who_else

how many of u guys ambush ur turkeys? i hunted with a guy this weekend that says he ambushes them more then he calls them in. is it really that easy and should i be looking into how to do this better because i cant get them to answer my calls this year. thanks who_else

mauser06

turkeys tend to be animals of habit...if they are in a field strutting at 830 one day chances are he does that often and at the same time...its called patterning turkeys...find their roost...find the area they hit the ground and find the direction they go off...i had a nice big longbeard and a bunch of hens come through the same area every morning at a certain time..he was always there within 10 mins or so...we never did get that bird..he always did what we thought he wouldnt and the setup we had was always wrong....and the season ended before we could get it right..he was the boss of the woods..he carried atleast 3 or 4 hens with him daily...no other bird would gobble when he was gobbling...im sure his spurs were long and sharp..i kinda ambushed my bird this year...i know they feed along a atv trail all the time..so i set up there packed a big drink and got comfy so i could sit there from sun up till 12 or until i got my bird..i did call a few series ever 20 mins or so just to help...805 i was tagging my longbeard....if you birds are easy to pattern and stick to it ambushing can be easy...but someplaces im sure its next to impossible....no mater what hunting all comes back to doing your homework or plain getting lucky i think.....

sour01

Last year I took 4 turkey' s from the same field---3 from the same tree. I had patterned them over the course of the first few weeks of the season and noticed that 2 to 3 gobblers would always show up in this one particuar part of the field. So I decided that the best thing for me to do was make sure I got up early enough to cross this field under darkness---set up---make occasional clucks and purrs---and wait. Paid off nicely three times.

In retrospect it was probably a combination of calling and ambush.

My normal pattern is to decide the night before where I am going to hunt in the morning (By that I mean deciding not only the property---but where on the property---usually a place where I have spotted gobblers recently). Set up there an hour to 45 mins before sunrise---wait until the birds begin to awaken---and make occasional calls for 1 to 2 hours. I rarely move before then. Sometimes I will use a locator call---mostly not.

This year I also got 4 nice gobblers---2 were as a result of this strategy. The other 2 I was lucky enough to creep up on (private property).

maytom

When the birds are henned up, that is a tactic that can work very nicely!! A buddy of mine went to Kentucky last month and watched several gobblers enter a field by this wire fence that was down, so he set-up near that fence opening and collected two nice longbeards without uttering a sound at all!!!! Ambush all the way!! They call that woodsmanship skills pulling that one off!!

strut

I have never ambushed one but there are a few out there that I would have liked to.

Bobgobble2

Though I' m not an advocate of stalking turkeys getting between a gobbler and where he' s going are critical to the success of the majority of the hunts i' ve been on!Add a few clucks to the situation and maybe a soft yelp or two makes for a deadly combination of woodsmanship and calling ability!!

Turk_man

Like many have said if you get where he`s going, you`ll get your bird. Not that easy but it helps to set-up along the route he travels. Late season it becomes really important because after being hunted for awhile he`ll know where he`s going when he flys down and it can be real hard to change his mind.

loner

the classic or textbook hunt is always my goal.if everything fails, and pressure,time ,weather or other factors prevent you from taking a bird you have been spending a lot of time on,i will set up decoys in his path and call very softly to try to get him in range.some birds are wary enough to pickup on all our shortcomings and i do not have a problem using another approach if it will work.

TomC

My buddy and I currently working on 4 NICE toms utilizing this tactic. We have tried calling but the hens take them away from us EVERY time. They usually end up in the same meadow corner. We should bag one soon (maybe a double!).