© By Othmar Vohringer
Authors Note: This is part of an article I wrote for Canada’s Outdoor Sportsman.
Any person that is hunting North America’s most popular game bird for a season or two had to learn to deal with the frustration of a big tom hanging up just outside the effective shooting range. The majority of these birds are the older wiser toms, the ones we hunters respectfully refer to as “Boss Gobblers”. They are masters at surviving and that makes them one of the most challenging game animals to hunt. In my opinion, shaped my many years of observation and hunting turkeys, there are three main reasons why a tom hangs up and for each scenario there’s a solution. Lets look at each and see how we can outsmart these Boss Gobblers.
1. The tom comes in but then doesn’t see what he expected to see.
If a tom comes to your calling he naturally fully expects to see a hen. If he doesn’t he instantly knows that something is not quite right and he will hang up to check it out from a distance before advancing any further. A common mistake some hunters make is to set up where they can see for a long way. While it is nice to watch an approaching tom from lets say 150 yards it is worthwhile to remember that if the hunter can see that far then so can the gobbler. Turkeys know what to expect when they hear another turkey. Moreover, turkey ears can judge distance quite accurately and the location where the call is coming from. With that said the tom knows where and when he can expect so see what he came looking for. If he doesn’t he gets suspicious. Wouldn’t you if you hear someone calling you but don’t see that person anywhere?
My favourite solution to this problem is to use the landscape and structural features that force the tom to come within in shooting range so see who is calling.
(Click on image for larger view of set up)Image Caption: It’s better to set up just around the corner, forcing the tom to come close to your set up. Setting up where the gobbler can see for a long way is an almost certainty that he will hang up.
Another tactic I often employ works very well with two hunters. One hunter is situated on the shooting set up and the second hunter who does the calling takes up position behind the first hunter about 20 yards inside the woodlot or similar cover. When the tom approaches the caller gets up and carefully walks in a straight line away from the approaching tom into the cover. Every few steps the caller stops and makes a few soft yelps and clucks, nothing to aggressive. Nothing frustrates a gobbler more then coming to a hen only to find that she’s walking away from him. With this set up I had toms falling over themselves running after the hen that dared to walk away. By doing so they will run right in front of the gunner.
(Click on image for larger view of set up)Image Caption: Typical tag-team set up positions shooter (1) in front of the caller (2). If a gobbler (in red) hangs up the caller gets up and walks back into the woods while keep on calling. This will bring the bird in as he thinks the hen is walking away from him.
2. The gobbler is already in the company of hens.
This is without a question the toughest situation. Coaxing a tom away from hens to follow another one is next to impossible. Since the gobbler already is in lovely company there is no plausible reason why he should risk loosing what he has by looking for another hen that might or might not be interested in him. You can produce the most enticing turkey love talk but the tom will not be swayed to leave his hens. What to do?
Well, one of several tactics that have proven to work well is rather than calling the gobbler- call the hens. Given the toms jealous nature he will follow the hens. For this tactic a good set up and proper camouflage are very important because now you have not just one set of turkey eyes looking for you but two or even three turkeys looking for you. One suspicious move on your part and the game is over before it begins. Turkeys have incredible eyesight and it often has been said that if a turkey in addition to his eyesight could smell as well as a deer it would become unhuntable. So how do we call hens? Forget all about normal love talk now it’s chitchat time. Listen to the hen, and if more than one is present then listen to the boss hen and then match her, yelp for yelp, cluck for cluck. To be successful it is important that you exactly repeat every “word” she says, right down to the tone and frequency. Play that answering back game for a minute or two until you get her attention. Once she is onto you don’t wait until the hen is done talking: instead, be rude and interrupt her every time she’s starting to talk. Nothing gets a hen more fired up then another hen cutting her off in mid sentence. Hens will get so angry that quite often they will come running looking for that disrespectful intruder and the tom will waddle busily after her. The rest is up to you to make it count.
If you can’t bring the hens to you the next option is to ambush the gobbler. Put the calls away and observe in what direction the birds are travelling, using a good pair of binoculars if necessary. The turkeys, like all animals, have a natural tendency to follow the path of least resistance. Use this habit to your advantage and try to predict what route the birds are taking considering the terrain features. Carefully try to loop in a big arch around the birds and get ahead of them. Be fast but as quiet as you can and use every caution to stay undetected from the traveling turkeys. Set up an ambush that will take the turkeys past you and within shooting range.
(Click on image for larger view of set up)3. The access to your set up is blocked.
Many hunters have witnessed turkeys behaving very strangely at times. For example, a turkey doesn’t really mind flying across a river or ravine, walk across a small shallow creek, a road or slip under barbwire fences, or navigate through a thicket to find food and shelter but no matter how desperate a tom is for female company he will rarely if ever cross an obstacle to follow hen calls. This has to do with the fact that male turkeys are male chauvinists. They will go only so far and then fully expect the female to come the rest of the way to them.
One time I watched a gobbler strutting back and forth along a field edge getting more and more agitated as his head turned from a purple red to a dark blue and back to fire red again. Each time I called he answered with more anger and frustration added to his thundering gobbles. But no matter how sweet my hen music must have sounded to his ears he would not come one step closer and kept pacing back and forth along that same path. About a half hour into that game and with no result I eventually got tired of it and had to find out what made that bird walk back and forth. There was a small shallow ditch he could have easily crossed but to the tom that was an obstacle he was not prepared to cross. Nobody knows why toms refuse to cross barriers, or even perceive such obstacles as barriers. By nature turkeys are good flyers and very agile on their feet. As mentioned before turkeys are used to flying and sometimes for great distances but not when they follow a hen call. Like I said, they are male chauvinists.
The best solution to this problem is to avoid having any sort of barriers between you and the turkeys. Good pre-season scouting helps you to pinpoint all possible barriers. When hunting on short notice on unfamiliar land, survey your surroundings before setting up to call. But no matter how careful you are, if you hunt turkeys long enough you’ll eventually get into a situation of facing the formidable task of trying to call a tom across a barrier. If the tom refuses to oblige despite your best calling, shut up. The tom will get either curious about the sudden silence and cross the barrier in a last ditch effort to get to a hen that, to his mind, has lost interest in him, or in most cases he looses interest and walks away. When this happens watch where he walks and then quickly and carefully move to a better place ahead of him and on his side of the barrier and then begin to call him again.
(Click on image for larger view of set up)Read the full article here
All images are copyright by Othmar Vohringer.
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Tags: Turkey Hunting, Spring Turkey Hunting Tips, Gobbler With Hens, Tag Team A Gobbler, Turkey Hunting Tactics
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