Field turkey question - 04/26/15
So I'm from Alabama where the terrain is rolling ridges and bottoms (we call them hollers) and you almost need a machete to hack your way through the vegetation. It's all thick stuff, kudzu, vines, pine plantations, some hardwood et cetera.
This is my first season hunting western Kentucky. After 4 days of getting my butt kicked by educated birds out at land between the lakes, I decided I'd hit up a buddies farm where he says he's got some turkeys roosted.
We setup on the edge of a grown up weedy corn field just before sunrise. About 5 minutes after sunrise I hear gobblers all down the left side of the field, all down the right side of the field, in the field behind me, and on the next farm over! Sure enough, 1 enormous Tom, 4-5 jakes, and about 8 hens fly down and link up in the middle of the field just off to our right. Then another group comes in from the adjacent farm about the same size. We sit for a while dumbfounded, and when the birds started meandering across the middle of the field about 80 yards from us, I decided to try and do a little calling with my slate just to let them know we were there. We had a jake and a hen decoyed about 30 yards from us between the turkeys and the field edge where we were setup. Very softly, I started purring and clucking. Just enough to let them know we were there. I'll be danged if I didn't hear another Tom behind us strutting and drumming! My buddy said we didn't have permission to hunt that field and not to worry about it. About 10 minutes later third group about the same size as the first too enters the field from our right.
I'm now looking at what can only be described as a field full of wild turkeys. It looked like a winter flock. There were like 8-10 gobblers I'd have been happy as a pig in [bleep] to shoot and tote over my shoulder back to the house. They couldn't have cared less about my calling, and why would they? There was like 20 hens to breed right there.
We don't hunt like this back home. I've never seen a flock of turkeys like this in the spring.
1. How do I get them away from the hens?
2. I'm considering dominant gobbler decoys with fans that move, maybe something like the primos chicken on a stick. Is this a viable strategy.
3. If none of this works does somebody have a silenced 223 or 22-250 I can borrow?
This is my first season hunting western Kentucky. After 4 days of getting my butt kicked by educated birds out at land between the lakes, I decided I'd hit up a buddies farm where he says he's got some turkeys roosted.
We setup on the edge of a grown up weedy corn field just before sunrise. About 5 minutes after sunrise I hear gobblers all down the left side of the field, all down the right side of the field, in the field behind me, and on the next farm over! Sure enough, 1 enormous Tom, 4-5 jakes, and about 8 hens fly down and link up in the middle of the field just off to our right. Then another group comes in from the adjacent farm about the same size. We sit for a while dumbfounded, and when the birds started meandering across the middle of the field about 80 yards from us, I decided to try and do a little calling with my slate just to let them know we were there. We had a jake and a hen decoyed about 30 yards from us between the turkeys and the field edge where we were setup. Very softly, I started purring and clucking. Just enough to let them know we were there. I'll be danged if I didn't hear another Tom behind us strutting and drumming! My buddy said we didn't have permission to hunt that field and not to worry about it. About 10 minutes later third group about the same size as the first too enters the field from our right.
I'm now looking at what can only be described as a field full of wild turkeys. It looked like a winter flock. There were like 8-10 gobblers I'd have been happy as a pig in [bleep] to shoot and tote over my shoulder back to the house. They couldn't have cared less about my calling, and why would they? There was like 20 hens to breed right there.
We don't hunt like this back home. I've never seen a flock of turkeys like this in the spring.
1. How do I get them away from the hens?
2. I'm considering dominant gobbler decoys with fans that move, maybe something like the primos chicken on a stick. Is this a viable strategy.
3. If none of this works does somebody have a silenced 223 or 22-250 I can borrow?