This past year I killed a gobbler behind my house. He was decent 20 lb, 1' in spurs and a 9 3/4 in beard . But other than that I heard no gobbling besides that bird. And the bird had not been breeding, he had pretty much all his breast feather still on him. But before season I saw 4 longbeards together back behind my house. But when it came around gobbling time there was no gobbling going on around my house and in fact the bird I killed wasnt until the second week when the bird was first heard gobbling.My neighbor saw 3 longbeards and 2 hens together after season wasout though . But Imdont understand why the birds I saw before season and why the 3 he saw didnt gobble at all. And if there were hens down there why did my bird have nothing but full of feathers and hadn't been breeding. Me and my neighbor planted biologic and we have seen turkey tracks down by our biologic. Could anyone answer why these birds didnt gobble and if there is a possibility there could be more turkey on my land since we have seen the tracks in the biologic and maybe the hens had a decent hatching.
Thanks
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Blueticks are blue, Redbones are red,Hunt with WALKERS and more coons will be dead!
Born: it is had to say. I have a place I hunt,and know (like you ) there are birds there. we see them and durning deer season we see a lot of birds. for the past 2 years we have not heard a bird gobble yet.3 years ago, at most any morning I would hear 5 to 6 birds gobble.then past two nothing.I have saw the birds in off season , so I know they are still there.?????????
as you, we are stumped.
turkeys are hard to figure ( the way they talk that is). one day they will gobble 50 or more times , then the next day not a word.
you have a good question, I just don't have the answer.
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RE: A question on turkeys
A few possible reasons...
1) Hen to gobbler ratio. Just as with deer, if there are a high number of hens to each gobbler, the gobbler doesn't have to work as hard to attract hens. Basically, he doesn't need to gobble, but will still strut and may fight. In these cases, I've found that I hear lots of turkey talking, but mostly clucks, yelps and purrs---from both gobblers and hens.
2) They do not roost on your property during the breeding season. Most birds have a summer and winter range. Dependent on your overall population, they may also have a fall and spring range. More than likely, they are traveling through your property at some point every day, but are not roosted there in the morning. Therefore, you're not hearing much gobbling.
3) Hunting pressure. The birds get tight-lipped, period.
4) Predation. You haven't mentioned anything about predators, but coyotes are everywhere, and can do serious damage to gobbling toms.
5) Genetics. If you kill all the birds that gobble hard, and the ones that naturally gobble less are left to reproduce, then you're skewing nature and the results are woods filled with less vocal birds. I just read an article a few weeks ago exploring this concept...
But my bet...is #1. There's just too many hens, and the birds are tight-lipped. If you can hunt hens in the fall, try taking a few of the older breeding hens out (which is only recommended in areas with strong populations), and you should see increased gobbling in the Spring.
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born I have the same probblem as u and I have not seen many hens in 2-3 years so killin them would lead to less turkey eggs hatching in the next years well is there any1 with a solution 4 that.........?
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I have seen this aswell. I hunt in Florida and Alabama for turkey. In Florida This past year There wasn't a day in the woods I didn't hear 10-15 different birds gobble. One Gobbled 87 times in 2 hours! Between me and my friend we shot at him 3 differenttimes and never got him, He never quit gobbling even after being shot at. On the other hand, We have a bird that is 5 years old that we have been after for 3 years. He was shot at when he was 2 and has never gobbled again. In Alabama I have heard 2 gobbles in 6 years. They just don't do it. I believe that it is because of there being so many hens. I see hen after hen after hen no matter the time of year. I believe they don't need to gobble. Its kinda like the birds in south Al that time it flooded it is recorded that the turkeys never left the trees. I donno I just read it in a book.Turkeys dont always do what they are known to do.Like Strut&Rut said there is many thing that it could be.
Born2hunt welcome to turkey huntin!!S&R gives great advice and I'm sure your situation falls under one of his conclusions!I know in my own home area we definately have a spring and winter range the birds show upin!I would also suggest that the gobbler you harvested had made your turkey woods behind your house his own home area and thus never left!Alot of times 2 year old gobblers or even satelite gobblers never really have home turf and can wander out of an area in a short amount of time!Dominant gobblers will drive them out and if they dont they rarely gobble and generally avoid the hens being afraid big daddy will show up and givem a butt whoopin!!On many occasion 2 year old gobblers will join together as a result of this and wander in and out of different areas they frequented earlier in the year!Another possibility is the lack of hens!I have seen gobblers leave an area once the major majority of the hens are bred!Gobblers will hen hunt and travel to find them if they have too....There may be no single one answer but a little piece of many of these suggestions could be a possibilty,whatever the case it happens all over the country thats why it so important to keep staying at it even if you encounter quiet woods on occasion!I heard more gobbling activity in the evenings on some days this year than at dawn,and its beginning to be quite common!Predation could be the answer including hunters or even the possibilty that wiser gobblers have learned to pattern us!!!
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A lot of great answer. Like me everyone tends to know a good bit about turkey hunting just not why stuff like this happens. These answers are appreciated. I just hope the biologic helps lure some birds in. The thing u said about 2 year old birds and they might not gobble because of the dominant birds well I hope that is the case and we got birds doin a lot talking next year. butI did get my pics developed a lot on the deer and less on the turkey. I ended up having 7 turkeys pics and 18 deer pics.. 5 of the pics were 2 hens together and the other 2 had 2 toms and a few jakes.. so im hoping next year will by dynamite.
Thanks a lot for the help..
Mike
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Blueticks are blue, Redbones are red,Hunt with WALKERS and more coons will be dead!
Gobblers have times that they gobble stronger then others. Most of the gobbling activity is well gone by before the season arrives. The game commisions know this and set the season after the strong mating seaon is over. I would have to bet along with S&R opinions your problem falls into that range.
Anyways , How the hell are ya Born2Hunt , long time no see or hear. I drove right past our meeting spot back in March, Boy things have changed in that area...BT
And the bird had not been breeding, he had pretty much all his breast feather still on him.
When breeding, the hen lays down flat and the tom will stand on her back, and tread in place on her until he works up the semen to the point necessary to breed. (I watched a tom do this for between 5 and ten minutes last spring). I understand jakes don't take near as long as the older gobblers do, though I've never personally seen a jake breed. Once worked up sufficiently, he then merely touches his cloaca (sp?) to hers for a couple seconds or so and fertilizes her. Anyway, his breast most likely never comes into contact with the hen at all except perhaps for a very short instant. Thus, the absence or abundance of breast feathers on his breast is no indication of his breeding activity.
A question on turkeys
S&R gives great advice and I'm sure your situation falls under one of his conclusions!I know in my own home area we definately have a spring and winter range the birds show upin!I would also suggest that the gobbler you harvested had made your turkey woods behind your house his own home area and thus never left!Alot of times 2 year old gobblers or even satelite gobblers never really have home turf and can wander out of an area in a short amount of time!Dominant gobblers will drive them out and if they dont they rarely gobble and generally avoid the hens being afraid big daddy will show up and givem a butt whoopin!!On many occasion 2 year old gobblers will join together as a result of this and wander in and out of different areas they frequented earlier in the year!Another possibility is the lack of hens!I have seen gobblers leave an area once the major majority of the hens are bred!Gobblers will hen hunt and travel to find them if they have too....There may be no single one answer but a little piece of many of these suggestions could be a possibilty,whatever the case it happens all over the country thats why it so important to keep staying at it even if you encounter quiet woods on occasion!I heard more gobbling activity in the evenings on some days this year than at dawn,and its beginning to be quite common!Predation could be the answer including hunters or even the possibilty that wiser gobblers have learned to pattern us!!!
