Turkey Troubles

[Shmeegs28]

Hey Yall,

I had a weird day in the Colorado turkey woods on Sunday, looking for a few tips on things I am doing wrong.

So I started the morning walking around a meadow with a few steep ridges coming off of it. Was a sort of scouting hunt to see if it was a good area. Turned out to be a dry hole so I moved to a new spot and got there around 7AM and saw a bunch of fresh tracks in the snow as soon as I got there. I ended up setting up on top of a small ridge right in front of a large open meadow. I threw a breeder Hen and a Jake decoy down in a a draw right beneath me where I saw a bunch of tracks moving through toward the meadow. From about 7:30 - 9:30 I heard about 5 different gobbles coming from the other side of the adjacent draw, about 80 yards away. I was using my mouth call and would respond every time with a loud yelp (something I have heard from a few Merriams guys). It seemed like these gobblers were running away from my call, I would hear them gobbling farther and farther away. I got impatient and started chasing them a bit and the same thing would happen, I would hear a gobble, some seemed as close as 30-40 yards away, I would throw a yelp out, and the next gobble was farther away. I never saw a turkey.

You guy have any tips on how to bring these birds toward me instead of chasing them away? Should I try staying quiet, maybe throw some soft clucks or yelps rather than loud ones?

 

[buckbull]

Hey Yall,

I had a weird day in the Colorado turkey woods on Sunday, looking for a few tips on things I am doing wrong.

So I started the morning walking around a meadow with a few steep ridges coming off of it. Was a sort of scouting hunt to see if it was a good area. Turned out to be a dry hole so I moved to a new spot and got there around 7AM and saw a bunch of fresh tracks in the snow as soon as I got there. I ended up setting up on top of a small ridge right in front of a large open meadow. I threw a breeder Hen and a Jake decoy down in a a draw right beneath me where I saw a bunch of tracks moving through toward the meadow. From about 7:30 - 9:30 I heard about 5 different gobbles coming from the other side of the adjacent draw, about 80 yards away. I was using my mouth call and would respond every time with a loud yelp (something I have heard from a few Merriams guys). It seemed like these gobblers were running away from my call, I would hear them gobbling farther and farther away. I got impatient and started chasing them a bit and the same thing would happen, I would hear a gobble, some seemed as close as 30-40 yards away, I would throw a yelp out, and the next gobble was farther away. I never saw a turkey.

You guy have any tips on how to bring these birds toward me instead of chasing them away? Should I try staying quiet, maybe throw some soft clucks or yelps rather than loud ones?

No advice but this sounds like my turkey hunts lol.

 

[Shmeegs28]

No advice but this sounds like my turkey hunts lol.

Glad Im not the only one who seems to enjoy going on hikes in the woods with a gun lol

 

[reallyoldman]

Slow and quiet works best for me. Very soft clucks and purrs. Patience.

 

[Shmeegs28]

Slow and quiet works best for me. Very soft clucks and purrs. Patience.

yeah, thats what I am leaning toward. Feels like Im being too loud and scaring them off

 

[reallyoldman]

yeah, thats what I am leaning toward. Feels like Im being too loud and scaring them off

Turkeys are the dumbest and yet the smartest birds. If they had a bears sense of smell we would hardly ever get one.

 

[Hem]

Humbling to get worked over by a bird with a brain the size of a pea.
The name of the game is never stick to one plan. The fun is changing strategy on the fly. New hunters have to put their time in experimenting. Eventually dots will connect. There is no short cut.
.....and still we get worked.

 

[longtail55]

Turkeys are the dumbest and yet the smartest birds. If they had a bears sense of smell we would hardly ever get one.

I say this same thing every year. The saying "patience kills more turkeys" than any turkey call is spot on. Ive had years like last year my son and I hunted for 2 hours and both filled tags and then ive gone 3 years without killing one. Bowhunting eastern turkeys is one of the more challenging things to do.

 

[Mudranger1]

lot of times IMO you are dealing with jakes or insubordinate birds...calling very sparingly if at all after letting them know you are there.... and being very, very patient...99% you will not get one to come back to you if you keep pushing. it can work if you can get out in front of them but that's a risk and guessing game. You are not dealing with tv star turkeys when you encounter this...meaning they are not coming in marching straight to your calls....

 

[wisconsinteacher]

Based on all the tracks, it sounds like a tom with hens. As they fed, he either shock gobbled or the hens drifted from him so he gobbled for them to return. When you called, the lead hen didn't like hearing the competition and walked away with the tom following her. I had this happen once and she took him away 3 times from me. On the last time he started gobbling and I got as close as possible, (60-70 yards). I called one time as soft as I could. 3 minutes later, he was 40 yards away and I shot him. As I stood up, there was a hen behind me coming into his gobble. I got lucky and got between the tom and hen.

 

[Nick87]

Humbling to get worked over by a bird with a brain the size of a pea.
The name of the game is never stick to one plan. The fun is changing strategy on the fly. New hunters have to put their time in experimenting. Eventually dots will connect. There is no short cut.
.....and still we get worked.

That's encouraging. On the learning curve myself. They're starting to get to me. Gonna be real satisfying taking ones head off.

 

[Shmeegs28]

lot of times IMO you are dealing with jakes or insubordinate birds...calling very sparingly if at all after letting them know you are there.... and being very, very patient...99% you will not get one to come back to you if you keep pushing. it can work if you can get out in front of them but that's a risk and guessing game. You are not dealing with tv star turkeys when you encounter this...meaning they are not coming in marching straight to your calls....

I have heard that you gotta "play hard to get" with these birds lol. I have seen a lotta guys give one good yelp then stay quiet and the bird comes in hard, but as you said, these are not TV star turkeys that come straight in haha!

 

[Shmeegs28]

Based on all the tracks, it sounds like a tom with hens. As they fed, he either shock gobbled or the hens drifted from him so he gobbled for them to return. When you called, the lead hen didn't like hearing the competition and walked away with the tom following her. I had this happen once and she took him away 3 times from me. On the last time he started gobbling and I got as close as possible, (60-70 yards). I called one time as soft as I could. 3 minutes later, he was 40 yards away and I shot him. As I stood up, there was a hen behind me coming into his gobble. I got lucky and got between the tom and hen.

Have you found a certain kind of call works best to get him interested? Did you just throw out a soft yelp?

 

[Shmeegs28]

Humbling to get worked over by a bird with a brain the size of a pea.
The name of the game is never stick to one plan. The fun is changing strategy on the fly. New hunters have to put their time in experimenting. Eventually dots will connect. There is no short cut.
.....and still we get worked.

It doesnt help when you watch youtube videos and every one you see is these Turkeys running to a call haha! I guess they dont show the birds that dont work the way they want them to!

 

[Pucky Freak]

Gobble gobble gobble
“Come to me, ladies”

A tom’s natural inclination is to get hens to come to him. To get a tom to come in to hen calls is to convince him to go against his nature. If there are other hens around already, he’ll hear or see them, and the fake hen (you) can join the party.

If you want to pull a tom off hens, try a strutting tom decoy and skip the calls.

 

[Shmeegs28]

Gobble gobble gobble
“Come to me, ladies”

A tom’s natural inclination is to get hens to come to him. To get a tom to come in to hen calls is to convince him to go against his nature. If there are other hens around already, he’ll hear or see them, and the fake hen (you) can join the party.

If you want to pull a tom off hens, try a strutting tom decoy and skip the calls.

I havent thought of that, ill have to give that a go!

 

[KingOfTagSoup]

Hey Yall,

I had a weird day in the Colorado turkey woods on Sunday, looking for a few tips on things I am doing wrong.

So I started the morning walking around a meadow with a few steep ridges coming off of it. Was a sort of scouting hunt to see if it was a good area. Turned out to be a dry hole so I moved to a new spot and got there around 7AM and saw a bunch of fresh tracks in the snow as soon as I got there. I ended up setting up on top of a small ridge right in front of a large open meadow. I threw a breeder Hen and a Jake decoy down in a a draw right beneath me where I saw a bunch of tracks moving through toward the meadow. From about 7:30 - 9:30 I heard about 5 different gobbles coming from the other side of the adjacent draw, about 80 yards away. I was using my mouth call and would respond every time with a loud yelp (something I have heard from a few Merriams guys). It seemed like these gobblers were running away from my call, I would hear them gobbling farther and farther away. I got impatient and started chasing them a bit and the same thing would happen, I would hear a gobble, some seemed as close as 30-40 yards away, I would throw a yelp out, and the next gobble was farther away. I never saw a turkey.

You guy have any tips on how to bring these birds toward me instead of chasing them away? Should I try staying quiet, maybe throw some soft clucks or yelps rather than loud ones?

Play hard to get. Don't call too loud too soon. If they answer, go quiet for several minutes. Oftentimes they will come looking for you. If you seem too eager they assume that you're going to come to them instead.

 

[bowhuntmontana]

I'll offer a different perspective, perhaps. I don't get too hung up on calling birds to me. I have had much better success getting to the places the birds want to be and then doing a very small amount of calling as they make their way to where they were going anyway, especially early in the day like that. In the areas I have hunted, I find that in the mornings they have places they want to be, they go there, do their gobbling, strutting, and breeding, and then the hens filter away to nest. Others have reported good success calling responsive gobblers later in the day but I haven't done enough of that to report, as almost all of my turkeys have been harvested in the above method pretty early in the morning.

Not sure if that helps, but figured it didn't hurt to offer some other experience. Keep after it. It will work out.

 

[TheTone]

I’ve been getting my butt absolutely kicked this year with no real answer as to why. I called in two Toms super easy pre season but in the days I’ve hunted haven’t had a bird inside 60 yards with almost no gobbles heard or responses to my calling. It does seem that pressure is up and public land bird numbers are down around me but that doesn’t account entirely for what I’m experiencing

I will add that I’m struggling some with my calling and can’t find mouth calls I seem to like. I’ve previously had great luck with Phelps but the consistency of them seems off in the last few I’ve bought

 

[Shmeegs28]

I'll offer a different perspective, perhaps. I don't get too hung up on calling birds to me. I have had much better success getting to the places the birds want to be and then doing a very small amount of calling as they make their way to where they were going anyway, especially early in the day like that. In the areas I have hunted, I find that in the mornings they have places they want to be, they go there, do their gobbling, strutting, and breeding, and then the hens filter away to nest. Others have reported good success calling responsive gobblers later in the day but I haven't done enough of that to report, as almost all of my turkeys have been harvested in the above method pretty early in the morning.

Not sure if that helps, but figured it didn't hurt to offer some other experience. Keep after it. It will work out.

Thanks for the info! If you dont mind my asking, how do you determine where they want to be? Is that just something you scout for a few days prior to hunting? I am still trying to find my own "honey holes" so a lot of my hunting is at new places I have never been prior to the day I show up to hunt. The one place I have scouted hard is about to open up to dirt bikes and 4-wheelers and once that happens it always pushes birds out of the area so I am looking for new ground