Where did they go???

[wisconsinteacher]

Last Friday I called in 2 singles, a group of 3 and had one tom gobbling from a distance.  No shots were fired and no birds left putting or running away.  The next day, the distant gobbler was called in and shot by my buddy.  As we walked out of the woods the group of 3 fired up and we got out of the area.  Now the last few days, we have not seen a tom.  No one else has hunted the area so the question is, where did they go and would you stick with the area that had 5 toms less than a week ago?

[870FaceLift]

It is crazy how they come and go, but don't give up on a traditionally good spot.  We have a good spot like that on our farm.  I harvested a tom there on opening day, saw a few turkeys there over the next few days (uncallable), then went around ten days with nothing out there.  Went back out Sunday and there were two toms and three hens there.

[wisconsinteacher]

I should add that there are a few hens still in the area.  I saw 2 last night and my buddy saw 1 on his drive to work this morning. 

[wvmntnhick]

The small chunk of private ground I've hunted the past couple of years has been great. This year, it's a complete dud. I've been asking myself the same thing almost every day I've been over there.

[THattaway]

They always start to roam when hens go to nesting. A spot hunted 5 days straight wouldn't surprise me with the results you are seeing though.

[wisconsinteacher]

I agree with the 5 day strait comment, but last night was only the second time on this big hill.  The first time was Friday and Saturday the distant tom was shot about 3/4 mile away. 

[Greg Massey]

Opening day in Tenn was the same. I think the gobblers and hens were hearing a different sound of people calling and i took a nice bird. After opening weekend it's all quite for almost 2 weeks. I just keep going and seeing jakes and a lot of hens. Last week i took another gobble that was all fired up and yesterday i took one of my best gobblers ever. We are just over 28 days into our season now.. We had a early warm spell and a early green up and i think this also hurt our opening day. The gobbler that i killed yesterday only gobble 3 times from daylight until i pulled the trigger on him at 11 clock he had a hen with him. I have one tag left in Tenn. We have a 4 tag limit.

[Bill Cooksey]

If you hunt all season long, it's a rare season there won't be a lull. I'm talking "I think the turkeys all crawled in a hole and died" lull. They're still there (barring outside influence such as bait on a neighbor or intense poaching), and they'll come out of it. In the meantime, you can either sit in a likely spot and wait or start covering ground hoping to find one coming out of the lull. As others mentioned, late morning is often a good time to focus on the latter.

[870FaceLift]

If you hunt all season long, it's a rare season there won't be a lull. I'm talking "I think the turkeys all crawled in a hole and died" lull. They're still there (barring outside influence such as bait on a neighbor or intense poaching), and they'll come out of it. In the meantime, you can either sit in a likely spot and wait or start covering ground hoping to find one coming out of the lull. As others mentioned, late morning is often a good time to focus on the latter.

100%

[silvestris]

They probably got together and discussed where Leroy might have gone; "this ain't like him".  They will soon forget about Leroy and all will be well again.

[wisconsinteacher]

So I went a little deeper last night to find them and as I was getting close to the tree I wanted to set up next to, I busted 2 toms that were 40 yards from the tree just over the rise.