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Turkey Long Term Memory?

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gil1

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Last year and this year, there have been a lot of jakes on a little property I hunt in Woodbury, TN. There have been very few gobblers (at least I have seen and heard very few). The jakes will come in to our calling fairly often, but we let them pass.

Because jakes will often gang up on gobblers, the other two guys on the lease want them out of there. When they call the jakes in, the guys will get up screaming and chase the jakes until they fly off. Short term, no big deal because we don't shoot jakes anyway. Long term, I wonder if we are educating those jakes to not come into our calls when they become gobblers. Even worse, I guess it's conceivable that they get run off so often that they flee to another property.

Any thoughts?
 
After the season's over and next yr's season is here those jakes would have forgotten all about the "screaming humans" I would think,as far as pushing them onto another property and then staying there,I guess it's possible but I'd say there's a good chance they'll be around again.
 
I'm of the opinion that their "long term memory" is of about 5 minutes duration......maybe. And, of course, there is no way to prove it, but I would bet that the same jakes that you guys go running and screaming at, are the same turkeys that you call in again next Saturday. They have a brain the size of a walnut. Leery they are, but smart they ain't. Think about it......anything that will attack a rubber turkey......and still can't tell that its fake! lol
 
seeing as how their brain is about the size of a quarter, i doubt it. as long as the breeding and nesting habitat doesnt change i dont see a problem. i know i have purposely busted spring flocks up, as a last resort, on some very hard henned up gobblers. it usually on takes about 15-30 minutes for the gobblers to come back and rejoin their hens. a jacked up gobbler ready to mate easily forgets.

as capt hook said, i just dont see too much bullying from jakes, at least to mature gobblers. usually in a spring flock a 2 year old bird will act as a sentry, and keep most of the jakes run off.
 
10 and a half months they here turkey sounds and don't get yelled at. That 6 weeks aint going to make no difference. We have already killed two longbeards in an open field less than 100 yards from each other and the second to die was along on the first killing.
 
Wed I unzipped and stepped out of my blind for a little bladder relief, and when I did, the dreaded putt, putt, putt. One had come in completely silent to within 25 yards of my blind. Obviously, he went back up the hill, from whence he had come. However, in less than 5 minutes, I called, and he answered me. It took about a half hour, but he circled me and came in from the other direction. He came across faning for my deke, but never got closer than 50 yards. I didn't shoot(at) him, because I don't take 50 yard shots. However, I don't believe that he "remembered" the very recent incident of seeing a man right where all of the calling was coming from. Or at least his actions indicate that he did not.
 

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