Post Turkey Season.... questions

[Dan-o]

So, I hunted Turkeys April 15-17.
Plenty of Toms around, but the weren't very callable.
Lots of gobbling before dawn and for first hour or so.
I managed to scratch up a Tom that walked silently through/past my decoys opening afternoon.   

I went back and hunted May 12-13.
Gobblers at dawn again, but again, pretty uncallable.
There were a TON of gobblers on private land maybe 6-800 yards below where I typically hunt on the hillside.   2nd day I finally went down and spotted 15 Toms on the private land down low.
I couldn't get them to budge out of the private fields.
Son got one that he intercepted while he was walking to a new spot.  That's it.

I'm wondering if my first hunt was a bit early, and my 2nd hunt to late?

I'm not the best turkey hunter in the world, but I've killed a bunch of them the last dozen years.    I don't know why I couldn't call any in this year.


Thoughts?

Any idea what to do with a ton of Tom's on private land.... like how to call them off when they don't seem to want to budge?

[birddogdad]

so the short answer (for me) is that if your normal tactics are not working, try something different. Birds are there, lazy/ non responsive.. maybe pressured or hen'd up/ group'd may have to be hunted differently than you normally would .. very seldom do i even use a decoy, i set up for that 40 yd inital sighting solution if possible,  having a 2nd person as your caller away from your position, moving around not closing on your position , rather caring less about those toms on private kind of vocal but hard to get to those toms ,,, try a silent setup, just scratch at private border no clucking or peeps by you only the 2nd caller away from your position, this has been money for me. early morning - pattern and get in the travel paths fly down to strutt areas, late afternoon - same return to routes roost areas if on your side of private. you will find that if not pressured daily, they have a routine early and late...

have multiple areas, dont pressure every day.

adapting and patience is huge for me...very easy to blow out birds with calls in these situations..

birds are pretty much shootable all season but changing up how you go at it can pay off. kind of trial and error, different calling/ calls, find what a perticular bird is "liking".  They dont have to be vocal to be shootable, have many sneak in for a peek at those times.. its just harder to believe you are in the game without that vocal response... a courtesy gobble is plenty, they know your exact location, sooner or later, they will come check you out..

[Dan-o]

Hey, I appreciate the thoughtful reply.   

[jrebel]

What you describe is exactly what we saw on our property.  Plenty of bird....no shortage at all...but they were not coming to a call this year.  We finally killed one that was feeding in the food plot and happen to walk within range of the blind.  I would not say I am a pro turkey hunter by any stretch of the imagination, but we have never had a hard time calling birds in until this year.  I'm gonna give it ago the last couple days this spring season and see what happens.  If I don't fill my second tag, I'll get after hard in the fall.


I can say that the green up was way later than it had been in our area.  Three years ago our food plot was knee high and this year it is barely 4-6 inches. 

[Ghost Hunter]

I learned a new locator call.  Was working at far corner of my property.   Had to cut loose with a big sneeze and immediately got a gobble response, sounded like it was under 40 yards away.   

[Dan-o]

I learned a new locator call.  Was working at far corner of my property.   Had to cut loose with a big sneeze and immediately got a gobble response, sounded like it was under 40 yards away.   

In spite of my best efforts to teach him, one of my sons is perfecting his own locator call:   the slamming truck door.

It works, but I just don't like it.

[erronulvin]

My wife and I saw alot of toms this year, up north by spokane and down by walla walla, all the birds would gobble like crazy on the roost but once they hit the ground would go silent or gobble every hour or so. Pretty much from opening day till the last they were henned up, we got to the point of where we saw them strutting daily and just got in their zone or within eyesight and run as many hen decoys as we could with a strutter on a bungee cord and jerk string. It seemed to work out pretty good in late may, seemed like the early season birds like the breeder hen and Jake decoy (dsd's) with an extra 3 to 5 hens out. Overall it took about 3 to 5 hunts to harvest a bird but we saw toms every morning we hunted

[builtfordtough]

The last 3 years my buddy and I hunted around may 10 11 12 days and have had great success.   The toms that gobble over on private property do not budge... they know they are safe.  That's until my buddy changes his calling tactics and goes with a soft purr.  Its incredible to watch and listen to the toms go nuts.  Sometimes this takes 15 minutes.  Sometimes we leave for 3 or 4 hrs and come back and try it again.  The soft purrs end up working almost everytime now... I'm not a very good caller but I give all the credit to my buddy. 

[Russ McDonald]

My wife and I saw alot of toms this year, up north by spokane and down by walla walla, all the birds would gobble like crazy on the roost but once they hit the ground would go silent or gobble every hour or so. Pretty much from opening day till the last they were henned up, we got to the point of where we saw them strutting daily and just got in their zone or within eyesight and run as many hen decoys as we could with a strutter on a bungee cord and jerk string. It seemed to work out pretty good in late may, seemed like the early season birds like the breeder hen and Jake decoy (dsd's) with an extra 3 to 5 hens out. Overall it took about 3 to 5 hunts to harvest a bird but we saw toms every morning we hunted

That is like a duck spread you got going.   3 recurs at most i would use.   2 hens and a jake.   I have s room decoy.   I would watch turkeys avoid him but come right into the jake looking for a fight.   Thing is with a big tom decoy is alot of the other toms may have been getting there butts kicked by the dominate tom in the flock and will avoid the tom decoy.  I use a funky chicken with an alert and feeder hen.

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[hunter399]

Calling turkey off of the private land is a different animal.
I've called at toms all day ,and they'll respond but not come in.
I will back off and come back another day and try to catch up with them on public.
Now if they are on public but won't come to call,but respond well,I'll spot and stalk ,inch my way closer and closer.

Just like elk and other animals,they learn that calling means danger.
Some just go silent during the season.
Which also means if you setup ,they might hit you up without a peep.

[erronulvin]

My wife and I saw alot of toms this year, up north by spokane and down by walla walla, all the birds would gobble like crazy on the roost but once they hit the ground would go silent or gobble every hour or so. Pretty much from opening day till the last they were henned up, we got to the point of where we saw them strutting daily and just got in their zone or within eyesight and run as many hen decoys as we could with a strutter on a bungee cord and jerk string. It seemed to work out pretty good in late may, seemed like the early season birds like the breeder hen and Jake decoy (dsd's) with an extra 3 to 5 hens out. Overall it took about 3 to 5 hunts to harvest a bird but we saw toms every morning we hunted

That is like a duck spread you got going.   3 recurs at most i would use.   2 hens and a jake.   I have s room decoy.   I would watch turkeys avoid him but come right into the jake looking for a fight.   Thing is with a big tom decoy is alot of the other toms may have been getting there butts kicked by the dominate tom in the flock and will avoid the tom decoy.  I use a funky chicken with an alert and feeder hen.

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Ha I tell my wife all the time we need more turkey decoys, im so used to throwing big fullbody spreads for snow geese (500-800)  the 3 to 5 turkey decs seems like nothing. Another thing I noticed when having more hen decoys out was the dominate hens would keep their eyes on the decoys vs coming in looking for danger/eyes on the brush. We would have them literally beat up every hen decoy I had out.

[Ridgeratt]

Just sit in the comfy chair and wait.
Pretty much every morning they show up and clean out grandma feeder. They have looked in the window.

She hates them.