Simulating a Turkey Fly-down

[Hotspotter]

Simulating a hen flying down is something I try to do when setting up on a roosted gobbler in the early morning. I usually do it only when I'm confident that the bird cannot see me moving, and I tend to get good responses from it.

My favorite method is to use my hunting cap....I give two clucks with a call, then start flapping the hat from high to low on the ground.....during the process I sometimes perform a fly down cackle. Too much cackling doesn't sound realistic from my experience, so I usually only do that once or not at all.

At the calling competition, I saw some guys simulating a fly-down by slapping their leg back and forth. I've also seen on hunting videos.....good ol' Will beating that fake wing of his.

So, I pose the question to the board....which method do you use? Do you simulate fly-downs at all? What about cackling? Do you find that heavily hunted birds are spooked easily by such behavior?

Thanks,

Joel

[This message has been edited by jnelson (edited 03-06-2004).]

[adaylate]

I usually slap my hands along side my chest as I'm cackling.I can usually get the toms to go crazy.Seldom do I have luck getting them to come in unless I'm able to convince the hens to come my way.My best luck usually comes after 10 a.m. The past 2 years I got my turkeys at 1 p.m. and 1:30 p.m.

[Hotspotter]

Adaylate:

The chest technique sounds interesting....never heard of that one before, but I could see why it would be effective. You may get more of a thumpy hollow sound, more accurately simulating the turkeys wings beating against its body/chest.

The past two years I've been lucky enough to get them off roost (provides time for enjoying beverages and trout fishing!). Both times I had to mimic the boss hen the birds flew down with, then step on her calls. Once I really got her going, she led the toms to me. Two years ago, she was 15 yards from me about ready to kick my decoy while I shot the tom at 25 yards. Later birds like you mentioned are nice because they can be found without their hens many times. Lonely birds sure come to the call nice!

Send me an email at [email protected] so I can answer your question.

Joel

[This message has been edited by jnelson (edited 03-06-2004).]

[adaylate]

Another reason I like the hands to chest technique is your less likely to get busted because of movement.You can hide your hand movements with your upper arms.

[Borch]

I geenraly use the hunting cap technique as well. I generally don't try to get too close so I can usually get away with the movement.

As far asa the cackle goes. Sometimes I use it and sometimes I don't. I'll usually start out with a few soft tree yelps, do the flydown with or without the cackle, rustle the leaves a bit, do some some purrs with some leaf scratching tossed in. To be honest the purrs and leaf scratching is often what causes the gobblers to come unglued. Then often all I have to do is shut up and wait. Maybe just throw in some leaf scratching for reassurance.

Borch

[This message has been edited by Borch (edited 03-07-2004).]

[Hotspotter]

Borch, you cagey veteran. Leaf scratching and other low-impact type turkey calls can really mean the difference, IMHO. Like you said, shutting up and just scratching makes them (and me) come unglued. I think shutting up period was one of the toughest things for me to learn when starting out.

I was checking some birds out last year at close range while they were scratching through the leaves for acorns below an oak ridge. I was surprised to see them follow the same scratching pattern, almost 90% of the time.

scratch-scratch-pause-scratch....that 1-2,pause, 3 cadence kept up for about 15 minutes until they moved away from me. I was also surprised to see how they projectile-threw the soil and leaf layer behind them. So now when I'm scratching, I try to follow the same pattern, and dig into the soil and leaves, partially "throwing" them a foot or two as feeding turkeys do. Not that any of this necessarily matters, or that's what turkeys "always" do, but hey, I'm anal when it comes to turkeys. I figure the closer we can all sound like a real turkey (a stretch, I know), the better our chances.

Should this be in it's own thread?

Joel

[Borch]

The first turkey I shot was with scratching and soft purrs. I used this partly because it was a later season on public land and also because I wasn't the best caller in the world yet(I'm still not. But the turkeys don't mind). That gobbler nearly ran me over. Definitely a go to sequence for those later seasons and pressured gobblers. And that's definitely the right sequence.

[TomBow]

I have watched alot of birds feeding, include 6 hens yesterday, 3/9/04, that I watched for a half-hour. They will really pitch the leaves and stuff a few feet, then step back and look hard for edibles. Scratching should definitely be part of every turkey hunters calling technique, IMHO. Now if I can just market the TomBow Scratchin' stick in Bubinga or some other exotic wood....man, I'll never have to work again!!
Best of Luck!

[Hotspotter]

Tombow:

I was talking with Dick Alford and another guy at the sportshow, who was mentioning taking a turkey foot or two in the woods for that very purpose. Primos has the wing, so why not market the foot? Make sure if it's a gobbler's that you file down the spur, or I would be the one yelping.

Joel