Birds Going Silent

[mountaineer long beard]

Here's a question for you all. What do you do when a bird gobbles on the roost but shuts up once he hits the ground?  Seems like the last couple years this is the norm around here. Do you just call sparingly and wait, or move on to try to find a more responsive gobbler?

Mike

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[rakkin6]

Here's a question for you all. What do you do when a bird gobbles on the roost but shuts up once he hits the ground?  Seems like the last couple years this is the norm around here. Do you just call sparingly and wait, or move on to try to find a more responsive gobbler?

Mike

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I will usually give up a couple tree yelps just to let him know I am there. And it is dependent on his temperament what I do next. I may do a fly down cackle and simulate a flapping wing. Or I may do nothing. If you give him soft tree yelps he knows your position. Once you hear him fly down give a couple yelps just to remind him then I would just be patient and hold tight whether he responds or not he knows where you are. I am of the opinion if he responds on the limb to your tree yelps he has some interest and I would rather have a bird showing interest than hoping to run across another one.

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[strut-n-rut]

If you k ow where other birds are you can go try them and then come back later and see to get home to respond, if not then just hang around he'll remember hearing that lonely hen and come back and try to find her.

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[Tom007]

I sit tight, cluck, scratch leaves for a while. If I know hens dragged him away, I will slip out and chase on, returning around 9 and sit tight again. I have been rewarded the 2nd time he came back to roost area to see what he left behind....

[Turkeytider]

If you k ow where other birds are you can go try them and then come back later and see to get home to respond, if not then just hang around he'll remember hearing that lonely hen and come back and try to find her.

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This would be me probably 90% of the time, even if he`s henned up. It may take a while, but it just fits how I like to be in the woods, plus there`s more than a little evidence that they have a keen sense of "place" ( AKA "memory" of location ). Those hens are going to dump him in a while and he`ll get real lonely real fast.

[ChesterCopperpot]

Gobble on the limb, silent on the ground usually means one thing to me which is that the hens were roosted near or with him. If it's a small piece of ground I'm likely holding tight till the girls leave the old boy lonely. If it's public it really depends how much time I've got, whether I think I'm likely to encounter other hunters if I push farther, whether or not I heard other birds, my patience level that particular morning (seems to dwindle as season progresses), how tired I am (seems to increase as season progresses), and even how comfortable the particular tree I'm at is. Sometimes I'm a lot more likely to get up and stretch my legs and walk till I strike one that wants to play ball. Other times if I'm flat wore out I'm liable to shut my eyes and catnap awhile and wait for that mid morning hens-done-left-me gobble to make my eyes snap open and my heart near explode I think we look for general rules and sometimes there are, but most times it depends. The answer is almost always individually situational.


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[GobbleNut]

Gobble on the limb, silent on the ground usually means one thing to me which is that the hens were roosted near or with him. If it's a small piece of ground I'm likely holding tight till the girls leave the old boy lonely. If it's public it really depends how much time I've got, whether I think I'm likely to encounter other hunters if I push farther, whether or not I heard other birds, my patience level that particular morning (seems to dwindle as season progresses), how tired I am (seems to increase as season progresses), and even how comfortable the particular tree I'm at is. Sometimes I'm a lot more likely to get up and stretch my legs and walk till I strike one that wants to play ball. Other times if I'm flat wore out I'm liable to shut my eyes and catnap awhile and wait for that mid morning hens-done-left-me gobble to make my eyes snap open and my heart near explode I think we look for general rules and sometimes there are, but most times it depends. The answer is almost always individually situational.

Right on target for me, as well.  I will add that the one thing I don't want to do is to assume a gobbler has departed, get up to stretch or move under that assumption, and then have him standing there out of gun range looking at me.  I have watched the expression on their face as they put two and two together and said to themselves,..."hmmm, that hen I heard over there must have been THAT guy!"

...Okay,....so I really haven't seen that expression on their faces, but I am a firm believer that turkeys are perfectly capable of learning to associate "unseen" turkeys calling with danger,....and I don't want to give them any more hints than necessary.   

[mountaineer long beard]

On average around what time would you say the hens have left him? I usually wait a while but I'm probably guilty of giving up too soon. Also does your strategy change if he's just gobbling on his own and isn't responding to any calls on the roost?

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[sasquatch1]

On average around what time would you say the hens have left him? I usually wait a while but I'm probably guilty of giving up too soon. Also does your strategy change if he's just gobbling on his own and isn't responding to any calls on the roost?

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They may never leave him. I've watched them all day long many times. One hen may leave but another shows up. I would personally never sit there and wait hoping they leave him. I will go prospecting for another bird and circle back if unsuccessful


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[ChesterCopperpot]

On average around what time would you say the hens have left him? I usually wait a while but I'm probably guilty of giving up too soon. Also does your strategy change if he's just gobbling on his own and isn't responding to any calls on the roost?

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In peak breeding most hens seem to be going to nest before 9:30 and so usually you'll hear gobblers fire back up after that. I love love LOVE that nine to noon hunt. I mean I love chasing them all day and I love moving in before sunrise on one that's hammering from the limb, but most of my birds seem to get killed nine to noon. Sasquatch is absolutely right above that sometimes they don't leave him. That's usually a matter of timing. There's a lot of biological and resulting behaviors shifts taking place from say late February to late May. After break up but before breeding you really see that quiet gobbler with hens staying with him all day situation that Sasquatch is describing. Encounter that a lot on early season birds in places that open early to hunting. Once they're breeding though and going to nest they're going to leave him and he's going to fire back up when they do. The Ron Jeremy in him just can't keep him quiet. If that's the bird that shut up off the limb then odds are I'm sitting. What period of the season you're in should weigh heavily on the decisions you're making in my opinion.


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[GobbleNut]

On average around what time would you say the hens have left him? I usually wait a while but I'm probably guilty of giving up too soon. Also does your strategy change if he's just gobbling on his own and isn't responding to any calls on the roost?

They may never leave him. I've watched them all day long many times. One hen may leave but another shows up. I would personally never sit there and wait hoping they leave him. I will go prospecting for another bird and circle back if unsuccessful


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In peak breeding most hens seem to be going to nest before 9:30 and so usually you'll hear gobblers fire back up after that. I love love LOVE that nine to noon hunt. I mean I love chasing them all day and I love moving in before sunrise on one that's hammering from the limb, but most of my birds seem to get killed nine to noon. Sasquatch is absolutely right above that sometimes they don't leave him. That's usually a matter of timing. There's a lot of biological and resulting behaviors shifts taking place from say late February to late May. After break up but before breeding you really see that quiet gobbler with hens staying with him all day situation that Sasquatch is describing. Encounter that a lot on early season birds in places that open early to hunting. Once they're breeding though and going to nest they're going to leave him and he's going to fire back up when they do. The Ron Jeremy in him just can't keep him quiet. If that's the bird that shut up off the limb then odds are I'm sitting. What period of the season you're in should weigh heavily on the decisions you're making in my opinion.

Great responses here! 
My strategy in all roost-hunting cases is to pay close attention to other gobblers I hear when I am set up on a particular bird and mentally note their location.  If the bird I am on does not cooperate in a reasonable amount of time ("reasonable" meaning "pretty darn soon", in my case) when he comes off the roost, I will have already calculated the route I am going to take to hit those other gobblers.

Quite often, if there are other gobblers about, one of them is going to want to play.  Regardless of the circumstances,...that is, whether or not there are one or more other gobblers to go to,...I will circle back to the first one before the morning is out. 

Most of the time, even if I don't hear other gobblers in the distance, I am more likely to go in search of one rather than sit and wait for the original gobbler to show up whilst I watch the grass grow.  After I make my hike to find another bird, he is probably more likely to be in a better mood when I return to him anyway.

[Turkeytider]

Just for discussion purposes, I wonder if those that hunt in the morning and are more likely to wait in place for a bird that`s henned up to return than to get up and move are also those that enjoy afternoon hunting more? My buddy is more of a run and gunner than I am, and he marvels at my patience. Interestingly enough I think, we`ve both had pretty much the same success.

[GobbleNut]

Just for discussion purposes, I wonder if those that hunt in the morning and are more likely to wait in place for a bird that`s henned up to return than to get up and move are also those that enjoy afternoon hunting more? My buddy is more of a run and gunner than I am, and he marvels at my patience. Interestingly enough I think, we`ve both had pretty much the same success.

Personally, I just don't have enough patience to play the sit and wait game, regardless of the time of day.  ...And I, too, marvel at those that can hunt that way.  I'm certain that is a function of the fact that the circumstances I have "evolved in" in my turkey hunting (i.e....large public areas with pretty fair numbers of birds) have steered me towards using those more mobile tactics in my hunting. 

There is no question that my "go after 'em" mind-set would be counterproductive in many places in the country.  I am just inclined to begin any hunt I go on with that mind-set until my stubbornness is exhausted and I have to admit I have to take a more "sedentary" approach.  But even then, I am not very good at doing that.   

[Turkeytider]

Just for discussion purposes, I wonder if those that hunt in the morning and are more likely to wait in place for a bird that`s henned up to return than to get up and move are also those that enjoy afternoon hunting more? My buddy is more of a run and gunner than I am, and he marvels at my patience. Interestingly enough I think, we`ve both had pretty much the same success.

Personally, I just don't have enough patience to play the sit and wait game, regardless of the time of day.  ...And I, too, marvel at those that can hunt that way.  I'm certain that is a function of the fact that the circumstances I have "evolved in" in my turkey hunting (i.e....large public areas with pretty fair numbers of birds) have steered me towards using those more mobile tactics in my hunting. 

There is no question that my "go after 'em" mind-set would be counterproductive in many places in the country.  I am just inclined to begin any hunt I go on with that mind-set until my stubbornness is exhausted and I have to admit I have to take a more "sedentary" approach.  But even then, I am not very good at doing that.   

GN, you sound just like my buddy! LOL! We hunt on approx. 600 acres ( relatively small, I guess ?) that he owns and leases, and we pretty much know the general areas where the birds are going to be. I also just personally enjoy being in the woods just for the sake of being there. It`s amazing some of the things you can see just by sitting quietly. So, I can have a great day in the woods without pulling a trigger! I think that`s a part of getting older, too.

[GobbleNut]

I think that`s a part of getting older, too.

My body is there! My mind just hasn't caught up yet! The "body" is beginning to win the ongoing argument, though.