Late season problems?

[mnhunter2]

I am hunting 425 and have a couple of days left but the birds have been very tough to hunt, I have been sitting on a field edge funnel point that has a quite a few tracks around it but I have seen only 1 hen in 3 mornings of hunting and she attached my DSD hen decoy. The woods has quite a few toms in it Friday they gobbled till mid/late morning and I could count probally 10-12 different tom locations, sat they gobble till 8 and stopped and only 5-6 and sunday they stopped at 7 and mabye 3-4 toms, I have yet to see a tom in the field so they must be staying in the woods in the morning and mabye traveling in the afternoons. I have been using my DSD hen decoys and doing some calling but they seem to ignore that. Been thinking of no decoys or calling and mabye going to the toms on the roost instead of waiting for them, any ideas?

[Archerysniper]

Get as close to the roost as you can and wait for them to come back in the evening you can also try this for the morning with no decoys and just very light calling mostly just soft purrs. If you have some time to scout or know the property well there is probably a road of some kind or little clearing where the birds are hanging out and strutting all day that would be the ideal spot to be.

[Cheetah]

If you know where they roost, and it is fairly consistent that they go to the same spot, that sounds like the place to be.

[goblueM]

try going out in the woods from lunch until 5 or 6. call, be mobile, don't be afraid to be aggresive. they hang out a lot in the woods this time of year

[jiggin' fool]

I will second the above post. I have a young-man I am taking out this weekend. The plan will be early a.m. to try to get a bird to come in off the roost, if that doesn't work, and there is no gobbling, I am outta there until mid-afternoon. I am seeing few if any birds active in the mornings, but in the afternoons, they are cruising. It's getting to be that time of year, and "later" IS greater!!! Last Friday's bird at 6:05 p.m. for my girlfriend confirmed that, along with p.m. sightings. The birds are more active later now. Don't give up.

[rattlem'up]

i had the opposite problem last night. I had a tom gobbling at me for 1 hour as he came in from the other woods(can't hunt it) about 150 yards away from where i was. He seemed like he was really hot! Gobbbling 2 to 1 to my calls. Then he just hung up around 70 yards. I was blind calling so didn't have any decoys out. I had 2 hens walk right by me but the tom was around the corner just gobbling away. I'm going to try to set up in another location close to where he came out of the woods with a couple decoys and hopefully he'll be around again tonight. Oh yeah once 7 pm hit he walked back to where he came from i'm guessing and was quiet as can be. But from 6-7 he was gobbling away. Anyone else have any suggestions? First time turkey hunting for me so i'm just learning as i go.

[sticknstring]

Changing locations may help, it doesn't have to be far, maybe even 100 yds. Turkeys stick to daily routines, and avoid obstacles most of the time. Get in his comfort zone and he's more apt to close the distance. Too much calling could hang him up as well. If he responds within 100 yds, try putting the call down and wait for him to get curious and come look for you. If you know the birds well, you could setup where they frequent and just wait patiently. No decoy, minimal or no calling. Let us know how it goes.

[DonBo]

I'm with stick on this. Most call way too much this time of the year. They've heard it before. Tone it way down and hope for the best.

[rattlem'up]

sounds good i'll see what i can do tonight. It sucks that i can't get on the other guys land but i'll have to make due with what i have. Oh yeah forgot to mention this land has been hunting pretty hard aslo. Three other guys besides me have hunted this land. The first 2 shot birds and the 3rd went home with nothing. But he was hunting last week in the crappy weather. Don't know if that affected the birds movements or not. I was using a diaphram call and doing mainly clucks with a few yelps mixed in. The clucks seem to get him going pretty good. Borrowed a slate call and going to mix in some purrs and see if that will help any.

[Borch]

If your in the woods toss in some leaf scratching as well. Very reassuring for pressured birds. Only thing I can add to stick's post.

[rattlem'up]

Had 2 hens come by me last night but no gobbler or jakes. Didn't hear anything besides those couple hens.

[zzammon]

442. There are alot of hens out there for this time of year. Seems like every Tom has 2-3 hens nearby. Haven't been able to sweet talk them away from the hens. It has been a long week. 1 more day left in G. Praying persistence pays off.

If hens arn't nesting by now can I assume they may have lost the first nest? Any thoughts?

[Tim_Anderson]

I have been hunting a lot this season, helping out with friends and family. It has been a strange year for us. The woods have been pretty quiet, and for the most part, the toms have been quiet shortly after flydown. Overall, our best strategy (as well as for most of the guys I know) has been to go to areas where the toms are frequenting and just sit and be as patient as you can. Calling seems to turn them off. Eventually one seems to show up gobbling (just occasionally) and we only call enough just to let them know we are there and that's it. Decoys seems to be working well. We killed one with a jake and hen combo. I had a buddy do really well several times with a full strut tom and a hen. Several groups of toms came in to gang up on his single tom, and they had a hey day three mornings out of five. I tried this same approach on another hunt, and came really close, but the setup seemed to intimidate a single tom. He came into about 100 yards and then hung up. I'd just either get close early in the am in the dark and try to set up in their path. Or, I'd set up where I know they are hanging and just try to post just like you're stand hunting for deer. The other approach that makes sense is to get close to where they are roosting and hang out in the evening. Good luck.

[Borch]

On my way into work this morning a saw a hunter walking out into the field and hoisting a gobbler as his buddy watched from the blind. Last day of the season. Just shows that you should never give up. I've still been seeing a lot of strutting for hens going on and just told my brother that the gobbler I've been seeing in that field just had to make it through one more day.

So close.

[Archerysniper]

I will be heading out around noon trying to get a lady her bird. She couldn't get out yesterday morning so I went out and scouted saw 4 long beards and six jakes in a bean field one of the long beards was chasing the jakes around in half strut and giving them a few flying spurs so hopefully we can also pull out a last minute bird.

[Borch]

Good Luck AS!

[DonBo]

My buddy just called from his cabin. He'd been hunting hard since Friday with nothing to show for it. Had to come home today to pick up his wife. As they were pulling into the driveway he spotted a nice tom in the back yard of their cabin. He snuck around and whacked him!

Some days lucky is better than good.

[Borch]

Lucky is good!

[Archerysniper]

8 hours in the blind today hens in and out the whole time but they couldn't drag a bearded bird our way. Lots of other wildlife also had a coyote chase a yearling doe right through our setup.

Is it april yet I can't wait till next spring.