Home Forums Birds & Dogs Turkey Hunting Toms hung up - what now..?

Had 3 toms around me this morning, out about 70 yards.

All of them were following hens around, and the hens had the toms full attention...

What do I do now..? Seems like the Toms would follow the hens off a cliff. Is it possible to call hens in..?

You using decoys?

One Hen decoy, forgot to mention that...

Never killed a turkey, not the greatest caller.

I use a slate call. Can yelp, purr, and cluck(sometimes..)

Come back at noon or 2:00 and call from the same spot. The Tom knows you were there this morning.

Also, about 9:30 we ALL got busted by the rancher checking his cows. Turkeys went running everywhere...

I've killed a many of them with hens, but it is a hard sell to pull the lead hen in. More times than not, she will shy away from the competition and take the tom with her. I've had the hen get pissed and come to cutting, so I usually get real aggresive on a henned up tom. Like I said, it's hard to get a henned up tom, but not impossible. Being where they want to be is the easiest way, but few toms will leave a hen in sight for one they hear in the distance. A jake decoy will sometimes do it as well. I've had henned up toms leave the flock to whip a jake decoy many times, but it doesn't work every time. OTOH decoys can also push them away. I prob kill more with no decoy at all.

The short story is there's really no sure fire answer to your question. The good thing is you are on birds and persistence will win if you hang with them.

Good Luck,

loder

I wouldnt worry about turkeys getting busted by anything, it happens all the time and they'll go right back to doing what turkeys do when things settle back down.

The only time I've had much luck pulling the tom is that was with hens was if one of the hens was real aggressive. You can usually tell this before you see here anyway. She'll answer your callse and sometimes come looking for you.

I have had it work twice when there was a tom with her. At least once a season I call in a hen that is pissed off at me.

I don't have a lot of luck with the dekes...I don't know if it's my set up or what. I usually put out one feeding or two feedeing. EVERY time I've used a tom/jake deke I've scared birds with it. Or they come in and hang up.

Realoder7m gave you some sound advice. It's tough going when they're with the laides already.

I've got a video somewhere of a hen that came in to our calls and totally attacked our hen decoy. My pard is an excellent caller so he mimicked her just a little louder than she was. Passed her off to no end. The gobbler finally moved in after seeing two hens fighting over him!

Found it.

If it happens consistantly, the fix is to step up to the 10 gauge.

I had one hang up Saturday and after an hour he started to leave. I flipped my mouth call over and gobbled at him, here he came nearly at a sprint.

Finally got one within range...

Thanks for all the advice...

I'm envious.

I haven't heard gobble one, yet.

Has been a pretty fun experience. Where I hunt, turkeys haven't always been here. They've moved in in the last 10 years or so. Finally this year we thought the numbers were such that we thought we'd try shooting a couple.

There's 2 or 3 older Toms that we've seen and haven't been able to get close to and a few other jakes running around. Should be able to sustain a decent population, I hope..

They sure are pretty when they're all strutting around a hen.


Gonna cook some of the breast tonight, probably prepare it like chicken strips...

Any tricks or recipes you folks like when preparing turkey that way..?

Cut it in strips then marinate it for 1/2 hr or so. Grill it about 2 minutes per side on med. Don't overcook

This.

Wife uses Italian dressing.

And we got turkeys around - Seen one Tom on the driveway week before last, and hens walking through the fields.

Must be the Toms are too busy to go out looking for ak-shun.

Tastes like chicken.!