Hi Guys,
I am new to turkey hunting this year and wanted to get some advice/tips.
Last weekend my buddy and I went out to practice bringing turkeys in to our decoys in Parke county. By practice, I mean, we went out with everything except a gun. We are using a a hen and one jake setup. It’s the Avian X breeder hen and half strut jake.
We got into the woods reasonably well before light and setup with our backs to a large tree, our decoys slightly off to our 10-11 oclock and about 20 yards away. We were about 300 yards from Sugar Creek and maybe twice that from the fields above and beyond the ravines. The woods is very old growth and very open with the exception of the large trees. We setup the breeder hen just ahead of the jake at around 6 feet away. We are both in full head to toe Ghillie suits, but my criticism of the suits is that they are relatively dark and uniform in dark brown patterns .
I began calling with a crow call and a barred owl call on the way out. A barred owl was kind enough to answer me with each owl call. No gobbles though. Once we were seated I gobbled several times and waited about 2 minutes and then hen clucked on the slate call, so a call about every few minutes. No response. We settled at a spot we knew turkeys showed up on our trail cams. As it became light, the woodpeckers started to really fire up. They were big and loud, I assume they were pileated given the volume. Otherwise the woods were dead quiet. Anyhow, after the woodpeckers started to get louder, I happened to notice that there was a VERY distant gobble following each loud pecking sound. I would guess 300 yards away nearer the creek. Had I not been turkey hunting I would not have heard it as being a separate sound from the pecking! The wood peckers were acting as a shock gobble call for me!
I hit the gobble again after a minute and I got a response. About 3 minutes later, I hit it again and he gobbled again MUCH closer! Another 3 minutes and I got a response from about 100 yards, so we got ready….and my buddy whispers “I forgot the camera in the truck”. Great.
A short moment later a big tom appears coming in hot, but almost like he had somewhere he was going past us, probably to feed and he was just swinging in to check things out. He appeared about 100 yards out at our 11 oclock, so the decoys were just off of being between him and us. I recall thinking how huge he looked compared to our decoys. I started soft purring, as it seemed he may pass, and he came in to about 70 yards and strutted and danced all around for us for several minutes. BUT, then he decided he wasn’t interested and walked slowly away. He kept gobbling and responding to my calls, so we could judge he was leaving MUCH more slowly than he came in, but he was leaving none the less.
What went wrong? My first thought is that our ghillie suits stood out easily against the lighter, very large trees in the woods and he got nervous seeing those big brown blobs. My soft calling wasn’t convincing enough? Too early in season for him to be interested in fighting a jake over a hen?
Thoughts? Thanks
I am new to turkey hunting this year and wanted to get some advice/tips.
Last weekend my buddy and I went out to practice bringing turkeys in to our decoys in Parke county. By practice, I mean, we went out with everything except a gun. We are using a a hen and one jake setup. It’s the Avian X breeder hen and half strut jake.
We got into the woods reasonably well before light and setup with our backs to a large tree, our decoys slightly off to our 10-11 oclock and about 20 yards away. We were about 300 yards from Sugar Creek and maybe twice that from the fields above and beyond the ravines. The woods is very old growth and very open with the exception of the large trees. We setup the breeder hen just ahead of the jake at around 6 feet away. We are both in full head to toe Ghillie suits, but my criticism of the suits is that they are relatively dark and uniform in dark brown patterns .
I began calling with a crow call and a barred owl call on the way out. A barred owl was kind enough to answer me with each owl call. No gobbles though. Once we were seated I gobbled several times and waited about 2 minutes and then hen clucked on the slate call, so a call about every few minutes. No response. We settled at a spot we knew turkeys showed up on our trail cams. As it became light, the woodpeckers started to really fire up. They were big and loud, I assume they were pileated given the volume. Otherwise the woods were dead quiet. Anyhow, after the woodpeckers started to get louder, I happened to notice that there was a VERY distant gobble following each loud pecking sound. I would guess 300 yards away nearer the creek. Had I not been turkey hunting I would not have heard it as being a separate sound from the pecking! The wood peckers were acting as a shock gobble call for me!
I hit the gobble again after a minute and I got a response. About 3 minutes later, I hit it again and he gobbled again MUCH closer! Another 3 minutes and I got a response from about 100 yards, so we got ready….and my buddy whispers “I forgot the camera in the truck”. Great.
A short moment later a big tom appears coming in hot, but almost like he had somewhere he was going past us, probably to feed and he was just swinging in to check things out. He appeared about 100 yards out at our 11 oclock, so the decoys were just off of being between him and us. I recall thinking how huge he looked compared to our decoys. I started soft purring, as it seemed he may pass, and he came in to about 70 yards and strutted and danced all around for us for several minutes. BUT, then he decided he wasn’t interested and walked slowly away. He kept gobbling and responding to my calls, so we could judge he was leaving MUCH more slowly than he came in, but he was leaving none the less.
What went wrong? My first thought is that our ghillie suits stood out easily against the lighter, very large trees in the woods and he got nervous seeing those big brown blobs. My soft calling wasn’t convincing enough? Too early in season for him to be interested in fighting a jake over a hen?
Thoughts? Thanks
