Well if you have responded to my other post, thank you and this is a continuation. Since I won't be in the woods until 10 or so, what do you think the best way to locate a gobbler is? What has worked for you guys in the past? Do you hen call, or crow call or something else. I am in NY. Thanks alot!
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Team RUT-n-STRUT
Upstate, NY
"Always remember... If your lost, you don't know where you are!"
If you scout well, you will already know where the birds like to be in late morning and midday. Those prefferered loafing and strutting areas. I'd ease inot those areas and make a few calls. Start out softer and increase volume if you get no response. Easing into those areas and glassing form a distance is also a good idea to avoid bumping birds. If you have no idea where to srta and are going inot it blind, so to speak, I'd be running the ridgetops cutting agrressively every 75 yards conering alot of ground in a short time. If you get a response, stop...sit down and wait a few and hit hi again. Sometimes you get a shock gobble or courtesy gobble form a bird that isn't realy hot or intersted. If he won't answer againI keep moving unless I don't feel optimistic about finding any other willing birds. If he rips back a second time, its game on, but may have to move quickly to a better setup. Good luck. Sometimes those late morning birds can be real pushovers, lonesome and lookin' for love. They can come in running at times, so be ready!
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"You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy out of freedom...The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend, is about the end of any nation."
I wouldn't worry about locating, as long as you see fresh turkey sign. Just set up and call, stay for an hour, then try another spot for an hour. I've had them come in after an hour of calling.
Well if you have responded to my other post, thank you and this is a continuation. Since I won't be in the woods until 10 or so, what do you think the best way to locate a gobbler is? What has worked for you guys in the past? Do you hen call, or crow call or something else. I am in NY. Thanks alot!
I have found that excited cutting will elicit more gobbles than the crow call will. I stick to cutting and yelping almost exclusively for locating.
In the wee hours of post dawn, I usually just sit tight and let nature take its course. Nine times out of 10 the gobbling will begin while the Tom is still on the roost without me making a single peep. If I don't hear anyting by decent light, I'll cut trying to imitate a hen pitching out, then yelp a few times. That has worked great for me for decades, but only early in the a.m. Many times crows cawing at daybreak as they come off their roost and start their chater will shock a Tom. I have found that a crow call works fine up into the mid morning and practically all day long, especially when I am working the woods lines. Excited hen cuts and yelps do as well. But for me nothing has ever proven sure fire. So when locating, I might try 2-3 different rackets to get a Tom to gobble. For late p.m. roost locating, I have found an owl hoot works pretty good, especially just after dark:30. However I must admit I have not been very successful in "roosting" birds over the 40+ years that I have hunted them.
If you have them patterned you know approximately where they will be if not set up at strut zones, roost if you know where they are. If you only know the general area get there and use yelping and cutting.
Check with your game warden and see if you can be in the woods SCOUTING AND NOT HUNTING (no gun) during the time you are not allowed to hunt, that could really give you a leg up. I bet legally you could, doesn't hurt to ask.
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Dont run in on another hunters gobbler! Earn Yours!
Crows are everywhere in the area I hunt so a crow call is worthless. I'm tempted to toss mine in the garbage because they never work because turkeys hear them all the time.
I'm a bit unconventional and like to think outside the box on locator calls. How about a peac*ck screamer, duck call, goose honker, or a silent dog whistle? Experiement to see what works.
Last edited by KitsapCaller; 03-31-2010 at 11:23 PM.
Locating advice needed here.....
