I've been after a bird the last week. The first morning I heard him gobble from the tree about 400 yards away, I waited until he pitched down, gave him a few light yelps, he answered, and came my way. He swung a circle behind me, using an old logging road I didn't know was back in there. He finally popped out down the road about 75 yards from me and stood in the road gobbling at the hen decoy I had in the road. Purrs and light clucks didn't bring him in, because he had a rendezvous with the hens that crossed the clearcut out in front of me. I had to go to work, so I quietly slipped out without being noticed. The next morning, I set up on the other side of the clearcut on the edge of a little pine head that juts out, thinking he would just follow the hens thru the clearcut. But it was one of those days when you didn't hear a gobble or yelp all day. I didn't have to work that day, and sat patiently in my ground blind from 5 a.m. until noon, calling sparingly until right at the end. Didn't hear or see a thing, not even a hen. On my way out, I did some scouting and found what I thought would be a likely place for him to strut. I hunted by my house yesterday, didn't go to the club. Today I went and set up where I thought he would come, but he didn't. It was another silent morning, nothing gobbling. Before I left, I slipped down the road and peeked into the clearcut, gave it a scan but saw nothing. As I turned around to walk to the truck, I heard wings, and turned around to see him flying out of the clearcut and over the creek. He had busted me from 150 yards across the clearcut. On the plus side, I found where he's been strutting, not in the road like I expected, but on the edge of the clearcut beside the creek. Now, I really want to go back in the morning, hide in the edge of the creek bed and try to bushwack him. I was thinking I would do it without calling and that way if he doesn't show up at that same spot, but is nearby, he won't hear my calls and associate them with the big doofus he saw in the road this morning, or at least no more than he already does. Should I try that or just wait and give him a day or two? In my limited turkey hunting experience, and novice woodsman skills I've bumped a couple of birds that still went to the same spot the next day to strut.
