I've only hunted evening a few times.
Tell me some tricks for evening birds...
GN, I know you have experience with evening birds

I have killed a lot of my birds in the afternoons and evening. In all parts of the country. When I am out of state I tend to hunt harder in the afternoons since there is nothing else to do. Most of the time I find a good place in good cover and just listen while also calling turkey calls every fifteen minutes or so. I hear more “ free gobbles” than you might expect just sitting somewhere and listening. Or even napping.

Midday to late afternoon one or more LB can be by themselves in most years and particularly late in the season. A lonely Lb is likely to be a gobbling LB. Once you get the gobble you proceed as you would usually work a bird. I call just as little or aggressively as the bird dictates. The later in the year like last weeks of season is when I find more afternoon LB gobbling; I think the early season the hens are frequently with LB right up to fly up.

I often end up in a deer hunt approach whether I start out that way or not. I have not had a lot of luck myself trolling and walking all over the woods making turkey calls in the afternoon. I think getting where you think they might be and listening is a better approach than moving a lot.

I use crow calls and other searching shock gobble sounds trying to get a gobble. Coyote howlers, pilleated woodpecker, etc. but sometimes the strangest things set them off. Last year my cousin and I knew we were close to an area frequented by good LB birds. But hadn’t been able to get one to gobble all day since thirty minutes after daylight. We left the area ,ate lunch, and came back at two pm. An hour of dead silence followed. Then some kid on a dirt bike with no muffler was roaring down a back road and the birds went crazy gobbling at it. The hunt was immediately on , and we doubled thirty minutes later.

Sometime a thunderstorm wil set them off in the afternoon. Sometimes it is hard to get one to gobble and sometimes you can get one going, you just have to be patient as stick with it. I have had some show up silently after making a call and then just listening. Couple years ago in KY I put out some decoys in the shade near a clover field edge and laid back to take a nap. One call. Thirty minutes later I either woke up or realized a bird was drumming near me and I mean really near me as I lay flat on my back. He never gobbled one time. But it took me ten minutes to get my head turned from side to side to see where the bird was. Then another five to snake myself from my back to my stomach and get my gun turned to him. One call, one short nap, a little adjustment and BOOM. They don’t always gobble when they come in.

I have never intentionally hunted a bird going to roost. Anywhere.

Good write up, thanks.
V

Never hunted the afternoons. Following