Newb question???

[Rob Allen]

World worst hunter here  and completely  new to turkeys. In fact I won't have my 20 guage til the 8th.

Yesterday I took my pot call out and went for a hike. I walked down a logging road and  "called"  every hundred yards or so.   On my 3rd or 4th stop I got a gobble. I estimate  a couple hundred yards away. We talked back and forth for 5 or 10 minutes.  Then after 5 minutes  of silence he gobbled again but seemed further away. So I moved towards  him and never heard another gobble.   It didn't occur to me till later that it could have been  two different  birds.
So my questions
1. Do turkeys pretty much just respond to calls at first light?

2. I hiked 4 hours and heard at most two birds, I probably  covered two miles out and back on different  paths. To me that seems like not too many  birds for such a large area. Though I was expecting none.  Maybe  find a better location? Or  stick with birds i know are there?
3.  Random thoughts?

Klickitat  county by the way.

[hunter399]

No expert here.
But if I had to guess.
I'd guess that Tom was with a group of hens.
And boned out with them.

Just a guess.

[Henrydog]

At sun up they always gobble, they are locating.  They will gobble most of the day when they need a girl.  I think he was hen'd up or saw you.  In another week or so they should be fired up

[cjjcb]

1. In my experience they are most vocal dawn and dusk but I have had them poppin off mid day as well. Just kind of depends where in the season the birds are at and if the toms have hens.

2. I've never hunted Klickitat so I'm not sure about bird density. I'd hunt the birds you find even if it's a 4 mile RT unless your comfortable you can find birds elsewhere.

3. The issue with henned Toms, as been discussed in other threads, is they typically don't leave live hens, so the trick would be to cater to the hens and have them lead the toms by you. A few years back I caught up with a tom, jake and 3 hens about 9:30 in the morning. There was a ton of gobbling but they were not leaving the hens. I was able to somehow get the hens interested in my excited yelps and they came to investigate, bringing the tom and jake within range. Got a double that morning both within 25 yards.

 Or you could try to circle around in front of their direction of travel and ambush 'em.

Just keep hammering and the pieces will slowly fall into place.

Good Luck.

[tracksoup]

How confident do you feel with your calling?
To get them to gobble is easy at certain times. Around my place they will gobble at at a car horn,door slam, even a loud sneeze.
Calling them in is another story.

[Rob Allen]

How confident do you feel with your calling?
To get them to gobble is easy at certain times. Around my place they will gobble at at a car horn,door slam, even a loud sneeze.
Calling them in is another story.

Not confident  at all.. yesterday  was my very first time. I bought a primos turkey starter kit it was a pot, a box and a mouth call.
I'll  try to go out a couple more times before I actually  go hunt

[Billy74]

One thing i might say is if you hear a gobble too far out don’t call as you are walking toward it.  You don’t want the tom thinking you are coming to him because he will just wait for you. 


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[Rob Allen]

One thing i might say is if you hear a gobble too far out don’t call as you are walking toward it.  You don’t want the tom thinking you are coming to him because he will just wait for you. 


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That totally makes sense  to me. My main goal for the day way to see if there were turkey in the area at all.
Just wish I would have bought a shotgun back in February.