I believe coyotes are a large reason around my area.
Back in the day, 25/30 yrs. ago they gobbled even when henned up as Ikillbux said.
I hunt large woods and ridges and if they don’t say anything they hard to cut off.
I have a couple of birds that I’ve been messing with 3 yrs. now and they stay with hens the entire season and I’m stubborn enough
to spend a large part of my season after them....It’s sorta personal now.
I got on them Saturday they gobbled 1 time on the limb and left with hens.
Got on them Monday same as Saturday.
They gobbled 2 times this morning and I did get to lay eyes on them drumming and strutting right before they followed the
hens over the ridge.

Had one to gobble 23 times this AM and would gobble at any sound but when the hens hit the ground he was gone with them. Where ever they were going it was in a hurry because I couldn't catch up with them to cut them off

It's seems they don't gobble here good till April same as our bucks don't chase good till end of Jan just hunt as much as possible one may gobble one day and shut up the next...never know

Didn't hear any gobbling this weekend and then yesterday am on a different property they were burning it up...Just depends on the day lol

I feel your pain killbux. Years ago I would hear birds gobbling over an hour before daylight. No such thing hardly anymore. If you were careful you could slip right up to them while it was dark. Killed many of them nearly as fast as their feet hit the ground. Also if no luck in one spot I just went 2 miles down the road & killed one at 7 or 8 am in another place. Have had a limit in less than a week many times. Those are good memories. Turkeys nor turkey hunting is anything like it was between 30 & 40 years ago. I admit it though, that I've had it good. I have always worked in the fields & the woods & have been able to keep up with the birds on a day by day basis & can go about anytime I get ready on any given day. Have also listened to some young stooges on public land riding the roads at daylight with truck pipes so loud a person could hear them from 3 counties away. They stop for a minute, owl hoot & then the truck thunder cranks right back up. They don't even give a bird time to gobble. Don't know how many I've killed an hour after these kids left because the birds wouldn't talk among the straight pipes. Not trying to be down on the young crowd but I just don't figure em out. I thought the idea in hunting-especially when it comes to turkeys-is to make human presence as undetectable as possible. One of the latest youngster rides have seen, besides the 200 decible pipes, had a crane hook on the hitch that no kidding had to have a 100 ton rating. It would had to have at least 3 just to put it on the truck- 2 to hold it up while one pinned it. This ain't turkey hunting material.

I drive an old 7.3L power stroke diesel, stock exhaust, and I worry about the truck being to loud. I parked way out yesterday morning and slipped in while it was still dark. Heard some gobbling going on, but never was in the game.

i couldnt agree more!

We probably have too many hens now, so the Toms don't have to put in much work.

Here is my theory on why we don't have as many gobbling birds today as we use to have. I have not seen a huge decline in the numbers of hens I have hanging around but I've definitely noticed the reduction in gobbling others are experiencing.

1) I think loose game laws over the last 20 years has bred an entire generation of outlaws. I think most people DRASTICALLY underestimate the number of poachers/outlaws, people who shoot over the limit, don't report, hunt by feeders, etc. Whatever they do. If you think it is an insignificant number of people you are fooling yourself. You might not experience this in your "club" with 15 people but all these folks that are out there in general hunting without access to a lot of land (which is a LOT of us). Ride dirt roads, poach, hunt over feeders.

To me a significant amount of people are in the bucket. 2 shotgun shells and some feathers by my gate earlier this week tells me someone has already poached one off my property this season. I can't tell the turkey not to fly down withing eyesight of the highway just like I can't tell a spike buck to not cross a property line or eat out of my neighbor's feeder.

Nothing I can do about it. Simple as that. Only if I catch them in the act + Game Warden is there ever any punishment.

2) Ground Blind + Decoy + Food Plot = dead bird. I know people who in my opinion completely suck at Turkey Hunting but they seemingly all find success in what I call pass shooting (like in duck hunting) 1+ per season. Like in duck hunting they are sitting on a travel route and just shoot what comes by. About everyone on TV does this with all this field hunting you are seeing. I know several people that really can't call or do much other than hunt like this and they kill 2-3 birds every year. Birds hangout in a certain field... ground blind, decoy, sit till they show up, gobbler comes to check out decoy, BAM!

I'm not saying that to put down anyone that hunts like this, I do this occasionally when the birds are not gobbling...'ll go sit in a ground blind or just sit on a field for the rest of the morning myself.

But what you have to realize is, like deer, the reason you don't have any birds is... someone is shooting them. Same as not having any bucks. You have plenty of deer but no bucks... someone shot them. You have a bunch of hen turkeys but no gobblers or maybe even better... no competition among the gobblers making it unnecessary to act like a gobbler...

Someone shot them.

Simple as that. If you have no birds at all then you can't kill them.. thats an entirely different problem.

BUT, if you have the birds but no activity someone shot them.

Coyotes don't eat gobblers. They eat turkeys. So if you've got a predator problem you just don't have any birds. And you can't kill them if you don't have them or if your numbers are low it is just harder.

Birds today were quiet as a mouse. After following a creek for about 2 miles, I hopped up on a ridge to cut a track to the logging trail back to my truck (another 2 miles...ugh) and busted up a flock of birds. I was moving pretty slow, stopping, listening every few steps as well as doing some soft calling. I know there were hens in the flock, but they weren't making ANY of the usual noises.

This is public land, so I'm not sure if they're tight lipped because of the pressure, or if it's because the hens aren't sitting on nests.

Busted this flock at about 1:20pm

Suggestions?

They ain't gobbling down here the GNATS are to freaking bad 😡

I've gotten reports that gobbling was pretty poor in Barbour Co this week and a couple mornings there was nothing heard. Surprised me with the warmer weather, sunny days, and the barometer high. I thought they would be blowing the tops out of the trees.

My place is dead,there’s 1 or 2 birds that gobble a couple of times on the roost and then they’re done,seen several gobbler tracks on other pieces of the property but haven’t heard or seen a bird anywhere,I’ve went every morning since Saturday and it’s the same thing every morning,I’ve hung around the clearcut where the gobbling bird is til 10-11 in the morning and haven’t seen him yet,I’ve never had this bad of a season when it comes to getting on a bird or hearing more than a few gobbles

I went the last 2 mornings and didn't hear a peep. My bro in law stepped out in his yard and heard 3 this morning where I was the last 2 mornings. Don't know what makes them tick.