After our VERY brief encounter of having a big ol' gobbler working our set this past Thursday morning, I decided I could get used to that... Went to our local hardware store this afternoon to buy some more dandelion killer and grass seed. Walked past the hunting section, and they had their Jake-mobiles marked down to $34 and the swinging hens down to $24... grabbed both of them to complete my set. Both of those will accompany the HS Strut hen I bought a couple weeks ago. I'm not sure what spooked the gobbler that morning: my horrid calling, us peeking constantly out of a little hole to look at him, or the horses that approached us ... but I also had a little inkling that he expected my lone hen deke to come to HIM instead of vice versa. My way of thinking is that if there was a jake holding court by himself to a couple hens, he'd be inclined to come in to kick his butt and win the ladies. Who knows... makes sense to me. That swinging hen is pretty neat, by the way; her head moves on the SLIGHTEST breeze. I may even get a couple black eye bolts to put in the ground in front of her and the jake and run fishing line to them so I can move them from inside the blind if something is hanging up and won't commit.
Greg, I'm several credit hours from even my Associate's Degree in this field, but I agree with you 100%. 1. It is completely unnatural for the gobbler to come to the hen. I see it all the time. Hens walking to a gobbling bird. So I suspect your lone hen theory is spot on. 2. Everything I've ever read about turkey hunting says that the Easters are by far the most uncooperative and difficult to call in. So I am betting that unnatural tendancy is even even more difficult to get around. So any advantage helps. A Jake is likely something I'll be adding to my arsenal as well.
...or it also could have been the decoy that spooked him. I've played this game enough that I now hunt without decoys 75% of the time, then again, sometimes they are key! Too many times I have had birds see the decoys and scram or see the decoys and then immediately hang up. Thats what happened this year as a Tom was coming in nicely, saw the decoys, hung up and then left, last year one ran to the dekes. I'll never figure out how a bird with a brain the size of a peanut, can be so darn hard to figure out.
I'd say that about 90% of the time that a bird spooks off it's because he saw something move that he didn't like. You can't be fidgeting around in the window of the blind. I've never had much success with decoys but I am very successful at not being seen. Make that your focus and you're going to kill turkeys.
I feel the same way. I hunt 100% of the time without decoys. I want that gobbler to be curious at to where she's hiding not hang up at 60yds because he can see a decoy. I dont hunt with a blind though more run and gun. I called in two long beards yesterday, one at 34 yds at around 7:30am and one at 34yds around 10:30. Both resulted in my nephew missing, aaahhhhh! We had fun though.
Good luck Greg, hope you bag a biggun! I didn't put in for a permit until it was too late and didn't get drawn.
Wow, how lucky was this? This doesn't happen too often -- to me, at least. I bought the Jake-mobile yesterday, and today at church one of my buddies told me he killed a nice jake yesterday. On the way home, I called his cell on a whim. Told him I knew it was a shot in the dark, and figured he'd kept the fan to mount (he's pretty new to hunting, so figured he'd want the memoribilia...). Turns out his whole fan was intact and he'd simply tossed it in the trash. I picked up a fan holder, and my oldest boy and I took about an hour tonight cleaning the feathers off and hot-gluing the secondary feathers to the fan and my new jake decoy looks freakin' AWESOME now. AND... my next-door neighbor was able to sew up the pockets to the rods back on my blind for me where the horses kicked them loose. I'm all ready to go in the morning now!! :D
Greg, I used my Killer B decoy and two hen setup this weekend. I called in two jakes and neither committed all the way. I totally think the fake tom's big fan pushes them away. Last weekend I had a jake come into a lone hen. He stood there starring at the plastic hen. At five feet away from the blind, I could read his mind. He was thinking, "Man, not the blow up doll again!". I laughed my hinny off! Be careful, calling gobblers can be addictive as calling bull elk! Have fun!
Thanks, Will. Precisely why I went with the Jake-mobile instead of the B-mobile... if I were anywhere near kindergarten level in turkey hunting, I may want to shun jakes and not care if they wouldn't commit to my setup -- but I'm thinking by having the Jake-mobile and the jake fan on it, I'll call in BOTH jakes who aren't afraid of getting their butts kicked and gobblers who want to do some butt-kicking!
Nice to see the excitement in your posts Greg! That's what it's all about. Best of luck in the morning!!
This year the gobblers haven't been coming to B-mobile like they did last year. Last season we had a couple come up and beat the decoy like it was insulting their mothers. I put a jake fan on my B-mobile, and that has helped some, but I think we are gonna leave him at home for a while and just use hens.
Almost pulled a Hunsucker this morning! Had a huge bearded hen come in this morning and closed to around 50 yards, but wouldn't come any further... First bearded hen I've ever seen, at least 8" long, and thick. Had to look hard through the binos with that huge rope hanging from her chest but it was definitely a hen head.
