Hey you guys heading out for the last leg of the season LEAVE YOUR DECOYS HOME !

[BOWHUNTER45]

I just want to let everyone know that using a decoy this late in the season is useless.. the birds are way smarter now and it works best to call using clucks and purrs rather than yelping ..hens are not yelping right now and using clucks will kill turkeys at anytime ...iF a bird is staying in one particular spot try moving closer to him and if he still does not come pick a spot to call from make a couple clucks then start walking away clucking for about 30 to 50 yrds then turn around and head back to where you started from clucking .. not cutting  / single sharp clucks .. once you get back do not call for about 10 to 15 min. if all the sudden he gobbles without you calling this means he is coming , make a couple more soft clucks and get ready for him to appear.. This is my secrete I never share with anyone but I have killed many so go get em ... good luck !!!!   

[yelp]

I have used the single cluck trick myself..works awesome.  I tell other hunters that you rarely hear hens calling like a hunter at a calling contest..Tone it down and understand what you are saying.  The single cluck usually means two things..one where are you? and Here I am.  It is deadly! 

[turkeydancer]

A strutter decoy will work this late ....   

[BPturkeys]

...iF a bird is staying in one particular spot try moving closer to him and if he still does not come pick a spot to call from make a couple clucks then start walking away clucking for about 30 to 50 yrds then turn around and head back to where you started from clucking .. not cutting  / single sharp clucks .. once you get back do not call for about 10 to 15 min. if all the sudden he gobbles without you calling this means he is coming , make a couple more soft clucks and get ready for him to appear.. This is my secrete I never share with anyone but I have killed many so go get em ... good luck !!!!   

I have read this technique in many many books, so I guess tho no secret, it is a usable trick. I normally read where it is used with tough old tom's that hang up. Most writers suggest two hunters use this trick with the hunter farthest from the bird doing all the calling. Lots of variations of the method out there. It all boils down to out smarting a bird.

[Camp David]

Thanks for the tips. I have a tom working a ridge just up from the cabin. I'll try this on him tomorrow.

[BOWHUNTER45]

...iF a bird is staying in one particular spot try moving closer to him and if he still does not come pick a spot to call from make a couple clucks then start walking away clucking for about 30 to 50 yrds then turn around and head back to where you started from clucking .. not cutting  / single sharp clucks .. once you get back do not call for about 10 to 15 min. if all the sudden he gobbles without you calling this means he is coming , make a couple more soft clucks and get ready for him to appear.. This is my secrete I never share with anyone but I have killed many so go get em ... good luck !!!!   

I have read this technique in many many books, so I guess tho no secret, it is a usable trick. I normally read where it is used with tough old tom's that hang up. Most writers suggest two hunters use this trick with the hunter farthest from the bird doing all the calling. Lots of variations of the method out there. It all boils down to out smarting a bird.

  no doubt but have you ever heard anyone telling you about ( whit whits and do its ? )I kill way more turkeys with this call than any other ..and its so deadly no one on T.V or in a magizine tells you want this means ..

[rosscrazyelk]

Cluck Purr Yelp.  No wonder why I have trouble

[fishunt247]

I haven't posted all season; actually, I didn't even visit this site all season. While I agree with you that clucks are deadly, the idea that yelps, cuts, and decoys won't work late in the season isn't really true.

I killed my 2nd bird this year on May 21 at 7:30 am. That was after we yelped and clucked another longbeard in at 5:30 am that I missed. The bird I killed came in in a group of 3 longbeards. We yelped them in and they came to 20 yards from the decoy. (My sights got bumped, if anyone is wondering why I missed)

So, generalizations that "yelps and cuts and decoys" don't work in the late season isn't totally true. Birds are smarter then, sure, but they also are handicapped by no more girls around them every day.

[Battle Ready]

Strange! I've taken several toms across the country at the last few weeks of turkey season using deeks. Perhaps I'm lucky, or I'm doing something different.

Strange, the day I killed my tom...one week before the end of the season, 2 hens were yelping offf behind my set up, 2 toms gobbled off to my left and the one I shot gobbled 6 times on the way to the deeks.

I think most people realize that hunting shows are for intertainment, not for tips or rules on hunting. Contest calling is for contests.suttle calling is best, but from time to time you can and should crank em up.

Sometimes after the jakes have been whacked, the older birds are left and they tend to be a little more deek shy, but they too have a weakness.....all my hens are gone..and I'm still horny baby...that's when a little inticement works.

Oh, and sometimes gobblers gobble by themselves and they are NOT coming...but its just best to stay put and find out.

[packmule]

I was glad to see these last two posts resurface on this topic.  I agree with your observations that decoys work well late in the season. . . I've actually come to rely on them more late in the season than I do early in the year.  I've noticed that mature gobblers approaching a caller late in the year will get nervous and leave if they don't see a hen as soon as they think they should.  For that reason I keep a decoy handy during the late season and feel that it has really helped my success during that time of the year. 

[BOWHUNTER45]

Well i guess I am speechless..I always take more birds at the end of the season with no decoys .. after watching a few birds come in gobbling like mad and once seeing the decoys they dropped their sheet and ran off .. I use decoys alot in the first part of the season and do well but later in the season I have way better luck calling and letting them come and look for me and for the last 15 yrs I have always did serious damage to the gobbler population .. and another thing when I go turkey hunting I have at least 5 friends I need to deal with and to always produce may just be luck ... But if you hunt private land that could make a huge difference on how much pressure they had and how they might react to a decoy ...I really cant say I hear to many guys producing birds late in the season and I know you best be good at the game late in the season exspecially if you hunt public land ... which this season we took all our birds the last 5 days of the season and all on public land .. when I am hunting back east I never use a decoy because it works better if the bird comes lookin for ya and I have always used this method to kill long beards... but I am glad that you guys do well late in the season with decoys and do not change your method if it is producing long beards ....peace !!!

[Tom Tamer]

Just got to remember , they're turkeys and don't think like we do. I've seen loud calling work in the late season just as much as soft calling and that's on public land. The Deke thing I think has more to do with whether a turkey is tired of either coming to a hen only to get his butt kicked or I even seen hens shy away probably they get weary of the whole hierarchy dilema during the spring. I've also seen dekes pull them right in during the last week or two. Don't be afraid to try any tactic at anytime. I love May hunting.Less people,warmer weather and I personally don't buy into hunter kick to many hens fromtheir nest, unless it got trampled I bet the hen returns, they come off incubating for about an hour a day anyway to eat and poop. So a hunter bumping a nested hen probably starts that sequence. Plus how many people actually trample down through the thicker brush where a nest may be. IMO.

[turkeydancer]

 
When it comes to turkey hunting rules and absolutes, number one is there are no rules and absolutes.
 

[Battle Ready]

Trukeydancer..took the words out of my mouth.


To the begging turkey hunter..this is for you.Ive always wanted to write this down, and now it looks like I should.

 Its usually pretty easy to identifly the 12-bird expert and the true vetrans..Here are the signs.

INEXPERIENCED: rushes into each encounter with a turkey like its a life or death matter

VETERAN: Takes time to make the many decisions that need to be made during almost every encounter with a turkey.

INEXPERIENCED: Reacts almost instantly when a turkey gobbles, and often does something that later proves fatal to the game plan, but not the turkey.

Veteran: Knows there is a little more time than mere human instincts reveal, and tries to think a game plan through before implementing it.

INEXPERIENCED:In a group of hunters, this is the person who is usually the one who offers the most set-in-stone advice about how to deal with a given hunting situation. Advice is often on-demensional, with no "plan B".

VETERAN: Rarely talks in absolutes. Knows that every turkey-hunting situation is unique, and that nothing works all the time. Rarely volunteers opinions on particualr hunt solutions, but when asked, usually offers two or three possible strategies to try that might work.
INExPERIENCED: thinks they can succssfully deal with any given hunt scenario

VETERAN: Knows without a doubt they cant deal with any give hunt scenarion.

Call it whatever you want but true confidence is the sign of a good turkey hunter, and if you dont have it you can get it until you have earned it. And you cannot earn it unless you get out there and swing the bat. YOU WILL STRIKE OUT< AND YOU WILL MAKE HOME RUNS. Make your decisions based on the best available information. Live with your mistakes, and learn from them...its never-ending....The true experts know this better than anyone.


 Here is a couple of people that gave some info on this very subject in a Turkey Call mag from september/october 2007,

If which I know some personally,
Harold Knight is a legend in the field of turkey hunting. When condiditons are tough, knight like to challenge a long beards dominace and hit a jealous nerve by setting out a gobbler decoy, and submissive hen in an area with high visiblity. "this deadly strategy coupled with change-up calling can be all it takes to turn up the heat on a tough late in the season day. Setting pretty boy along field edges, loging decks or open bottoms will bring a veran longbeard in on a run during days when you cannot buy a gobble.

Michael Waddell : "i like to hunt agressively, but if a longbeard is acting insecure around calls, its time to change tactics."During those situations, I will go soft and subltle with short two syllable yelps combined with a series of cantent clucks. Give these tactics with a decoy set up and its majic.

Im not gonna get into a contest of abilities with anyone. I would say be very careful with trying to talk down others or to talk up your abilities, cause you dont really know sometimes who your trying to match up to. No need for embarassment..that other persons credientials could put you in your place...lol

[BOWHUNTER45]

That was good .. I must say Will Primos and Bob Dixson were the two who I have envied over the years ...I remember back in the 80's when Primos started I bought all the videos they produced and watched them at least 100x over practicing with a diaphram mastering every call I could and I still today practice all year along to make sure my calling skills stay sharp ...Same with my two boys ... when we are in the woods together and all 3 of us are calling I guarantee the hair on your neck will stand up ... the first few days of the season we call very load and try sounding like a flock of excited hens and usually the hen with the gobbler will end up in a pi$$ing match with us and then she will have to come and see who is making all the noise and hopefully mister big is right rehind her.. we all have our ways of killing turkeys but I am going to say one thing and this is my own opinion ... If I can not call the bird to me I will not kill one any other way ... we do not blow them off the limbs - we do not blow them off the road and we do not shoot them in someones yard ... the only reason I bring this up is because I see way to much of this going on every year ... A serious turkey hunter has his own ethical way of hunting them and thats the way I run....