cj5

i was seated early this morning in between two toms gobbling their heads off and a hen in the roost about 100 yrds in front of me. well the hen flies down and goes her way, one of the toms goes and does his own thing and the other is interested in my loving but horny hen calling and seems to be making his way to me. at last i see his blueish white head peeking over the hill, he sees my decoys and struts and drumms a little, then proceedes to circle around my decoys out of range then just walks off into the woods.now this bird was a nice mature tom and didnt seem to be spooked or nervous, why would he not atleast try to run off the jake ( decoy ) that was with the hen decoy? i sat there in total disblieve, this bird was interested enuff to come to the calling but didnt want to play when he got there!![:@] whats the deal? any tips or suggestions on why he did this dastardly thing to me?

CJW

I'm no expert, but if the tom was mature he probably saw it in his best interest not to deal with the jake. Mature birds are usually more careful and won't put themselves in danger if they don't have to. I've seen 2 or 3 jakes run off a tom because they're more aggressive.

I'm sure someone can add something.

FWIW
CJW

JW

Simple.........had the same thing happen seveal times with a Jake decoy.

Even though he was a good looking mature Tom he is not a dominat bird. He has had his butt whipped.

Take out that Jake decoy.

JW

sour01

As a last resort the other day---I used a Jake gobble (private land). The gobbler was 150-200 yards away in the midst of about 8 hens. When I used the shaker gobbler---he folded up and beat feet. Obviously not a dominate bird.

VP

I feel the same way,,, I dont ever use a Jake decoy. Some people do quite successfully but I've seen to many birds come to a complete stop turn and move in the oppisite direction after seeing a Jake Decoy,,, It's definately a dominance thing,,,,
I watched in Tx this year a nice Two yr old bird come down a hill to us , we had a couple of hens and two Jakes on us,, the Jakes saw the mature bird coming and took off after em- He tried fighting off for about 15 mins but ended up given in and taking off the way he had come.

Thickbeard

On opening morning my buddy and I had 3 hen decoys and a strutting jake decoy out in the field. We called in 4 longbeards into the field. They were about 70 yards away from us when they entered the field and saw our decoys. The dominant bird was strutting and gobbling but they seemed afraid to come to our decoys. I think the strutting jake made them a little nervous. We used soft yelps and clucks to calm them down and let them know they were welcome. They came on in to the decoys and we doubled.

ALESN87

i read an article in my turkey call mag i think that was the name of it that an older tom might not come to the hen decoys if he sees a jake because he knows he would get easily hurt and doesnt want that to happen....it said something like that anyway

cj5

thanks for the input fellas, i was just curious as to what the deal was cuz i was set up in the same spot a couple weeks ago with my son on his first hunt and we called in a tom that had no problem coming in and kicking that jakes a$$. so i just couldnt believe what had happen to me.. thanks




turkeys! just when you think you`ve got it all figured out