Turkey Hunting
Hung Up Gobbler, Favorite Call
4/9/13 @ 9:21 PM
I have been hunting turkeys for 3 years now and have the hardest time getting gobblers into range. Every morning I go out I can get a group of birds to respond and come in but the birds always seem to hang up at around 70 or 80 yards. I don't know if I am calling too loud or too aggressively but I can never get the gobblers to commit into my hen and jake decoys. Just wondering if anyone has any tips or special calling techniques to help. Thanks, Ryan
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Best thing you can do...is call a couple times enough to get him to respond, so he recognizes where you are at and then shut up. Turkeys are actually fairly smart where they can just about pinpoint the tree you are calling from. Make him get curious and come to you, calling more only tells the boy to stay where he is as in turkey world hens go to the toms, so turkey hunting is about reversing nature.
-side note, if he doesn't come in and walks away with some hens. Stay put for 2-3 hours he will remember where you were at and many times after he is done breeding will come looking for you. Mistake I see so many guys make they don't get them off the roost and they go home....patience, I'd say 3 of every 4 birds I shoot is around that 9-11 a.m. when toms are looking for hens again.
Good Luck Hunting
Leave the decoys at home. It's rare that a tom will come in to a bunch of birds that are not moving and staring in one direction for several minutes. I almost always use yelps, purrs and clucks to bring the hens in and the Tom usually follows behind and gets close enough for a shot. Another good idea is to bring a buddy and keep him 50-80 yards behind you and calling for you. A lot of the time the birds will walk right past you going to the yelps purrs and clucks that your buddy is making. I always find that calling to birds when they are 80-125 yards away will bring them in and then I shut up under that distance. However, I will say that if you are having a hard time calling in hung up birds, just go to them!! I kill 95% of my birds on the stalk slithering through cover and along fencelines. I hate sitting in blinds...it's usually boring unless you are absolutely surrounded by birds and they are on fire that day. DOC
Yesterday I called mine from about 250 yards, he was all alone and still would not call back to me although I knew that he heard it.
I had to just shut up and watch him feed for about 10 minutes until he got just about out of sight at the peak of a hill and I raised my call as high as I could and letr rip with a good cut as loud as possible. That got his attention and turned him around and got him looking and he gobbled once. From there I just let his curiosity kill him as we just kept looking and walking and came about 30 yards closer then stopped for a few minutes. One more good cut and a gobble shake and he was coming hard to see what the deal was. At about 75 yards I gave a soft pur to change his direction just a bit as his angle was only gonna get him to 40 yards, he finally saw my full strutter and solo hen and he puffed up and walked right at them and it was all over.
When I first saw him I figured solo bird an hour after fly down(he was gobbling his head off earlier but showed up silent)this will be easy. I called about 5 times in 10 minutes and he never gobbled and actually started to walk away, so as hard as it was to sit on the call I had to.
I would try setting up in the woods and using cover and terrain to make him come closer to see the hen you are attempting to be. You can also take a chance, and after he answers your last call and is coming in, but still out of sight, move about 40 yards closer and do not call again, ambushing him on his was to your last calling location.........................
the whole point of a gobbler struttin is to get a hen to come to him. if he sees your hen decoy, and hangs up struttin, that means he is waitin for the hen to come to him. ditch the decoy and call him good n loud. when he shows up lookin to find a hen quiet it down to real soft calls and dont over do it. make him think the hen is going away. then just hope he comes lookin for her. worked for me yesterday
Lose the decoys and stop calling after you have determined they aremt getting closer.
If you can see him, don't call when he is walking your way...that will often make him stop and strut. If he /they hang up and just sit and gobble or strut, don't make another sound....they normally come looking or at least move somewhere, breaking him of his trance (for lack of better word) . This works MUCH better without decoys, makes him think the "hen " has walked away from him.
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