Strange encounter

[Dot3]

I'm no turkey hunting pro by no stretch so maybe what I saw this morning happens regularly but it's slipped under my radar. My dad and I set up on a large field before light after last nights heavy storms. I've had cameras running on this field for weeks and there have been 3 gobblers together with a harem of hens and at least one other gobbler floating around. Set up a Strutter and small flock of hens to challenge them. They gobbled great on the limb considering last nights weather. A few hens flew into the field and shortly the three gobblers walked out of the woods into the field about 200 yards away. Naturally they met the hens who had fed away, paying no attention to anything we had to offer, including gobbling.  I finally did some sharp cutting and got a gobble behind us, putting us dead between the hot gobbler and the three in the field. When the three heard that, they broke straight for it. I thought they'd come challenge our Strutter but instead they faded off and got up with that fourth gobbler farther down the woods line. They then all four came out together, but the original 3 stayed together and the fourth beelined across the field. They then all four joined back up and followed the hens off. I bought I was about to break the original three when I tried to stage a fight but they just gobbled and strutted at 100 yards and left. What kind of turkey behavior was that?

[GobbleNut]

We can always fall back on the old mantra that "turkeys do what turkeys do", but I would attribute that behavior to be the result of one of these two causes as being most likely:
1)  your strutter intimidated them enough that they were unwilling to come take a look
or...
2)  they had rid in this rodeo before and suspected something was amiss

[Dot3]

I thought surely three on one was a fair fight in their eyes. My wife shot my jake decoy last weekend else I'd have had that out this morning. At least that's what I say I'd do at this point.

[Takeaim1st]

Dot 3,    Sir,  What state are you hunting? Just curios about the latitude. Thanks     

[Dot3]

NE NC.

[Marc]

I thought surely three on one was a fair fight in their eyes. My wife shot my jake decoy last weekend else I'd have had that out this morning. At least that's what I say I'd do at this point.

So you and a buddy are out crusin' for chicks, and you have a couple of gals with you...  You look over and see Mike Tyson with a couple of gals, and he and the gals taunt you to come over for a fight...

Or you and the same guys are out crusin' with your ladies and you see a skinny white guy with the gals, and they taunt you to come over...

Which group are you going to approach?

Now, when the hens start to leave the toms (for nesting) the situation changes up a bit...  Maybe you and your buddy decide you can take ol' Mike if you don't have any ladies yourselves...

I think in general, it becomes a ton easier to kill birds when the hens leave mid-morning to sit on the nest.  And there seems (to me) to be about a 2-3 day period when the hens stop roosting in trees to sit on the nest when birds are really, really vulnerable to being called in period...

[Dot3]

I thought surely three on one was a fair fight in their eyes. My wife shot my jake decoy last weekend else I'd have had that out this morning. At least that's what I say I'd do at this point.

So you and a buddy are out crusin' for chicks, and you have a couple of gals with you...  You look over and see Mike Tyson with a couple of gals, and he and the gals taunt you to come over for a fight...

Or you and the same guys are out crusin' with your ladies and you see a skinny white guy with the gals, and they taunt you to come over...

Which group are you going to approach?

Now, when the hens start to leave the toms (for nesting) the situation changes up a bit...  Maybe you and your buddy decide you can take ol' Mike if you don't have any ladies yourselves...

I think in general, it becomes a ton easier to kill birds when the hens leave mid-morning to sit on the nest.  And there seems (to me) to be about a 2-3 day period when the hens stop roosting in trees to sit on the nest when birds are really, really vulnerable to being called in period...

Yeah I know what you mean. It just seemed really odd that 3 longbeards LEFT half a dozen or so hens and walked nearly 300 yards to meet up with a gobbling Tom only to come right back into the field with him. According to my scouting only three tons were running together. The fourth one wasn't new but he wasn't part of the gang. I had to be somewhere that morning else I'd have waited the hens out. I'm going to try them again tomorrow with a little different game plan. I'll also have more time.

[SD_smith]

We can always fall back on the old mantra that "turkeys do what turkeys do", but I would attribute that behavior to be the result of one of these two causes as being most likely:
1)  your strutter intimidated them enough that they were unwilling to come take a look
or...
2)  they had rid in this rodeo before and suspected something was amiss

I agree with GobbleNut's option #1. They weren't ready for a whooping. I feel like if they were shot at with decoys before they wouldn't have even come close, but if it was maybe a year or two before then they'd probably have relaxed a little by now. Who knows?

[Dot3]

Trying to figure out their peabrain is futile. The three came out in basically the same place and almost came into range. Had a whole different setup, whole different location, whole different calling strategy. The only thing that was the same was the birds. They got to about 60 yards and just turned and faded off. Had a guy with me who has seen a good bit more in the turkey woods than me and he was baffled. I don't think these turkeys are interested in anything other than looking pretty. They haven't spooked at all. They were too busy gobbling. I don't know

[Uncle Tom]

Dot 3, after reading this and all the replies let me say the way I have been hunting for many years and have encountered about every way possible to killing this ole bird. Even had one jump on me once and thought I was that hen he was after. I quit using any kind of decoys many years ago, not because I did not kill turkeys using them, but just not my thing anymore and would not dare tell anyone that uses them in their bag of tricks to lay them down. I use several calls....box, slate, mouth calls, and several others, some even I have made. I only use 2 turkey sounds, well, really 3, and have killed many birds using just these. I will explain how I use them and why they are successful for me so you can maby get a degree of success out of this if you want to try. First, let me say that my way of hunting is probably the most boring way of getting this bird within gun range, takes the most patience of anyway that I know of, but for me gets the job done every year of filling my tags for going 24 years now. I go in to the turkey woods in the dark, usually to a predetermined spot that I set up and varies with time of the season and what is taking place as the season goes along. I usually never move from this spot that I have chosen and I sit there most days till at least 12:00. If I hear a gobble early that morning I have my call in hand ready for it. Soon as I hear a gobble I do a cluck, then another cluck, then maby a couple more clucks rather fast. Then I do a purr several times. If he is close by and gobbles back, I know I am in the ball game. If I hear no gobbles that morning and the woods is quiet, I do no calling...nothing EXCEPT....scratching in the leaves about every 30 minutes. Thats it. Then come about 9:00 I will cluck about 2 or 3 times....pretty loud clucks...ending with a strong purr. He can hear these clucks and purrs a very long ways and come mid morning his hens has left him and he gets very lonesome as we all know. He heard these clucks a while back and knows exactly where they came from, and many times he will come and check out. Just yesterday I went into a spot at 7:45 and set up, a huge pasture with cows that followed me all the way where I set up and finally left once I got still and they got bored with me. Was set up in the edge of woods with a deep bottom of woods to my back and a hill in this pasture that if they came into my calls off this hill, they would have to see if this hen has gone into this bottom behind me...perfect set up and has been the downfall to many birds. Works more times than it fails. Well, never made a sound till 9:30....had heard nothing. Clucks few times and few purrs. Come 10:00 did this again and was looking to top of this hill in the pasture and at 10:15 a head is looking over this hill at 150 yards and I saw him exactly as he tops this hill. Head stretched out looking for this hen he heard at no tilling how many yards away. He was the smallest bird...least 18 pounds and behind him was a 20.8 lb one that I killed, Never made another sound and they marched to 31 yards out in front of me looking for that hen that had to be in this bottom behind me. Pulled the trigger at 10:20...called 2 times 30 minutes apart. Very boring hunt, lot of sitting hearing nothing, but has worked no telling how many times. I knew the birds were in the area and just had to wait till they ready to play, and they play every day with the ladies.

[silvestris]

Dot 3, after reading this and all the replies let me say the way I have been hunting for many years and have encountered about every way possible to killing this ole bird. Even had one jump on me once and thought I was that hen he was after. I quit using any kind of decoys many years ago, not because I did not kill turkeys using them, but just not my thing anymore and would not dare tell anyone that uses them in their bag of tricks to lay them down. I use several calls....box, slate, mouth calls, and several others, some even I have made. I only use 2 turkey sounds, well, really 3, and have killed many birds using just these. I will explain how I use them and why they are successful for me so you can maby get a degree of success out of this if you want to try. First, let me say that my way of hunting is probably the most boring way of getting this bird within gun range, takes the most patience of anyway that I know of, but for me gets the job done every year of filling my tags for going 24 years now. I go in to the turkey woods in the dark, usually to a predetermined spot that I set up and varies with time of the season and what is taking place as the season goes along. I usually never move from this spot that I have chosen and I sit there most days till at least 12:00. If I hear a gobble early that morning I have my call in hand ready for it. Soon as I hear a gobble I do a cluck, then another cluck, then maby a couple more clucks rather fast. Then I do a purr several times. If he is close by and gobbles back, I know I am in the ball game. If I hear no gobbles that morning and the woods is quiet, I do no calling...nothing EXCEPT....scratching in the leaves about every 30 minutes. Thats it. Then come about 9:00 I will cluck about 2 or 3 times....pretty loud clucks...ending with a strong purr. He can hear these clucks and purrs a very long ways and come mid morning his hens has left him and he gets very lonesome as we all know. He heard these clucks a while back and knows exactly where they came from, and many times he will come and check out. Just yesterday I went into a spot at 7:45 and set up, a huge pasture with cows that followed me all the way where I set up and finally left once I got still and they got bored with me. Was set up in the edge of woods with a deep bottom of woods to my back and a hill in this pasture that if they came into my calls off this hill, they would have to see if this hen has gone into this bottom behind me...perfect set up and has been the downfall to many birds. Works more times than it fails. Well, never made a sound till 9:30....had heard nothing. Clucks few times and few purrs. Come 10:00 did this again and was looking to top of this hill in the pasture and at 10:15 a head is looking over this hill at 150 yards and I saw him exactly as he tops this hill. Head stretched out looking for this hen he heard at no tilling how many yards away. He was the smallest bird...least 18 pounds and behind him was a 20.8 lb one that I killed, Never made another sound and they marched to 31 yards out in front of me looking for that hen that had to be in this bottom behind me. Pulled the trigger at 10:20...called 2 times 30 minutes apart. Very boring hunt, lot of sitting hearing nothing, but has worked no telling how many times. I knew the birds were in the area and just had to wait till they ready to play, and they play every day with the ladies.

If everyone hunted like this they would kill more turkeys and hear more gobblers.

[Dot3]

That's a tactic I'd love to utilize once my kids are a little older and can dress themselves in the morning. In other words, when I have more time to spend in the woods. I did wind up killing one of those 3 the next day. First one with the bow. In the same field over a quarter strut jake. It worked out that time. But I'm already prepping for next year. Glad this forum is a year round thing