it flies it dies

Opening day of my dad's season wasyesterday and I have been going with him to call for him. On the very first morning we heard several gobbles and set up on some in the area that we wanted to hunt and almost immediately I brought in two jakes that sat in the middle of our decoys for nearly an hour. When they started gobbling in our decoys all the other gobblers began moving away and stopped coming into the calls. The biggest of the two birds only had about a 3 inch beard so my dad wasn't going to shoot it, so we waited until they finally moved out and then we picked up and left since all the gobbling had stopped by then. Then this morning we set up in a different area not far from where we were yesterday and I called in another small jake along with the same two jakes from yesterday who again sat in our decoys gobbling away and seemed to scare off the other gobblers. After about 30 minutes in the decoys these jakes even spotted something they didn't like and began putting and still stayed in our decoys for nearly an hour. How do you go about shooing away unwanted jakes without educating them for the years when they are bigger? Also, why does having the jakes in the decoys scare off the other turkeys, when these were so small and I have seen very large toms out there?

BigLouie

shoot them!lol. Try setting up a Jake Decoy like it's breeding one of your Hen Decoys. I would think that would get the Tom's attention.

NHturkeyHntr

I agree get those toms atention they jsut ahnging out i would try some fighting purrs to get the toms in along with thje jake decoy breeding the hen decoy

it flies it dies

well I had the whole "love triangle" set-up going with a jake decoy and two hen decoys but the two jakes paid no attention to the jake decoy at all and the other gobblers never came close enough to even see the decoys. They would be gobbling and you could tell they were moving in and the jakes would beat them there and start gobbling and minutes later the otherswould be gobbling heading the other direction. We did have one turkey get hung-up on a fence, didn't get to see how big it was because it was just out of sight. All I know is that I couldn't have gotten my dad closer to those two jakes because he could have almost hit them with the barrel of his gun, it's been fun to watch anyway...

NHturkeyHntr

trying a fighting purr that should pull those big toms in really quick trust me i ve harvested many bird with this meathod were they would make an apperance with other birds around then i do a fighting purr and the gobble liek 5 times to it and are in gun range in about less then 10 mins

mauser06

one ruined my openening day last year.....set up......called a BIG longbeard in...i figured hed come through the woods....but he came hot to trot down the field edge...i was 45yds from the field edge...in an opening in the woods....he sat up there and strutted and gobbled for a while..then started committing slowly but surely....40yds..clicked the saftey off...all the sudden i see a bird RUNNING through the field behind my longbeard.....circled around through the woods....full speed ahead....i was like oh man here comes a BIG boy...they will either fight...or ill just shot him!.....the bird ran STRAIGHT to me after circling the longbeard....it was a jake.....at this time the longbeard is 30yds away......jake was right inbetween me and the longbeared.....but the jake was measureable in INCHES not feet or yards...if i jumped at him i could grabbed him.......he knew exzactly what tree them hen sounds came from and starred me right in my eyes...i couldnt blink...tears rolled down my face....my eyes started to burn terribly....i fianlly HAD to blink....PUTT...PUTT PUTT......chit! he busted me!! the longbeard did the boot scootin boogie and was GONE the jake hung around still.....i didnt shoot him though.....and they started to roost elsewhere....never heard from them again! i was mad

Arrowmaster

I agree with trying the fighting purrs.

it flies it dies

I was wondering if the jakes are real close and the other gobblers are still at a good distance would it work to putt softly with the call to try to spook the jakes and get them to leave? I tried that a little bit today after they went nuts and started putting and really scaring everything off and they hung around for about 10 minutes putting then started to leave and came back a few minutes later gobbling away and strutting again coming back into the decoys.... I can't wait til my season in two weeks, if they do that to methey're going to have a muzzy comingat about 300fps! lol[:@]

bradisthebest

If you are aloud two tags why not shoot one jake and then a tom just my thoughts.

geterdun

i would have a dead jake if the field and be happy as hell that i got a bird. this is probably because i have never killed a turkey, but thats what i would do. Im so anxious to kill one - I WISH A JAKE WOULD WALK INTO MY DECOYS. lol. My season just started today and i will be going on sat, but if that little 3 inch-beard, 15 pound jake comes rolling through, he will get a shot shower lol. But, this is only my 2nd year and you all have probably killed alot of birds so you dont have the urge to kill a small one, but i do lol. I hope i even see a jake, hes gonna have a veryyyyyyy bad morning. just my 2 cents