Early morning gobbles

[Bigbirdkiller75]

I have a spot that has a ton of gobblers I have heard 11 at one time on the roost but they are hunted hard and they will hardly ever make a sound after they fly down and they only respond to my calls once in a while even while on the roost. They gobble alot by themselves on the roost tho. I had a hen fly to my decoys two days in a row but the gobblers fly down and shut up. I tried to find where they go after fly down but they never seem to do the same thing as the day before. If you have any advice I'd love to hear it.

[dirt road ninja]

I'd get as close as I could to the roost and not call at all until they flew down. Then purr and lightly cluck every two or three minutes for 20 minutes or so. Then sit tight till ya can't stand it any longer then stay another hour. If you don't know where they are going or where they want to be it might be hard to call them to you. Since you seem to know where they are roosting, you could slip in there a few hours before dark and hunt them like a deer. No calling or walking around, I've killed more than one like that. If they are roosting with hens they don't really have any reason to gobble or come check you out, but the hens will leave and they know where you are even if they are not responding and will eventually come looking. Let the birds make the mistakes and not you by over calling and moving spots to much.

A very good old school  turkey hunter once told me "you can't kill a turkey, a turkey has to kill himself".
Good luck, I wish my season was still open.

[Skeeterbait]

I all the time hear people say "our birds won't gobble on the ground because..." we have over pressured them, or we have educated them, or there are too many coyotes in our area, etc.  I don't believe that.  I have spooked a bird and then 15 minutes later made him gobble.  They simply don't have that kind of memory or reasoning ability.  They live in the here and now. 

Birds gobble on the limb and then stop on the ground because they have enough hens assembled to keep them busy strutting, drumming, and servicing hens.  Once in a while such a bird will gobble back to say "we're over here".  Most of the time though it is the raspy old boss hen that yelps back at you to tell you where they are.

You got one of three choiced with hen'ed up toms in my experience, 1 leave and go look for a lonely tom, then check back later in the day to see if the hens have left him.  2 wait him out till the hens leave him up in the day.  or 3 hunt aggressive using your woodsmanship skills and available cover to move on him.

1 and 2 are easy to implement, 3 takes making smart decisions based on your observations.  And obviously certain terrain and cover is easier than others.  I mostly hunt timberland with plenty of cover and terrain that lets you use hills and bottoms to hide your approach.  It means listening and watching and slipping quietly.  It can be moving in between him and the hens early, shooing off hens if you get the chance, shadowing moving birds and trying to get ahead of them, angering the bossy hen enough to bring her to you, patterning the birds if they frequent the same places, drawing him away with aggressive fighting calls.  Experience helps you make your own luck hunting this way.

[vaturkey]

My favorite saying : Good things come to those who WAIT !   



   vaturkey   

[GobbleNut]

It sounds like you have hunted these birds enough to have a pretty good idea that they are not going to come to your calling.  If you are to that point, then it is reasonable to assume that you are going to have to go to "no call" mode.  Personally, I hate hunting turkeys that way, but sometimes if you want to kill one of them, you just have to suck it up and put the calls away,...or as has been suggested, go to a run and gun approach and look for a more willing gobbler somewhere else.  

If I have to go to a "no call" mode (arrgghhh), my base tactic is to hunt the roost at first and last light. Check out the roost area during the day and determine from the lay of the land and what you think the birds are doing as to where to establish a blind or ambush point.  Turkeys are extremely sensitive to visual changes in their roosting areas, especially in the evening when going to roost.  They will spot something that is out-of-place in a heartbeat, so it is generally best to try to use some existing cover as the basis for any sort of blind construction you might do.  Of course, we are assuming here that the birds you are hunting are roosting in the same general vicinity every night.  

For in-tight, early-morning roost hunting, the key is to get in there while it is still dark, get set-up, and be still and let things settle down.  Except for under the most ideal conditions, you are going to make some noise.  There is no getting around that.  Turkeys sitting in trees in the dark are used to noises on the ground below them.  There are all kinds of critters that wander around at night and if it is dark enough, you are just another one of them.

If you are in-tight on a roost, there is no margin for error in your set-up and what you do.  If you have played your hand properly, when the gobbling starts, it should be close by and you should already be prepared such that any changes you must make in positioning to be ready when that gobbler comes out of the tree are going to be minor ones with as little movement as possible.  You must always be aware that there could be turkeys all around you looking for any danger that might be on the ground before they fly down.

The same goes for evening roost hunts.  Here, though, you must get in and get set up well before the turkeys are going to roost.  However, don't expect the birds to show up until right before fly-up,...which is often right at dark.  Still, you have to be there and be settled in and ready well before that final few minutes of daylight when they are likely to arrive.  Once again, turkeys going to roost are always on the alert for anything out-of-place, or any unusual movement in the roost area.  To me, evening roost hunting is one of the most difficult tactics in turkey hunting to pull off successfully, at least in the places I have had to resort to that tactic.  They are just super-wary when going to their roosts.

Of course, knowing where the birds hang out during the day and setting up in those areas is another good bet for a no-call hunt.  You can always choose to do that and hope for the best, as well.  ....I hate doing that just as much, though!

[guesswho]

I'm not sure, but it sounds like you may not be giving them time to gobble.   How long do you hunt an area before moving on or packing it in for the day?   

[Bigbirdkiller75]

I usually sit until I know they flew down and went the other way

[GobbleNut]

"Regardless of what folks want to believe, turkeys can become conditioned to avoid most anything."...quote  2ounce6's

This statement is absolutely true.  One of the tricks to killing those gobblers is having the foresight to realize when and if a gobbler or group of turkeys have reached that point with calling, decoys,...or whatever.  At that point one has to be flexible enough to learn to adjust hunting tactics to meet the situation. 

[stinkpickle]

That happens to me all the time, but I hunt small properties, so I'm forced to wait it out.  It ain't always exciting, but when it ends with a kill, ain't nuthin' better.  For instance, on one hunt this year, I didn't hear any gobbles at flydown.  In fact, I didn't hear anything until about 8:00 or 8:30 in the morning.  It took a thunderstorm to roll thru to get the toms to sound off.  I got to the general area, but they hushed up again.  Trying not to spook them,  I just set up where I knew the birds frequented and waited.  With a few calls every now and again, that bird finally showed up...at 1:00 in the afternoon! 

[guesswho]

I usually sit until I know they flew down and went the other way

Just for kicks and giggles you should run late one morning.  Get there about the time you usually leave, and then put in two or three hours of hunting.  Do more listening than calling until calling serves a purpose other than making one gobble.

[larry9988]

When you say you heard 11 gobblers, do you mean from the same roost, or from several roosting locations? Last season I had several gobblers gobbling from the same roost, then getting quiet on the ground. they were gobbling dozens of times then they would go quiet as soon as they flew down. It took me several mornings to call them in, and it was a long sit, with just an occasional gobble. When they came in , it turned out to be six jakes. they gobbled like crazy in the tree, but got very quiet on the ground, as there were older toms in the area also. The older gobblers had them scared once on the ground and very cautious when coming in. i figured they came in later because the mature gobblers were with hens and were not interested in beating up on them while they were with the girls. went back a couple of mornings with the same results. As the season progressed, and hens were nesting, i was able to call in some older toms. may not be your case at all, but it happened to me. but it took patience and a long sit to even call in jakes.

[Bigbirdkiller75]

They were all from the same roost and I had them in once and it was four longbeards and a bunch of jakes but they held up and about fiftyfive yards and I tried a shot and didn't get him but lately it's only one or two I hear in the morning and Ive only been getting hens in to the decoys. I had a little buck come about five feet from me and then he ran the hen off and he knocked my decoys over haha it was quite a show.

[zoli 16ga.]

Great thread! One to copy and paste for sure. I'll need to get a better seat/cussion for next season.

Posted this on another forum...guess I should have sat longer?

'I'm a total noob with only five hunts under my belt. I hunt in private land that 'usually' has 4 or 5 gobblers in it, and a ton of hens. I woke up extra early and went in very stealthy, and was set up by 4:15am. Not one gobble, not even in the far off distance was faint gobble heard. I made supple yelps, and clucks...nothing. Moved a good 500yrds away to an ajoining field where I have seen Toms, jakes and hens. Nothing. Went another 300yrds and sat in the hardwoods as the wind was picking up. Used my box call (light calling, loud calling), primos gobble call, and finally, my not to good sounding mouth call just as a 'what the heck'!

Now I'm not complaining that birds did not walk up and present themselves to me, just want to know if this is normal behavior, such as the toms have moved on to other areas and hens? The weather front coming in? They're on vacation?

Or....'That's just turkey hunting' and they will be back...or maybe not.

I have also always seen a deer, but they were absent today as well.'


Thanks,
Don.

[guesswho]

just want to know if this is normal behavior, such as the toms have moved on to other areas and hens? The weather front coming in? They're on vacation?

Or....'That's just turkey hunting' and they will be back...or maybe not.

I have also always seen a deer, but they were absent today as well.'


Thanks,
Don.

You may go one day and not hear or see any sign of a turkey, and think there aren't any turkeys for miles.   You may go back to the same spot the next morning and hear several knocking the bark of the tree's.   And sometimes a spot that was silent at daybreak will produce a lot of gobbling a couple hours after it gets light.   I quit trying to figure all that out and just learned to accept that's the way it is.  I also figured out to hear a turkey you have to be there!

[larry9988]

With all those jakes around, it should be a fun season for you next year.