another situation... what would YOU do?

hawglips

Banned
I found myself in this situation several years ago. At that time, I had only four or five turkeys under my belt.

I'd been scouting and hunting a public land area with a few turkeys on it for two years. I had seen some sign, but never a turkey, and never heard a gobble at all. I had a three day permit to hunt.

When the first hunting day rolled around, I arrived before gobbling time only to be rewarded with no gobbles, again. I hunted an hour or so before I had to go to work, with nothing to show for it.

On day two, I again heard no gobbles, but I did get to watch a jennie walk up the path to me. She contentedly purred and pecked her way up the path to me, then abruptly halted, shut up, and took a 90 degree detour when she saw the hen and jake decoy I'd set out. That was all the action for day two.

Well, the night before day three, I made up my mind that I was going to either kill a turkey, or spend the whole day trying. So, I came up with a game plan and swore allegiance to it. In the event that I once again heard no gobbles, I strategically picked four spots that I had seen the most sign around, and planned to set up at each spot at one hour intervals, rotating from one spot to the next till I killed a turkey, or till the sun went down. I packed two granola bars, a few baby carrots, a full canteen of water, my poncho, binoculars, and no decoys.

When the alarm clock for day three went off, I jumped into my camo, grabbed my gear and headed off. I arrived at my parking spot relieved to see that nobody else beat me there. I had to walk about 3/4 mile to my pre-determined pre-dawn listening post, and as darkness gave way to light, once again, I was rewarded with silence.

But no need to fear, because I had a plan. So, I set off to pre-determined location number one, sat down, got comfortable, pulled out my Hustlin Hen box call, inserted my Primos Double Diamond mouth call, and gave it my first volley. About 15 minutes later, I let loose with volley number two -- and a faint "GOBBLLGOBBLLGOBBLLE!!!!!"

What the..!!! I couldn't believe it -- a dadgum turkey gobbled back at me!! I'd been on this property quite a few times over the past three years, but had heard nary a gobble!! It was faint, but I'll be durned!!! A dadgum gobble!!

Now my mind raced as I looked over the terrain between the turkey and me. If he came in a straight line, he'd have to walk right through some impenetrably thick three year old cutover. So, he'll have to walk down the edge on the inside of the hardwoods for a couple hundred yards quartering towards me right to left, and then make a 90 degree turn to his left towards me and come down the path I was set up on. But if he comes in silent, I won't be able to see him till he gets right up on top of me from that side. As there were some small pines that might obscuring my vision and shooting lane in the direction he would walk down the path from, I could easily find myself in a position of having to shoot at the turkey at 5 yards or so -- if he came that close.

There was open woods behind me, and he could always cross the path, and come in behind me. I could guard against that by backing away and setting up in the woods a ways. But I was in the absolutely best spot on that path.

I was faced with a decision. Should I move? If I move, where to? Back into the open woods behind me? Dash down the path and set up in the open woods he would come through to get to the path? Should I be patient and stay put in a potentially poor setup?

What would you do?
 

alphachief

Senior Member
If he was that far away...again, I'd go to him. There have been very few times that being aggressive has cost me a bird. But I've sure killed a bunch that I wouldn't have otherwise.
 

hawglips

Banned
C'mon fellas, don't be shy...
 

Greg Tench

Senior Member
Did he gobble more than once ? It would depend on how hot or not he was as to what I would do next.
 

wack em

Senior Member
I'd try to get as close as possiable without spooking him and then make a setup
 

jcarter

Banned
if the bird was still on the roost when he gobbled and was that faint he might be some distance from you with lots of obstacles he might not be willing to cross. also if he just pitched down out of the tree close to where he was roosted you probably could not here him gobble until he worked closer. im with alpha(might be a public land thing) you hear a bird you cut the distance as fast as you can.
 

hawglips

Banned
He gobbled one time.
 

Trizey

Senior Member
I'd try to move 75-100 yards closer to the way I'd think he'd have to come. Setup and listen. If I didn't hear anything in 10 minutes, I'd make a call.
 

hawglips

Banned
Well, I figured that I HAD to move out of the set up I was in, because if he came down the path the way he would have to come, I would most likely not have a clear shot till he got literally 5 yards away. And if he didn't come that close, I'd never get a shot at all.

I was also scared to bump him if I moved in too close, so I decided to move closer to him, but in a flanking movement, to make sure I didn't bump him in the event he was coming quickly. He only gobbled once, but I didn't care. I still needed to get to a different setup, and I was mentored on the philosophy of 'getting in his kitchen' if possible, so off I went.

I made a mad dash down the path, and into the open woods he'd have to come through, making a 45 degree angle approach so if he was coming straight at me, he'd never see me and no way I'd bump him.

Within 2 minutes, I'd gone about 150 yards into the more open hardwoods, at a 45 degree angle rather than straight towards him. Turns out its a good thing I didn't move straight at him, because as soon as I got set up and called from the new location, he gobbled back at me, from right where I had just come from!!

Now, that freaked me out a bit, because his gobble had been so faint, and I figured he was at least 300 yards away. So, one of four things had happened. Either I had BADLY misjudged the distance between he and me, or he had a wimpy gobble, or he had flown all the way across the cutover, or it was another bird altogether.

At this point, in my semi-freaked out state of mind I thought I was now faced with another decision.

Do I stay put at my second setup, now that the gobbler thinks I've moved away? Or maybe its a second gobbler and the other one is still not too far from where he first gobbled? So should I move towards him a bit now and let him know I'm interested?

What would you do now?
 
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alphachief

Senior Member
At that point, I'd play my hand from where I am. If it was a second bird, the first and second birds could work to my new setup. If I couldn't get either to come my way, but I heard gobbles...heck, I'm moving again.:cool:
 

hawglips

Banned
Alphachief, that's the way I SHOULD have played it.

But here's what I did instead.

Well, being a bit anxious, I figured I better move a tad closer to let him know I wasn't running from him. So, I got up again, ran about 30 yds in his direction, and looked for a good setup spot. I was standing there about 10 seconds, when I heard footsteps in the dry leaves. Well I'll be durned!!! A big, blowed up turkey tippie toeing right towards the spot I just got up from!! He looked like a big, black bowling ball with a white and blue turkey head painted on it. Now, this really got me freaked out, but it answered my question -- that turkey had a wimpy quiet gobble and sounded a lot further away than he really was. Or maybe not. Maybe there were TWO turkeys...

In any event, I now had a bigger problem. I was standing straight up in the middle of wide open 75 year old hardwoods, with my gun in my right hand and my backpack in the left, no where close to a tree, with a turkey in full strut 50 yards away quartering to my right towards the spot I'd just called from. The woods were so open, I could count the strands in his beard. I felt like I did in that dream I once had as a kid when I dreamed I'd gone to school in my underwear.

Well, now I had very few options. So I waited till he got behind that next big oak, and raised my gun up, with the backpack still in my left hand. DADGUMMIT!!! I wish I wouldn't have packed that durn canteen full of all that water!!! But there was no way I could drop the backpack without getting busted. If my left arm will hold up just long enough for him to get within range...

About a minute passed by, and I realized I now had two big problems. Number one, my left arm was already starting to shake. In addition to the canteen, carrots, granola bars, poncho and binoculars I was holding up in that dadblasted backpack in my left hand, the 28" barrel and extended choke tube on my Mossberg 500 was pouring gasoline onto the fire in my burning muscles in my left shoulder. And problem number two was, that turkey was quartering his way to my right just enough so that by the time he got into range, I would not be able to twist that far to my right to shoot him!!!

This called for quick thinking. So, as the turkey went behind another tree, I pivoted my right foot to the right about 45 degrees and clicked off the safety simultaneously. CRUUNCHHH!!! Man, those leaves are loud!! But hey, an unexpected break -- the turkey heard his “hen” in those the leaves, stopped, came out of strut, then puffed back up and altered his course to where he was now coming directly at me!!

I picked out a dogwood tree as the 35 yard mark, and anxiously waited for him to dance his way past it. I could have sworn I saw smoke out of the corner of my eye coming up off my burning left shoulder, and the bead on the tip of my barrel was waving around wildly as the burning intensified by the second. Just a few more steps and he was at the tree. He stopped, dropped out of strut just a wee bit, poked his head up just enough, and I tried to get the bead to quit waving around and end up somewhere near the vicinity of his head long enough for me to pull the trigger.

KABOOM!!!! And a flopping turkey!!

I ejected the shell, laid the gun and backpack down (…thank the Lord, my left shoulder shouted…!!) and I ran to get my turkey!! But simple things aren't always as simple as they seem. I took no more than three running steps when next thing I knew, my chest hit the ground, my face was in the forest floor, my glasses were bouncing across the ground, and I was spitting out beech leaves. DADGUM that stump hole!! But nothing was hurt, and no one saw that, so I jumped up, put my glasses back on, and ran over to the flopping tom.

He had long and sharp spurs, with a big fat beard!! And I thanked the Lord for this wonderful bird!
 

Nicodemus

The Recluse
Staff member
That is exactly what makes turkey huntin` what it is! Enjoyed the story and congrats on your bird!
 

alphachief

Senior Member
Heck Hawglips, turkey hunting is about making memories...just think, if you'd of done what I suggested and ended up with a simple kill...we'd of never heard that great story. It would just be another set of spurs/beard hanging on the wall. Great job!
 

turk2di

Senior Member
Sounds like the bird was off a good ways, so i would have cut the distance, which cutts down on the number of things that could go wrong. If u know ur set-up is poor, u got nuttin to lose by moving until u r happy with the set-up.
 

Philbow

Senior Member
In my experience, I usually do the wrong thing. But at least I am consistant.
 
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proturkeyhntr

Guest
I would have checked first with a crow call or another locator call.. If that didnt work I would have then tried some cutting. Hopefully he would have gobbled closer and you would have been able to adjust your setup accordingly...

scott
 
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