Calling Tactics...scenario
 

Just for fun, and a great way to learn...Ill set up a hypothetical situation and you guys give your take on it and how you would play it. Ill see what all you guys say and see how it compares to how I would play it. No wrong answers, this never happened, just hypothetical situations.

1. You snuck in one morning to a bird you had roosted about 150 yards into the woods from a 30 acre pasture hilltop. You try to get within 150 yards or so, and setup. It is cracking daylight when you finally get situated. You call after a 10 minute wait, and he fires off at you from just where you expected. You call sparingly a few more times over the next 15 minutes with soft tree yelps, purrs, and light sounds..he fires off each time. You throw him a fly down cackle while beating your hat on your leg, and he fires off and you hear him pitch out. At this point, everything goes wrong. A hen that remained silent the entire morning, pitches out from roost not 20 yards away from you, obviously watching your every move. She heads straight for the gobbler. You hear him fire off once more after 10 minutes, from right where he pitched out. 15 minutes go by and not a peep, no matter what you throw out there. You have access and permission to try and move on this bird no matter which direction he heads, WHAT DO YOU DO?

2. You have the picture perfect setup..bird hot off the limb, gobbles to anything and everything, coming in hot. He gets to about 60-80 yards, locks up, and struts back and forth. You are about 10 yards into the woods from the field edge he is in. You have no dekes out, so you just sound like a hen in the woods. No matter what, all he will do is gobble at you and continue his pacing back and forth strutting..not closing the distance 1 inch. It is time to make things happen as 25-30 minutes has passed. You havent been silent, but havent overcalled yet either. What calling technique do you throw at him or how would you switch it up to try and get him within range. For these purposes, he is through too much brush to see you, you can barely see him through the briar thicket at the field edge given the angle he is at. Do you try getting up and moving farther into the woods enticing him to follow, do you hang tight and not do anything, change up calling. WHAT DO YOU DO?


Just for fun and hopefully to help me learn how to switch it up in two fairly common scenarios I have encountered over the past few years. If anyone has another to add, please go ahead and I'll give it my best shot.

RE: Calling Tactics...scenario
 

1. Well I don't think I would have played him that way on the limb but since that is what's laid out I'll stick with it. I would say the gig is over with this bird, for now. That hen has made sure of that. She picked you out and so there is no way she is drawing that gobbler over and why would he leave a live hen. Given this I have 2 things I'd do. First is go find another bird. Second is lie down and have a nap. If I am going to work this bird it's in 2 hours when he is done with that hen. If all goes well he dies somewhere around 10am or so. Why move on him when I know he has other eyes with him and I may just end up in the same scenario just in a different spot. The other reason is I didn't see the hen so maybe I didn't see the other gobblers. He may not be the one I kill at all so if I nap it's a light nap with myself in ready position (or tell the camermanto wake me if a bird comes [8D])

2. I go dead silent and wait. He's waiting for me and any amount of calling and he will get bored or bothered and leave. Doing nothing is more likely to get him to wander over. I don't risk moving. No reason to at this point. If he doesn't come and I see him walk off THEN I'll get up and make a move on this bird. If he really is alone in that feild he should be a dead bird. Silent treatment will probably kill him.

RE: Calling Tactics...scenario
 

1. Maybe im just inexperienced but it sound like to me that that bird is long gone. If it was me i would relocate and try and get another one to gobble.

2. If it was me i would just quit calling hoping it would get him curious enough to come in.

Wayne

RE: Calling Tactics...scenario
 

sounds to me like the voice of experience MO. ;)

I should also add in number 2, 25-30 mins is longer than I would of "worked" him as well. That's a lot of calling to go that long with a bird strutting 60-80 out and not moving to you. Even if you're just clucking and purring occasionally. I'd have to wonder if he sees hens in the feild that you don't see if this happens. Darn hens eh! Always messing with us.

RE: Calling Tactics...scenario
 

1. Move on. Try to strike another gobbler, and if thats unsuccessful, come back in two or three hours from a different direction when he gets lonely. :D
2. Shut up. Play the waiting game. If hunting with a partner, and the bird couldn't see us moving, I'd say allow your friend to fall back into the woods about fifty yards while you stay put, giving a couple light yelps as he goes. Sometimes the gobbler will panick at the thought of the hen leaving, and give chase, right into a faceful of hevi #6s.

RE: Calling Tactics...scenario
 

OntElk took the exact words out of my mouth! Well put buddy! Scenario 2 has happened to me more times than I care to remember but going dead silent just drives them nuts! You have to be well disciplined not to call back to him when he's letting out those desperation gobbles. If you remain quiet he will either give in and come into the woods with you or he will slip off which is not a bad thing either. This will give you a chance to get a better set-up on him.

RE: Calling Tactics...scenario
 

1. If I knew where they go to strut or their patterns I would try to cut them off. I would also wait about an hour unless I heard a different bird that seemed like it could be set up on.
2. 25-30 minutes is not a long time to have one strut. My grandpa had one do that for 3 HOURS! It was 50 yards out and finally he just shot him in full strut. The bird weighed over 30 lbs, but it was butchered[>:]:(. Anyways. I would wait for however long it took for the bird to do something.

RE: Calling Tactics...scenario
 

1. you are already busted so personally I would go look for another hot bird. If this particular bird is the one you want to take I would do one of a couple things. 1. if i have a good idea of where i think he is going to go i will try to beat him there and ambush him, 2. wait for the hens to leave him late morning, maybe go have a cup of coffee, let the woods settle back down, and come back after him, or 3. if i were desperate to get this bird and its the last day of season i would pretend it was the fall and scatter the birds. with any luck you will separate him from the hens. If you get them separated he will get real callable, you might even have the benefit of real hens calling him back to your set up. This strategy is more of a hail mary, not something i would try opening day haha.

2. this one is easy i don't make a freaking peep. He wants to get stubborn I'll get real stubborn too and give him the cold shoulder. He will get to the point where he just can take it anymore and come marching in, or he'll walk off. If he walks off I will regroup and set up on him again, maybe this time get a decoy out and give him that visual he is looking for.

By the way this thread is a great idea, its going to be cool to see what everyone's answers are. Now that my deer season is probably over (might go to NJ for their late season) I'm already counting down the days until may!

RE: Calling Tactics...scenario
 

Well lets see.
1.only to be performed on private land!
forget the tom and call the hen. gobble or imitate that hen and pull her to you. trust me their memory isnt that long shemight just come to you since you are closer. Remeber that in nature then hen goes to the tom. not the othe way around. If that tom thinks someone else is moving in on hisladies he will come and fast.
or
take a nap.
2.Shut up. if you can make some slight movement, start scratching the leaves to sound like a feeding hen. He will think she has lost interest and hopefully break that last couple 10.
or
like said before. have your partner(if ya have one) start to move slowly away from ya while calling. or if ya alone using a mouth call, slightly turm your head away from the tom and call with a descending volume. (loud to soft). very difficult to do.

RE: Calling Tactics...scenario
 

Pretty similar thoughts.

1. I personally either make a rather large loop based on where the birds usually head from roost and wait him out in that direction (takes alot of scouting to pattern birds well enough),or I head off trying to strike up another bird...if nothing pans out, Ill head back in that general area about 10 or 11 and try to rework him.

2. I shut up and wait. I hate calling very much in the first place, but these are situations I have either brought upon myself or witnessed others do in the past....Ive learned silence is golden in a LOT of situations....I wait that sucker out until he is long gone. I also LOVE Mohunters idea on the partner...we have done this before and killed a bird not 5 seconds after the setup...He was just over the hill from us, I got up and walked straight away and once about 50-60 yards back...I called again...and thats all it took, I watched as he stormed over the hillside to meet a swarm of lead from my buddy back at the original spot.

I used to have a problem with calling too much (as these scenarios depict), now I almost have a problem with not calling enough. Still working on that happy medium. Great answers you guys, keep em coming. 2 lunger nailed it on it being hard not to call back. I struggled with this in the past..if I got a gobble, it wasn't a game of get them in range..it was a game of seeing how many times I could get him to gobble to my call, then wonder why he never showed up. Live and learn I guess.