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Killing birds after flydown?

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nate17

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For whatever reason, I suck at calling birds off the roost and killing them. I think 2 of the twenty or so birds I have called in or killed have been off the flydown. Its not for the lack of being on birds at daylight either. Im on roost birds practically every morning.

Ive almost chalked this up to the local birds I hunt just having certain preferences. For whatever reason it hardly ever pans out for me and I usually end up going back after the same birds with much more success mid morning.

Any of u oldtimers got any tips?
 
I'm not an old timer but it sounds like if you are having more success mid morning than right off the roost then they probably have hens with them. Your having the better success mid morning because the hens have left them to nest. So now they are lonely and looking for more hens. From that you could either spook them off the roost to separate them or get in between him and his ladies.
 
they do have hens some of the time...

my most recent bird was in with 4 other gobblers.. no hens

they were blowing up the roost and went the other direction. I called all 5 in a couple hrs later.
 
nate17 said:
For whatever reason, I suck at calling birds off the roost and killing them. I think 2 of the twenty or so birds I have called in or killed have been off the flydown. Its not for the lack of being on birds at daylight either. Im on roost birds practically every morning.

Ive almost chalked this up to the local birds I hunt just having certain preferences. For whatever reason it hardly ever pans out for me and I usually end up going back after the same birds with much more success mid morning.
I'm a mid-morning/mid-day man myself. Like you, have a tough time getting them immediately after fly-down. Doesn't keep me from trying.

Any of u oldtimers got any tips?
Click to expand...
 
TW said:
Are you calling while they are still on the roost?
Click to expand...

yes, I usually let em gobble a few times.. then hit em with some real soft stuff...

nothing aggressive

dont get me wrong ive tried both tho
 
i get one gobble out of them on roost then i hush except to do the flydown,terrain permitting i always get at least within 75 and like to get 50 yards of them while their in the roost
 
Heres a video of one we got a few years ago. He flew down into the top right of the field and we were able to call him into the decoys. I edited the video because it took him a while. He stayed to the left of that hay ring for 15 minutes, the only place we couldn't get a shot, until the hens flew down. Another gobbler comes into the upper right of the field. The bird that has been hanging to our left makes a move toward the strutting decoy, then the 835 took over. I have had good luck with decoys with roosted birds. We were quiet after the shot to see what the other gobbler would do. Dates blocked because I don't trust my camera dates.

 
For what its worth, I kill very few birds each season off the limb. When I do it usually early in the season, first day or two, or very late in the season. But most of the time I rarely if ever kill birds right after fly down.

If it weren't for the show of being in the spring woods at daylight, and the benefits of pinpointing areas where birds are, I wouldn't even get up early to chase the crazy things on the limb.
 
knightrider said:
i get one gobble out of them on roost then i hush except to do the flydown,terrain permitting i always get at least within 75 and like to get 50 yards of them while their in the roost
Click to expand...


Are you roosting them at night? The birds where I hunt are pretty tough to roost. There are a few gobs that are regulars in the same spot and the rest are kinda roamers it seems like. Its not real often than I get to put one to bed.

I usually have to wait till they start firing in the morning to find em, so I would think getting within 50 to 75 yds of a gobbler thats already been woke up would be almost impossible without busting him?
 
Best luck I've had is some soft tree yelps in the direction of roosted birds followed by a gobble facing directly away from them. usually do that a couple of times, maybe 3.
 
nate17 said:
knightrider said:
i get one gobble out of them on roost then i hush except to do the flydown,terrain permitting i always get at least within 75 and like to get 50 yards of them while their in the roost
Click to expand...


Are you roosting them at night? The birds where I hunt are pretty tough to roost. There are a few gobs that are regulars in the same spot and the rest are kinda roamers it seems like. Its not real often than I get to put one to bed.

I usually have to wait till they start firing in the morning to find em, so I would think getting within 50 to 75 yds of a gobbler thats already been woke up would be almost impossible without busting him?
Click to expand...
i do roost them when time allows me to,the main place i hunt is eat up with logging roads and the birds generally roost on the points of the end of these roads above the fields,if i havent roosted the night before i leave the truck no later than 1-1.5 hrs before light and am stand ing within a hundred yards of where i think the first gobble will come from then i move in closer,yes i bust birds but not as many as you would think its all about being quiet and getting there early enough to hear that first gobble before good light,another hint for you they will gobble in the dark before light at a goose call[works better than an owl hoot on my place and public ground]hope this helps you in some way
 
Alot of people have a lack of success but not setting up where a turkey wants to be. What i am saying is spend a few days scouting just like you would a deer, get to where you can see and watch where he flys down to. Then watch his direction of travel and be set up where he wants to be. Had a old timer tell me its 10X easier to call a turkey to somewhere he already wants to go.
 
TNTomtaker01 said:
Alot of people have a lack of success but not setting up where a turkey wants to be. What i am saying is spend a few days scouting just like you would a deer, get to where you can see and watch where he flys down to. Then watch his direction of travel and be set up where he wants to be. Had a old timer tell me its 10X easier to call a turkey to somewhere he already wants to go.
Click to expand...

That does work on smaller wood lot turkeys, field turkeys, or turkeys which can be patterned. However, most of the places I hunt or people I know hunt there is no rhyme or reason to where birds pitch down and head.

Trying to predict turkeys is tough business, and more times then not, can leave you sitting all alone and missing the show.

A better tactic IMO for unpredictable birds is to stay back and try to get a feel for where they are headed on that particular day, then move in for the set up. JMO
 
I'm the same way. I've killed over 30 turkeys in 12 seasons of turkey hunting and 4 have been right off of the roost. My problem may be that I am not aggressive enough on the set up ( as was discussed in my earlier post on setting up). Another issue I have is they almost always seem to be roosted on neighboring farms in the morning ( I hunt a lot of small farms that are around 70 acres).
The birds I have killed off of the roost have been right at the end of the season. I was able to get in really tight on the bird that had roosted alone becuase most of his hens were bred. I usaully have roosted them the evening before. With all of the foilage on the trees I was to get to within 75 yards or so. Also, I hardly even called to them. I did just a few soft clucks, whines, and purrs. And some scratching in the leaves. On each one of them though, they were in gun range when their feet hit the ground.
 
I think I only killed a couple birds right off the roost my first 15 years of turkey hunting. But in the past 5 years, virtually every bird I kill is right off the roost. (I usually only hunt in the first 2 weeks of season- so birds are henned up)

I think the difference maker is all in the calling. I used to call to the gobbler, loving to make him gobble over and over on the roost. When it got time for flydown, the hens almost universally would head straight away from me, pulling the gobblers with them.

Now, I call to the hens. I completely ignore the gobbler, and I only want him to answer me one time- just to make sure he heard me and knows that I am there. Otherwise, I'm talking sparingly to the hens. I try to do my fly-down cackle before the hens come out of the tree, then do mostly scratching leaves, feeding purrs, and only the occasional yelp. Generally the hens are on me for 5 minutes before the gobbler shows up, so you've got to be careful of the extra sets of eyes.
 
Setterman said:
For what its worth, I kill very few birds each season off the limb. When I do it usually early in the season, first day or two, or very late in the season. But most of the time I rarely if ever kill birds right after fly down.

If it weren't for the show of being in the spring woods at daylight, and the benefits of pinpointing areas where birds are, I wouldn't even get up early to chase the crazy things on the limb.
Click to expand...

same here! atleast 75% of the birds i have killed over the past 10 years have been between 10-3pm. getting them off the roost is tough some times for sure especially if hens are with them.
 
megalomaniac said:
I think I only killed a couple birds right off the roost my first 15 years of turkey hunting. But in the past 5 years, virtually every bird I kill is right off the roost. (I usually only hunt in the first 2 weeks of season- so birds are henned up)

I think the difference maker is all in the calling. I used to call to the gobbler, loving to make him gobble over and over on the roost. When it got time for flydown, the hens almost universally would head straight away from me, pulling the gobblers with them.

Now, I call to the hens. I completely ignore the gobbler, and I only want him to answer me one time- just to make sure he heard me and knows that I am there. Otherwise, I'm talking sparingly to the hens. I try to do my fly-down cackle before the hens come out of the tree, then do mostly scratching leaves, feeding purrs, and only the occasional yelp. Generally the hens are on me for 5 minutes before the gobbler shows up, so you've got to be careful of the extra sets of eyes.
Click to expand...

You deal with nicer hens then me. Hens will talk a little early in the season, but it seems as the season goes on most morning they are dead silent, or roosted away from the gobblers, and come stand under his tree, where he pitches down to them and then struts endlessly for hours or minutes until they head off.

I have had some success early with calling the whole wad in, but it is a long shot at best IMO and in my experience.
 

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