Phil from Maine

Now do not be so soar about it..

I had never stated I have all the answers that is for sure. But I do know that they need water more than once a day. That is even more true just before the hen hatchesb the eggs out. The shells become dry and hard and the young ones will not be able to hatch.. So yes it stands to reason that they will surely be near water.. I just happen to raise some phesants for keeping my dogs trained up. So that part of it I had already known plenty of time prior to my turkey hunting..

Phil from Maine

I am not going to keep argueing with you. Because the bottom line you hunt your way and get birds and I hunt my way and get birds. Both ways appear successful and having success is what counts. Also just on a side note when I was on my way back with my last bird ( only 2 allowed )Right by some alders was a decent tom with 2 hens and the tom was strutting. As you know alders grow by water be it a stream or what ever and that was at 11am..

xOEDragonx

Well, I definitely appreciate all the feedback, but I was skunked again this weekend. That fourth bird I encountered on the first day is still hanging around his trail, but there's still no sign of the other three toms I saw on the first day. That first day I saw them they were all pursuing one hen though, so maybe the only reason they ever ended up on the property anyway was because of following her. They probably all live elsewhere.

Saturday morning I tried setting up in a small clearing about 200 yards into the woods close to where I've been hearing that fourth bird in the mornings. Figured if he wouldn't come out to the fields, I'd get in closer to him. Well, sun came up and never heard or saw sign of him. By 8:00am, I moved up to the property line at the top field so that I was as close as I could get to where I've been hearing him around 10:00am. At 9:30am, he started hollering when church bells started going off in the town below. He was coming my direction, as I figure he would if he was following the same trail every day. By 10:00am, he hung up again and must have been standing in one spot and gobbling to my hen call.

Where the property line is at the top end of the top field, I'm about 150 yards from the top of the hill/mountain that the property is on. That last 150 yards is someone else's property. I pulled up the area on google earth and sure enough, just over that hill and out of site there is a small clearing. I have a feeling that's where he heads to in the middle of the day to call to hens. But that doesn't do me any good since it's way past the property line. And he must be spoiled because he will gladly respond to calls but he wants the hen to come to him. Decoys aren't really useful anyway since he's never in sight of them anyway. And since I'm sitting on one side of a hill and he's at the same spot on the opposite side of the hill and the top of the hill is off my property, there's no getting uphill of him, I'm not sure how to beat this bird. He seems pretty set in his ways.

Since he hung up again, I tried moving down the fence and calling softly to see if I could convince him there was a hen over the hill looking for him. Still to no avail, he hung out in the same spot until about 11:00am, at which time he started heading off back the way he came on the far side of the hill. Bummer. I called it quits shortly after since hunting here ends by noon anyway and looking down on the property from above couldn't see anything else out anyway other than deer everywhere.

I had originally planned to hunt yesterday too. I ended up spending a large portion of Saturday afternoon working on the farm mostly cutting grass. Afterwards, both the need for a shower and the approaching torential downpour convinced me that it was time to cut the trip short. Packed the tent up and headed home.

I'll be out there again next saturday though, and I can hunt all day next saturday. I'm hoping the toms are just in a lol right now while the first batch of hens are on their nests. Maybe the gobbling and action will pick back up by next weekend. As determined as I am to get that bird who lives just past the top property line, I don't think he's going to go out of his way. So here's to hoping that another bird shows up on the property by next week. It's a rather large section of the mountain so I'm surprised I haven't actually seen any other toms on it since the first day. It's on the side of the mountain, the bottom of the property is a thick, brushy area (no water supply though), then most of the property is open range but theres still trees on either side of the fields. Maybe by next weekend one of those other toms will come back looking for younger hens or something because now, I'm at a loss once again XD

huntrfishr

xdragon...try this for a change just in case it works with your tough bird.
Get as close to the bird as you can while he is in his strutting area gobbling away.
Use a crow call so he would gobble to find out where you think he is then move closer again. When you think you have narrowed your distance to max, just listen for a while and let him gobble for a while then answer a short yelp. Don't answer his calls until when you think to tease him again give a short yelp. Make the in between wait shorter and shorter then time your call so that you're answering more frequently to him but very short so he cannot really figure out where it's coming from. The closer he comes the sparser the answer.
I've got some tough birds this way before and I hope it works for you.