Busting Gobblers off hens

[Double B]

I've never killed one on private, the birds were mostly on public land when I started hunting and I like the big tracts, so still prefer it.  If you do spoook a gobbler off from his hens, why wait til morning?   I'd probably let him settle down and then try to call him in right then, if it was before your 1 o'clock quit time.

[lmbhngr]

Wow!! I must be very fortunate. I hunt private land exclusively. Problem I'm having is its all getting leased out from under me.

[wvmntnhick]

Wow!! I must be very fortunate. I hunt private land exclusively. Problem I'm having is its all getting leased out from under me.

This is happening more and more every day. People are willing to pay large chunks of money to hunt and land owners are crazy not to take it. Sure sucks but if I had ground I didn't hunt and someone offered me an insane amount of money to lease it, that's cash in hand.

[THattaway]

Well I've been a member on here for a long time. One thing I see is that the apparent effort put forth to kill turkeys seems to vary a lot from area to area. Probably has more to do with the numbers of turkeys than anything else. You have to have turkeys to kill turkeys. If you are hunting an area with a great population it should come as no surprise to have great hunting. If you are hunting an area with a reduced population, for whatever reason, and a lot of hunting pressure on top of it then it seems you are going to hear a pile of "no gobbling" reports, woes and worst season ever reports. Like fishing a pond with no fish. Simple. I've hunted both public and private. Tough hunts can occur on both. On private you generally have the asset of knowing the hunting pressure but are limited by the property lines. On public you generally cannot always accurately predict hunting pressure or where it will show up but you generally have the asset of being able to seek out areas where property lines are not so much an issue. If you have a down year in overall turkey #s then public vs. private doesn't make so much a difference. This year around here toms were mostly sparse and folks on public land were more apt to bum rush any roosted tom they heard because it was probably the ONLY one they heard. I did call in  24 different jakes (still doing so as of last weekend) and I'd say that's a good thing.

[THattaway]

And I've busted toms off hens. Usually waited till fly up time and quietly slipped under the hens. Sometimes it worked like a charm. The reason I waited till fly up was to try to not spook the tom so much. Just seems to me the less you screw one up the easier he will be to fool and kill.

[TerryLNanny]

I've never killed one on private, the birds were mostly on public land when I started hunting and I like the big tracts, so still prefer it.  If you do spoook a gobbler off from his hens, why wait til morning?   I'd probably let him settle down and then try to call him in right then, if it was before your 1 o'clock quit time.

What I was talking about is usually right before dark. If you can scatter them then it's game on. 90% I've killed several this way. Classic story, busted 2 hens off a Gobbler a couple years ago down a drain, seen the Gobbler go one way, the hen's go the other. Next morning put me 2 Hen decks out, yelped a couple times, never gobbled but there he was. Pulled the trigger, click, bad shell I guess. Eased another shell in, lights out

[spaightlabs]

totally classic.

Like Sex Panther....60% of the time it works every time.

[TerryLNanny]

I am a turkey hunting fanatic, just like a lot of other's on here, which reflects back to my post and the story I just told. A lot of hunters would have seen them turkey's and said there goes a Gobbler and some hen's, including my uncle, been hunting turkey's 40 yrs. Killed 3. Hahaha!!  Just saying sometimes you got to make something happen.

[THattaway]

The trick, or luck really, is to get them separated. If they go the same way, well....

[chcltlabz]

I've killed 2 different longbeards busting up a flock and only waiting a few minutes to start calling.  Works in the fall, works in the spring.

[VaTuRkStOmPeR]

totally classic.

Like Sex Panther....60% of the time it works every time.

This is some funny chit.

There are a lot of ways to skin a cat.  One guy might prefer to separate em while another will gladly call in the whole flock. I'd rather scout the whole flock and make a play on them instead of running the risk of bumping the gobbler too far.

People try desperate things on public land to kill turkeys and sometimes it works.  Sometimes it doesn't.  No tactic is written in stone. Hence my preference is to scout, observe, roost and kill instead of introduce an uncontrolled set of variables into the situation (scattering on the roost).

Interestingly enough, the VADGIF just did a telemetry study on gobblers that were bumped off the roost and the distances they relocated.  Some relocated over 1,100 yards and the average was 350.  If you're  on a large tract of public, that may not be consequential; however, if you're on some smaller public pieces or dealing with birds living in public close to private boundaries it can be extremely significant in your ability to have a huntable turkey.

And as far as public vs private hunters..... I don't care what type of ground a guy hunts; the best turkey hunters are the guys who are consistently on birds with the opportunity to experiment with different tactics and different approaches.  Give me the guy that has killed 100 turkeys from private land in the south east, mid Atlantic or north east and I'd hunt with him any day over an exclusive public land hunter who has only killed 40.  It's all about being on birds, observing their behavior, listening to their interactions, knowing where they are in their breeding cycle and hunting a lot.

[TerryLNanny]

I'm not really interested in how far a Gobbler fly's when busted off Hens, apparently not that far,as he doesn't want to lose his hens.I have killed several this way over the years. Also it's all public hunting. All that scientific BS don't mean much to me when I've got turkey's flopping on the ground.

[silvestris]

Insofar as his technique is concerned, it can be very effective, but it can come at a cost if attempted on the same birds with regularity.  I would prefer to attempt to call a gobbler day after day until he finally succumbs.  If I find myself between a roosted gobbler and his hens and I am far enough from the gobbler, the hens are going to get scattered.  The gobbler is likely to come before the hens settle down.  However, I will only use that technique once with those birds.

[drenalinld]

I have successfully spooked hens coming to a gobbler I was working and I have had them fly right over my head directly to the gobbler when I was attempting to spook them the opposite way.