To new to be confused yet... But I am.

[VTbowman]

I have been turkey hunting twice last spring with VTbowhunter and I can see now how spoiled I was. 2 jakes in 2 hours on 2 seperate mornings in a row. As soon as you could see 20 yards in fornt of you the birds were thundering even on the roost!

Heck this stuff is easy!

Yea right!

Ok so heres my question.

If you hear no gobbles, should you stick it out or move on until you hear something? Given there "should" be a reasonable amount of turkeys seen in the area.

I have 2 farms in can hunt, then my own 100 acres where I am just seeing turks as of last fall, and a few acres around the house where I have been seeing 2 hens almost everyday, and turkeys have been seen on all properties on numberous occasions.

However this morning, my very 1st time out by myself, I heard a very distance gobble to a crow that flew by at 5:30 am and nothing after that. I hung around and played with my calls, not a lot, but made a few and nothing responded, so long story short I went to ALL the properties I can hunt to try a raise a gobble with no success.

I am wondering now if I should just of stayed put at my 1st spot. The farmer says he has seen a bunch of them there, Luke and I saw 2 hens and Luke heard a bunch opening day but there was nothing today.

Was I to impatient or is moving a good thing?

I was hunting both field edges and wooded timber (long walks up 2 log roads.)

Thanks!

[Rhino]

Re: To new to be confused yet... But I am.

To me it depends on the weather. Birds down here tend to gobble a lot more when the barometer is high and it's mostly clear skys with little to no wind at daylight. If the weather is bad being overcast, windy or even rain gobbling activity will almost shut off completely down here. On windy days birds will not gobble much on the limb down here. When you think about a bird having to stretch out his neck to gobble on a limb that is swinging around in the breeze, it makes sense that he wouldn't risk falling off the limb before he can see the ground good. As you probably know, when they are gobbling on the ground the sound doesn't carry nearly as far as when they are gobbling on the roost.

You didn't mention the weather conditions but it sounds like they weren't in your favor. When faced with weather conditions that virtually shut down gobbling activity about all you can do is hunt where there is ample turkey sign and just hang in there with it. The sign lets you know there are birds in the area but they just aren't very vocal on those bad weather days. If you know of a strutting area that a bird is using, set up there and try to work and wait him out. If the weather conditions are right for gobbling and I don't hear birds, I'll move until I do.

[VermontHunter]

Re: To new to be confused yet... But I am.

Rhino, I can answer that for Shawn. The weather this morning and today was in the mid 60's and clear no wind to speak of....

Sunday when I went to this very spot Shawn mentioned the weather was over cast and mild, the Gobblers were sounding off big time, but wouldn't show themselves except for the one I had hung up with hens and wouldn't close the distance for me and I got busted when I got impatient.....

For some reason here in Vermont the Turkeys haven't been has vocal as they usually are this time of year....I'm also a rookie at this game so I'm just as lost as Shawn is....