Reluctant Gobblers
 

What are some tips you veteran turkey hunters have for luring in those very wary gobblers? I got a response from a gobbler 5 seconds after my first call this past weekend, but after an hour I still couldn't get him to approach. He stayed about 75 yards out and gobbled repeatedly only to leave the area after a four wheeler drove in[:@].


Any tips on decoys, slates, boxes, reed calls........or anything else?

RE: Reluctant Gobblers
 

Worked a gobbler for nearly 3 hours last Saturday. Finally we stopped calling for 10-15 minutes. The next time he gobbled he had moved. We resumed calling then. He rode home in my truck...
http://www.advanceddesignsinc.com/RN...%20Gallery.htm

RE: Reluctant Gobblers
 

Nice bird Hawgman...so you're saying that shutting up may be the thing to do?

RE: Reluctant Gobblers
 

I may try another call first then shut up if that doesn't work.

RE: Reluctant Gobblers
 

It seems like we have had similar experiences yet again Fred...the only difference is that my bird was located about 5 miles from your house...:). I was up at Bake Oven Knob on Saturday and finally had my first Tom gobble for me. The problem is that I just could not get him any closer than about 50 yards. At least I heard one this week. ;)

RE: Reluctant Gobblers
 

Excellent PABowhntr.......I think![:-]

We heard gobblers both days up on the Broad and my uncle bagged a dandy.......10 inch beard with 1 1/8" spurs. He's good with the mouth calls though, where my abilities with them are less than average.

RE: Reluctant Gobblers
 

Here is a little trick that worked for me and my cousin on 2 separate gobblers on Sat. You will need a partner (maybe your uncle could help). We had one answer us at 7:00 AM about 200 yds. from us in the woods. We closed the distance by about 75 yards and set up a tom decoy. I sat within 15 yards of the decoy and my cousin went back 20 yards behind me. I called again with the call that he had answered and got an immediated response. When it sounded like he was coming closer, I stopped calling and my cousin started doing some soft clucking behind me. Within about 10 minutes, I saw the gobbler sneaking through the woods toward me. To my surprise, he had a second gobbler with him. The gobbler that was answering the calls stepped into an opening at about 40 yds. He was searching the woods for the hen he thought was behind me. At that time, my cousin did some soft clucks again, and both turkeys saw the decoy. The one that was trailing ran toward the decoy and the original tom started strutting. The strutter made his way behind a fallen down tree, and I thought I may have blown my chance at him. But then at 20 yds I saw the white head pop up from behind the tree and I introduced him to a load of 3 1/2 inch #5s! Result: 18 pounds, 6 inch beard, 3/4 inch spurs.

The second gobbler answered us down over a ridge at about 9:30. We sat at the edge of the bench at the top of the ridge to see if we could convince him to come up. We called about every 5 minutes and he would answer and slowly seemed to be moving toward us. I went back 20 yards behind my cousin, and called from there. The tom kept answering and seemed to be slowly coming toward us. When he got to about 30 yds directly in front of my cousin but behind some laurel and fallen down trees, he and the longbeard buddy that was with him hung up, and he stopped answering me. I changed to a different sounding mouth call and he immediately answered me, but from the same location as I had last heard him. After trying to get him to come further, I decided it was now or never, and I moved back 30 yards further behind my cousin. I called again, and he answered. I waited about 5 minutes and called again, and when he answered this time they were both on the bench, but had circled to the right of my cousin and were coming looking for me. My cousin clucked softly 2 times and both toms stopped, looked in his direction, and walked right toward him. When his gun went off, I knew we had #2. Results: 20 pounds, 9 inch beard, 1 inch spurs. My cousin told me later that when I moved back 30 yards and called, the toms immediately came up over the ridge. Total time on the 2nd gobbler was about 2 hours!

Try it, it may work for you.

RE: Reluctant Gobblers
 

LOL Boxcall......that technique was just explained to me by my uncle last evening over a brew. He explained basically the same thing you just did and mentioned that the gobblers will start to get nervous and come in if they think the hot hen is going away from them. The key, he said, was to keep the shooter in the direct line between the turkey and the caller.

Now if I could just figure out how to produce the same effect by myself from a blind! I'd like to take one with the bow, but the lack of mobility inherent in blind hunting seems tough to overcome.

RE: Reluctant Gobblers
 

I found the best thing to do then is to just do soft clucks and purrs. Most of the time anyway. Either that or just be quiet. Once they are in 70 yards or so, and can been easily seen, I shut up. But I'd try clucks and purrs first.

RE: Reluctant Gobblers
 

Not knowing a thing other than the above, here's some general things I'd try:
- reposition and call from a different angle
- move towards him (if the terrain permits)
- try different calls
- move away from him

Hal