Will birds return when....
 

they are fired upon? I was hunting with my son yesterday and he shot a nice Tom who was with two other jakes and about 6 hens. The questions:....How long before those turkey return to that field. Should I hunt the same field a few hours later? And was it suprising that all the other turkey ran away rather than fly? .....Thanks

RE: Will birds return when....
 

I have noticed that when I shoot in the evening the next morning is the best time to take a friend because I know we will be in the birds. Those birds get split up and now they dont know where each other is roosted at so when you slip in there they will come runnin. If you did it in the morning then they will come back that afternoon just move your setup so you aint callin from the same spot you may get new birds to come in as well.

RE: Will birds return when....
 

Generally they will come back shortly. Not always though. But most of the time they will come back. They can sometimes be harder to call in though.

RE: Will birds return when....
 

Jimmy,

The answer to your particular question is more than yes/no.

With that number of hens, I would suspect that there will be a few other full grown gobblers lurking in the shadows. Hence, with the king dead (your son bagged one, congrats), those satellite toms will now start establishing dominance. They'll be gobbling hard when they no longer hear him gobble, trying to grab his harem---and 6 hens is a good sized harem anywhere in the country.

So to answer your question in a roundabout way...I think those birds will not be too spooked. Loud noises will typically trigger shock gobbles or the flight response, which is why they ran. So they can be called in again, but the satellites will now try to round up those birds.

As an FYI: turkeys are very inefficient flyers. They can fly up to 40+mph, but only for short distances, with a great expenditure of energy. They can run up to 25mph, so if they have an unidentified "threat", they will almost always (99%) run---rather than fly---from the danger. That's why they ran...

RE: Will birds return when....
 

That also depends upon what brought them to your area. If it's an established turkey strut zone they will be back when a hen is around. If it's a travel corridor then they will be back the next day. If it's just a random piece of land they might be gone for a week or two.
That's just my thoughts on the matter.

RE: Will birds return when....
 

i shot mine and walkin out there were 5 more 100 feet behind us coming in! should of shot but saven them for tommrow

RE: Will birds return when....
 

Thanks to all, the info was very helpful.....Good Luck this spring....

RE: Will birds return when....
 

Just to add a quick two cents to this...

Many people tend to give turkeys a bit more credit than they deserve when it comes to intelligence. Turkeys both see and hear well, but they aren't human. They can't add two and two together like we can. If they hear a shot that spooks them off they'll usually run off and if you call again in 45 minutes - an hour later you can generall get them to come back in. I've been out and shot one tom and heard another in the distance and was able to call that one in for my father without ever going out to retrieve my downed bird.

RE: Will birds return when....
 

After I shot my very first turkey years ago, I went over to grab him (four other gobblers were with him and all had flown off at my shot). About 2 or 3 minutes later, a gobbler sounded off about 60 yards away.

A friend of mine killed two one morning. He picked up number one and another one gobbled nearby. He went right back to the same set up and killed the 2nd one minutes later.

Your chances are very good.