How would you have played this out ?

[turkeyfeathers]

Here was my scenario from yesterday

I'll lay out area I hunt.   I essentially am skirting property line I have permission to hunt overlooking a field surrounded by hard woods. I sit about 20 yards into woods with a DSD upright hen and jake on field edge. Birds have roosted for years off property about 250-300 yards away. I work them across the field to wear I can shoot them. 13 birds killed from sitting from exact tree so this works. I'm not going to be "that guy" to sit nearer them on roost as I can't get permission to hunt there .

So now for yesterday. LB and 2 jakes ripped on roost, hit the deck. Made sure I was first hen on the ground with a flydown and some real soft talk. I quieted down until I heard them hit the deck. Purred and ole tom cut me off. No word from the jakes. They enter the far corner of the field. Purr again and pow tom displays . Now another tom flies down from opposite end of field with a call I've never heard before, like a wildcat call. He soon joins other tom and 2 jakes. I scratch in leaves, with a soft cluck and a couple of purrs. Dominant tom fires up. They slowly start my way but only 10-15 feet. Then the awwww crap moment and it goes south real quick.  A hen emerges from the woods ,and another and another til finally 10 hens in all. Now I'm pretty sure no birds could see my dekes as there is a little ridge blocking there view . Hens chasing each other around for about 5 minutes and tom quickly shut down. I stayed with the soft talk and scratching but they slowly meandered into the other woods . From there I called (soft yelps,occasional cluck or a purr) every 15-20 minutes and hoped for the "once the hens are bred they'll be back" scenario as they know where you're at. Well that never happened.
I think I should have gotten aggressive with maybe fighting purrs ( as I had 2 flocks during deer season encounter each other a few times with rival attitudes) or nasty hen to lead hen and try and drag her in. As my soft talk surely didn't work. I'm thinking of popping up a few more foam decoys into my DSD hen and jake to try and bring the party to me (and daughter)  I'll  have her use the push pin and I'll ramp up the slate .    Any suggestions are appreciated.

[Greg Massey]

You just experience turkeys being turkeys. With that many hens i don't think those gobblers would of ever left them during the day...just one hen could of keep them corral up all day into the night.. I don't think adding more decoys would do any good.. just keep with your plan and live to call them another day...good luck...regardless what you do sometimes it's just not meant to be.....that's why it's turkey hunting as you know..

[the Ward]

Do you have permission to hunt that field or is that the property line? I ask because I have a guy that tries to do that here. He sits just across the property line and tries to shoot at birds in my fields. That is not cool. I actually have a video camera and we are watching him and when he does it again he is going to get a visit from mr. greenjeans. Hope that's not your case. Patience kills birds, sooner or later a bird will work your way. Lots of hens will keep him busy. Sometimes birds have a place they like to go after flydown and it can be hard to get them to change it. Best to be in the general direction they like to head to, makes it a lot easier to pull them in. Challanging the dominant hen can work sometimes too. Seems to work better for me though in small flocks. Good luck.

[appalachianassassin]

I would have gotten more aggressive with my calling toward the end of the scenario. probably not fighting purrs though. maybe a gobble or three.

[catman529]

I had a similar scenario the other day watching a private field from public woods. Tom went back and forth across the field between 2 hens and another lone hen. Finally sometime after 12 pm he got tired of their rejection and he came straight towards me since he had heard me calling before. Literally straight at me till he was 10 yards, and then of course I missed. But that to say it took him till after noon till he broke away from the hens and came looking for my calls. Sometimes you just have to wait it out, take a nap or something. I know I took a good 2 hour nap in between that time.

[turkeyfeathers]

Do you have permission to hunt that field or is that the property line? I ask because I have a guy that tries to do that here. He sits just across the property line and tries to shoot at birds in my fields. That is not cool. I actually have a video camera and we are watching him and when he does it again he is going to get a visit from mr. greenjeans. Hope that's not your case. Patience kills birds, sooner or later a bird will work your way. Lots of hens will keep him busy. Sometimes birds have a place they like to go after flydown and it can be hard to get them to change it. Best to be in the general direction they like to head to, makes it a lot easier to pull them in. Challanging the dominant hen can work sometimes too. Seems to work better for me though in small flocks. Good luck.

I have a about 6 feet of field to set decoys up in to make it legal. Once they pass the dekes I'm good to go. 10 feet of trespassing is equal to a few hundred yards IMO. I play by the rules.  If it happens again I do plan on calling at the aggressive hen. This situation happens every year, just not with so many hens. It is fun to work them from so far away but it also works against me as more time elapses to hen up.

[tha bugman]

You just experience turkeys being turkeys. With that many hens i don't think those gobblers would of ever left them during the day...just one hen could of keep them corral up all day into the night.. I don't think adding more decoys would do any good.. just keep with your plan and live to call them another day...good luck...regardless what you do sometimes it's just not meant to be.....that's why it's turkey hunting as you know..

+1

[turkeyfeathers]

Well Saturday daughter and I went out again.  After a big storm rolled thru Friday night I thought they might be late gobbling on roost. Them little toes probably hurt from clinging on to their limbs tighter. Morning was overcast and nothing gobbled on roost or up until a good hour and a half when they should have. I hit the slate with a short yelp and then the gobble tube. Bingo, birds sounded off.  Waited awhile ,let out a purr, got cut off, shortly after another purr with gobbles. Whispered to my daughter to get optics turned on and on her gun on her shooting sticks. Pow, they sound of again so now they're 125 yards or so just off to our right and over a small ridge. My heart was beating like never before and I could see her shaking a bit. I'm thinking she's going to get her first bird and we may possibly double up.  They definitely closed the gap to us but yet again we didn't move to them and with all those hens what did they really care. We didn't kill one of those birds (yet) but man we're having fun with the rush and that's what it's all about. With high winds and snow (yes snow) we still headed out yesterday and didn't hear a peep. I thought about just bagging it when my alarm went off and looked outside but we never would have known if it was "the day " or not without trying.

[turkeyfeathers]

In previous posts I've mentioned we or I've played with birds all but one day and we've hunted hard. Typically we've had birds narrow the distance about 125 yards up to the hill top and hang up out of sight all henned up. Today I went in higher by about 75 yards to pinch path between 2 fields. Birds gobbled a good half mile off. I chuckled inside Once on the deck they shut down for a half hour or so. I called soft every 10 minutes or so Then I hear some gobbles in the lower field about 400 yards away below me. I purr and multiple gobbles cut me off. They took there sweet ole time. Soon I see 2 Toms , a few hens and hear another Tom right in front of our blind. Really I think. Again these birds cut the distance and meander off. Had 2 going to be nice bucks cruise by pretty close . A pair of wood ducks kept landing in tree close to me , take off and land on the branches again and again. Doe and two fawn, solo doe. Surrounded by nature so far. Ok birds are below me so I swing around tree I'm sitting against and quickly move my stick blind. Hoping they come up the hill. Then I hear a Yelp. Oh man , flock of birds are now in field behind me and I just moved in complete opposite direction I butt scooch a little bit and pretty soon have 10 jakes and 3 hens eventually to 30 yards. Lookout Jake was fun to watch. He looked just like that funky chicken decoy all standing tall and thin. He'd hang back 20 yards and peered around sometimes yelping. He ran to catch up to the rest who of course are now feet from my blind. They fixed their plumage , chased each other around , picked dandelions for quite some time. All of a sudden they all ran about 20 yards gobbling . 10 jakes gobbling almost made me lol. They sound horrible. At least I'm facing downhill now to watch. I catch movement off to my left. A hen coming into me hard and fast. I've been purring on the slate call around the side of my leg periodically. She comes to within 10 feet of me and I'm afraid to make eye contact with her. I'm already looking out my ears. More movement , jakes coming up hill. But original movement I think none of that flock got up this high yet. It's the earlier Toms and a few hens. They tried avoiding the jakes as jakes probably ganged up on old boys before. Dominant Tom struts silently as jakes near. I see 3 ropes. Only one full struts. I see Mr Tom with a ground dragging beard. I wait for hens and other 2 Toms to clear. Big boy struts , I've got a window but my heart is absolutely pounding. I putt him , head comes up and Federal heavyweight 7's just crumple him. Barely a flop. Jakes all gobbled at the shot I lasered bird , 24 yards. I hung out with my dead bird for a fair amount of time just soaking in all that's happened and appreciating my opportunity to enjoy such a wonderful morning. I called it last night. I was going to kill this bird today. Bitter sweet and sad at the same time. I won't hunt again til Saturday the 20th as I took s personal day to get Samantha ( daughter ) a bird. Then we have Memorial Day also. Bitter sweet to kill this bird and sad our game is over . Little over 23.5 pounds / 11" beard / hooks were both just short of 1.5" ( someday I'll surpass that I hope ) But he's my best bird to date. His head was dang near as big as my hand. Definately  had some years on him. Currently keeping it local and trying to get my buddy his first bird. All was good on roost , now quiet.

[GobbleNut]

Great series of posts on your hunt.  Kudos to you for sticking with it and congrats on finally getting it done.  There is nothing like that feeling you have when it finally comes together after so many days of frustration.  Sitting there alone with that bird after it is all over brings a sense of elation and satisfaction that few other moments in life can equal.