Hunting Washington Forum

Other Hunting => Turkey Hunting => Topic started by: birddogdad on May 06, 2021, 10:10:10 AM

Title: are the Toms getting vocal?
Post by: birddogdad on May 06, 2021, 10:10:10 AM: haven't been out in 2 weeks. Were hen'd up and mostly quiet after 8am or so up until then. anyone hearing more toms calling thru the day yet? just curious if we are phasing into nesting?
Title: Re: are the Toms getting vocal?
Post by: baldopepper on May 06, 2021, 10:25:21 AM: Still pretty quiet around me but seeing a lot of lone hens sneaking out and then popping back into cover as if they are on a nest. Been watching a big tom on the field behind the house and he's all alone but not responding to a call. Still plenty of birds around, took a short drive this morning and saw several but all of them were still with hens.
Title: Re: are the Toms getting vocal?
Post by: 270Shooter on May 06, 2021, 12:37:18 PM: I think generally they are still kind of henned up, at least the ones I’ve been around. Several different gobblers are still with hens what seems like all day.
Title: Re: are the Toms getting vocal?
Post by: birddogdad on May 12, 2021, 07:04:20 AM: well, another weekend with only gobbling on the roost.. going over to Idaho next weekend and see whats up there! hope to shake a couple out of the trees!
Title: Re: are the Toms getting vocal?
Post by: Karl Blanchard on May 12, 2021, 07:12:18 AM: For those that aren't hearing gobbles during they day, how much are you moving and what are you using to induce a gobble?
Title: Re: are the Toms getting vocal?
Post by: jstone on May 12, 2021, 07:17:23 AM: What is the best sound to get the gobble?
Crow?
Title: Re: are the Toms getting vocal?
Post by: Karl Blanchard on May 12, 2021, 07:23:25 AM: Quote from: jstone on May 12, 2021, 07:17:23 AM
What is the best sound to get the gobble?
Crow?
My opinion here but hen calls. Locators work well on roasted birds but not so awesome during the day. And if they do shock gobble off your crow call, they may not be in the right mood. A tom that answers a box call is a tom that is at least somewhat in the mood. Covering terrain is also important. If you don't have a willing participant in your vicinity, you aren't gonna be hearing gobbles. Go find an active bird :twocents:
Title: Re: are the Toms getting vocal?
Post by: JKEEN33 on May 12, 2021, 10:21:38 AM: Quote from: Karl Blanchard on May 12, 2021, 07:23:25 AM
Quote from: jstone on May 12, 2021, 07:17:23 AM
What is the best sound to get the gobble?
Crow?
My opinion here but hen calls. Locators work well on roasted birds but not so awesome during the day. And if they do shock gobble off your crow call, they may not be in the right mood. A tom that answers a box call is a tom that is at least somewhat in the mood. Covering terrain is also important. If you don't have a willing participant in your vicinity, you aren't gonna be hearing gobbles. Go find an active bird :twocents:

I’ve been hunting turkey a lot of years and have never been able to get a roasted bird to reply to any call. :)
Title: Re: are the Toms getting vocal?
Post by: bearpaw on May 12, 2021, 10:52:44 AM: Some birds have been setting for a couple weeks now, others are still laying, as usual some are still with toms, but toms have been calling good for a coupe weeks now, I expect it to slow down any time
Title: Re: are the Toms getting vocal?
Post by: duckmen1 on May 12, 2021, 12:26:57 PM: Quote from: JKEEN33 on May 12, 2021, 10:21:38 AM
Quote from: Karl Blanchard on May 12, 2021, 07:23:25 AM
Quote from: jstone on May 12, 2021, 07:17:23 AM
What is the best sound to get the gobble?
Crow?
My opinion here but hen calls. Locators work well on roasted birds but not so awesome during the day. And if they do shock gobble off your crow call, they may not be in the right mood. A tom that answers a box call is a tom that is at least somewhat in the mood. Covering terrain is also important. If you don't have a willing participant in your vicinity, you aren't gonna be hearing gobbles. Go find an active bird :twocents:

I’ve been hunting turkey a lot of years and have never been able to get a roasted bird to reply to any call. :)

Once he is cooked what reply are you looking for?🤣
Title: Re: are the Toms getting vocal?
Post by: Billy74 on May 12, 2021, 02:39:45 PM: Quote from: Karl Blanchard on May 12, 2021, 07:12:18 AM
For those that aren't hearing gobbles during they day, how much are you moving and what are you using to induce a gobble?
Probably 3-5 miles over 3 separate areas. I use a mix of calls and lesser a crow

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Title: Re: are the Toms getting vocal?
Post by: Pathfinder101 on May 12, 2021, 03:04:45 PM: One of my students said she shot at a tom (missed) last night. She said he came in gobbling his head off. Not a mature bird though, she said only about a 5 inch beard.
Title: Re: are the Toms getting vocal?
Post by: avidnwoutdoorsman on May 13, 2021, 05:01:50 PM: Quote from: Karl Blanchard on May 12, 2021, 07:23:25 AM
Quote from: jstone on May 12, 2021, 07:17:23 AM
What is the best sound to get the gobble?
Crow?
My opinion here but hen calls. Locators work well on roasted birds but not so awesome during the day. And if they do shock gobble off your crow call, they may not be in the right mood. A tom that answers a box call is a tom that is at least somewhat in the mood. Covering terrain is also important. If you don't have a willing participant in your vicinity, you aren't gonna be hearing gobbles. Go find an active bird :twocents:

What I would add to this? If you know you are in an area with turkeys. I like to sit call move, sit call move. I too like to locate with a yelp call. Will let out a series of medium volume yelp calls (incase a bird is close I dont want to blow his ear drums off :chuckle:) and then let out a load series of yelps as a distant locate. Even if I get nothing I will sit for 20-40 min in that spot calling every ten minutes after. Call it a mini blind set. That way if a silent bird wants to play he has a chance to. If nothing happens I move to another spot, and another spot. The birds have got in a fair bit of fighting in at this point and so putting the slip on their rival is not an unlikely tactic at this time of year.

I do this because I have doubled back on the way I came doing the call walk call walk technique and there standing where I was a bit ago before I took off to soon was a bird looking for me. You also might get the interest of an initially silent bird that was a ways out and after that 20-40 mins he's unknowingly closed some distance and now that he is closer can resist but to let you know he's there.

With the above mentioned in either scenario of call walk call walk or sit call walk sit call walk, keep your eyes peeled if your way back was your way out because 'ol tom might be sitting there. :twocents:
Title: Re: are the Toms getting vocal?
Post by: brokentrail on May 13, 2021, 06:20:56 PM: I just got back from Colville, left Sunday night. I did between 10 and 12 miles a day. I heard the most gobbling on the roost on Monday morning but if you hunted once the hens decided to head for their nests, you could occasionally find a bird that would gobble and was looking for company. I killed my first bird Monday and was on 3 different birds that day and managed to mess up 2 of them. The next 2 days I heard no roost gobbles (different area). I heard a single gobble Tuesday and Wednesday and these were to locator calls mid-day. They wouldn't respond to hen calls and afaik, they never came in silent.

I killed my second bird this morning. He gobbled on the roost and had 2 hens roosted close to him. They left him and he started strutting in the road and gobbling about once every 15 minutes. I killed him 2.5 hours later.

It really seems to depend on the bird and where his hens are at that moment.
Title: Re: are the Toms getting vocal?
Post by: dilleytech on May 15, 2021, 07:43:27 AM: Toms never stopped calling around my location. Get close to a Tom and use your hen calls and they usually respond. Even miles away. Sometimes the gobbles are to far for you to hear. Crow and owl have never worked for me. Nor have I heard a turkey gobble at a real crow.
Title: Re: are the Toms getting vocal?
Post by: Big game archer on May 17, 2021, 09:50:42 PM: Gobbling action was insane this past weekend in Idaho.. Still lots of toms with hens, but pretty much gobbling non-stop, all day long. I called in a group of 5 toms (shot one) mid-day after having many close calls throughout the morning (All on public land above 3500' elevation)
Title: Re: are the Toms getting vocal?
Post by: Russ McDonald on May 18, 2021, 06:38:06 AM: Out this last weekend. Gobbled on the roost. After fly down and couple times while the flocked gathered up then shut down. Saturday the one that my mentor shot we jumped walking down a trail. He was strutting and walking away. I did a few sift yelps turned him back to us and of course he missed the shot. The tom disappeared over the hill but when he got to the top. He was still there. He did not miss the second time. Also I think myy ear is still ringing. He was standing to thebleft of me when he shot the first time. I did not realize how close he was because there were more birds there so was looking for a shot to. Stupid me didn't have my Walker Silencers in.

Sent from my SM-N976V using Tapatalk
Title: Re: are the Toms getting vocal?
Post by: Limhangerslayer on May 18, 2021, 07:46:00 AM: Found a very hard gobbling tom Saturday morning out of Yakima. He was going off on his own along with another on the next ridge. Called it in for my cousins fiancé but he was unable to see it and it slipped away!