doall hunter

I've benn hunting this dominant bird for a few years now. He's a typical one with 15+ hens at any possible time before they nest. So I want to hatch a plan going into the season to be ready.Totry to harvest this bird, and hopefully many more, I recently got a strutter decoy (B-moblie) and I was wondering should I make a jake fan and use that or use a mature fan for the decoy? I'm thinkng that maybe one or the other would fire him up more. You guys know.

Pat_Ely

If he is truly the dominant bird then I would leave it at a full fan. Next thing to do is try to locate where the hens are roosting. Listen for the first hen call of the morning and mimic her. This technique has been very successful for me year after year. Even as far as trying to mimic her pitch. It is a sound that he is used to hearing and coming to.

wholelottagobble

hopefully, he has a general area or field that he and his hens spend the morning in after flydown. a lot of guys would call it a strut zone. If this bird is used to being the boss of this area...he will flip out at seeing ur b-mobile in his zone or field strutting with a hen. I would use or get a good looking hen decoy to go with it. I like a feeding hen. Important to point the tailend of your decoy towards where the gobbler will come from. He will think he's sneaking up on your decoy and pouncing him before he can turn around.

I'm not big on using decoys, but i got a bmobile to have as a last resort. I have had it two years and used it once.

However after hunting a bird with 5-6 hensfor 3 days in the same field, I put that bmobile and a hen out in the field the 4th morning and when that gobbler hit the field edge 200 yards away, he literally ran in and jump kicked the decoy and then got dropped. whole hunt took less than 5 minutes once he flew down. and he ran past a yelping hen to come to the decoy.

those strutter decoys are great when used wisely.

SouthernStrut56

If the decoys don't work, another option would be to try and catch him later in the morning after he's finished breeding and courting the hens. Set up in his general area and call soft and scratch around in the leaves a good bit. Two scratches, and one single one. Soft clucks and purrs around 10 or 11 in the morning have won me at least 5 or 6 birds. Another option, which I started doing a lot two years ago and a lot of people don't think it works, is to spook all those birds off the roost, the dominant bird and his hens. Once you spook the first one off, you'll likely get nervous and want to sit down, but go ahead and keep walking and spook em all down. Move as close as you can to where you think they went and sit down. That tom is gonna be worried that he might lose his hens, and he'll want to round up every last one of them. Lots of times you'll hear the dominant hen start her assembly calling and others will call back trying to find one another. Join in with them, and try to mimic the calls you're hearing. If you hear a few hens start kee kee'ing, join in with the music. Also, if you see the birds scatter and fly down in all different directions, that's an excellent sign. Try and set up right in the middle of where they all went and hopefully they'll run every which way looking for everybody. BUT, I wouldn't advise doing this more than once or twice, too much pressure on that tom could cost you for this season. If you do it once with no success, wait a couple of weeks before trying again. Try to make the best of it the first time you do it, it's a lot of fun watching and listening to the birds try and find each other. Hopefully you'll catch that tom in a panic trying to find his girls. Good luck!

mouthcaller

Doall

I have been fortunate enough to kill a couple of dominant birds in the past 5 years. These are theturkeys that really get me fired up. Ireally love hunting these birds but they can be frustrating.If this bird is a 4 or 5 year old turkey then get prepared for some frustrating encounters.

I didn't have a strutter decoy on either of the two I killed, but I think the selective use of one is a good tactic, just don't overdo it. I would really do my homework with preseason scouting and try to figure out what the turkey is doing. Since you have been hunting him previously you probably already know his habits. The trouble with these types of turkeys, as you no doubt know, is that they are the alpha male and control all the hens. I have never been able to call or decoy a dominant bird away from his flock of hens, but that was with hen decoys. I killed both of the birds I'm referring to at midday later in the season when the hens starting leaving him to nest. Only then was I able to call him after he was left alone, and both times he came in very slowly and cautiously.

Patience in dealing with him is my best advice. My turkey hunting mentor told me once that when you encounter one of these turkeys the best thing to do is go find another turkey, but come back to him later in the day. That is good advice, as you can drive yourself insane by spending all your time chasing him.

Wholelottagobble posted some good results using a B-mobile. I have a B-mobile and would likely give that a try once I determined where he hangs out with his herem. The key is getting set up covertly and throwing B-mobile at him when he is willing to fight. Most likely that is earlier in the season rather than later. I agree with facing B-mobile toward you, and I would probably use a real fan rather than the artificial one (though I think the silk fan they provide looks good too).

Good luck

Mouthcaller

doall hunter

Thanks guys. I'll think I will try Southernstruts idea. I want to this birds dominance comes with a nice set of spurs too. And mouthcaller your mentor is probably right, but hey there is another big bird in the woods too.

SouthernStrut56

Like every other turkey hunting tactic, don't expect to connect every time you try this, but it does work. The first time I did it was three years ago on accident. I spooked a few off and got mad and squatted down for a second, then said to heck with it and kept on walking. I spooked about 12-18 birds off the roost and sat down on a ridge looking over to the top of another ridge. Hens started going crazy kee keeing and yelping so I started doing it right back and called up 3 or 4 hens at first, which of course is good and bad. Good because you're sounding just like one of their lost girls and where there's hens, your dominant gobbler should be near. But bad because the more eyes they have in the area, the less movement you can make. I sat there with those hens kee keeing and yelping for a good 5 or 10 minutes before they finally walked over the ridge behind me. Not too long after that I saw my big tom on the other ridge top coming straight down my way. After he went down into the hollow, I turned and got my gun up in the direction I saw him heading down the other ridge, trying to anticipate where he would come up. He turned when he was out of sight and came up the ridge 15 yards to my right. Here's where I learned a lesson.....the minute I saw his head and neck I tried to swing over and put the bead on him. All he had to do was take one step back to get his head outta my sight behind that ridge, and he did. If I would have waited for him to get completely up on the ridge before swinging over, he would have been in view longer and I could have gotten a shot off. I've done this four or five more times since then and gotten two very nice birds. Every time I've done it, I've had turkeys pass by very close to me. It's fun for sure!

Pat_Ely

Thing you have to remember about busting them off the roost though is that they can fly for awhile, make sure you have enough hunting ground that they don't leave your property

SouthernStrut56

Yes sir, good point.

buckmarlin

get you about 7 or 8 hen decoys, set up as close to him as you can, or get in front of where he will travel..If you know he will come to a field or power line or a large open area....then setup there and wait on him...but you have to offer him something better than he has.....i also would go with a jake decoy. i prefer my jake to have very little red on his head and a very short curly que beard..about 2-3 inches. you will also need to call multiple calls at the same time or have a buddy with you. like a mouth call and a box or slate and moouth, etc. you have to sound like a bunch of hens together. purrs, clucks and light yelps. you have to make him a deal he can't refuse.