Stubborn Gobblers

[drabndouble]

Are they really stubborn , or is it just in their nature to hang up , or walk a wide circle around your set up ?
The other thread about killing turkeys without a decoy has prompted this discussion as well. At least one person mentioned using a decoy on stubborn birds . So just for the sake of conversation and exercising brain cells , what can be done with these stubborn birds , if there is no decoy to be used . How 'bout it fellers,,,,,we ain't goin' turkey hunting for a few weeks .

[superstrutter]

I think in a area where they aren't pressured hard, A decoy will help a stubborn bird relax and ride home in your truck!

[drabndouble]

But what if you had no decoy to display for relaxing ol' tom . How do we calm him down and still get him inside our guns limit ?

[letinmfly]

Sometimes being more stubborn than that tom works well.  Case in point........
A few years back I hunted one particular bird for the first two weeks of the season.  He gobbled his head off all morning, every morning.  Yet he would fly off the roost with his harem and be gone.  One morning I set up about 70 yards from where I figured they were roosted.  Sure enough he starts gobbling at blue light.  He answered every call I threw at him.
Like every other morning they flew off the roost and walked away.  As a change of plan I decided to sit there all morning.
Every 20-30 minutes I would do some soft calling.  At 11:45am, can only hunt till noon in NY, I hear a single cluck from behind me.  I slowly turn and here comes old redhead himself...at 11:50 he was flopping on the ground.  In my stubborness I sat there all morning and it paid off.

[superstrutter]

If you hunt them for days, you will figure out a new game plan on how to bust him! Calling every once in a while is a very good move, if he is hot, he will give in sooner or later!

[hunter22]

Less calling, softer calling, more leaf scratching, and more patience on a set up. If there are two of you hunting have the shooter position himself about 50 to 75 yds in front of the caller. Toughest birds I have hunted are the public land birds in Mississippi. We had two different Toms hang up last spring at 60 to 75 yds gobbling their heads off and full strutting with their beards dragging the ground in front of us for 15 minutes. Never fired a round at either bird and watched them finally walk off gobbling at every call I made.

[drabndouble]

I had a similar hunt last year L'FLY. Though it didn't go on for two weeks , I too would work on this loudmouth gobbler for 4 or 5 days . I watched hens fly clean across a big holler to him as he gobbled from the roost . He would answer my calls too. Once I kept silent as he and the hens parlayed around and went off to another ridge .Then around mid morning he returned to his place at the Head Of The Holler . He would return and then gobble . I hit a call and he cut me off . I shut up and he appeared at the top of a point . He strutted down the face of the point and gobbled a bunch . But I had sat down in the wrong spot and he slowly strutted away . Next day he came in silent from the other side . He busted me , though my movement was only my head and he was 60 yards away . After he left , I stepped it off and looked back to where I had been sitting . I had been in a dense stand of cedars , which are at the base of the point , having the side of the ridge behind me . It was like looking into a cave. I could not make out the tree I had been sitting against .
 I never killed that bird . But had some fine lessons learned . The most important being the lack of patience on my part . Tom had great patience . He waited for the hens every day .

[Porter]

One tip I've used with a lot of success, is get up and walk away calling (would not recommend this on Public Land).  I've brought many of birds in this way.  Hunter22 hit off on another tactic, leaf scratching.  I've quit calling and just went to throwing leaves and the curiosity has killed them.

Last year, I was working two birds.  Man got them coming and shut up.  We all know, less is best in most cases.  Well those birds wanted to be hammered the whole way in.  How did I know this?  Next day I went back and carried one of them out of the woods over my shoulder.  No decoys that day.  I learned and figured it was the same two birds on the farm.  I never let up.  I hammered them hard and I'm glad it worked! 

[Bulldogmikey]

Patience ALWAYS wins out!

Mike

[Zumer]

I feel experience and exposure to many gobblers will teach you what to do in a given situation. Some things work with some birds, but not with others......

      Being patient will kill ya more birds then allot of the tips and tactics combined.....If ya think, ya can't sit for another 10 mins, sit for 20.....I ALWAYS return to the roost tree area to do some soft calling.....You'd be amazed how many suborinate gobblers cruze by there after fly down......

      Learn to listen to what the woods is telling you......Hard to explain, but the seasoned turkey hunters will understand where I'm coming from.......SET-UPS are paramont to killing gobblers.....Less is more and soft is super, pertaining to calling, at least here in PA.

         Learn to understand the turkey lanqage.....practice soft calling with every tool, ya have...then practice some more..... If ya can control the call to soft call, you surely will be able to call loud, when it's needed. Calling on command without fear of a bad note is what your looking for.

          Relax and enjoy the hunt....Don't try and force things in the turkeys world. It's theirs and they will do what they want to do, when they want to.........

[Mzlhunter]

Patience, Persistence and confidence.

[SS Custom Calls]

Patience, Persistence and confidence.

 Yep, simple and effective advice!