RockyMtnGobblers

What is your favorite tactic to bring down wary gobblers that are alone, ignore your calls and may have even busted you but stay in the area? Maybe he spooks but only runs 60 or so ft. stays in the area and gobbles once in a while.
This happened to me a few years ago, I tried everything except using decoys. Next time I guess I'll bring out the decoys.

bald9eagle

I go subtle. Random light clucks. Scratching leaves. I don't do anything other than a few clucks every 10 minutes or so with some light putting thrown in.

One of my most memorable hunts didn't end in a kill but that was because he tricked me. He wouldn't answer a call. He gobbled sparingly at crows or woodpeckers. I sat near the crest of a little hill with him in the saddle on the other side. We played this little game for an hour. I would scratch a little, wait, cluck a little, scratch, wait, purr, cluck, scratch, wait... He finally snuck in a little higher up the hill. When I saw him he was only about 15 yards up the hill from me. I waited about shooting because there was a sapling covering part of his neck. He got antsy and started to solely walk off. I was going to bust him when he cleared a big oak. He walked behind the oak and did a 90 degree turn and walked straight away from me. I didn't know he was gone until 10 minutes later.

JoeA

Like others have posted, less is often more in regards to calling.

Find the hens, and call with them. In the mornings, I wait until I hear at least one hen call. Then I respond softly. If the hen gets a little animated, I try to heat it up a little without blowing her out.

Another reason toms will hang up is territory. If the bird you're working is a "satellite" gobbler, he'll only intrude so far into "Boss Tom's Turf". So, try to back out and move closer from another direction and soft call like another (with a different call if you have one) hen.

Get ahead of them if you can. Rios (at least the ones here) are hard to turn around once they've passed you. Get ahead of where they want to go, and sound like a hen in a place along their likely path of travel.

Best of luck!

RockyMtnGobblers

Thanks guys, this is the boss tom I assume, he roosts alone about 1,000 yards from the rest and has the longest beard, he leaves his roost and joins the rest in the strutting (on non hunt able private property) area. I plan to set up between his roost and the creek he crosses to get to the strut area, I'll get to the area 2 days before the hunt find tracks, set up cameras and observe.

Thunderchicken217

I have had many many birds over the years become wary and ignore my calling and head directly away from me. Generally is always later in the season or the dominant bird for an area. I have however killed over 50% of the birds like this with a certain tactic but it takes 2 guys. My 16 yr old son who can hold his own with a call against any seasoned veteran and I set up approximately 300 to 400yds apart with the bird being in the center of us. We take turns every time we may come across such a bird and what we do is the guy who isn't the intended shooter calls like hell. I mean calls on the roost, calls on the ground and doesn't quit. The bird will gobble and gobble and gobble some more most times as he is walking away from the non stop calling. Well guess who is lying in the bushes just waiting listening to him gobble all the way to one of us just as if you were calling him in. Instead we call this pushing a turkey instead of calling. May not be to everyone's liking but if you have a bird that has the entire flock shut up it truly doesn't bother me and its still an incredible challenge to pull it off. Try it sometime if you have such a bird and see how it works for you. We have kept track over the years since he was young and on 9 such birds we have killed 6 of em this way. Good luck.

daveco

For him I might put a hen decoy on my sled; a product sold decades ago. The sled can take the decoy out 40 yards and back, utilizing 80 lb test line on two hand cranked reels. You can turn it or stop it anytime you want.