I got in a little after light and set up where I had seen sign. As soon as I sat down a hitting first call I heard and saw hen fly down cackling from a tree across the field about 50 yards. Then some chatter then is got quiet. About 30 minutes laterI heard another hen yelping and carrying on then fly down from the same tree. About 640 I heard a bunch of clicks and yelps and carrying on from the area they went to. All within 50 yards of me. However, I did not hear a single gobble. Some advice for the new guy?

My guess is if there was a gobbler in that same roosting area, you would have heard him about daybreak. If not then should have been able to fire him up with a shock call while they were still roosted or a few soft yelps once the hens hit the ground. If these hens are roosting in that same general area consistently, I'd be back in there often. My gut feeleing is that a gobbler will show up sooner or later.

Follow the hens they will lead you to the gobbler, he may have roosted farther off and is meeting the hens in the strutting area where you hear all the noise, gobblers don't gobble very much when strutting they are prob. following a hen around hoping to mate and probably matting, fighting, strutting. Gobblers mainly gobble to attract hens to them if the hens are already with him he may only gobble to call another hen to him if she calls. I found this to be true many many times. The hens make all the noise in the strutting area.
I would follow the hens then when you hear more hens use a locater call, you should get a gobble in return.

i agree with you

with rio's at least in kansas it is very common that hens and tom's roost apart and sometimes far apart like several hundred yards and then get together right after fly down. it is rare that if a tom is in the tree you can't get a noise out of him and sometimes ya can't shut him up, doesn't mean he is gonna come running though

cheers