That’s me. I do NOT call to one on the roost until I’m ready to pull the trigger though. Had too many of them committ immediately and if you’re not ready too bad so sad.



Done that too. Bump them in early in the dark or first light. Just sit tight and be patient. He’ll be ready to die in half an hour.

I call to them every time. If he answers me, I don’t make another sound till he hits the ground.

I have to call to them. Even when I think I shouldn’t call to him..... I still do. I literally can’t help it.

If I'm set up waiting on daylight and he gobbles anywhere close I'll give him a tree yelp or 2. If he answers I'll shut up until I know he's on the ground. If I see him pitch out or hear him gobble from the ground he gets a reminder of where I'm at and then the game is on.

Generally I will give them a few soft yelps to let them know I'm there. If I get a gobble from him I will shut up until he's on the ground. The more he gobbles on the limb the more likely he is to call up some hens.

I

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It is tough not to call when he is just booming them out. If I have hunted the same bird several mornings, I have to basically tell myself before I get out of bed, getting dressed, in the truck, getting my gear, walking in, listening----- "Do Not Call To Him Today until he is on the ground." Well, maybe just one short series or a couple clucks won't hurt.

Every bird. If it doesn’t work the first two encounters, maybe I’ll let him get to the ground first. Maybe.

I always call to him while he is still on the roost if I can. But what I do is to answer him - get the call ready and the instant the gobble stops I give him a soft, 3 note yelp. That is sometimes all it will take to get him to pitch down on my side and come to me. I didn't come up with this idea on my own; it's what I've noticed hens doing many times. I don't think that a soft yelp like this will often scare one, but you never know until you try. What will scare one almost every time is a whole lot of loud cackling and cutting while the gobbler is still roosted. If you can get on the other side of the guy doing that you have a great chance at him.

To not call to him on the roost is also a risk. You run the risk of a turkey that might have been interested choosing instead to fly a couple hundred yards in the wrong direction, and then it might be impossible to get him back.

I was approaching a pair of gobblers late season one year in Illinois. Dark thirty. They had a habit of pitching down on a near vertical hillside and heading off to parts unknown completely uninterested in the ladies so I used the dark and leaf cover to get Uber close. I had to be within 50 yards of them in the tree to be able to see them when they hit the tree. Uber close.

I had just breached that barrier and was staring at one of the gobblers black against the sky while looking for a tree when I stepped on a branch.........I clucked on my mouth call-gobblbovelblelboblelbl!!!!! Smiling, I turned my eyes down for a second and when I looked up I saw that white head standing there pointblank.

I remember throwing up my shotgun oddly. I remember seeing the white head fill the 3x power scope. I remember the flames.I remember the world going white. I also remember the teeth and blood from one of the worst scopings you’ve ever seen.

The ER nurse asked if I got the turkey. I told her I couldn’t have shown my face in there if I hadn’t.

I guess it depends on the situation. Hunting on public land I have had to do a few things I didn't necessarily want to do because of another hunter, like calling to a bird on the roost that was only 50 yards from me. The bird was gobbling his head off on his own, I made a couple of soft yelps, he answered and I shut up. A few mins later another hunter across the creek bottom a few hundred yards away starts burning up his box call. I guess I felt like I needed to be more seductive than the other hunter so we start going back and forth trying to sound like the sexier lady. I should have done what PCP said and stayed quiet but I didn't. Needless to say I watched the bird pitch down and move away from both of us.

Always just enough to let him know I’m there. Turkey hunting is like being the offensive coordinator in a championship game, I start fairly conservative and get deeper in the playbook as the day/season goes along.....unless I think I have a really good chance to press it and make it happen right then.