w_e and wacker: I saw a big old tom lose his balance and roll down a steep hill off a ridgetop just last weekend. Of course, he lost his balance when he ran into a load of #4 lead shot.

WV Hunter: My pushbutton is from Quaker Boy, I think.

100 yard hang-ups--just real s-o-b' s to answer. I had one last spring, where I know the hangup was that the bird would have to cross a very large field (it was probably more than a 100 yard hangup, but he was response gobbling on top of my every yelp), and probably was in his strut zone. The hunter I was calling for lacked mobility, though, so we couldn' t reposition ourselves. I yelped with every call I had, for over an hour, and that tom gobbled back at every yelp. He just wouldn' t come in, because of that big field, I believe. (There' s a lot more than I' m telling--he was west of me, in the field, on the edge of the field, in a hollow. To the North was a huge open field, so he couldn' t travel an edge to the north and cross over to the east side of the field. To the South was a treeline and woods, but between us was a single strip of trees running North about halfway up from the South woods edge.) Had I been alone, I' d have relocated, at least to the strip of trees. I was tempted to play silent and see if that would drive him nuts and make him come across the field, but I didn' t because he was so hot, and my hunter was enjoying the show.

The only other 100 yard hangup I can remember was when the tom was in his strut zone in a clearing in the woods and I was a ways away in the woods, and it was all tangle and downed trees in between.

As you can see, I blame setup for both these hangups.

My general rule is that if they hangup, I know they are hungup, the silent treatment doesn' t get ' em and I can' t see them, I reposition and try again. I never take a direct route to them, though, always circuitous.

I thought when you meant " close the deal" you were referring to those times when you have ' em coming, you can see ' em, they' re at 75 yards, they see your decoy, and you want to finish ' em. That' s when I go pushbutton or, if no decoy, leaf scratching.