I've seen it go both ways, but usually it is a waste of time trying to get them away from the hens. I've called in a few with soft calls, and a few with aggresive calling. But, more often than not I've left scratching my head wondering what I could have done differently.

A couple years ago a friend and I were working some birds on opening day. We knew where they were going, and setup ahead of their path after flydown. The entire group came right up the edge of the field, but went into the brush just shy of our position. Two gobblers went into the tree line, but the rest stayed in the field with the hens. We tried everything. We changed calls, called soft, called loud, moved positions, but still they were in the field with those hens.

Finally, at about 11:00 I spotted them feeding in our direction. I started calling softly, but they ignored me. At 11:30 I knew we were about to end the day; because we have to quit at noon. So, I just started cutting very loudly and aggresively. And, you know those gobblers stormed us, and caught my buddy off guard and he missed at 10 yards!! There were 3 longbeards and 5 jakes. The hens stayed in the field and spooked at the sound of the shot.Sometimes it works and more often it doesn't. But, you gotta try anyway!