Strategy for quiet birds?

[Halfstrut]

Hey guys, new here. Mid level experience turkey hunter. Grew up hunting Easterns in NY with very limited success. Had a good streak hunting Rios in Colorado, Kansas, and Oklahoma, but now that I'm back east hunting public land birds... well let's just say it's been humbling haha.

What do you guys do when you know there are birds in the area but nothing is talking. This past weekend I didnt even hear a gobble off the roost even though I know birds are there. Despite all my best efforts to use locator calls and turkey calls, not a single gobble. When I move under these conditions, I feel like I must be bumping birds. When I sit, I feel like I'm wasting time hoping for a bird to walk by. Any ideas?

I'll piggy back that with another question... how often do you guys sit and wait? And when you do, for how long? I'm trying to be a more patient hunter, but when I sit, see above.

Thanks guys!

[Happy]

Personally if the birds are quiet then so am I. It's the perfect time to slip along nice and slow. Listen a lot and pay attention to the Turkey sign. Every once in a while I will set up and do some light calling in areas that I know they like to frequent but I won't stay more than a half hour or so. Back in my early years I used to cover a lot of ground and fast trying to find that one bird that was lonely. Now I believe that hurts more than it helps. A lot of turkeys get buggered every day by fellows tearing through the woods blaring on crow calls, owl shooters and nonstop Turkey calls. Then they scratch their heads and wonder why everything shuts down and gets quiet.

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[owlhoot]

I have had  set and wait until noon , especially on a small property but also larger place too.  I've killed a pile of toms around 9-10 or so .
Calling will vary in frequency along with intensity. Many times playing with the various calls I have with me.
Last years toms both came at 9:30 and 10:00 on 40 acres. The second one only started gobbling 100 yards out, first gobble heard that morning.
This past weekend Tom showed in the field at 9:30 with 2 hens , hit him good with the calls and got him gobbling then got the hens talking to me, he was dead at 9:55. Had not heard a gobble since first light.
This was on 160 acres that is mostly fields with the woods on the neighbors on 2 sides. This morning some gobbling but birds flew onto north neighbors and shut up. 9:15 tom came back with 3 hens and hit him with the calls and here they come to 80 yards when here come the sprayer to get some work done. They didn't care for that at all and went out of there fast. Oh well guess I'll just have to go some more.
I got messed up twice the other day by a cut and run hunter. I think he wanted to hunt with me. He found me every time I got one working. The second one was across the river , flew to my side and and was coming one a string , unfortunately so was this guy who just minutes before said he was going up to the ridge line after one that was just gobbling up there when we split to go in different directions. Public land.
Personally I have killed way more toms by easing around very slowly, stop and sit and call for a while or just getting where i want to be and sitting it out then I ever did running around the woods calling.
I don't believe you would be wasting your time at all. The birds are there so should you , waiting.
It has worked for me since 78.

[Marc]

I'll go with Happy on this one...  If the birds are quiet, my calling is far more subdued (quiet clucks and purrs, with an occasional lonely yelp as a last ditch effort before moving).

If I know the property, I will sit in a high-traffic area for 30-60 minutes...  Rattling leaves and making quiet clucks and purrs...

I try to pick routes that I cannot be seen unless a bird is in range, and I will often quietly cluck as I walk before sitting in another high-traffic area.

Hunting the hills, I will often let out a series of gobbles before approaching  a previously productive area...  It is my impression that gobbling is often contagious among turkeys...

I have also noticed that low-pitch commotion often loads the spring for a bird to gobble.  I might try a call after a jet flies over (with a sonic-boom), or after a helicopter passes, or a quad in the distance rolls by...  Or if I see crows harassing something, I might make a short series of calls....

If I am hunting a knoll, and can move unseen, I might walk a circle while yelping a couple times before leaving.  Sometimes I feel that the impression of a moving hen can get a bird to gobble.

[BTH]

Man what a tough situation to deal with and hunt through. It does seem more common than it did when I started hunting. When they are not gobbling it makes it tough! BUT I feel it makes you a better turkey hunter.

I agree with the subtle, soft and realistic style calling along with scratching. I even like to troll around a bit with soft clucks and purrs and soft yelps then go sit in the middle of that area and back the calling down to every 45 min or so. Sitting tight in a few setups per each hunt day makes for a long long almost boring still hunt type situation and for me leads to the occasional eye strain headache the next morning from staring intently out in the distance hoping to see the slightest horizontal dark bodied movement while setup..... BUT it will kill turkeys more consistently than cutting and running imo. That is only my thoughts though.

I will usually give it an hour to an hour and a half then make a move.

Hunting in areas with fresh turkey sign, tracks, scratches, turds, strut marks and bowls etc is a great plan as well if they not gobbling. I personally feel I don't scout enough pre season to see if I can glass more gobblers and hear more gobblers on certain properties. I think it would force me to sit in a spot longer if I was 100% confident a gobbler uses the area frequently.

[Ctrize]

Usually the strategy for shut mouth birds is dictated by the hunters style. If there is fresh sign around the birds are there go into deer hunt mode and wait them out. If you have to move a slow troll (I like that Term) is in order and when possible return to your start point to see if anything has come to check you out. A quiet area could be an indicator of mature beards being in the area andbI believe the gobble less relying on their drumming. Or if you have the opportunity move to a completely different spot where a new flock could be in a different  mode.

[Bowguy]

If the birds are absolutely quiet you can try sitting. I'd rather go do something else most times like go find one wants to talk

[Sir-diealot]

Have been going through much the same in the Finger Lakes Region where I hunt. I am hearing them on the roost but then when they hit the ground very little if anything and none in my area. Last year the would always go into this large field and then go up above where I was so this year I set up a blind above and nothing but a hen that was so small I half thought it was a duck at first. They have been going low this year or staying high on the property where I am not allowed to hunt. The rain has been killer too here in NY as you know.

[SD_smith]

Personally if the birds are quiet then so am I. It's the perfect time to slip along nice and slow. Listen a lot and pay attention to the Turkey sign. Every once in a while I will set up and do some light calling in areas that I know they like to frequent but I won't stay more than a half hour or so. Back in my early years I used to cover a lot of ground and fast trying to find that one bird that was lonely. Now I believe that hurts more than it helps. A lot of turkeys get buggered every day by fellows tearing through the woods blaring on crow calls, owl shooters and nonstop Turkey calls. Then they scratch their heads and wonder why everything shuts down and gets quiet.

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I pretty much agree with this. Though I am still young and prefer to keep moving even if I am not calling near as much. What I hear at daylight dictates how much I call or attempt to that morning. For me I find quiet days to be good days for looking at new ground!

[Greg Massey]

I try my best to wake them up , but someday's they just don't want to cooperate ...

[Sir-diealot]

Thanks to the OP and to all that replied, ya'll helped me get my first ever turkey this year and I am grateful.

[mikejd]

Thanks to the OP and to all that replied, ya'll helped me get my first ever turkey this year and I am grateful.

Congrats. Thats a big day.

I to appreciate that the OP started this. I to hunt in an area that is generally very quiet.(NY). This year I hunted 9 strait days 400 am to noon with out ever hearing a gobble. Same resulkts for my dad and brother except my dad put in a few more days.

I am going to re think some things after reading this.

[Sir-diealot]

Thanks to the OP and to all that replied, ya'll helped me get my first ever turkey this year and I am grateful.

Congrats. Thats a big day.

I to appreciate that the OP started this. I to hunt in an area that is generally very quiet.(NY). This year I hunted 9 strait days 400 am to noon with out ever hearing a gobble. Same resulkts for my dad and brother except my dad put in a few more days.

I am going to re think some things after reading this.

What part on NY are you in? I am in the Finger Lakes Region.

[mikejd]

Thanks to the OP and to all that replied, ya'll helped me get my first ever turkey this year and I am grateful.

Congrats. Thats a big day.

I to appreciate that the OP started this. I to hunt in an area that is generally very quiet.(NY). This year I hunted 9 strait days 400 am to noon with out ever hearing a gobble. Same resulkts for my dad and brother except my dad put in a few more days.

I am going to re think some things after reading this.

What part on NY are you in? I am in the Finger Lakes Region.

I have a camp on the border of Madison and  Chenango counties so I hunt both of them.

Gobbling has been tapering off for years. But this year I hunted a little later to see if it picked back up and we never heard a gobble.

[GobbleNut]

Quiet birds are one of the basic turkey-hunter's dilemmas,...and it is a "catch 22" type thing.  I think most of us want to hunt gobbling birds, but there are those times when we convince ourselves that they just are not gonna do it. When that happens, we often go to the "sit, wait, and call sparingly" mind-set.  The problem with going to the mind-set is that none of us really knows whether the gobbler that had lockjaw thirty minutes or an hour ago is going to suddenly get in the "mood".  As such, we end up sitting and waiting when, right over the next hill, there might be a gobbler that is ready to play.

Quite honestly, I love hunting the places where the regulars say,..."you can't kill birds here by hunting aggressively and calling a bunch".   Often, the reason those guys don't kill birds that way is because they have resorted to a mind-set where they never do it.  "Pigeon-holing" oneself into hunting one way,...and one way only,...is a sure way not to kill birds that are perfectly willing to be killed another way.  The moral:  "mix it up". 

Now, I am not going to claim that there are no places and conditions where a more aggressive hunter cannot "inspire" a reluctant gobbler to cooperate.  I have hunted a couple of places where I finally had to admit that if I wanted to kill a gobbler I needed to sit my butt down, grit my teeth, and hope that a gobbler wandered by.  On the other hand, those places have invariably been where the properties were so small that using more mobile, aggressive tactics just were just not practical. No doubt, some folks here are in that position.  Even on those places, though, the moral is the same:  "mix it up" once in a while.

Personally, if I am hunting a property that is large enough that I have the option, I am going to carefully cover every inch of that property trying to find a vocal gobbler before I ever resort to "sit and wait".  The added benefit of covering it all is that by doing that, I will also be able to determine where the best place is to sit, watch the grass grow, cuss under my breath, and grind my teeth.