Ok, i'm still a novice at turkeys, and i made a novice mistake this morning. Would like to hear some opinions. Here's the situation and what happened:
Small parcel about 30acres (that I can hunt), the whole block of woods is probably 250-300acres between a lake and houses. To my knowledge, NO-ONE turkey hunts it besides me so I'm pretty sure this is the only pressure the birds have seen all year.
First time on the property this morning, and could only hunt until 8am.
Didn't hear any birds on the roost, so I got up and made my way toward a private field that I cannot hunt so see if I could see anything in the field. (I know I should've scouted before the season, BUT I did not get permission to hunt it until a few days ago)..
The field is not visible from the woods, so I stop near the property line and call with series of agressive cutts and yelps. Immediately one hammers back at about 100yds toward the field. So I drop my stuff and start looking around for a tree to setup on. A minute goes by and I plain yelp one more time and TWO gobble back, and they're a little closer, so I start to setup (that was my mistake, should've already been setup after I heard them the first time)... and as i'm on my knees about to sit down I see them and one sees me at the same time and starts putting and walking off slowly. You guys probably know what I was thinking after that one!!
Anyway, I let them walk off a little ways and cutt one more time on the mouth call and they both gobbled back. I only had about 30 more minutes to hunt so I just backed out and came to work. Pretty sure only one of them saw me.
SO.... my thinking is maybe try to get back after them in the next few days? I've not had enough experience with spooked turkeys to know how it will affect them in the future (I've only turkey hunted 3 years and killed 3 so far). I come from a deer hunting back ground, and typically if I spook a deer from a certain spot I'll wait quite a few days before I hunt the area again. And with being a smallish area, I don't want to impact the birds.
What say you???
Thanks
If he didnt run off or fly off he might not know exactly what you where just that something was different i would go back to the same area and set up. they know there was a hen there so most likely once they cool off a bit they wont even remeber you where there just try to get back in there quitely
Go back. Don't call like a turkey until you are ready to kill. That will have no effect on them a day later. Probably not an hour later.
Quote from: drenalinld on April 24, 2014, 10:19:30 AM
.....Don't call like a turkey until you are ready to kill.....
this was the lesson from today!! i will never forget it. definitely didn't come away from this short hunt empty handed.
a locator call will help alot when your on the move ive learned this alot this week ive been in the woods for the past 3 days chaseing one bird been hunting him for 3 years and on tuesday i was the closest ive ever been but he busted me while i was setting up i thought he was down in the clear cut trying to locate the jake that was gobbling but i called with a few yelps he gobbled and i started to set up as i was setting my decoy down he came running right at me and if i had located him with a crow call and not the yelps i belive my 3 year hunt for him would be over... lesson learned...
I think you can go back and get a chance at one of them. Heck, if you had the time, you might have gave them an hour to calm down and found them gobbling again.
Don't worry too much about the goof. I did the exact same thing Sunday afternoon and I've been doing this for 15 or 16 seasons! I stuck with it and ended up killing a different tom a few hours later.
Leave um alone for the day and go find another bird unless it's the only birds around for miles if that's the case then sit back take a nap and let things calm down for a while then do some late morning mating calls and be ready.
Thanks guys. Hope to try again tomorrow morning or within a few days.
Give em a couple days and hes yours after that. :OGturkeyhead:
Not to worry, they see things and get bumped around all the time, the fact that they gobbled to you after the fact means you did not do to much harm. get after them
I love to run and gun... Biggest lesson I have learned doing this, is to never try to call and elicit a gobble unless I am next to a tree or good hide... Too many times I have called to elicit that distant gobble, and there is a bird near by, with no way for me to make cover.
Another lesson, is that when I do stop to call, I might try a couple different calls, and wait a minute or so, and give one last call before moving on.
I do not care to cross open areas at all, but if I have to, I certainly try calling first, and use some binoculars to make sure I am not scaring off the birds I am chasing.
You might want to try a different sounding call, than the one he got spooked on.
Don't make a turkey call unless you have a good spot to set-up already picked out. They ought to print that on the back of the call packages.