Hello. I am new to the forum. I'm not new to turkey hunting and have managed to kill several gobblers in the past but definitely am not consistently. Many times I hear multiple birds on the roost but then they become silent when they come down off the roost. Is this common for others or am I doing something wrong while they are still on the roost ? I try to be very quiet setting up and only call sparingly until it seems like they are already gone.
Your not doing anything wrong. They most likely have hens with them
Quite common if they are with hens. Head out and troll for other birds, return to that roost area mid morning. You will be surprised to see he may return to some soft calling to seduce the hen he left behind at daybreak......
It doesn't sound like you're doing anything wrong. Unfortunately with turkey hunting you can do everything right and still go home empty handed more times than not. The gobbler is the one who has to do something wrong.
Very common and frustrating too.. plenty of great advice given.
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This has been a definite problem in my area this year .... and the next day they gobble like crazy .... keep hunting
Thanks for the great advice, it's actually good to hear that it's pretty common. I am off a couple days this week so hopefully one will mess up ! Thank yall !
Def relax... take a nap... usually they will fire up again later in the day.
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It's a marathon not a sprint
Once hens are laying eggs and nesting after that, gobblers will tend to be more vocal. I've killed several gobblers that had hens first thing in the morning, then when they snuck off to go lay an egg, he got fired up. They are usually pretty cooperative when they're alone.
What you are experiencing is normal for the most part. You just have to keep hunting and find one that wants to play... more than likely this will take place late morning or midday .... Good luck...
Sounds like the hens or a hen has gotten to him before you got in the game good. If you could pen point his roost tree, I would definitely squeeze in tight on him. I would be the first "hen" he hears in the morning. Might get him. I personally dont like to call real heavy to toms when they are on roost. I make my presence known and go from there. It is awesome listening to them gobble but not the best option, in my opinion. Good luck. Get in his bubble.....
Where I hunt I have not heard a gobble after fly down in years. Its not always hen related they just go silent. I have not heard an afternoon or late morning gobble in I can not tell you how long. I just hunt them like deer after flydown.
Yea, seem to be 1 or 2 where I'am at that gobble their heads off but alway doing a 180 from me. I mark them off being with hens. That still leaves the others lower in the pecking order that you can call to the gun. I know it's more exciting to hear and know that there coming. I listen for hens clucking also, a Tom will not be far behind.
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They've been henned up all day long most of the season for the last several years around here. Gobblers will usually gobble if a hen they know comes in from a direction they expect nearby where the hen should know they are. The hen knows they'll be somewhere right around there at that time of day. She comes in and says "here I am", to which the gobbler replies "here I am".
If your calling and woodsmanship are on point you can get it done.
Again .... time in the woods is the most beneficial advice.
If your in an area where you can ease around quietly and slowly and use your binoculars. When you do see them ..... make some low calls and watch how they respond.
Quote from: colinmaidens on April 16, 2023, 01:50:34 AM
Hello. I am new to the forum. I'm not new to turkey hunting and have managed to kill several gobblers in the past but definitely am not consistently. Many times I hear multiple birds on the roost but then they become silent when they come down off the roost. Is this common for others or am I doing something wrong while they are still on the roost ? I try to be very quiet setting up and only call sparingly until it seems like they are already gone.
As others have stated, a lack of gobbling after flydown is totally normal,...and should be expected more often than not from what I have seen over the decades. I usually expect a gobble or two right after they fly down, and then silence for the most part,...although an occasional, sporadic, on-the-ground gobble is not all that unusual either.
There are sometimes rare exceptions to that general rule when gobblers are quite vocal after they come off the roost, and when that happens, it is sure a lot easier to plot strategies on how to get them killed. Often, a gobbler that lets a hunter know right where he is too much is a gobbler that is not going to last long with the hunting pressure we have nowadays. Conversely, the ones that have learned to keep their mouths shut are the ones most likely to survive to perpetuate the species,...not a good trend for those of us that hunt for the gobble! ::) :D
Quote from: colinmaidens on April 16, 2023, 01:50:34 AM
Hello. I am new to the forum. I'm not new to turkey hunting and have managed to kill several gobblers in the past but definitely am not consistently. Many times I hear multiple birds on the roost but then they become silent when they come down off the roost. Is this common for others or am I doing something wrong while they are still on the roost ? I try to be very quiet setting up and only call sparingly until it seems like they are already gone.
Things can be quite vocal on the roost. Toms are gobbling to tell the hens where they are, and hens are yelping, sometimes cutting to let toms know where they are.
Once on the ground and together, there is no need for that tom to gobble anymore, as he is with his hens. More often than not, once on the ground, and with hens, both sexes are far less vocal.
Seems that the best strategy with birds on the roost is to call sparingly... I feel that if that tom is answering hens, but not my call, he has me made... As soon as he answers one of my calls on the roost, there is no need to call anymore (until he is on the ground).
Hunting roosted birds, and killing them are two different things. For most of the season, this is one of the most exciting times of the day to hunt, and also the most frustrating. Tough to pull a bird away from live hens.
Now a bird that sits on the roost and gobbles later than normal, is often looking for that hen that is no longer there (i.e. on the nest). If a bird is on the roost and gobbling, far later than normal (with no weather conditions), that can be a killable bird.
Every conceivable strategy has been tried with some success, but more failure to kill birds with hens off the roost:
*Getting between the tom and the hens
*Irritating the hens so they come in for a fight and bring the toms with them
*Hoping the toms come to you before finding their hens
*Gobbling at the toms (with hen yelps) to instigate a fight with the dominant tom
*Fly-down cackles with wing-beats to entice the toms to you before he meets his own hens
Try to enjoy the morning and ignore the frustration.
One of my favorite moves is to swoop into the roost area as soon as you can after fly down and start going nuts calling for like 60 seconds straight. I imagine I'm a pissed off hen that showed up to the roost tree 5 minutes late and I'm like "where the heck did you go". Then I sit quiet and soft call intermittently for 30 minutes.
Great info... Seem henned up
Spring Legion had a good podcast recently with George Mayfield that had some good information regarding this.
Quote from: colinmaidens on April 16, 2023, 01:50:34 AM
Hello. I am new to the forum. I'm not new to turkey hunting and have managed to kill several gobblers in the past but definitely am not consistently. Many times I hear multiple birds on the roost but then they become silent when they come down off the roost. Is this common for others or am I doing something wrong while they are still on the roost ? I try to be very quiet setting up and only call sparingly until it seems like they are already gone.
It took me years to find out what was really going on. You see, shortly after sunrise a little sandwich truck rolls down a road near the roost. The turkeys flock to the truck and a little Korean guy passes out sandwiches and coffee. The turkeys stand around and smoke a couple cigarettes and then go over to a manhole cover. Somehow they get the lid off and then they all jump in and roam around in the sewers until they emerge around Noon in a culvert next to the highway, just in time for you to see them there on your way home.
Trust me. This really happens.
I think depending on where your hunting might have a big role in how turkeys behave after fly down. They may stay in the area throughout the day and hang around. You don't hear them but they're around.
In other case where I hunt big woods, many times after fly down and the gathering of the flock the group moves away from the roost site. If they're not gobbling you'll have no idea where they went. Could be a couple finger ridges over could be a quarter mile or more away.
Some times they do go quiet.....all depends on how they feel, react to coyotes around, the hens mood, other gobblers around, just on and on....you never know but one thing is certain.....turkeys being turkeys doing their thing. All we can do is roll with the flow and boy is that fun!