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Gobbling?

catman529

catman529

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How are the birds vocalizing in your area... name the county...

Going on yet another 2 day trip sunday thru early monday afternoon. Hoping to get a chance at #4. Being my last bird for the spring I want him to be a longbeard and would like to get a show from him or have him come to my homemade tube call. But that's beside the point... I am just wanting to get an idea if I should put much time into listening or if they are going quiet in some areas and I should run n gun more. They also tend to disappear or at least shut up on public land as the season gets older. And having a known roosting area where birds always fly down onto private land has been frustrating. So what's the report for your area on gobbling, on the roost and on the ground?
 
Southern Middle TN this past week: 5-15 gobbles on limb between 5:40 and 6:30 if I was lucky and close enough to hear them. 10-20 mph winds at daylight with excess foliage as we have now does not help any. Virtually no gobbling on ground.
 
We were at Chuck Swan Thur and Fri and never heard a bird. We left yesterday and hunted my lease in Morgan county last night and this am. Heard 2 around daylight, got set up and never heard or seen them again.
 
Hunted with a bud in Haywood county this morning (SW TN). No gobbles at daylight (wind a constant 10-20 mph did not help matters). After walking 2-3 miles trying to hear a gobble, we managed to slip up on one in a disced field at 7:30. He was about 70 yards when I first saw him on a dead walk toward the woods we were in, but angling away from us. The wind was a howling, about 20+ mph at eye level. He slipped out of the field and into the woods about 120 yards from us and we called him up to 70 or so in the woods before he had enough and just turned and eased off. He never gobbled or strutted while we could see him. I am pretty sure the gale force winds had him nervous as a cat on a tin roof.
 
I'm Morgan. Multiple places. Out of 12 hunts I've only heard 10. Different birds. 7 of the birds never gobbled on the ground. 2 of the 3 birds that were on the ground only gobbled once. The one bird that gobbled good I killed. Out of the 12 hunts 8 hunts have been long days of silence birds. Not one gobble including today.
Worst gobbling year for me ever.
 
had several gobbling on the roost and 2 on the ground coming our way til that hen took them the other way. roane county
 
Got to go about noon today. New where three been hanging out so i eased into the area. Alot of people hate the wind but i absolutely love it. I knew they would be close so i clucked three times on a mouth call and 1 then another and then another head craned up from the tall grass at about thirty yards. i got the gun on them but was waiting to see a beard but there heads were very big so i knew that was the three gobblers i was looking for but for some reason i waited. They looked for about twenty seconds and went back into the grass and started walking away. I made a big loop and got in front of them and sure nuff they were three longbeards but they passed too far. Showed no desire in any calling whatso ever.
 
Marshall County. I have heard maybe 5 gobbles in 10 hunts on our lease. Nearly all of those have been from the roost. Once on the ground, they get very shy!
My suspicion: If you have ever hunted Marshall County, you know there are turkeys all over the county! People riding up and down the roads see the birds out in the fields. They stop to look and get out their calls and go to town. Most of these folks have probably never called a bird to the end of a barrel in their lifetime. They went to Wal Mart and bought a ten dollar slate or a three dollar diaphragm, and they think they are an expert caller. On our lease, they are everywhere. Ride down the roads and you see turkeys in the fields from daylight to evening. Our birds on the lease are very skiddish. I was riding by one of the fields last weekend, saw a hen and a tom. I slowed down (didnt stop) to look and the tom ran as fast as he could run. The hen laid down. I simply slowed to look. Didnt make a sound.
The birds have their masters in people avoidance by now.

It a totally different kind of hunting now than it was three weeks ago. You gotta adjust your tactics to outsmart 'em.
 
Knothead said:
Marshall County. I have heard maybe 5 gobbles in 10 hunts on our lease. Nearly all of those have been from the roost. Once on the ground, they get very shy!
My suspicion: If you have ever hunted Marshall County, you know there are turkeys all over the county! People riding up and down the roads see the birds out in the fields. They stop to look and get out their calls and go to town. Most of these folks have probably never called a bird to the end of a barrel in their lifetime. They went to Wal Mart and bought a ten dollar slate or a three dollar diaphragm, and they think they are an expert caller. On our lease, they are everywhere. Ride down the roads and you see turkeys in the fields from daylight to evening. Our birds on the lease are very skiddish. I was riding by one of the fields last weekend, saw a hen and a tom. I slowed down (didnt stop) to look and the tom ran as fast as he could run. The hen laid down. I simply slowed to look. Didnt make a sound.
The birds have their masters in people avoidance by now.

It a totally different kind of hunting now than it was three weeks ago. You gotta adjust your tactics to outsmart 'em.
Click to expand...

I hunt Marshall as-well and I would agree that you are spot on with your comments.
 
we only heard one gobble on the roost off in the distance. we had several hens roosted around us but the boys weren't there this morning.
 
Hunted saturday afternoon and had 2 birds gobble back after cutting. One was cut me off every time while the other was occasionally gobbling back. So we went after the hot one. We left the field we were in and went to the top of the hollar he was in. He had to of gobbled every minute or two. I tried soft calling and aggressive, and being silent he just kept gobbling down in the bottom for over an hour. We couldn't get any closer cause the leaves were so crunchy. He finally went silent for about 10 minutes and we kept waiting for him to pop up over the hill. After not seeing or hearing him I called softly and he gobbled 30 yards right behind us. I have no idea how he got behind us but we let him walk even with us before we could turn he made that alert cluck and my buddy swung around fast and hammered him. It was one of the best hunts this year for sure. This was in Dickson county
 
Wearing it out on the roost... I had one Saturday morning that gobbled 10 or 15 times.... I was probably 50 yds from him & I made a couple soft yelps... He cut me off two times....
Right before flydown I heard some yelps coming from the ridge below him.... Apprently the hens were more appealing than me because once he hit the ground, he shut up and went straight toward the other yelps......

This is in Cocke County... I have hunted 8 or 10 times this year & this was the first gobble I've heard.....
 

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