what would you do?

hawglips

Old Mossy Horns
For those whiling away the hours in a deer stand wishing it was April...

Here's the scenario. You walk in to your pre-determined listening spot in the dark and arrive just in the nick of gobbling-time. You listen intently and hear one gobbler sound off a couple times about 300 yds to the left. You also hear a couple hens yelping about 200 yds to the right.

What would you do?
 

Wildlifer

Old Mossy Horns
move 50 yds to the left and split the difference. When it comes to turkeys I seem to always make the wrong move to I have no idea.
 

Greg

Old Mossy Horns
Get betwixt 'em as quickly and quietly as I could. Maybe some quiet calls and purrs if they didn't head toward each other (and ME).
 

oldest school

Old Mossy Horns
Flush the hens and go to the gobbler.
sit between them and see what happens
go to the gobbler and get tight.

just like in the woods, i cannot make up my mind. LOL

Good thread Hal i am already tiring of the deer stand.
 

dhsten

Ten Pointer
Get as close the the Gobbler as possible, probably call to him on the roost a lot depending on what I was hearing from the hens.
I know if I sat between them the hens would walk right past me on the way to him. Then it would be tough for a while.
 

lasttombstone

Kinder, Gentler LTS
I would have to try and figure out where I really was cause I certainly wasn't on my own place anymore. But I can pretty much tell you, whatever I did, it would be wrong.
 

wolfman

Old Mossy Horns
I head 200 yards to my left. Maybe some soft calls to make my presence known and shut up. If the hens come in behind me I'll wave them off.
 

PG2

Ten Pointer
go to the left about 200 yards or closer depending on the terrain. Don't call and listen for the hens and if they start and the gobbler is sounding off to them sit quiet until fly down. I would start some soft calling to see what his reaction is. If the hens are coming your only hope is to get the gobbler coming to meet the hens.
 

stilker

Old Mossy Horns
Get closer to the gobbler and try to stay between him and the hens,but let them bring him to me.
 

oldest school

Old Mossy Horns
oh wait i rethought this.

i would sit tight in my blind in the nearby field and kill him when the whole flock got there at 8:30. :)

Sorry couldnt resist.
 

Tipmoose

Administrator
Staff member
Contributor
I wouldn't be caught dead daydreaming about feathered goats during deer season. *grin*
 

GUP

Eight Pointer
Curse the hens! Then probably make the wrong move no matter what that move may be.
 

turkeyfoot

Old Mossy Horns
with a 500 yard distance between that gobbler and hens, I'm gonna assume them hens have a non gobbling tom closer and I go after the lone assumed lone gobbler he may be non dominant that will shut up on ground its almost light so I move quietly do not want the hens putting and get in tight as possible to make it easy for him to come slipping in quiet may come in quiet so keep eyes peeled or he may get so firded up on limb he may fly into my lap I'll call just eneough to make sure he knows my location but not until I've sit down the on ground I'll get little more aggressive then adjust as he responds
 

hawglips

Old Mossy Horns
I reckon there's always more than one way to skin a cat. And who knows if any of the other plans mentioned above would have worked?

But here's what I did.

First, I don't like to deal with walk-away, subordinate toms. I'd been dealing with them all season, and was tired of it. The tom that morning only gobbled twice, and I didn't get the feeling he was real hot or bold. It occurred me that he just might be another one of those subordinate birds keeping away from the others. So, though we (my brother was with me) had heard no evidence of there being a tom with the hens, I wanted to to go to the hens first, and see what happens. I thought the chances were that a dominant bird might be with them, and the other one might be a subordinate that was keeping clear of the main group anyway. And the hens were 100 yds closer anyway. I figured it was worth the chance. So, we took what we thought was a logical gamble, and went towards the hens. I got out my favorite box and was able to get them to keep answering me as we approached a few times. As we got in the neighborhood, I peeked up over a rise, saw a hen, sat down in the wide open - and here's what happened...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3l6TV6SLHk
 
Last edited:

hawglips

Old Mossy Horns
This wasn't the only time I've gone towards a yelping hen and killed a gobbler that was with her. I've done it several times, as I think it's fairly common for a tom to remain silent when he's with hens. And a tom that is with hens isn't going to be the kind of tom that walks away from a caller, so I usually lean towards going towards hens if I hear them. Hens may take a tom away with them though, so that is why I try to get a discussion going with the hens instead of the tom, in most cases, and try to sweet talk them. I don't know if you noticed the calls I made in the video that got the hens heading up my way, but what you didn't hear was what happened right before my brother turned the video camera on. As I sat down when I saw a hen down there, I remained silent and watched. The hens started chasing each other around fighting, and one of them in particular was making a lot of distress squeals as she was getting pecked up pretty badly by some of the other hens. So, when I saw that the hens' ruckus was leading them off away from us, I just gave a few high pitched peeps, which is what they often do when they are approaching other turkeys and want the other turkeys to show themselves. This immediately turned them around to head my way and got them trotting up towards me. You can see one of the hens flare her fan out aggressively as she got up close where she knew she could see me. And of course, the tom followed....
 

BoonDock

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
This wasn't the only time I've gone towards a yelping hen and killed a gobbler that was with her. I've done it several times, as I think it's fairly common for a tom to remain silent when he's with hens. And a tom that is with hens isn't going to be the kind of tom that walks away from a caller, so I usually lean towards going towards hens if I hear them. Hens may take a tom away with them though, so that is why I try to get a discussion going with the hens instead of the tom, in most cases, and try to sweet talk them. I don't know if you noticed the calls I made in the video that got the hens heading up my way, but what you didn't hear was what happened right before my brother turned the video camera on. As I sat down when I saw a hen down there, I remained silent and watched. The hens started chasing each other around fighting, and one of them in particular was making a lot of distress squeals as she was getting pecked up pretty badly by some of the other hens. So, when I saw that the hens' ruckus was leading them off away from us, I just gave a few high pitched peeps, which is what they often do when they are approaching other turkeys and want the other turkeys to show themselves. This immediately turned them around to head my way and got them trotting up towards me. You can see one of the hens flare her fan out aggressively as she got up close where she knew she could see me. And of course, the tom followed....

Sounds like luck to me!;)
 
Top