Let’s play a scenario

[RiverRoost]

Let's see how handles this situation. You get set up on a gobbler let's say he's on the ground, it's just after fly down or mid morning and he will respond to your calls but he doesn't jump all over them gobbling back. He's not really lighting the woods up gobbling but is doing more than the "courteous gobble". Doesn't sound like he's closing much distance either. Do you work up to aggressive calling, play the "hen going away game" calling while crawling away a few yards or do you crank it up then shut down the calling to try to get him coming or fired up?

[davisd9]

He has hens most likely so I Kee Kee a time or two and lost Yelp. If he does not sound like he is getting much closer in 30 minutes or so I leave for another and if I do not kill one I come back in a couple hours.

[btomlin]

I'm gonna get a 2 hen interaction going on with a mouth call and pot/box call. Start w some softer stuff then work up to some 2 hen aggressive calling if needed and then shut it down.  This is assuming he is still in same spot gobbling. Then it is just leaf scratching.   Then I wait for him to make the next move.  Maybe he moves away  and I need to adjust as well, maybe he sneaks in, or maybe he just comes in gobbling head off or maybe it's just not his day to meet me up close. 

[El Pavo Grande]

If I feel confident in my set up and location, more likely than not I would hit him aggressively, then shut it down completely.  If anything, only scratch occasionally in the leaves.  Otherwise, if no other game in town I sit back, get comfortable, and try to wait him out.  I've waited as long as 3+ hours in this scenario to kill one.  Have had them come in gobbling looking for the hen and haven't called in hours.  It's a true test of patience, but rewarding if it works out.  Especially if I've scouted or have experience with a particular turkey, my belief is at some point he is very likely to come look for the hen.  So, it just depends if I can wait it out long enough to be there when he does.  On the flip side, if I don't like my set up or location, I would attempt to move.   

[guesswho]

I'm going with Davisd9.  I hope he don't mind but about 10-15 minutes before we bobcat out I'm going to gobble one time.   That serves two purposes.  It will let us know if we really want to bobcat out of there or sit tight.  Plus it will help set the stage for when we return if we do leave.   

[tlh2865]

Going with the just after fly down scenario, off the bat he has hens if he is just giving courtesy gobbles. At that point I am relying on knowledge of what direction they are normally going to move. If the hens are likely to pull him my way, I am going to shut up and not interrupt them while they bring him to my lap. If I think they are going to move away from me, I will try and talk to the hens. I will work up the yelping to try and get a response from them. If they respond I will try to match them and bring them in. If the hens won't cooperate, then all of my nagging calling has set me up perfectly to gobble. At that point I would gobble until I got a response out of the hung up bird, and then just keep cutting him off. He gobbles, cut him off with a gobble, he gobbles again, cut him off with a double gobble. Just keep riling him up until something gives. One of my most memorable hunts was doing exactly that with an old wise bird that I had sparred with all year. I have seen this work a number of times to bring in the hens and gobbler both.
I will throw out though that I'm hunting private land, without another hunter on my side of a ridge for probably a mile in one direction and 1/4 mile in another. I don't have permission to hunt more than 140 of those acres, so I am usually forced to hold my ground and call as opposed to moving around a bird that wants to go the other way. But I am not at all afraid to gobble hard at a bird. It is my favorite "stuck bird tactic"

[davisd9]

I'm going with Davisd9.  I hope he don't mind but about 10-15 minutes before we bobcat out I'm going to gobble one time.   That serves two purposes.  It will let us know if we really want to bobcat out of there or sit tight.  Plus it will help set the stage for when we return if we do leave.   

Works for me! Good move.

[silvestris]

I'm not leaving a gobbling turkey.  I may not kill him that day, but I'm not leaving him.

[3chunter]

Depends on how far he is. What part of the season it is.   I am personally not a fan of staying put for hours unless I know he is coming my way at some point.  I have sat on one for 8 hours before because I knew he was coming to a certain spot early afternoon. 
I generally like to either get within 80-100 if I can or get in front of him.  Location will beat calling about everytime.

[Tom007]

I'm not leaving a gobbling turkey.  I may not kill him that day, but I'm not leaving him.

X2 here. If it's in one of my familiar honey holes where I have harvested several gobblers, I sit tight. A "more than courteous gobble" means he is susceptible. I'll sit tight, analyze his conversation, scratch, soft wingbeat, and tone down turkey talk. He knows I am there. I may crawl short distances within a very small area, but I want to drive him crazy internally that I am there, but not going to him. Might take 2-4 hours, but staying with him knowing he is there has helped me tag a few of these finicky jokers. Best of luck to all.

[GobbleNut]

I have encountered lots of gobblers over the years that would willingly respond to my calling from a distance but would not come to it.  Over those years, I think I have tried every trick in the book to fool them, and to be honest, I can probably count on one hand how many of them I have ended up killing by calling them in.   

I killed a few of them sneaking them, and a few of them hanging out until they (or one of their brethren) happened to show up,...but for the most part, the gobblers that have displayed the behavior of gobbling to calling but refusing to come have eluded me, regardless of what calling tactics I have tried. 

A Tale,....for those with a long attention span:

I had this scenario repeated on the last gobbler I hunted last spring.  I was hunting in Colorado late in the season in an area where there aren't many turkeys to start with, and the ones that are left by the end of the season have generally been messed with enough that they know what's up when they hear a distant hen calling.  This is a mountainous area with "considerable" deep canyons and high ridges in what is known as "mixed conifer" forest type (i. e....a lot of big pine-tree-looking stuff)

This gobbler was, to my knowledge, the only one left in a pretty large area.  I located him on the roost one morning, but couldn't get to him before flydown, so I was forced to deal with him from a distance after he came out of the tree (he also had a couple of hens with him).  He was on a high ridge above me and I got as close as I could and started with the usual soft stuff, which he willingly responded to but would not approach.  Tried lighting up the hens, but that didn't work either.

They started moving down the ridge above me going parallel with the drainage I was in, so I kept working my way in their direction hoping to turn them.  The gobbler would respond to almost every call I made and I thought for sure I would eventually get him to come take a look.  Two or three times I set up in spots I thought he would approach, and each time he would hold his ground and gobble.

Mind you, this went on over a period of hours,...me moving, calling, changing up calls,  calling locations, and tactics,...all the time thinking it was just a matter of time until I hit on where to be and what to say.  I eventually worked up the ridge and got in tight to him where he had set up just over a rise on a point above where the ridge dropped off steeply into a vast array of canyons below. 

By this time, I had been on him a couple of hours and he had literally gobbled at almost every call I had made in that time.  I was now set up where all he had to do was to come back towards me just far enough to pop his head up over that rise and he was mine,...but he wouldn't do it!

From that spot, I tried every trick I knew,...going quiet, getting aggressive, multiple calls, scratching, wing beating,....everything.  For what seemed like an eternity, that gobbler held his ground just out of sight and gobbled at everything I did, and didn't, do. 

Eventually, though, it became apparent that he was getting suspicious and his gobbling became more sporadic,...and then sounded a bit further away, making me think he was about to move off again.  At that point, I said,..."screw it , I'm gonna sneak up there and try to bushwhack him",...and got up and moved on up and over the rise slowly, looking for that periscoping red head to appear at any second. 

I don't know if he heard me walking or just decided to move off the ridge, but when I topped over, he was gone.  I called, and he answered again,...this time from down on one of the secondary ridges falling off below me. 

I looked off down there and begrudgingly said to myself,..."Well, he's the only game in town, so I guess I gotta follow",....and so I ducked out of sight into a little side draw and bailed off the ridge behind him.  I worked my way down the ridge until it leveled out into a series of secondary ridges and canyons, all running away from me. 

I wasn't sure where he had gone, so I set down in a spot overlooking the area I figured he had dropped into and called.  He answered immediately again from 200 yards across a draw and a bit further below me.  I thought,..."maybe this is the spot",...and quickly moved to set up. 

Again, I would call,...and he would answer,...but after a couple of exchanges, I heard yelping from 90 degrees to my left.  I looked over, and here came what I assumed to be the two hens he had with him earlier.  They walked up near me,...and we had a little conversation, all the while with me thinking "okay, this is surely going to bring that gobbler up here". 

But "no way, Jose".  He continued to gobble from the location he was at,...and would not budge.  The hens eventually wandered off and for the next hour I went through all of the gambits I would use that would call in a "normal" gobbler,...but he would have none of it. 

His gobbling became less and less frequent and eventually I went to the old "I'm just gonna sit here for a while and see if he shows up" mind-set.  About an hour later, I heard him sound off one more time about a half-mile on down the ridge from me.  I said,.."Adios, amigo, it's been fun,...but you win",...and I started the long, steep climb back up to where I had parked my truck a mile back up the ridge. 

Now, there might have been SOMETHING I could have done to get that gobbler to come,...or perhaps there was a move I could have made that would have worked.  Maybe I just didn't hit the right button out of the dozens of options available.  I don't know for sure, but one thing I do know is this:

Sometimes you just gotta admit that they ain't gonna cooperate, no matter what you do,...or how long you been doin" it! 

[davisd9]

I hate leaving a gobbling turkey, but I like killing them more.

[Tom007]

There is no doubt that you have to know when to fold them, and move on. We all have differing ideas when that realization is. Mine is determined by the amount of available gobblers in the areas that I hunt. Years ago in the late 80's, early 90's, I could move on from a stubborn bird a few hundred yards and strike another. The past several years, those days are gone, at least in my areas. I am not complaining by no means, it's just tougher hunting now. Bird availability definitely enters into my hunting style, but I wouldn't trade any of it for anything. It just makes it all that much more rewarding....be safe,

[THattaway]

I've hunted seasons when I'd leave a henned up Tom, hop a ridge or two and strike up another easily. That isn't as common as past years but still happens where there is a good population. If it's the only tom I've heard I am more apt to hang with him, change positions, play hard to get, then throw the kitchen sink at him. A methodical approach and based on what he does. It takes time and isnt for the impatient. Even if it's unsuccessful, the intel I gain helps on the next trip for the same bird or the next season. I've kept a journal for over 30 years, nothing fancy. Just a few lines each trip of where I hunted, what was heard and briefly what happened. About this time each year I reread last seasons entries and usually have about three toms that whooped me last time around to target this spring but now with a better picture of their habits. I've hunted years when they were very thin and you stuck with the Tom you found because finding another gobbling turkey was the taller task. Just some opinions.

[Tom007]

I've hunted seasons when I'd leave a henned up Tom, hop a ridge or two and strike up another easily. That isn't as common as past years but still happens where there is a good population. If it's the only tom I've heard I am more apt to hang with him, change positions, play hard to get, then throw the kitchen sink at him. A methodical approach and based on what he does. It takes time and isnt for the impatient. Even if it's unsuccessful, the intel I gain helps on the next trip for the same bird or the next season. I've kept a journal for over 30 years, nothing fancy. Just a few lines each trip of where I hunted, what was heard and briefly what happened. About this time each year I reread last seasons entries and usually have about three toms that whooped me last time around to target this spring but now with a better picture of their habits. I've hunted years when they were very thin and you stuck with the Tom you found because finding another gobbling turkey was the taller task. Just some opinions.

X2, great post......They kill on average in my state around 3000 birds per year. Sell around 10,000 permits. This kind of caters your hunting style to stay with a gobbling bird. Sometimes it works out, sometimes not. That's why I do it. Be safe....