My oldest brother and I went for the opener today. We heard 22 different birds and set up once. The issue is seems to be....for every gobbler there is 4-5 hens! man they gobble 2-3 times and shut up never to be heard from again...it's awesome to hear that many birds every week, but frustrating to have them not come in!!! oh well, it's still a great time to be in the woods.
I don't have to kill one to have a great hunt, but I would like to work one for a bit before he hooks up with a hen..but when he has 25 hens already waiting for him when hits the ground it's tough to beat those girls!!! Something else, all of them seem to quit gobbling at 8 am on the dot...and they never say another word for the rest of the morning...????
Good luck Landon! I hope to get out for a couple of hours on Tues/Wed to hunt from 10am-noon. I have no idea what I am doing in the turkey woods, but I just love to be out in the woods so I am going for it!
The same exact thing happened here in NC. We heard them when they came off there roost and they came in about 50 yards but never showed themselves...by 7:30 they shut up. I had a hen come in on my decoys but that's about it. Well tomorrow is another day. Hopefully it will be warmer than yesterday.
You might try calling to the head hen using a "kee-kee" call. Her motherly instincts might take over and help out the juvenile hen. Also, you can come back later in the day if at all possible after the hens leave to lay eggs or tend to their nest. Gobblers get to be a bit lonely mid day and might respond better.
We stayed out there all day...except to leave for lunch for 30 minutes. Over here in NC we did have a cold front move through so that didn't help. That hen that came in on my decys was around 4 or 4:30 PM. We used so many different calls...they just weren't moving like usual. We only heard one shot yesterday out of the 10 people that were hunting the area.
when the toms are hen'ed up i call very little and then with mostly clucks, most birds will roost in the same location and will travel from the roost trees in the same general direction every morning you just need to be where they want to go sounds easy huh? well the more you call they hens will lead the toms away from you... so just very light clucks from time to time will help. I have good luck from 10-12 am after the first round of that days mating.back in the same area the birds came down from roost, Also try a fighting purr call with a hen decoy in a field setup last year i had the dom hen run across a field after a two hour battle of trying to call the tom away from her, he followed and i let the air out of him with my 12 ga 3 1/2 '' This is more of a hail marry last chance call but if your going to have to move anyway or go home it works for me. best of luck.
