Don't be that guy........April 25th will come fast

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Originally Posted by Ata83

Thank you for the explanation, makes perfect sense. will start with a Hen decoy.

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I hunt without decoys 90% of the time.

I find that Toms are much less likely to hang up when there are no decoys used, as they have to come looking. You can throw calls back behind you to sound further away and pull that bird through. Trick is don't be calling to him when he can see your position, as you're just asking for him to pick you off. I almost always try to set up with some type of topography between me and the bird where as soon as he's in view he'll be in gun range. This will reduce the ability for him to pick you off as he won't be able to see you until the last second.

If I do run a decoy, it's always a single Jake -- I want that Tom looking for that hen.

-N.

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Originally Posted by 410001661

Remember you do not always need to call in the Tom........a hen can help you get the job done as well. My early season field set up is 2 hens and a jake. A couple of times you will see a 4-6 birds cross your field and because hens are with the Tom's and/or Jakes they will usually not pay attention to your decoys. Usually the males will not leave the hens they are with. You have two choices.......wait for them to service them and start looking again or get that hen to come to you bringing those boys into range.

I have done this several times and it is cool to watch. Start cutting to get the boss hen to respond to your calls. When she does respond back to you copy her calls note for note and watch her get agitated. When she starts cutting even try to cut her off and send it back to her with an attitude and she might come over to give that hen a piece of her mind bringing boys into range. Just be careful because when they are in range because you now have 5-6 sets of eyes watching you.

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Ha! Reminds me of a tom I was trying (and failed) to call in for a friend. With the tom hung up at about 70 yards, I kept pulling the hens in and the tom kept calling them right back. As this tug of war went back and forth, the tom's gobbles became increasingly louder and explosive. We could actually see the hens cover as he yelled at them. I now know what turkey profanity sounds like :D

great, confuse the new guy even more ... lol was watching a show last night, about decoys and said a tom or jake decoy in some cases could work against me, if the bird has recently got his kicked by a dominating tom.

is turkey calling considered hunting ? I see alot of turkey in my area, but no hunting in this area, so wondering If I can sit by their roosting tree one morning and just practice calling and bringing toms in ? without a firearms ...

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Originally Posted by Ata83

great, confuse the new guy even more ... lol was watching a show last night, about decoys and said a tom or jake decoy in some cases could work against me, if the bird has recently got his kicked by a dominating tom.

is turkey calling considered hunting ? I see alot of turkey in my area, but no hunting in this area, so wondering If I can sit by their roosting tree one morning and just practice calling and bringing toms in ? without a firearms ...

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Not to far from you, somewhere on Duffrin? You can hunt them just can't discharge firearms( bows included), often thought about sitting with a baseball bat.
That's turkey hunting there are no hard and fast rules that'll guarantee a bird. Some days you can do everything right and the bird wins others days you'll do everything wrong and still get the bird. Was kind of the story last spring for me still ended up with a couple of nice birds.
Can reads the stories here
https://www.oodmag.com/community/sho...-amp-Pics-here

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Originally Posted by finsfurfeathers

Not to far from you, somewhere on Duffrin? You can hunt them just can't discharge firearms( bows included), often thought about sitting with a baseball bat.
That's turkey hunting there are no hard and fast rules that'll guarantee a bird. Some days you can do everything right and the bird wins others days you'll do everything wrong and still get the bird. Was kind of the story last spring for me still ended up with a couple of nice birds.
Can reads the stories here
https://www.oodmag.com/community/sho...-amp-Pics-here

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AGREED, last year the birds beat me and my dad big time lol. left us going crazy every time on the way home seeing a flock of like 15 in someone's backyard LOL, seen a bunch of hens last year for the spring hunt. the toms didnt want to budge from the neighbors property when they were there, seen a couple loners while walking the property but didnt have enough time to get the gun up as they were in the most unexpected times i would see them! it would be when i was walking on a field edge or something towards my dad and i would see one just over the crest of the topography of the field maybe 20 yards away, by the time i can tell its a male its already flopping and up in the air lol. hopefully this year is the year!

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Originally Posted by Ata83

great, confuse the new guy even more ... lol was watching a show last night, about decoys and said a tom or jake decoy in some cases could work against me, if the bird has recently got his kicked by a dominating tom.

is turkey calling considered hunting ? I see alot of turkey in my area, but no hunting in this area, so wondering If I can sit by their roosting tree one morning and just practice calling and bringing toms in ? without a firearms ...

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There is nothing illegal about that - photographers do it all the time to get a bird in nice and close for the shot (errrrrr.....photo).

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Originally Posted by Ata83

I see alot of turkey in my area, but no hunting in this area, so wondering If I can sit by their roosting tree one morning and just practice calling and bringing toms in ? without a firearms ...

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Originally Posted by 410001661

There is nothing illegal about that - photographers do it all the time to get a bird in nice and close for the shot (errrrrr.....photo).

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Might get dinged by a CO for harassing wildlife....but unless someone calls and complains, chances of a CO catching you would be slim.

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Originally Posted by MikePal

Might get dinged by a CO for harassing wildlife....but unless someone calls and complains, chances of a CO catching you would be slim.

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is calling in a turkey harassing wildlife tho ?

“worry, exhaust, fatigue, annoy, plague, pester, tease or torment” an animal.

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Originally Posted by Bowjob

is calling in a turkey harassing wildlife tho ?

“worry, exhaust, fatigue, annoy, plague, pester, tease or torment” an animal.

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Guess it depends how bad your calling is.

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Originally Posted by MikePal

Might get dinged by a CO for harassing wildlife....but unless someone calls and complains, chances of a CO catching you would be slim.

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It be a hard sell for a CO to charge you with harassing wildlife for talking sexy to a turkey. Busting a roost, chasing birds out of a field would be inline of the harassing definition.