I'm a hardcore waterfowler and upland guy but just getting back into turkey hunting so a lot of help is needed. I grew up in PA and turkeys were a pretty easy target on our farm but it seems that these western birds are a bit tougher on public ground. I took my son out on Saturday for the youth season and had a tom gobbling as soon as we got out of the truck. We got to within a 100-150 yards and set up the decoys. We waited till shooting light and I started calling and he would respond right away. Called back and forth a few times and then he came off the roost and flew all the way across the drainage to the other side which was about 400-500 yards away. We called a few more times but he just kept getting farther away until he quit calling all together. After about 30 min we headed that way calling every 10 min or so but nothing. Finally ran into one about 1 hour later without him seeing us and he wouldn't respond to a call either. He looked to be alone so not sure what I was missing. Do you think it's still early and their not fired up yet? Ran into another tom glassing at around 10 AM and same thing. No response to the call and we could actually watch him in the bino's when we were calling. I really want to get my son a bird this year but we are now going to be hunting in the general season which will only make it tougher. Any tips on working these public land birds? I am going to try and do some scouting next week for a better drainage to hunt that's farther away from the crowds but any calling/hunting tips are greatly appreciated.
