Talkin' Turkey

[Matchthedeerslayer]

Every year I go turkey hunting I get skunked. I can call like no tomorrow and i know where they are. Its just they never seem to come into my calls or decoy set ups. Can anyone help???

[dartonman]

Ill give you what I have learned in my 10 years of chasin them....less calling, wait for a commitment gobble....here is the scenario....you call, you get a gobble....you call again....if this is the case, then please read this. When you call...they gobble....do not call again, until you hear a SECOND gobble...when you can hear the gobbles getting closer, change the tone of your calling...such as soft feeding purrs.....this helps., and make sure all your items are camo'd in, and hide well, and sit still. If you need to talk on the phone, Ill be glad to help., just pm me, and Ill send my number to you...I hope this helps. Patience pays off alot...when a gobbler has a girl with him, dont fret, that hen will leave him to tend her nest mid morning...around 930am, all the boys are lonely...best time to call em.....in fact, if safe not to get stalked by another hunter, buy a gobble call....it works., find the strutting areas prior to season....and just watch birds before your season...but dont over call....if you call, and they gobble....wait....if their showing any interest, they will let you know by the second gobble that they are on their way....al

[Matchthedeerslayer]

Thanks. Ill have to wiat longer between calls now I guess. LOL. I hope I finally get one.

[WHISKEYSWAMP]

also try going without decoys... I've had better luck without them. It seams to keep the gobblers looking for where the calls were coming from rather than hang up once they see the decoys.

[Rhino]

Good woodsmanship skills is probably the most important asset for a turkey hunter. Knowing where they are is a good start. Knowing the tendencies of where those birds tend to go is the next step. As you began to pattern those tendencies you must adjust your sets to get in between where they are and where they tend to want to go.

Real hens call sparingly compared to the average turkey hunter. They are more vocal early in the morning than any other time of the day. That's when I hear the majority of their louder talk including cutting, yelping, etc. However the vast majority of their calling is nothing more than soft clucks and purrs. You might try toning down your hen talk to try to sound more like real hens. Now if you get a response from a gobbler you can sure deliver some more excited hen talk especially if he gets fired up. If his temperature is hot get hot but when you feel like he's coming there's no need to risk calling anymore unless he hangs up. If he hangs up soft clucking and purring along with some leaf scratching may give him the "all's safe" feeling. In addtion to that comes the use of gobble calls.

I'm probably one of a very small minority of turkey hunters that considers a gobble call a "must have" call in my arsenal of turkey calls. Although I would never use one on public land I won't hesitate to use one on private land. Gobble calls can make the difference in getting old three toes to come into range but it is a risk reward type of call. The risk part is the bird may not want to risk competing with an unknown gobber in the pecking order. If that's the case he may leave. If your gobbling calls in his hen(s) though he may hang back and follow them in (my 2nd kill situation this season). The other side is he may want to come whip the intruder that's potentially taking away or at least short stopping receptive hens (my 3rd kill situation this season). The same concept is why hunters use jake and/or gobbler decoys like the B Mobile. It doesn't make sense to me that a hunter would use those decoys and not have a gobble call to go with them. Also, there are times, especially in the early part of the season when gobblers are grouped up and actually look to gather up with other gobblers. Obviously I've had this happen too.

As far as decoy sets go I primarily hunt wooded areas and sparingly hunt field edges. I rarely ever use decoys. Mater of fact the last time I used any was on a Texas Rio hunt back in the spring of 2006. Even that instance was nowhere close to the conventional use of decoys. That's another story though. My attitude about decoys is they can be useful if you're sitting in a blind on the edge of a field. However, they can be a risk reward hunter tool too. Birds can become shy to decoys. When they do they certainly have the opposite effect you want. Now that's just my personal opinion but I'm sure there are many hunters in here that feel decoys are a must have item in their arsenal of turkey hunting tools.

Edited April 8, 2009 by Rhino

[Matchthedeerslayer]

Thanks for the advice ill give this a try.