Here comes some free advice, so take it for what its worth.

An old friend and turkey hunting mentor of mine once told me that the best thing to do when you find a turkey like that is to go find another turkey. Obsession is not healthy, and you will spend all your time fooling with thissharp oldbird and miss opportunities to have fun with other turkeys. If you try to work him every day it won't take him long to pattern you.

I've seen several of these types of turkeys, both on public and private ground. They will gobble and stut when you call but won't come in. Some, in fact, go the other way as you mention. You are going to have to wait until later in the season when the hens don't come running to him every time he gobbles. I would also suggest that you spend early morning time with other gobblers, and return to him at mid-day when he may be lonesome.

Many times these types of birds won't be big at all. They spend all their time strutting, fighting, and chasing hens around.

I finally got to pull the trigger on a bird last year that I hunted for two years ('04 & '05). He would roost in a steep gully that was essentially inaccessable. This turkey would gobble his head off from the roost but would not fly downuntil he saw a live hen or else he would fly down into the middle of an adjacent field. I tried everything I knew - setting up close, setting up in the field with decoys, not calling until he flew down, calling a lot, calling a little, gobbling at him and doing fighting purrs, etc. One dayI took a garden rake and raked outa cleanwalking path through the backside of his roosting place. The next morning, wearinghouseshoes to be extra quiet, I slipped in there while it was still dark without making a sound. I'm sitting in there tight and he starts gobbling.I waited until he gobbled 3 or 4times andmake some soft tree calls and he explodes with double gobbles. Thats it, no more calling. That crazy thing sat up there and gobbled for 45 minutes and finally flew down into the field on the other side of the woods away from me. He just wasn't interested in flying down in the woods unless he saw a hen.I got up and looped around to the field where he flew down and heard him gobbling about 100 yards away around a corner. I got as close as I could and sat down in some weeds. I clucked on a slate and he gobbled. He came around the corner but stopped at 75 yards. That turkey stood there for about 15 minutes and must have gobbled 50 times, walkind around in a strut butnot taking one step to get closer to me. Eventually two hens walked out of the woods and he joined them as they made their way to another part of the farm.

I finally killed him one day at about 12:15 after following him around from a distance as he strutted and gobbled with hens. I had stopped yelping at him with a diaphram so I was only scratching in the leaves and clucking and purring on a slate call. He made a mistake that day and dropped his guard,slippingin behindme for a 35 yard shot. He was a 3 or 4 year old bird that only weighed 17 lbs.

This type of turkey provides the ulitmate challenge the sport provides.That is why it is called turkey huntin' and notturkey killin'.Just don'tlet him get under you skin and drive you to drinkin'. Obsession is a bad thing.

Good luck

Mouthcaller