Hi Everyone,

I am planning my second trip to hunt in George Washington this year, i will be down in the second week of the season. though i hunt birds succesfully in my home state of Vermont, i am nervous about calling to much to the birds on public land in Virginia, as i have heard they are call shy.

My question is, last year i could hear birds gobbiling on the roost, but i believe i called to lightly and just clucked and purred a bit, and really got no response....do you guys that hunt birds regularly down their find that yelping scares the birds on public land, or do you just give it a try......i know there are no constants in huning turkeys, but any of your experiences would be greatly appreciated,,,,,

Thanks

I try to feel the bird out and let him decide how I'm going to call to him.. it doesn't matter to me if I'm on Private or Public Land I do the same.. if he likes it hot and heavy I will give it to him.. but only after he is on the ground, I don't call much if at all to a gobbler on the roost, I just try to get in as tight as I can and wait till he flies down.. Then I will do some loud fly down cackles and wing beats to let him know I'm there.. In the first two weeks of the season they are usually pretty henned up and breeding hard, so I call pretty aggressively, one to try to make the gobbler think I'm the boss hen if he's not yet with her.. and two to try to tick off the boss hen and pull her in if he is with her already .. I killed a nice gobbler the second day of WV season last year that never gobbled once but I pulled his trashy talking hen in and he followed.. I tried to mimick her calling as close as I could both in pitch and tone and this seemed to really tick her off

Just my opinion but it varies by state, and even by area within each state. All I hunt is public land (except when Diablo invites me to SC ) and I find I can call more agressively to birds on public land in VA and WV than I can in MD and PA. Thats not 100% true all the time but it holds true more often than not in my experience. Having said that I agree with WVBOY; you should base your calling on each individual bird's response. Start soft and then give him more if he seems to need it, and when you find the right level then stick with it even if that means calling more than you expected.

I personally have always been more successful follow the "less is more" approach on public land, but I would never be afraid to crank it up if I think that is the right thing to do and I have had great success often in VA doing so. I would never hestitate to call more or more agressively if nothing else is working, even in high pressure areas.

One other thought; try a call that is out of the ordinary...i.e. wingbones, scratch boxes, single reed mouth calls, etc. Sometimes its that different sound that really gets em goin in pressured areas.

Good luck.

-Eric