A Heaping Pile of Regret!

[Hunter John]

Great video and hunt none the less.

[Monster29/66]

Range Finders are for pussies.
Or bow hunters.
;-)
I'm neither. No, but seriously, had he come 5ft closer we'd have been "OH! He's right there!" Where he was just tricked both of us.



Otto11 was on the gun, I was on the camera. The twigs weren't as bad as the camera made them seem. I don't think i'd have been very concerned with them even shooting my 20ga.



This was our thoughts. Less about the toms and more about keeping that hen engaged and upset about this mystery hen on her turf. There were other jakes and toms nearby too, so there was always a possibility that keeping her angry would bring in more.

It happens, hind sight is 20 / 20.

if I can offer a couple pointers.

place your tom out 20 yards looking back at the blind and the hen deke about 12 yards in between you.

the calling in close was unnessary, sounds like you guys where using a box call.. Learn to master te mouth call, use a slate and softer purrs when birds are inside 100 yards to seal the deal. The tone of your calls was confrontation not reassurance to those birds.

100% when a hen comes into your set up DO NOT CALL. She will lead other birds away everytime.

The best scenario is she gets disinterested and leaves, the Toms follow behind check out your set up. If she's the boss hen there is a 99% chance she would of been first hen bred off the roost in the morn and those 2 looking for w new hen.

I have no idea how many doubles we've pulled off over the last decade, but I do know what works and what doesn't from experience.

Good luck 2017...

[Articcat]

Great video, it's what you call a learning experience, we have all been there.
You said you paced out to 30yds but you got caught up in the excitement but it was still a great encounter with the birds it teaches what not to do next time.

[wolf]

I have good luck with setting distance markers pre-season

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[perrysbirds]

Good video for sure.....I would like to say I think the two longbeards would have come close enough for a shot if you would have had just the single hen decoy.....I know that people have success with strutter decoys but I really believe it makes more toms hang up....its kinda like going out to a bar and seeing a beautiful woman that you wanna talk too but then you see her big boyfriend....I think thats what happened in your situation....Just my thoughts....if I was going to use a decoy setup Id use a jake with a hen in the breeding position.....Good luck this spring...

[Sterrr]

I have found that my Jake decoy has scared off as many Turkeys as it has lured one in. That's with a Jake with a small 1 inch beard. I think your decoy kept those 2 Toms at a distance from you.

[Oddmott]

Gotta agree with you guys about that motion-tail jake. I'm not sure why toms react that way to it... but it certainly hasn't helped us get any birds in close. We even went to the effort of putting a real jake tail on it, hoping the realism would help... but there's been no noticeable effect.

He's also a pain in the to haul around. lol
I'm probably just going to invest in a top quality hen and even then most likely hunt without decoys.

[buckchaser]

Great footage

I'll echo what others have said - my rangefinder has saved my behind on more than one turkey hunt. It's very easy to range trees/rocks around your set up (even if you set up quickly on a gobbling bird). I find birds always look closer than they actually are, especially in open areas. My last miss (in 2016) was on a longbeard that was departing the scene - I thought he was 45 meters, more like 60 meters plus and I shot right under him.

I also use the pot calls (usually slate, but have aluminum and crystal too) for the "tight work". Slate excels at quiet purrs and clucks, which is all you really need to get at that range. The vast majority of my birds in recent years have met their demise from my slate call.

Sometimes nothing works. If the hen(s) decide to move on, often the best calling in the world won't make the toms commit.

[Turkeyjohn]

Great video and any turkey hunter that hasn't made mistakes is either a liar or not done much turkey hunting to start with. The only thing that I do is when I'm staking my decoys, I'll range them and put out no further that 15 yards, but I also try to find brush or sticks that I range out that are further out. And, when I say range, no rangefinder, I just pace it off and "ballpark" the range....

So far so good...

Great video regardless, victory in itself,

TurkeyJohn

[Oddmott]

I keep watching this vid and it's just ramping my trigger finger itch to all-time high levels.

Unbelievably stoked to get cracking on this season's turkey hunt.

The winter flocks on our land(s) disappeared over a month ago, but there's been the odd sighting of a pair of toms here and there.
On our snowshoe hikes I've seen carcasses from 6 mature birds, just in February... and that's just in a small section of bush that the kids can manage to walk through. I'm sure the coyote carnage has been pretty devastating this winter. Not hopeful that we'll have plentiful flocks, nor vocal toms, again this season.

Oh well, just means a more engaged and educational hunt!