Roosted Gobbler Attack Plan

[Happy]

I won't ever pass up an opportunity to be out at daylight listening. However, I very seldom roost turkeys, so if I am with 200 yards of him by flydown time, I am good with it. In my neck of the woods, he is gonna have hens almost every time, so I have to play the patient game and get inside his wheelhouse before I can do much. I have killed a few back in the day right off the roost, but unless you are really tight to him, it probably ain't gonna happen. And not to be a better-than-you elitist, something about sneaking in under a roosted gobbler and shooting him as soon as his feet hit the ground doesn't excite me. I want to play the game,  and if I am successful, I typically will kill him between 9 and noon.

[austinc]

3 of the 5 birds I saw die last year, were killed within 15 minutes of fly down, 2 of them under 5 minutes of fly down. All 3 of them we setup within 60 yards of them on the limb and got to watch them strut, gobble and drum, right at fly down time hit them with soft tree yelps and shut up. The 2 pitched down and came strutting in, the other actually pitched down and went 100 yards to our right to where a hen was roosted, she got talkative,  we got talkative back and her and another hen brought him to 15 yards of the barrel.  All 3 hunts were in the woods. The other 2 birds I saw die one was 3:00 in the afternoon in a cut corn field, the other was at 10:00 in the morning after his hens left. I heard him on the limb early and never heard another gobble out of him after fly down until 9:50, he gobbled 200ish yards down the ridge, I moved about 100 yards, yelped couple times and he was in sight strutting in just a minute, watched him for 4-5 minutes before he was in shotgun range.

I wish all hunts were quick off the limb hunts, they sure are exciting! But if I have to spend the day with um I will. Really learned over the last couple years, patience is best way to kill a gobbler.

[Tom007]

Fantastic info, thank you.......

[Zobo]

I would say my "killing time" generally runs from about an hour after sunrise to about three hours after sunrise.

Agreed

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Me too, 90% of mine taken in this time period

[Bowguy]

I get a bunch closer. I can almost always see them. This video is how I often set. It's filmed with a zoom but I don't often kill em within 15-20 mins daylight. At times they're feet hit the ground and the gun cracks. I don't get much time in the morning with work.  Tom I pm you

https://youtu.be/kng-mapqNfA

[Tom007]

I get a bunch closer. I can almost always see them. This video is how I often set. It's filmed with a zoom but I don't often kill em within 15-20 mins daylight. At times they're feet hit the ground and the gun cracks. I don't get much time in the morning with work.  Tom I pm you

https://youtu.be/kng-mapqNfA

Great video Mike, thx for sharing.....

[ScottTaulbee]

Personally, when I hear a gobbler on the roost, I'll slip in to about 80 to 100 yards of them. I hunt a lot of mountains and like to get up above them on the top. They're typically on the side, down a piece. I wait until it's legal shooting light and throw a few of my regular yelps his way. If he gobbles back at me, I'll typically give a series of 3 or 4 cutts and a couple yelps. If that fires him up, I'll cut him off mid gobble with a couple more cutts, 4 or 5 yelps and I'm done. That typically does the work for me, after fly down if he's coming, I'll cock my head to opposite side of the mountain that he's on and cast a couple yelps over there, sort of over my shoulder, and when he comes looking for that hen he gets some 5's.


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[zelmo1]

If I can roost a bird and know his flydown pattern, its pretty much like what you have read above. I like to get in close and very early, 75 yards and an hour before flydown. I actually use a goose call to get a shock gobble. Too many people squawking with owl calls and crow calls. I usually put out a hen and jake and try to get at a 45 degree angle from my decoy. Soft tree yelps when he fires up, then go quiet till flydown and give him a flydown cackle and wing beats. Once he flies down, I let him know where I am and then shut up. From there, he dictates the conversation.  Roosted aint roasted. Z

[Kylongspur88]

Here's another point to make. If for some reason you don't kill him early off the roost hang out in that area or maybe go to another spot and come back to where you were at fly down. It's no guarantee but by mid morning he's probably bred hens and will be by himself and he might come back to where he heard a hen earlier. The biggest issue with this for me is being able to stay put when I could possibly move and strike up another bird. But in a lot of cases he'll come back when his hens leave. Just another approach to roosted birds

[Tom007]

Very good points here, thank you

[WV Flopper]

 There are several factors that play into my approach in calling too/at a roosted turkey and killing him quick.

What time of the breeding season is it?
Is this 2-3-more roosted 2 year old Tom's?
Is there a couple/flock of hens with this tom?
Jake with the Tom?
Jake's adjacent too the tom?

Best case scenario is 2-3 two year olds first part of season without hens. "Light it up none stop calling" make them holler

2nd, third week of season lone Tom, be adaptable to the tolerance of the Tom and previous pressure. But I will call often and aggressive at this point early to a tom.

3rd if a tom and hens first part of season I will play it light and wait a little, maybe half an hour after fly down start playing rough

Jake's.....if with a tom not a problem, give them the treatment. Adjacent too the tom by a distance over calling "ME" will bring the Jake's in a hurry. You'll be lucky to get the tom dead first before they run him off.

My point, there is not one way. And, "I" do not like to call much at all to a bird on the limb. When he hits the ground I start working .

I have killed some right off the limb, usually third week of season or two, two year olds together and they are racing each other to see who can be the first place loser. When you can make three or four soft clucks and have one land in range you've done well.

I don't like getting within my eyesight of them. This varies, could be three hundred yards, could be 100 yards. But, seldom am I within 100 yards of a roosted turkey. If I can see them, they already seen me most likely. Very few of the turkeys I hunt gobble in the dark, some do, but I haven't been blessed many times with that turkey.

Good luck and write down what the birds teach you.

[Tom007]

Great info.....

[WV Flopper]

 I will add.....my calling to much is by my perception. I think I call a lot. You hear me and might think I don't call enough, or, am just plan wearing a call out.

That's left up to individual interpretation I guess. I like to call, I'll leave it at that. If not I would just carry a 22-250 and shoot him off the limb and be done with it. There's a pile of them killed in WV ever year like that

[Kyle_Ott]

I come at this from a different perspective from most who have replied to this post.

For the last 15+ years we have spent a considerable amount of time roosting turkeys the evening before.
In scenarios where I have a roosted gobbler, that turkey dies 70% of the time.

The biggest key in my opinion is being extremely tight.  Although terrain and habitat will always make "tight" a relative thing, generally speaking 125 yards isn't even in the right universe.  100 yards is in the wrong area code. 80 and closer is when things start to shift in your favor.

The obvious key to success is leveraging darkness as your primary asset to move in tight.  I prefer to be sitting 60-80 yards from the roosted gobbler for at least an hour before light is up especially when I'm moving in on a gobbler on a new piece of ground or area I'm totally unfamiliar with.  You want to give yourself plenty of time to move under the cover of darkness which means your alarm needs to go off 2 hours before most turkey hunters are even considering getting out of bed.

The next consideration when you're that tight to a turkey is whether you can see him in the roost or not.  Most of the time, especially in the early/mid season, you're going to be looking at the gobbler in the tree.  Calling at that point is not an option (if you hunt without decoys)  If youve executed your set up correctly, there's a good chance the gobbler flies down inside gun range.  If he doesn't fly down within gun range, you're often so tight to him that calling him the final few yards after he flies down is a relatively simple task.  Lastly, if for some reason the set up isn't conducive to calling him inside gun range at that point, you're in a superior position to crawl/move to a new location and kill him from there. 

There is a large contingent of turkey hunters who will tell you killing turkeys consistently off the roost is a low percentage thing.  I'm here to tell you it isn't and I can give you names of a handful of guys who execute with scalpel like precision to carry gobblers out within seconds/minutes of those turkeys hitting the ground.

[Tom007]

I come at this from a different perspective from most who have replied to this post.

For the last 15+ years we have spent a considerable amount of time roosting turkeys the evening before.
In scenarios where I have a roosted gobbler, that turkey dies 70% of the time.

The biggest key in my opinion is being extremely tight and tight can be relative to terrain and habitat but generally speaking 125 yards isn't even in the right universe.  100 yards is in the wrong area code. 80 and closer is when things start to shift in your favor.

The obvious key to success is leveraging darkness as your primary asset to move in tight.  I prefer to be sitting 60-80 yards from the roosted gobbler for at least an hour before light is up especially when I'm moving in on a gobbler on a piece of ground or area I'm totally unfamiliar with.  You want to give yourself plenty of time to move under the cover of darkness which means your alarm needs to go off 2 hours before most turkey hunters are even considering getting out of bed.

The next consideration when you're that tight to a turkey is whether you can see him in the roost or not.  Most of the time, especially in the early/mid season, you're going to be looking at the gobbler in the tree.  Calling at that point is not an option (if you hunt without decoys)  If youve executed your set up correctly, there's a good chance the gobbler flies down inside gun range.  If he doesn't fly down within gun range, you're often so tight to him that calling him the final few yards after he flies down is a relatively simple task.  Lastly, if for some reason the set up isn't conducive to calling him inside gun range at that point, you're often in superior position to crawl/move to a new location and kill him from there. 

There is a large contingent of turkey hunters who will tell you killing turkeys consistently off the roost is a low percentage thing.  I'm here to tell you it isn't and I can give you names of a handful of guys who execute with scalpel like precision to carry gobblers out within seconds/minutes of those turkeys hitting the ground.

Great info, thx