Why did this happen?

[wisconsinteacher]

I was working a bird and as I was moving on him, he gobbled very close just over a hill.  I sat down and never heard from him again.  I am guessing I bumped him.  As I was walking back to the truck, I heard 3 toms gobble about 125 yards from me.  They were over a hill so I stood still for a few minutes to see what was going to happen.  They gobbled again 2 more times so I decided to sneak to a tree and set up.  I know they could not see me or hear me.  After I called, they never made another sound.  My question is, why does this happen and where do they go?  Things like this drive me crazy and make me wonder if I was making the gobbles up in my head.  (I didn't because my buddy was there and heard them also.)

[J. Adams]

Has happened to me before, I got a feeling those turkeys read your mind and knew you were out to get em!



Seriously, there aint no telling, they we just being turkeys, I would be back in there as soon as I could and set up where they were hanging out and do some light occasional calling and lots of waiting but ready waiting.

[mikejd]

That exact scenario happens to almost every turkey I have encountered in the last 10 yrs.
Here is my theory. In nature the hen is supposed to go to the g obbler.
right. So once you make a call and he gobbles in essence that should be it.
a hen would know were the sound was and make her way over to him.
I believe that a gobbler knows that the sounds he makes will bring danger of all sorts
from predators to crazy people in camo. So like I said he goes silent until a hen shows up.
only accasionally do we actually defy nature and get a tom.to go to a hen.
Then we win the game.

[mikejd]

Also another possibility is that that gobbler was with hens and as soon as he answered you
she leads him away. (Its turkey jealousy).

[SCGobbler]

I have run into situations like.

It was explained to me simply one time.  If you call to a gobbler that is gobbling his head off and you call and he stops, then he is more than likely expecting you to come to him.

This is the part where patience plays.  Once this happens you have 2 choices, move and bump him or sit tight.  He knows your there and after a period of time of him waiting on you and you not showing up, he may come looking for you.

The key to this is that he will come on his own time, not yours.  You are in his living room and he knows exactly where you are.  Give him time and I bet he shows up; on his own time again, not yours!

[Gumby]

I have run into situations like.

It was explained to me simply one time.  If you call to a gobbler that is gobbling his head off and you call and he stops, then he is more than likely expecting you to come to him.

This is the part where patience plays.  Once this happens you have 2 choices, move and bump him or sit tight.  He knows your there and after a period of time of him waiting on you and you not showing up, he may come looking for you.

The key to this is that he will come on his own time, not yours.  You are in his living room and he knows exactly where you are.  Give him time and I bet he shows up; on his own time again, not yours!

Bingo, we have a winner


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[SCGobbler]

Thanks Gumby... now if I can just remember that myself come next season!

It's easier said than done, but he asked!

[trackerbucky]

Agreed.  That's the time to hit him with your best double barrel dose of silence and patience.

[bigdoc]

It sounds like they are call shy to me. Patience and if that dont work, he may come right in on another day, sometimes you just need to catch them in another frame of mind.Good luck!

[GobbleNut]

Anybody that tells you they have not had this happen to them either hasn't hunted spring gobblers much, or hunts in turkey utopia.  This happens everywhere that there is enough hunting pressure that the birds have enough negative encounters with hunters to learn,...yes, that's right,..."learn",..to avoid turkey calling. 

That's not to say that every gobbler that does this is doing so because they have been negatively reinforced to avoid calling,...there may be other reasons for it.  But call avoidance is very real,...and it is a likely reason for your birds acting the way they did.

[Lukas929]

I don't believe in the call shy business, all turkey are social animals all year long. If you are making good sounds there is no reason for him to be shy of your calling. I hunt heavily pressured public birds an this does happen, sometimes it's because something scared them, sometimes it's because hens came to him, sometimes it's because he's a mature bird that isn't as likely to come to a call because he's so used to hens coming to him, their is many different reasons for this happening. I've had them go silent after calling to them, I wait for a half hour an nothing happens so I get inpatient an walk a quarter mile to call in a different location an I will get him to gobble in the spot I just left, this has happened multiple times, patience is key. Just my .02

[Lukas929]

Btw I am in WI too, I shot one in green lake county an another in outagamie county this year

[Spitten and drummen]

A old timer once told me when i was really young " thats a turkey being a turkey." Just gotta keep
On him until he makes a mistake. They just do whatever they feel like at the time.

[Gooserbat]

I for one buy into the jealous hen theory, but there a many factors

[Lukas929]

Hens can maybe get jealous but they also most of the time come to check you out an see where you stand in the pecking order. Just two days ago I called a tom from 300 yards away when he got to 150 two hens came out by him in the plowed field an together they dusted an the tom stayed fanned out always watching my direction after about 40 minutes of calling sparingly with a hen decoy out I had one of the hens come to within 5 yards of me puttin around for 5 minutes eventually going into woods behind me, another 45 min later I got the other hen to within 40 yards an the tom stayed back to about 50-60 before the hen busted me moving an they both flew off. So the jealous hen theory in my book is also trash, sometimes sure but more times then not them hens come to check me out.