RE: Turkeys not answering
 

[quote]ORIGINAL: ranchand99


Now that's a big bird!BPS was so excited he called him a longer beard![quote]


LOL. Sorry didn't catch the typo. I know how hunting stories get out of hand some times and we get caught up in the excitment, but the story of this bird's size wasn't a "fish tale".

That certain club had very nice birds on it. The last year i hunted at that club there were several 20lb + birds killed. There were also a few multipule bearded birds killed. I think one had three or four beards. THe biggest that was taken on that club while I hunted there was right at 24lbs.

I think they have big birds due to the amount of soy bean acrage they have.

RE: Turkeys not answering
 

I've seen this over the years and I have a theory on it. The Gobbler gobbles to announce his presence to the hens in his area. When you run into areas where gobbling is scarce, I think that often, there are an abundance of hens in the area. More hens, more ladies for each bird= less gobbling each bird has to do to get a girlfriend. On my Grandma's farm, it comes and goes like this. Some years, every point will have multiple toms gobbling and some years there's birds in the area, but they hardly gobble. Last year, I had heard a few birds before season opened, but they'd normally gobble 1-4 times on the roost and then simply fly out and shut up. I had found two places in a log road on the property where there were Gobbler tracks and the tell-tale wing drag marks with them. I knew this was a strutting area, but you never heard a bird there.
My uncle was fixing fence down in the field below one day, about 1&1/2 weeks into the season. I had been hunting the area several mornings there and had heard one bird gobble one time. I had about given up, when he called me that day and told me about the turkeys he had watched cross the field he was working in about 11:00. 2 big toms, and 11 hens. He said he never heard them gobble, but that they strutted across the field following the ladies. I was sure there were some there, but if I'd judged purely on the gobbling level, I'd have given up. As it was, those birds stayed around and pretty much still wouldn't gobble. Finally, after striking out just about everywhere else I'd hunted, I decided to hunt the farm again. It was thursday morning of the third week. I took my wife's little brother along, and we were pleasantly surprised to hear 4 different birds at daylight. Two were roosted together so we went to them. To make a long post a little shorter, we ended up calling in 2 big Toms and a jake. What, clinched the deal for us though, was the 5 hens these jokers were following around like love-struck teenage boys. The hens came into my aggressive cutting and yelping, and the poor fellows followed them in.
My wife's little brother ended up popping a 20# Tom at 16 steps. Unfortunately, I was unable to get a shot at the other big guy, but the day was a learning experience to say the least. He ended up having 1" spurs and a 10.5" beard. I would deviate just a bit from the other advice and recommend the stay late, call soft approach, but I'd also concentrate on not spooking the birds. Once the hens start to lose interest, the gobbling will increase. I can also tell you that, when it's going to work, you almost can't mess it up. The bird usually is either going to come or not. You can stay and keep letting him know where you are, but be patient and wait for the day when his usual ladies don't show up on his accustomed time schedule.....that's when things start to get good!

GH

RE: Turkeys not answering
 

Some excellent responses here for sure!Dakine dont mean to sound ugly cause I'm not,I'm here to help but your post leads to me to believe your makin smart turkeys brother!!!Call shy birds come from two different situations1. a bigger bird dominates the area and he's afraid of em.2.hunters such as yourself have hammered them enough and spooked them to the point of a turkey call sends them packing or in the stealth mode.Your post says on several occasions you had birds within 50 yards you didn't know about,leading me to believe you probably bumped them..WE ALL HAVE!!!!Grasshopper gives you some good advice on henned up birds but your post leads me to believe you are dealing with call shy gobblers.Henned up gobblers will answer your calls especially when there ladies leave them all alone!!
The guys here give you some good advice,patience in quiet woods is tough to learn because it takes alot of confidence believing the birds are there and the ability to physically sit still for sometimes hours.Overcalling in a situation like this just makes for wiser turkeys!Understand these birds ability to hear and pinpoint sound is fantastic so be patient enough to use that to your advantage.IMHO decoys do more spooking in a situation like this than help!A satelite tom has the urge to breed and move to the hens but upon seeing one lose their confidence because they ARE subbordinate via (satelite gobbler)!Older pressured gobblers expect that hen to come to him and in alot of cases have there own strut grounds which the hens will frequent!These type of birds are the ones that hang-up.If your hell bent on using a deke on these type of birds DO NOT PUT IT IN A POSITION TO BE SEEN AT A LENGTHY DISTANCE or I promise you'll have birds that WILL hang-up out of gunrange that you may never even see until you get up to move.
These birds are not impossible you just need a little understanding on how they work and adjust to it!Get comfortable,be patient,move little,use your ears,and call little....go getem Bob..:)

RE: Turkeys not answering
 

I beleive you BPS,I was just picking.;)
I agree with you grasshopper,on everything,and you too bob.I posted 1 second after you did,and hadn't read your post yet.:D

RE: Turkeys not answering
 

;)

RE: Turkeys not answering
 

Thanks for all the insight/suggestions guys. The more I think about it and read the posts, the more I realize that my buddy and I have been "overcalling" the birds onthe farm we hunt. 3 of us are hunting about 100 acres and usually two of us will hunt together. Our farm is bordered by multiple 300 + acre farms that get little to no spring gobbler pressure so I don't think hunting pressure is an issue. Bobgobble, thanks for the tip about decoy placement because that is probably a mistake I am making as well.