Late Season Advice

[srmturk]

So we are entering our last two weeks in Maine and like clockwork the gobbling is slowing down.  I've never had much action late season though I know people swear by it.  Hens on the nest and randy toms looking for late love.  I've just never had that experience.  Anyone love the late season and truly had success and if so any advice?

[zelmo1]

I have one tag left in Maine also, my NY and Georgia buddies killed all the "less wary" ones already, and they are quiet now. I am trying a jake decoy with a breeding hen and/or a tail fan, not fanning/reaping, to try to get a response now. I think it will work eventually, but it may take a while. I have killed bieds up to the last day in Maine also. My biggest Maine bird was on 5/24 a few years back so they will work. Just keep at it and you will get it done brother. Al Baker

[vt35mag]

Late season is the best!  I look forward to the last two weeks more than opening day.  A lot less hunters (hunting pressure is relatively low by me anyways) and dominant birds are workable.
I don't change tactics, just the amount of area I cover.  If after a few series of calls I don't hear one, I am onto the next spot (which maybe miles away).  I am after the dominant birds that haven't really been worked yet, because they have been covered up in hens since opener and aren't afraid to gobble when alone.  Late season is also the time I may hunt spots I haven't previously, but know others have and gave up on them.

[guesswho]

Around here by late season, a lot of the gobblers are just as interested in getting back together with what's left of the ole gang as they are getting with a hen.  I've found that they seem to lose interest in hen talk shortly after flydown.   I've killed several over the years in the late season by using nothing more than a few gobbles, a gobbler yelp or two and gobbler clucks.   Seems like gobbling has been the most effective.   But here in the South late season is really late in the normal breeding cycle.   

[eggshell]

Around here by late season, a lot of the gobblers are just as interested in getting back together with what's left of the ole gang as they are getting with a hen.  I've found that they seem to lose interest in hen talk shortly after flydown.   I've killed several over the years in the late season by using nothing more than a few gobbles, a gobbler yelp or two and gobbler clucks.   Seems like gobbling has been the most effective.   But here in the South late season is really late in the normal breeding cycle.   

This is true in my part of Ohio also. It almost turns into a fall hunt. On any given day though a gobbler may get in the mood for a hen and if you catch him then, he is yours pretty easily. However, these are only found by being out there and hitting a lot of areas. Typically I tone down my calling with soft yelps, whines and clucks. Most of the birds that are still active are old dominate birds so It's a good time to kill  trophies. They also become very much entrenched in daily patterns. If you can figure out an old birds daily routine late season, you have a good chance of killing him. He will deviate a little form his daily course to check out a possible hen, but he won't move radically from his daily path. Most of the vulnerable birds are dead, so be ready to spend time on coaxing an old wise tom to the gun. Change up those calls....I save one favorite slate that has dead turkey all through it (a willlow ridge call) exclusively for late season birds. I never use it in any of my areas until the end of season, if I still have a tag or helping a buddy. I can keep it soft and it has a good soft natural tone....it has killed me several old birds that ignored mouth calls late. 

[Marc]

I feel like the birds move after the hens are on the nest...  I try looking in areas where I see them winter or where I see toms in the summer (which is sometimes different than the spring haunts).

I also use a gobble call, and I also tend to call a bit more aggressively with any hen calls.....

If you have a late storm, it can change things up, and toms might be looking for that hen that lost her nest....

[srmturk]

Thank you all.  Very helpful


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[ilbucksndux]

Around here it seems like the last week of season can be the best,except for this year. My experience is they seem to gobble a little more on the ground than they did earlier in the month,but this whole season has been odd. Unseasonably cold but I know they still did their thing.

[silvestris]

Call softly, my friend.

[GobbleNut]

News Flash!!:  Late season and/or highly pressured turkeys can become conditioned to avoid turkey calling from unseen, questionable sources.  It can be what we turkey hunters have been "conditioned" to define as good calling, or bad,...or it can be soft or loud, subtle or aggressive.  The turkeys don't care,...because they have been hunted enough and have had enough experience with turkey-calling hunters to have the avoidance mechanism in their brain reinforced to a degree that they will not go to turkey calling. 

Yes, there are exceptions to this.  Spend enough time in the woods trying and you might catch a gobbler at the right moment, at the right place, and make the right sound, and even a highly-pressured turkey might come.  There are also a few people that win the lottery every year.

Usually though, killing late-season, pressured gobblers involves using tactics that overcome a gobbler's reluctance to approach a turkey call.  In situations where a gobbler can "get a visual" on your set-up, visual aids such as decoys (and other unmentionables) can be the difference between success and failure.

There are circumstances where visual contact, at least initially, is not part of the equation.  Sometimes a hunter has to convince a gobbler that the hen he is hearing is the real deal and not just another phantom turkey call to be avoided.  So ask yourself, what sounds do turkeys make besides vocalizations that might be used to convince a wary bird that you are actually a real, live turkey?

The old trick of scratching in the leaves is one of them.  That has been touted enough over the years that lots of hunters do it.  However, the one trick that really works that has not received much "press" is that of imitating wing beats,...either of turkeys flying off the roost or when they adjust or stretch their wings while on the ground. 

In particular, when hunting gobblers on the roost, imitating turkeys flying to the ground can be a deadly tactic.  For late-season and pressured gobblers, using the right tool and being able to make realistic fly-downs at the right time will often fool those wary birds when simply calling to them will not. 

[eggshell]

Ok Ok I give in ......I will reveal my super secret weapon/call. If you can learn to do a turkey fart, especially a hen fart then your gold. It's kind of a squeak with a splat at the end! It also helps to have a hen decoy with a bikini wax.

If that does not work artillery is the final play....however you have to hit just far enough for the shock wave to kill the gobbler. a direct hit means turkey burger

You remember the conversations from turkey and turkey hunting forum don't ya gobblenut...?

[nyhunter]

first and foremost #1 tactic to kill a late season gobbler is being out there.  unless one flies into the side of your house and breaks his neck you wont get one sitting in your recliner, keep a positive attitude and keep hunting. 

[JonD.]

The turkeys get really reluctant to answer any kind of calls around here too in the very late season when breeding is about over. I usually try to find out where they're going and be there when they get there if I can. Of course they may do something different on any given day too.

[eggshell]

you wont get one sitting in your recliner,

Actually this depends on where you live. My wife's uncle killed at least 2 or 3 from his rocker on the front porch. when he was older he would sit and run a box call every morning with the shotgun propped up beside his chair. It wasn't that rare for one to wander into the yard and him kill it. I have had them strutting in my yard before, but I never shot one from the house....just wouldn't do that. I killed my second bird about 200-300 yards from my house this spring, in my field. However, your right persistence is the most important aspect of late season hunting. Find that one morning a bird will come.