Several years ago I was hunting a popular WMA in MS on the last week of the season. At that point in the season, the birds had been subjected to every product from the catalogs of Primos, Woodhaven, H.S. Strut and Hooks Game Calls. One morning I found myself in the middle of 4 gobblers on the roost who all flew down, united and left the area without responding to any of my best hen yelps, purrs, clucks and horny whines. I easily followed them down through the woods, tracking them from the gobbles from the Boss bird. Eventually I got to an area where I thought I might be spotted, so I sat down and called again. It was met with deafening silence. I got to thinking that this bachelor group had showed no interest in hen sounds so I yelped again to set the stage, waited about 5 seconds and did a loud spit-drum with my mouth as a strutting gobbler does. About 10 seconds later He gobbled again. I waited about 15 seconds and did another yelp sequence followed immediately by the spit-drum. This was followed immediately by the gobble. Maybe I had his attention. Directly I quietly yelped and spit-drum right behind it. The Gobbler cut me off and was considerably closer. He came up to about 40 yards, standing behind some vegetation going into a 1/2 strut then stretching up to try to locate the pair. I can't tell you exactly how big he was because I never saw the end of his beard, but he was easily the biggest bird I have ever encountered while hunting. As I never had a clean shot on this King, I let him walk off.
Bottom line is that I will set up this narrative scene again if I find this set of events unfold on me. Don't be afraid to imitate a gobbler when the time is right.
FC
