I went out last Friday. I got to my field (half of which was flooded) and started setting up my hen decoy. About the time I had her set up, I had a gobble about 120 yards down the field line. On one side of the field is a river and on the other side is a steep hillside that flattens out into woods. He was roosted on the hillside. I called to him several times and he always responded back. When he flew down, he landed around 100 yards away from me, on a small hill in the middle of the field. When he landed he was already strutting. Shortly after he hit the ground there were three hens there with him. He swung around in a circle for around 5 minutes when I had a jake land about 10 yards from my hen. I moved my gun over to him and waited a couple of minutes. I use a slate call, so I couldn't call to the tom to bring him over and the jake ended up in my freezer. Saturday, the tom wasn't roosted in the same tree, or he at least never gobbled. I sat in the same spot but I used a tom decoy as well as the hen. I had a two hens land in the field at flydown, one landing only 12 yards from me. And a gobbler moved through the field but out of range later. We decided to move down the field and to put the decoys on the small hill in the field on Sunday. We quietly moved in and set the decoys up. I was situated at my tree when I heard the first gobble of the morning on 30 yards behind me to my left. I was worried about calling with him being that close. I didn't want to move at all and risk being seen. I figured the decoys would bring him right in so I just sit. When he flew down, he flew right over the field and across the river and off my property. In retrospect, I guess that I should have given a soft call to get him interested enough to land in my field. What suggestions do you have for killing this gobbler?
I always try to set up a little farther away from where they are roosted. Also, soft yelps before they fly down helps to get them interested in what is on your land. Keep in mind that a tom decoy, especially a strutting one, can intimidate some birds. But it can also make some angry
If he flew that far off the roost, I'm betting he saw you set up and was getting the heck outta Dodge... methinks calling wouldn't have done you any good anyway.
Thanks for the input, Greg. I don't think that he saw me or I don't believe that he would have been gobbling like he was. I set up around 150 yards from the river at most, so he really didn't fly that far. This is normal though. The gobblers strut on the other side of the river every day. Later in the day, they usually come back though. I just gotta hope that it is before 1:00.
