Headquarters