Setting up on gobbling bird before daylight

[Jeremy66]

I am not often able to roost a bird the night before so I usually end up in an area that I know has birds and wait for the first gobbler to fire off.  At that point I start making my way for him to find a setup.  How close should I get at this point? 

Last year I was able to get very close by moving quietly and I assume I did not spook him as he kept gobbling.  However I did this 2-3 times and they always went the other direction.  So, did he hear or see me even though he stayed in the tree and kept gobbling?  Or maybe I just didn't get lucky?

Any tips are appreciated, still trying to figuring all this stuff out.

[Ozarks Hillbilly]

There are several factors you have to consider. What type of cover do you have early season open woods or later season a lot of foliage on. This will also change how I judge distance. Do you have to cross a open field do you have a terrain feature that can conceal your approach. Is it wet or dry windy or calm clear or cloudy sky dark or full moon. Without having a bird rooster and a good bead on the tree he is in and where he flew up from.Personally if I can get into what I consider to be 100 yards I feel like I am in really good shape. To me trying to get closer than that really gets down to number of steps and more times than not I have gone one step to many. The Eastern birds I chase generally don't start gobbling in pitch black dark and don't gobble on the limb all that long.

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[GobbleNut]

Here are some questions that would be relevant to sorting out your dilemma:
How much hunting pressure does the area you are hunting get?
Did the gobbler have hens?
What calling strategy, if any, did you use? 
Did you use a decoy(s)?
Did you set up where the gobbler had a direct line-of-sight to your set-up,...or did you have obstructions between you and him?

[Jeremy66]

Decent amount of hunting pressure.
Yes there were several hens with him.
Light calling, just enough to let him know I was there.  Possibly the wrong calling however.
No decoys.
Average timber, they were roosted overtop a small valley that went down to a creek bottom.  Still pretty dark out, they kept gobbling until they flew down.

[Brwndg]

If you called and he had hens, they took him away from you. Happens all the time, almost every time. Hens are possessive

I hunted one gobbler four days in a row. He roosted in the same Sycamore on a small island each day. Every day I got w/in 80-100 yds. Set up in the same spot. On the first two mornings I called to him after first light. Each time he flew to other side of run w his hens. Third day a gang of jakes came in to me and he flew away from me again. Fourth and final day I snuck in super early in the dark and never made a sound. No calling, no fly down, no scratching...nothing.
He flew down after sunrise and landed 30 yards in front of my gun.

That's the bird in my avatar.

[GobbleNut]

Decent amount of hunting pressure.
Yes there were several hens with him.
Light calling, just enough to let him know I was there.  Possibly the wrong calling however.
No decoys.
Average timber, they were roosted overtop a small valley that went down to a creek bottom.  Still pretty dark out, they kept gobbling until they flew down.

Typical tough situation that many of us face. There are only so many tactics you can try and in some cases, any of them that involve calling are not going to work.  Brwndg's approach is one that sometimes is the only practical alternative,...get in early and close, be quiet, and hope he comes down in range.  One tactic hint:  try using "wing-beat" noises and imitate turkeys flying down before any calling,...then call... (just a suggestion)

[LaLongbeard]

So, did he hear or see me even though he stayed in the tree and kept gobbling? 

No. If he'd seen you he would have quit Gobbling.
    Where I hunt the most, roosting is useless. So I'm like you I have to wait for the first Gobble and go from there. Sometimes I hear one and cannot get closer or I have an idea what direction he is going so I move around him and cut him off. Sometimes if the Gobbler is in a bad spot with no good set up I keep quiet and let him fly down and go where ever  he was going. Then if you know the terrain you can get around him.
      The thing I see most with new hunters is they panic and think they have to get on the Gobbler immediately after he gobbles which usually ends up spooking him. Just as bad is being to cautious and he flys down and gets away before you make a move. ONLY experience will tell you what to do. There is no pat answer for anything on the subject of turkey hunting.
     

[randy6471]

  Slightly different situation for me as I hunt private ground with light hunting pressure, but it seems like every spring I run into a couple birds like you described...especially early in the season. Because I have other options, I will usually hunt them 3 or 4 mornings using some of the tricks/strategies that others have suggested and if I don't have any success, I'll back off and hunt other birds that I've scouted.

   Then I'll come back and hunt him again later in the season when he might have less hens roosting with him or more often, due to heavier foliage, I'm able to get a closer/better set up on him.

  Honestly although it's sometimes frustrating, you can learn a ton by hunting gobblers like these and it's rewarding if/when you finally manage to get him into range.....as long as tagging a bird isn't a big deal to you. Haha

[Marc]

I find henned up birds on the roost to be difficult...

Sometimes I will lay back, and observe what they do without calling or disturbing the birds and set up appropriately the next morning...  Pretty much ambushing them at this point, and I always feel a bit cheated if I kill a turkey that I do NOT feel I called in...

Sometimes I address the hens....  If they are vocal on the roost, I answer the hens, and forget about the gobbling.  Sometimes they pitch down and head away from the competition, sometimes they get fired up and come right at what they think is the intruding hen....

If addressing the hens does not work, I do some aggressive hen calling followed by some gobbling, and hope that the toms come to address the intruding bird....

When none of the above works, I begin swearing and cursing the birds for not cooperating with me...   Seems I often do a lot of swearing during the turkey season.

[fallhnt]

Call to him while he's on the roost. Get him turned around and thinking your direction.

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[EZ]

Although there are some instances where I will, I almost never call to a bird until he's on the ground. The closer I am, the more so that holds true.

[Turkeyman]

I have a couple spots where I always seem to find roosted birds within perhaps a 100-150 yard area. I get in there when dark and set up...not standing by a tree, but set up. If one gobbles close, I'm good to go. If he gobbles too far away, I can always get up and move a bit. Fairly often I end up calling from where I've set up. The other advantage of this is that on a number of occasions I'm amongst hens. If I had been standing there listening, then try to position and set up, I don't think they would like it!

[Dermott]

I enjoy hunting Kansas farm land with crop fields.  Gobblers often roost within 30-60 yards of the field they'll be strutting in.  I like to setup a yard or 2 from field edge & give a subtle yelp & a few clucks before flydown & have a realistic Jake & hen decoys set up about 15 or so yards in the field. At flydown they sometimes will come down near the decoys if they notice them from roost...but if if they flydown to middle of field with hens they will often come checkout my decoys eventually.

My favorite hunt ever I had my grandson (maybe 9 or 10 then) with me in this exact scenario. Three big gobblers flew over him and landed near my decoys. He shot his first & I got one after him! He was so excited and told me he started to shoot them as they flew over him! ? I explained that he would have almost certainly missed AND he might have shot a HEN anyway!!

My best hunting memory with my oldest grandson! ??

[Dermott]

A sequel to my story with my first Grandson:

The year before he took the gobbler he was with on a hunt with me on the same farm in Kansas. Same setup as described earlier but gobblers landed in middle of field instead of near my setup. After an hour or more strutting in the middle it the field ONE GOBBLER decided to come checkout my setup near the wood line so I slowly raise my shotgun to be ready to shoot and GRANDSON QUICKLY RAISED BOTH ARMS & PUT HANDS OVER HIS EARS!!!

As you probably guessed, the Strutter SPOOKED & scared all the birds from the field! It was a learning experience for both of us!  

[Marc]

Although there are some instances where I will, I almost never call to a bird until he's on the ground. The closer I am, the more so that holds true.

I would generally agree with that statement...  Unless there are hens, and they fly down first...

Once those hens are on the ground, the gobblers are going to follow them, and if I can make them mad and come over to address me, sometimes it works out... 

With hens in the game, I forget about the toms and the gobbling, and work on those hens...  I start calling as soon as the hens are on the ground (which almost always happens before the toms come off the roost).  When they do come in to challenge me, they are generally vocal, and they sound angry (and ready for a fight).