Timing for A.M. gobbles & fly-down

[mcw3734]

I tried paying attention to my watch this season to learn if there was any consistency to when birds started gobbling and when they flew down from the roost. Spent about 6 early mornings in the woods this year and this is what I found:

Gobbling starts 40-45 minutes before official sunrise. Fly down occurs around 20-25 minutes before official sunrise. Noticing when gobbling started was easy. Fly-down was harder; I had to go off actually hearing them flop down or noticing when a hot bird's gobbles sounded different.

I should note that I did not use a locator or hen call at any time before fly-down. I just let them naturally sound off whenever they wanted to. All days were fair weather, with calm winds, and on public lands receiving moderate pressure.

Well? How does that match with what you've noticed? Thanks ahead of time for the input!

[Yoder409]

If you look at the sunrise time for your location tomorrow you will find Actual, Civil Twilight, Nautical Twilight and Astronomical Twilight.   "Gobble time" is generally within a few minutes of Civil Twilight if the birds are.acting "right" that day.   However....... turkeys, being the ignoramuses that they are, don't always act "right".

[GobbleNut]

That is good information to have in the area you hunt,...you know when to be in the woods if you are inclined to let the birds you hunt gobble on their own.  However, the start of gobbling each day can vary a bit depending on such things as the weather conditions, phase of the breeding season, and the number of gobblers in an area.  It also varies to a degree with regional and subspecies differences. For instance (again, from my personal experience), Merriam's gobblers usually start to gobble quite a bit earlier than Eastern's in the places I have hunted both.

In addition, using the proper locator call will very often encourage gobblers to start gobbling earlier,...and sometimes quite a bit earlier,...than they would otherwise.  In instances where you do not have a gobbler located to hunt in the morning,...and especially where you have al large area to hunt and where gobblers might be widely scattered,...the use of the proper locator, and starting at the very first hint of daylight,...can often mean the difference between finding a gobbler to hunt, or not.  Of course, the other advantage to getting a bird to gobbler earlier than normal is having that extra time under the cover of darkness to approach closely for a better set-up on a gobbler. 

[bonasa]

I agree with your times of gobbling and flydown. I like to be in the woods at least 1 hour before sunrise. In the last 22 years I have killed 51% of all my birds in the first hour and 85% of all my birds were killed before 0900. However I scout a lot before season, always roosting birds before the following day and keeping to this code while on trips sometimes sacrificing a day to find birds and their zones.

[blake_08]

Pretty consistent with what i've determined for my home area. I hunt easterns here, but as Gobblenut said some subspecies gobble earlier than others. Where we hunt rios, it's not uncommon at all to hear gobblers sounding off well before the first hint of daylight.

[LaLongbeard]

Some of the places I hunt in La the Gobblers will not gobble at all until it's daylight.I don't know if it's because of natural predators or people trying to sneak in under there roosts. A lot of days you won't hear a peep until your convinced they ain't gobbling and then one fires up on the limb. Fly down timing has never been a precise time anywhere I've hunted.  He is Gobbling to attract hens and will sit on the roost until the hens arrive. They know they can be heard farther from in the tree and will stay there until however many hens he thinks will show up then he drops down.  Some places I've heard gobbling in the black dark 30 min before any light. I've never seen a pattern that was repeated enough to bother with. I get to my listing spot early so I'm there whenever they decide to start.

[Spitten and drummen]

On my place , the birds dont gobble until they can see the ground. Use to be , you could find them at 4:30 in the morning gobbling like crazy. Its almost like my birds have evolved. They usually start gobbling later making it impossible to get in close on them. Early season when its very open is a nightmare. You also roost them and during the night they relocate and that gives me fits also.

[mcw3734]

Interesting responses. Never thought there would have been a difference between subspecies.

I'm hunting birds that are predominately Merriams, but they also planted Eastern birds in the area many years ago and so there is likely some hybridization. The tail colors on birds around there vary quite a bit, seems to me.

Also, on one morning we spooked a hen off the roost about 1 hour before sunrise. She made a quick putt and cackle as she took off, and that got a gobble from his roost about 250 yards away (and luckily out of sight). Only time I heard something longer than 45 minutes before official sunrise. And he didn't gobble again for another 15+ minutes. I guess that should encourage me to gobble or owl hoot that early if coming into an area blind.

Thanks for the responses!

[valerio024]

My year was similar.  Gobbling started most of the year 35-40 minutes before sunrise.


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[MDSTRUTNRUT]

Where we hunt on Eastern Shore of Maryland, birds may gobble a time or 2 a crack of dawn but usually don't get fired up until they can see ground.  Can fly down anywhere from too dark to find in scope or red dot to after sunup.  Not unusual to hear 2 or 3 birds in distance but properties all broke up so probably will be on someone else, I don't see much pattern at least in areas we hunt in lower 4 counties, hunt mostly private but some public.    Son killed a bird this year that all was quiet at about legal shooting time (1/2 hr before sun rise) and we were about to jump to another farm when the first gobbled and woods erupted.   Birds crossing a public road to meet some TSS 9's looking for that GOOSERBAT ICE hen  LOL   

[Turkeyman]

If I had to come up with an average over the years, figuring any time of the spring season (bare trees vs. fully leafed out), any state and any sub-species it would probably be close to a half hour before sunrise, i.e. close to civil sunrise. But this can vary somewhat due to how much light is hitting their eyeball. On a clear night with them roosted such that all available light is hitting them, like a fence row or east field edge, 45 minutes before sunrise is not uncommon. I've found that if it approaches an hour or more something e.g. an owl or coyote triggered it. So I think the best prediction would be the use of a light meter. Strictly a guess upon my part but that light meter reading may be very close to the same for most of them.

P.S. regarding fly down that's another variable. Again, light meter perhaps because they don't want to fly down before they can check things out. Plus sometimes they're just turkeys. Last Sunday I had 6 jakes and several hens fly down around me and go about their business, feeding and such. I waited for them to leave my area...almost an hour. When I got up to sneak out of there I spooked 3 more unseen hens off the limb.