Striking midday birds

[Mabren2]

It seems like I can't buy a gobble this year. Even the mornings have been abnormally calm where I've been hunting. I am wondering what are some of your preferred methods of firing up a gobbler in the afternoon?

[howl]

Are they at the peak of breeding or late in the season?

[Mabren2]

Well our season started a little later than normal and it's been in a week. Our weather has been a little crazy this year too. All things considered, the timing should be pretty good. I've heard of a few people that are having good luck, but it's just been dead around me. I've seen plenty of hens, but only one gobbler. My buddy and I hunted two fields at the top and bottom of the same hillside the other day, and we both saw hens all morning, and not a single tom. Just one of those years I guess.

[KYFrid]

What I like to do mid day is set up in areas I know they like to hang out. Its places that ive pre scouted that has alot of sign. I will usually cluck, purr and scratch in the leaves every so often. Most of the time they slip in silent, but it has been very sucessful for me in the past. 

[Cutt]

Sometimes you have to go to them or find the right bird. As with the Ohio opener I sat the first two days from daybreak to 9:30 old school turkey hunting with hardly a gobble and nothing working. Started covering ground and struck up birds both days around 10:30-11:00. Filled the first tag day 1, but second day didn't work out , but had him in range, just out of postion. The Point I'm making as both of these postions I worked birds, were no further than 200-300 yards were at sat for 3 hours. And I'm sure they heard me, moving at times can make all the difference.

[CntrlPA]

Try to cover as much ground as you can and call aggressively if needed. Our season doesn't start for another week and we have a lot of pressure on the public land around here. Most of my birds are killed mid morning by covering ground until i find one that wants to play.

[Mabren2]

Yeah, I probably could move around more. I don't sit in one spot all day, but still could probably cover more ground. My approach is typically very similar to WVFrids, I might have to get a little more aggressive. Thanks for the responses.

[Gooserbat]

Walk quietly, and try to strike a response every 100-150 yards.  Worked for Dad and me this past Saturday, we covered a good two miles before we got a response and when we did it was a crow call only a couple minutes after we hit a box call from the same location.  A quick 50 yard adjustment and 15 minutes later it was gobbler on the ground and beak in the dirt.

[Greybeard11]

Like the other guys, I like to move, preferably along a ridge top where I expect birds to be, calling every 50-60 yards. I generally start with soft calls and increase to louder and throw some cutting in there. This has worked for me.

[Greg Massey]

If I setup in one spot trying to get a turkey to respond I stay in that same spot ...reason why ive had turkeys that will hear me calling every so often and as the morning goes on and the hens leave them ive had gobblers circle back to check me out on up in the morning.  Most of the time this will happen from 10 till 2 clock in the afternoon.. if I'm going to hunt like this most of the day I pack me a lunch etc...its all about Patience in killing turkeys a lot of the time. Again the name of the game is PATIENCE ....PATIENCE

[zelmo1]

  We have had plenty of action late in the morning, 0930-1200. Run and gun, call every 100 yards or so. We travel slow and call soft. If you call loudly, you may strike a bird that you actually do not hear, then you run into him and bump him. Slow and soft works for us. Good luck, Al Baker

[TauntoHawk]

the last late morning bird I killed (last week) was 3/4 of a mile in on the 6th property I had hit that day. And his gobble at 10:50am was the first one since 6am all the way back at the first property I started at. I don't have any 8000 acre places to run n gun all day so I do a lot of truck run and gunning checking different properties for an hour then bouncing to the next. Finally I ran out of places and went to section of public I had worked some birds 3yrs back but have not gone back too. We walked straight to the best listening spot struck a box one time and he gobbled 250yds out. Closed ground and went to work with a scratcher and it was over in less than 2min from first gobble.

My suggestion, if they aren't hot in one area go to a new area.

[GobbleNut]

To me, spring gobbler hunting is all about finding a bird that will play the game the way I want to play it.  I want to find a bird that will gobble when I call and then work him to the gun.  Unless I am hunting a property that is too small to do keep moving and calling, that is what I will do.  However, sometimes on smaller properties, you have no choice but to sit it out somewhere and hope for the best. 

As for calling, my advice is to not get into a mind-set that a certain type of calling is the only way to go.  Sometimes turkeys want soft, conservative calling,...and sometimes they want aggressive calling.  Finding out what they want to hear in each situation is often the key to success. 

I have seen way too many gobblers get fired up and come to aggressive calling,...excited yelping, cutting, or a combination of both,....when they would not show the slightest interest in conservative stuff.  You have to learn to "feel them out" when calling to them.  Assuming one type of calling is better than another in any given situation is not always the best thing to do. 

Another important point to be made about soft, conservative calling vs loud, aggressive calling:  Like humans, turkeys can only hear so far.  Rather than sticking with only soft stuff, occasionally throw is some loud, excited hen yelping when calling.  You will likely be surprised at how often you will get a distant response from an interested gobbler,...one that would never know you were there if you don't call loud enough once in a while for him to hear you.

Too many hunters seem to be surprised when someone says they called a gobbler from "hundreds of yards away".  Gobblers that are in the mood will come from a long ways off to your calling,...if they hear it....

[Mabren2]

I kinda lost track of this thread, but I appreciate everyone's responses...lot of good info. I wound up getting my two birds the last week of the season. A mixture of covering ground and patience worked for me this year.

I got access to a big river bottom farm with intermittent grain fields and wooded draws. The first bird I got by following the river bank that was recently flooded and allowed me to move quietly and out of sight. I would stop whenever I reached a new field and try a few calling sequences. I waited a little longer than I would typically like at each setup, because I didn't have  a lot of confidence in getting a gobble the way this weird season had been. At my final setup I heard a loud commotion across the field from me right after a loud yelping sequence. For the next 15 minutes or so I felt sure that what I heard was a turkey, but could see nothing due to the waist high weeds in the old corn field. I called a couple more times, and when I would hear a corn stalk crunch or two, then nothing. I finally grabbed my binoculars and caught a glimpse of feathers, but couldn't tell what it was. Getting frustrated, I yelped loudly again and saw a red head pop up about 30 yards away at my 2 o'clock. I thought he was coming so I got my gun up and waited, and everything was silent again. By this time I had my mouth call in, so I yelped again with my gun still up. I heard a crunch at my 10 o'clock and peaked over to see a red head about 7 yards away! I couldn't tell if it was a jake or not, and I knew I'd never see his beard due to the tall weeds. About that time he started tucking his head and threw his fan up. I saw the full fan and did a quick spin to drop him at between 6-7 yards at 5:15 PM. When I shot two other birds flew. I hadn't heard a single gobble since 7 AM. It was by far the most exciting silent hunt I've ever had due to the suspense of it all.

The second bird was a lot less eventful. I went back to the river farm two days later. It started raining as soon as I pulled in, so I heard zero gobbles on the roost. I moved to an area with good cover and the best vantage point I'd found so far. I wanted to keep moving, but I felt good about the spot, and was also a little frustrated about what was seemingly going to be another silent day in the turkey woods. I decided to just be patient where I was and planned to be more agressive moving in the afternoon. I decided to call aggressively every 5-10 minutes for the last hour or so (frustration and desperation setting in). I was mentally planning my afternoon hunt and thinking about getting a good lunch when I suddenly spotted a big gobbler sneaking silently through my setup. I didn't have much time, just reacted and dropped him at 30 yards, and my season was over at 11:45.

All in all, it was a very tough season for me and my hunting buddies. In they end it was very rewarding to be able to tag out under those circumstances. To make it better, I did it using one of the slate calls I made. As in every season, I feel like I learned a lot from my time in the woods this spring. Thanks again for your responses, I can't wait to do it all again!

[TRG3]

A few years back, my wife and I entered a woods in late morning looking for mushrooms. Not long into our search, I heard a gobbler some 200 yards away. We slipped out of the woods and a week later when the season came in and after the morning fly down when no gobblers came to my calling or decoys, I moved to the location where I'd heard the gobbler during our mushroom hunt. About every 10-20 minutes, I'd give some hen yelps. Around 9 a.m., I gave some gobbles from my Primos gobble tube, trying to give the impression that not only had a hen showed up but a strange gobbler had answered her calls, all of this happening in the territory of the real bird. It was probably a half-hour later or more when I heard a gobbler still a couple of hundred yards away. The next time he sounded off, he was much closer. Within just a few more minutes, he hopped up on a fallen log some 30 yards away, looking for the intruder. A load of #5 shot dropped him. I used this technique a couple of weeks later when once again my wife and I had just stepped into a different woods looking for mushrooms. It took a couple of days to get this gobbler, but he came in to the hen yelps/gobbling, challenging my Pretty Boy set up in a picked soybean field before another load of #5 shot took him. I've used this hen yelp/intruder gobbler technique for the past couple of years, filling all three of my Illinois tags. Both gobblers and hens establish a peck order, do not like "strangers" challenging their status, and often will come in to challenge the intruder.