Thoughts?

[g8rvet]

Try to make a long story short. 

Hunting a WMA that is quota, so I have 2 more days to hunt.  Pre-scouting was successful so we knew where to start.  Raining this morning, so no gobbling.  I set up near where one had gobbled on Thursday and just walked, called, sat.  No answers.  Waked about 3 miles, calling softly every 100 yards or so and occasionally calling a little louder.  The sky clears during my walk.

So I am easing around to where my nephew is set up and there is a blow down covering the road.  It is a full oak tree across the road.  I am looking at it, thinking that would be a good place to sit and call for a few minutes under the blow down.  I call a couple times softly about 50 yards short of it and then get a little more aggressive - no answer. I ease up to it and realize it is too thick to sit under.  I duck under the last limb and straighten up and freeze!  There is a turkey butt with it's head in a gallberry bush pecking-facing away from me.  Can only see the rump - 15 yards away-nothing but air between us.  He steps back and I think to myself, it is a jake by his head.  My gun is slung on my shoulder (I have now hiked three miles at least).  He turns and it is a longbeard.  Not paying me any attention, when out from behind the bush step two more longbeards.  Skinny headed, dark headed 2 year olds.  Skinny 8-9" beards.  They peck around with me frozen (why did I not order that HECS suit, I could have just caught them  ).  Two of them cross the little dim road and get behind another bush.  But the third one starts feeding right to me. He gets to 6 steps.  I am frozen, with the blowdown as a backdrop, but the jig is now up.  He turns and starts to walk off quickly, after putting a couple of times - not that hard panic, but he knew I was not right.  I have about 5 yards and he will be around the bend. I drop the thermacell in my left hand and unsling the gun and he panics and takes flight.  The other 2 never saw me, but they believe their buddy and they are gone too.  They scatter as they fly.  Not enough time before closing to try to get around them, so I called it a day.  I did not even think about shooting - no clear shot. 

So here are my questions. 

Will they likely rejoin up today (it is now clear and bright).  Or will they be scattered most likely.  They were obviously young uns and did not respond to my call from 50 yards away, but it was late in the day at that point, they might be willing to play tomorrow.

Should I try a little gobbler yelping in the am, if I hear no gobbles, in their general area and hope they have not yet regathered up?  Or just play it straight and turkey sweet talk them. 

If I hear gobbling, obviously I will play it normal.  Just wondered what the odds of them rejoining after a scatter this time of the season.  That is the closest I have ever been to a gobbler that did not die, so no real experience on scattering a bachelor group in the spring.

And my string of no gobbling this year is intact. 

[TauntoHawk]

I think if I got in there the next morning and all 3 were gobbling from separate roosts but within ear shot of each other they they would likely try and connect again. In that case would def try and set inbetween 2 of them and use some gobbler yelps id still hen talk like one picked up a girl friend

[catman529]

All I know is I'd be in that area tomorrow because I know there are 3 gobblers in there.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Spitten and drummen]

They may be hammering in the morning. get in there and get them. Strategy wise , I believe I would hunt them like I would any other time. They may not pay attention to your calls today and tomorrow , break their neck getting to you. At least you know where there are 3 long beards to hunt tomorrow.

[GobbleNut]

Mentally assessing your situation, this is what I think I would be trying to do (calling and set-up wise).  I would get in there early,...well before daylight.  Based on where they last were and where they headed, I would "guesstimate" a location to get to in the dark.  I would not do any setting up, but would wait and see if they were going to gobble on their own,...or otherwise let me know where they had roosted.

If I did not hear any gobbling (or other calling) from them by the time I would have expected them to start up, I would try to entice a gobble out of them by gobbling myself.  Hopefully, that would stir a response, and if so, I would try to position myself based on any responses I got.  If I could discern where (at least) two of them were,...and they were separated,...I would definitely attempt to get between them.

Since there were no hens with them, my initial calling strategy would be gobbler-talk based,...gobbler clucking with perhaps a few gobbler yelps,...and maybe some gobbling, depending on what they were doing (as well as the potential safety issues involved).  If I couldn't get them to come to that kind of strategy within an hour or two, then barring any other indicators that would change my plans, I would probably go back to the spot you first saw the birds, settle in, call sparingly (both hen and gobbler talk), wait them out,...and hope for the best.

[g8rvet]

Thanks for the ideas.  They were split up and did not gobble on the limb.  We found them when they gobbled on the ground.  One passed by me and headed to the other my nephew was near.  I was between them but he passed just out of range.  Will try them again in the am. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk