Alright, what the stink is happening with my turkeys!?

We hit the breeding peak and all the boys got henned up. Ok. We expect that. We're turkey hunters (I can finally call myself that with confidence! ) and that's part of the game--less gobbling and tougher-to-call toms. But there's still the anticipation of that second peak a week or two later where the hens go to nest and leave the boys lonely and looking for love.

Still waiting for that . . .

So, what is happening with the birds?! Last year, I worked two gobblers on the last day of the season. They were gobbling hard on the roost and looking for me on the ground. Then, I struck a bird late in the afternoon that only shock-gobbled and wouldn't come in.

Then there's yesterday. I went deep into the back-country of the national forest, high on top of a long ridge that looked like a chain gang with leaf rakes had been through. I was high up in turkey country at dawn and heard nary a peep. Then, as I walked and called and walked and called and sat and called and walked and called and sat and called for the rest of the ENTIRE day I heard NOTHING. There was an imagined gobble mid-morning that might have possibly sort of happened after a locator call, but it's hardly even worth mentioning. I'm not even sure I heard it.

I did SEE two turkeys as I slipped through a sign-rich flat on top of a high ridge, but after a 5-minute staring match, belly crawl to a tree, and 20 minutes of sparse clucking & purring, I saw one of them fast-walking away from me. That was rather interesting though. I caught the flapping of wings in the corner of my eye as I walked, turned and saw two turkey heads silhouetted about 75 yards away. Were they fighting? Were they mating? Were they flying away from me, and decided to examine me more? Were they coming to my calling and I bumped them? Were they just doing their own thing and ignoring me? Earlier in the day, a hen answered me. At any rate, that was the most excitement I had all day.

I covered MILES, people. Many, many miles. I've never been out for an entire day in this area without hearing a gobble at all. There have been slow-gobbling days of course. But, walking and calling have always produced some kind of response. This was the hardest turkey-hunting with the least results I've ever done. I won't be able to walk for a couple of days!

So, what's happening here? Is it me? The wind was up a bit (around 10mph--nothing too strong, just enough to provide a little background noise), so I felt like I needed to call rather loudly. Did I call too loudly? Too aggressively? Should I have sat more and walked less? Was that amount of wind enough to push them down to the bottoms? I wanted to get further in, away from where they've been hunted hard. Where I hunt, going deep means going high. Has the warm winter thrown everything wierd? Or the dry spring?

Or, and I don't even want to say this , . . . uhm . . . is the fat lady warming up, getting ready to . . . um . . . sing?

Man, I know how you feel. This year was great for me. But last year, I walked all day for 4 straight days, and never heard one gobble. I would sit a while in places I knew they had been feeding. I would walk and yelp, walk and yelp, all day long. Just like you, that would usually generate a response eventually, and if it was mid day, it usually would present an old tom ready hot and ready for action. But last year, it was just like you, all day, no gobbles. Can't explain it, just part of hunting I guess. Possible that someone else had already hunted that area any before you?? That would make a lot of sense if someone else already scared them away.

Possible, I guess. But, not very many people at all go as far in as I was. But, the problem with public land is that you just have no way at all of knowing whether someone has been through. It's everyone's land. Anybody can and should hunt it! It would be nice if you could know how long it's been since someone was in there and what they did.

public land is tuff anyways......late season public land is hateful...........my suggestion, and my game plan this week is to set alot, and call little.......I've run n gun in the past and I don't think I've killed but one gobbler like that the last week of the season......so I'm changing my tactics this year.

It happens PM. We went sat am where I've been dying to go all season. on the way there I said "after the rain and clear sky this morning it should be perfect so we will probably not hear a peep", we didn't. Some days they just don't gobble. We did get on a gobbler at @ 1030 at another spot in the flat ground, came half a mile across field,fence and ditch to us. He got to us but my friend didn't get turned on him and I started to let him walk off only to have some thing in the field spook him, he was gobbling and drumming all over us. I have to remember to sit with this guy next time as he just is to afraid to move when you have to. We almost stayed at the first place it would have been interesting to see if we could have raised a gobbler later there.They are definitely not done I'll bet they will gobble well beyond the seasons end this year.

Feel you pain as well. Was a busy week last week for me and I didn't get the chance to get out at all until Sat morning, and even then I only has a few hours open to hunt. Tried the same tactic as you. Went deep into the NF well before daylight high atop a ridge. No wind, no rain, beautiful morning, no turkeys heard or seen. Still was a grand day to be in the turkey woods.

Remember what Yogi Berra said;
"It ain't over 'til it's over."
Hang in there.

barry

It was definitely that! Birds or no birds, I loved just being out there. That's half the experience hunting the back country.

Bird Dog, I don't want them to gobble past the season's end!! I want them to gobble NOW!!

. . . It ain't over yet!!