spitndrum said:
Might not be much of one and ya I have just killed 3 in my whole life but I have been after em for 10 years this will be my 11th season and I learn more each and every year but If I were you and I could at all possible I would get a close as possible in the morning to a roosted bird it will be tuff cause there is no leaves on but I would sacrifice it in the morning considering there still flocked up!
Good advice. I will back this up with 20 years of time and 100+ dead longbeards, get as physically tight as possible. Move on the very first bird which opens its mouth.
This morning was a prime example, I moved on the very first bird which gobbled, and was able to get within 100 yards of him by using the darkness to my advantage. Turns out I ended up in the middle of 3 birds on my left, right, and straight ahead, all were within 200 yards, and all had hens. When they hit the ground it was a race to see who could get to me first, with their hens still in the trees, the one from the right made it first. He should have died, but I pulled a rookie mistake and missed. Sucks, but the fact remains he closed and closed quickly. I made up for that mistake a few hours later however.
I would also caution about being too aggressive or too loud, the hens I have dealt with the last 2 days have been talkative, but very subtle with low yelps and soft clucks. The gobblers also responded best to very soft easy calling, versus loud aggressive calling. FWIW
