Roosting Birds

[Full Flight]

I posted this on the calling forum and should have put it her instead.

OK only been turkey hunting a few years...I have never gone out in the evening and tried to locate a tom on the roost for the next morning.  I could use any suggestions you have.  Do you use a locator call, or do some soft yelps and purrs? What about timing, 30 minutes before dark, 60 minutes? 

[bgbuck153]

I do it all the time . I will go to a known roost area just at fly-up time and start calling . I might start cutting really hard mixing it up with some yelps . If he gobbles all the more better but, if he does or does not gobble I always do a fly-up cackle while smacking my hat of the ground then on some branches above my head . I've had some birds gobbling so much that I often wondered if they ever quite because I got there over an hour early and he was already gobbling . The way I look at it is he's sitting there all night thinking about the new excited to breed hen and can't wait to hook up with her at first fly down . That's when I feed him a hot load of shot to the face !

[jakebird]

Get some elevation when possible and avoid the temptation to do your locating from a road via a driveby. Youd be surprised how often turkeys gobble when cars arent constantly stopping and owl hooting at them from the road. The elevation will help u pinpoint his location and hear much further. I carry a few locators but i use em sparingly and rarely hen call to locate in the evening. Reason being i dont want to get em all fired up and attract too much attention from anyone else out listening. If he gobbles once or twice maybe three times on the limb it should be enough. Where i hunt, making him gobble up a storm is just asking for trouble in the morning.

[Basin_hunter]

Good Post ! I never was a believer in roosting birds the evening before until an afternoon hunt last year when my buddy and I had 3 long beards fly up on top of us. I will def be trying it this year !

[Mossygoose]

I personally think roost hunts are pure luck if it all goes well. Sometimes it all comes together but most of the time it doesn't work like planned

[cahaba]

It's always nice to have a roosted bird to go to.  Sometimes roosted birds work out especially if they are alone.
The birds I hunt are getting harder to roost every year. Sometimes just listening for wing beats is better than calling or blowing locator calls.

[joshb311]

One of my buddies is an absolute turkey slayer (always tags out within the first three weeks of season) and he has shared an absolute treasure chest of knowledge he has gained over the years.

He swears by roosting whenever possible, especially when hunting the harder to kill birds in the "flatwoods" as we call it here. He showed me that by no means is it necessary, however.

I know for me personally, it was reassuring to know that I had a bead on where the gobblers were generally going to be the next morning. Plus it made a day of unsuccessful chasing all that much better by getting them to sound off to the owl hooter each evening before I headed home for the day. 

[mikejd]

I rarely call when roosting, I like to just sit and listen alot of times i will hear 1 or 2 gobbles just before fly up. Thats good enough for me as I would rather not give my position. sometimes you are closer than you expect and if you make a call all eyes are on you.

[dirt road ninja]

Whenever I get the chance to roost one I will. Usually I can only try on Saturday evenings. It's is nice to know where one is for the the day.

[Gooserbat]

I for one like to put them to bed and be there to wake them up.  I don't try to fire them up just get a gobble or two out of them so I have a plan of atack the next morning.  I usualy use an owl hooter.

[GobbleNut]

I will make the assumption here that you are talking about trying to find gobblers by getting them to gobble at a locator call in the evening.  This can be a very effective method of locating gobblers in some places,...and in others it can be a waste of time.  Often, whether you should try shock-gobbling tactics in the evening (or in the morning) should be based on how well you know the area you are hunting, how big it is, and what the density of turkeys is in the area.

If you are hunting a small tract of land that you can hear from one end to the other, there is probably no reason to try to evening-roost the birds there.  On the other hand, if you are hunting a giant tract of National Forest where the birds are sparse and widely scattered, using evening-roost locator tactics can be the difference between success and failure.

I have killed many gobblers by being on them first thing in the morning after having made them shock-gobble to a locator call on the roost in the evening. However, in other places I have hunted, I have also spent many evenings trying futilely to get gobblers to respond to a locator before finally having to admit to myself that it just wasn't going to work. 

To truly find out if the gobblers you are hunting will shock-gobble in the evening, it is important to know the tricks of the trade.  First of all, whatever type of locator call you decide to use,...owl, crow, gobble, whatever,...it typically must be capable of making a very loud and abrupt sound.  From my experience, you can have the most realistic sounding locator call around, but if it is not LOUD, it is likely not going to be effective. 

Secondly, there is an optimum period of time in the evening where gobblers are more likely to shock-gobble than other times.  From my experience, that time period is from when a gobbler flies up to roost until it is near being too dark to see.  This is not to say that gobblers will not gobble on the ground before they fly up,...or that they will not sometimes gobble when it is pitch black,...but they are most likely to gobble to a locator in the fifteen to twenty minutes or so after they fly up to roost. ...So when do gobblers fly up to roost?  I have found that they will fly up ten to fifteen minutes after sunset, or about the time that things start to get that "hazy" look between sunset and dark.

Here's what I suggest anybody that wants to find out if the birds they are hunting will respond to locators do,...and this is assuming that they are hunting a large enough area that evening-roost locating will benefit them.
1)  First, get a good loud locator call (or more) of your preference.  I use a very loud, obnoxious crow call and a tube call that I can gobble very loudly on.
2)  Plan a route that will provide good listening points over prospective roosting areas.  This can be by either walking or driving, although driving will allow you to cover much more country.
3)  Starting just about sundown, be at your first vantage point.  If you are driving, turn off the engine, get out of the vehicle, wait a few seconds for the engine noise, door slamming, and shuffling to be done.  Take your locator and make a couple of quick, loud "blasts" on the call.  Listen quietly for a few seconds for a response.  If gobblers are there, and if they are inclined to evening-roost gobbling, they will very often respond to your very first sounds. 
4)  If you don't get a response gobble, wait about fifteen seconds and repeat.  After the second "blasts" on the call, if you do not hear something, move on.  Once again, from my experience, most gobblers will gobble at the first calls, occasionally one will not but will gobble at the second call, and seldom will a gobbler respond to any additional calling beyond the first couple of series,...if he does not respond to either of the first two. 
5)  Here is where things get a little complicated.  In that sunset to full-darkness time-period, there is a smaller window of time when gobblers are more likely to gobble than others.  If you start at sunset, there are apt to be gobblers "out there" that will not gobble right at sunset, but will readily gobble ten or fifteen minutes later after they have flown up and during that "hazy" period.  ...Which means that you have to temper your response success somewhat based on when you use your locator.  I have had many occasions where I started roosting at sunset, thinking there might be a gobbler or two that would respond early, and did not hear a thing,...only to retrace my steps fifteen minutes later and have one or more gobblers respond during the "hazy" period.
6)  Cover as much country as you can from sunset to full darkness and use these tactics.  In places where evening-roosting tactics works well, I have had dozens of gobblers respond in an evenings roosting session. 

Ain't nothin' that will get your blood pumpin' for the next mornings hunt better than knowing right where a bunch of gobblers are sitting in the trees!   

[Devastator]

i have had great luck locateing birds in the evening by cutting as a call.doesn't mean they all come in though.lol

[Crappiepro]

I personally think roost hunts are pure luck if it all goes well. Sometimes it all comes together but most of the time it doesn't work like planned

Yep, It just seems they go where they go and sometimes its in your favor. The roosting part is easy LOL, getting them to fly down to ya is the hard partLOL.

[njdevilsb]

I roost 99.999% of the time.  The farm we hunt is mostly fields, so it's usually not hard to see the exact tree the land in.  Roosted definitely doesn't mean roasted a lot of the time.  It's nice to have a good starting point for the next morning.

[CallMaker]

Good information!