hunting henned up, quiet birds?

[leadhead10]

Birds have been coming off the roost right to hens then away from my calling, they get quiet quick and I spent the better have of this morning on my hands crawling through sh*t trying to stalk birds that are quiet and wont respond to calling. what can be done? Im not looking to sit still without dekes or calls and ambush them, I dont find that fun  really.

[kyduck1]

What I have done in the past is started walking logging roads, or field edges and calling about every 100 yards.  If I got one to gobble I would set up and try him.  If I go nothing to gobble I would head out, get some breakfast, and return about 930 and try that same routine.  I've killed more birds this way than getting them right off the roost.  Good luck

[taylorjones20]

If you are hunting on private land and can see the birds from a distance, I would go after them with a fan.  Works almost every time, especially on dominate birds.

Good Luck!

[howl]

Sleep in and hit them later in the day.

[timberjack86]

Sleep in and hit them later in the day.

Yep I like to get to where they meet there hens early in the morning around 9:30 in the morning and blind call. Hey they are used to picking up dates there anyway

[K-ZONE]

Wait them out...patience kills.Saturday morning it took 3 hours to put my bird on the ground.He followed a couple of hens a good 1/4 mile answering my call the every time. Working his way closer the hens came into the left side of the small field we were in...as we never saw him skirt the stone wall checking out the decoys i finally caught him out of the corner of my eye coming from the  right side of the field in a love sick strut to the decoys DRT at 22yds.
My buddy and i roosted another porker for sunday morning but did not kill that bird why? hunger got the best of us.The bird ended up being 10yds from where we had the blind 1 hour after we packed up.My buddy killed the bird on monday after a 4 1/2 hour sit.
Mature toms will return to the spot you started callin them from to see what they left behind more often then not.dominant hens will do the same if u nag them enough.

[troutfisher13111]

Waiting them out is good advice. Sometimes the hens leave them mid morning, and then the toms are ready to play.

Another tactic is to cut your calling way down. Use purrs and light clucks along with feeding wines to entice the hens. Try to grab their curiosity instead of sounding like a threat.

Anytime you can get between the birds and where they are already going always helps too.

Another idea is to try gobbling if it's safe. He might come running.

Just keep at it. You never know when the hens will leave or when you might catch the tom in just the right mood.

[beardwacker]

First, being patient is valuable in hunting any animal, espacially turkey's.  The only other thing I found that work's is what one guy said.  Sleep in and hunt little later in day.  Keep in mind when a Tom is hened up, once he is done he will go back to the nearst hen or the close's place he knew where one was.  Stalking turkey's is hard, Have done it but don't reccomend in the spring, because can hurt more than help as will pressure the birds away or actually make them shut up and not breed till later.

[SouthEastNC]

Question - I understand that if you get a bird to gobble at you and you can tell he's henned-up, if you wait all day then at some point he's likely to come back and check out where you were... unless hens just keep intercepting him.

But what about a bird that came in, hung-up just out of gun range, and finally moved off? Saturday morning I had one gobble at me from 200 yards away or so. I moved into the woods a little closer and set up. He'd gobble every once in a while, he kind of flanked me, half-circled me. After a while he ended up maybe 50 yards or so to my 3 o'clock. I couldn't see him because of vegetation that way, but he was very close. He stayed about that distance for 30 minutes gobbling every 5 or 10 minutes, then he shut up. After 30 minutes of nothing, I got up and poked my head beyond that vegetation to see if he was in there strutting with a hen - but he was gone.     When something like that happens - would you still wait it out?

[howl]

No, you just got beat. If you can go back and approach the area the way the gobbler did. It may show you why your set-up was wrong.

[beardwacker]

A good tactic that has worked for me few times on a hung up tom is to move back if you can slowly and stealthly.  It works great with two people.  the shooter stay's put and the caller, moves back slowly and call's softly as if the hen is walking away.  This has gotten me two Tom's that refused to come in.  One ran in the other circled around and came out at 15 yards.  If by yourself only other thing to do is circle around and sound like another hen.  Like the other guy said just got beat, it does happen and add's to the addicition.