I live and hunt in Southwestern Wisconsin, which is pretty much the turkey mecca, it is where they were first reintroduced in the late 70's and is where they have made their home since then and are extremely abundant. I hunted second period, 3rd period and Last Saturday and Sunday. Second period was a total bust, not a single gobble heard after flydown time and I put in a good 30 hours in 3 days. Several spots private and public, I never had even an incling of an opportunity. Period three was my brothers season. Had birds right off the roost within 50 yards, never saw them and they gobbled to us for a good 2 hours and slowly made their way away from us. Came back later in the morning and made it within a hundred yards and still nothing. Saturday evening of period three we had a tom come in at 5 pm. He was at 60 yards and walk by, stood behind some brush, walked back the way he came. I yelped, he strutted, did the wing flip thing and walked right back into the woods. Then proceeded to gobble five or six times at us when I called. We were sitting in a blind at this point in time so there is no way he saw us, I had one hen decoy out.
Finally this past weekend, I hunted the same spot as I did with my brother, with him we sat in the draw and this weekend I sat above the draw just out of the woods. I set up, sat in my lounger and wasn't sitting more than 30 seconds and a tom fired off no more than 50 yards into the wood. I heard hens, I heard him, he responded to my slate and mouth call. I heard him fly down, he continued to gobble. I didn't like my position so I moved a little, he was still gobbling. I still didn't like my position so I moved one more time. After this move, he quit gobbling back at me but I could here him spitting and drumming in the woods that is how close he was, I could not get him to come out. It seemed like this all season long that I could not get these birds to come out of the woods toward me. I am chalking it up to not finding the bird in the right mood (or very wary only going with the hens that come to him). I felt like a failure, wondering what am I doing wrong. I would prefer to just chalk it up to bad luck. Anybody have any thoughts on what maybe would change the outcome in these situations?

I have never hunted birds in Wisconsin but if it can beat Kentucky in numbers I'm all ears. I surprisingly had great success in Pa this year few birds but the few I found responded to calls amazingly well.

As for your situation sounds to me like birds with hens in some instances and possibly just not where they wanted to be in others. I killed every turkey this year after 8 am and all but 1 after 930. Its great to hear them on the roost but this season particularly in Pa I think I heard two birds in almost a week and a half in a tree but was part of 5 kills in 7 hunts all later in the morning. I would try going out to these areas at 830-9 and hunting until 12-1 you may hear less birds but the 1 you hear you can often call in.

Doesn't sound like you did anything wrong, sometimes this boils down to pure luck.

I hunted out-of-state in early April, and killed 6 birds in 7 days. I hunted the first 5 days of the NY opener, and didn't come close to calling one in, and I've hunted 4 long days here in PA without even hearing or seeing a bird.

I'm convinced that sometimes this all just boils down to fate, good or bad. I wouldn't lose much sleep over it, just keep at it, next year might just be your year to shine.

I am a long time Wisconsin turkey hunter........I am finding Toms will spend very little to no time in the fields much at all. I have seen them come full out of strutt and duck or lay down as they hear the sound of any vehicle approaching their location. That goes for hens too.
I have witnessed in other parts of Wisconsin where upon even hearing a vehicle approach they actually run out of the field!
So I changed my hunting tactics.......I stay away from roads as much as possible.....and I hunt woods more than ever.....
Just some food for thought....
JW

JW, you are correct. Although I mixed up my hunting areas. most were in the open they weren't necessarily fields but orchards and pastures . I did sit in the woods for quite a few hours but never got into the woods at daybreak. I am a long way from roads so I don't think that impacted the situations at all. I agree though in all my hunting I never saw a tom walk out into a field. But I had one come right to me last year in a field, one of the same spots I hunted this year. They just seemed to be much more belligerent and unwilling to come to a call.

It is the same way where I have been hunting up here. It is a power line and a natural gas pipeline that makes the field. This runs for a solid 83 miles. People driving it looking for birds or heading out to a camp/fishing what have you. So I have a place where the road is a long ways away for one of my hunting spots. The other place is the side of a mountain where you can see the road a long ways down. The birds feel safe in either place. Besides it is no fun to have a bird come out for you only to have a passerby come along and either shoot it or scare it on you. Sometimes I think the birds are smarter than some of us realize.

Same thing here in Ontario I can hear them but they aren't coming out to play as much maybe it is the weather it has been a old fashion cool spring here?