Hunted Sunday morning in the stretch of woods that have had a couple of close opportunities. Got in early and realized left my pack up the logging road a bit proceeded to shift off the trail( wasn't using light) next thing I heard were wings flapping hunted till 11 heard no gobbles or anything for that matter. How long do you thik the birds will return to this area was still dark enough for a light when i busted em????
There's no hard answer to that one. May be tomorrow or may be weeks. If they aren't hunted much I would say sooner than later. Things bust them off the roost more than we know. If they got a positive ID on you then it matters a little more. But you will never know that one.
Good luck.
If it was that dark then the bird probably didn't go far. He is probably still in the area, he was just tight lipped that day. Only way to know for sure is to keep hunting!
Couple of weeks ago I was walking up a logging road in the dark and busted some birds off the roost that were roosted right along the road. Continued up the road in the dark another 200 yds. Gobbler sounded off just 50 yds off the road. Found the best tree I could quickly and setup. Watched him and a jake on the limb for an hour and finally flew down right where I wanted. Was working in to me, and I whiffed the shot at 40 yds. The next day the birds were in the same area, but I couldn't get as close and they shut up and went with hens after flying down. These were semi-pressured public birds.