Aldeer.com Forums Alabama Deer Talk ALTurkey Talk -- Beards and Spurs Progress is good ...

Ok I know this will not impress all you slayers but I'm a little pleased with myself. No, I did not kill a turkey today but I was able to narrow things down a bit and I think I'm close. I'm hunting wma and never hear the turkeys make any sound. Today was different and things kinda clicked a little for me I think.

Part 1

I started off in the bend of a road bed that separated mature pines from some 20 footers. At about 6:30 I hear a single gobble. 20 minutes later I hear another single gobble as a squadron of geese fly by. So that's what that sounds like! It didn't sound close though and it came from the opposite direction of what I'd anticipated. My first impulse was to get up and move in that direction but I realized I have no idea how to judge how far away a gobbling turkey is. I stayed put trying to sort out where he was and what I should do. I was thinking about the area and how I might approach if that's what I decided to do. The most direct route was through the 20 footers but I know it's nasty in there and no way to be stealthy. They stretch for a couple hundred yards or so until they meet a hardwood finger. To shorten this up some, I wound up staying put until about 8:30 because I didn't want to bust him out of there if he was coming my way. The wind started coming up and I debated on whether to let him be and go to a big field that I've seen turkeys in before. I decided the odds were too high that I would screw it up so I left him for another day and headed out to go to the field. Well the road I walked in on goes up a hill and I can see the hardwood finger that was in his direction. I can't see down in it, just the tops of the trees. After looking at it, I'm pretty certain I know exactly where he was. Someone correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think turkeys roost in 20' pine trees but I could see the tops of two very mature pine trees about 50-75 yards apart in the middle of the hardwoods and I'm pretty sure that's where he was. So if I'm right I'll need to approach from a different direction but I think I can get him. All of this of course depends on the notion that he will be roosted there the next time I go but who knows about that. We'll see.

Part 2

I get to the field and sure enough there's a single hen out in the middle of the field. So I figure this has to be a learning opportunity for me. I'm just peeking over a little ridge that looks down into the field, maybe 10' or so elevation. I get settled in and I'm watching her through my range finder. She's about 225 yds. So the first thing I want to know is how good is her hearing. I give a single cluck on the mouth call pretty low and watch. I repeat this a few times getting a little louder each time. Finally she raises her head and looks 90* to my left. She heard me but didn't get a true bearing. She goes back to feeding and I rip off a series of yelps plenty loud enough for her to hear. She immediately looks my way and starts making all kinda racket and I shut up. Hot dogg!! She didn't haul a$$ out of the field when she heard me! This may not be a big deal to any of ya'll but for me it's the first confirmation I've had that I can talk to turkeys and not have them head for the next county. Well now I have her attention and she's just talkin' up a storm and I think "great, now what" Well I figure she's chattin' it up so well that maybe some more will show up but I'm not in a shooting position. I need to be in the tree line in the direction she first looked when I clucked loud enough for her to hear. I won't drag this out much further but my take aways from this are that I can talk to a turkey without spooking it and I was also able to successfully reposition to a shooting position (this was about a 500 yd or so semi circle) and ended up with this hen well within shooting range (20yds) and she never knew I was there. Now I just need a fat boy that I can do the same thing with.

So, no turkey, but for me I feel like I took a few steps forward.

Sounds like you're figuring things out. You'll have one flopping in no time. Just keep on keepin on brother.

Good deal man! You'll be calling one up in no time.

Keep it up

Keep plugging away, it just makes it sweeter when you connect.

You've got turkeys on your property- you're ahead of the 8 ball.

You're learning!

Sounds like some solid woodcraft.
Lather, rinse, repeat...

Thanks for the encouragement. I was getting pretty frustrated, it's tough when you can't hear them.

im in the same boat as you are. just need more hours under your belt and we will get there. Last time i went out i learned a valuable lesson. I thought some guys walked in on me and where calling me i hurd some turkey clucks and owl hoots and some turkey whistles and thought it was the guys so i got up after 15 mins to get my decoys and it was actually birds that I called in. talk about upset.... i keep seeing that patience is really what kills these birds

Smells when she answers you try and copy her note for note it will really make her mad and she will head straight towards you. This is very useful when you are trying to pull in a stubborn Tom following a hen.

Keep after them you will eventually kill one. Just try to learn something everytime you go. Good luck!

I'm soooooo close!!!

I got off to a rocky start this morning. I was trying to go to the same area but on the opposite side of the hardwood finger. I walked up the wrong road in the dark and by the time I figured it out it was daylight and I had to backtrack, so I wasn't where I wanted to be when I wanted to be there. When I got there I decided it wasn't what I thought it would be and headed back for the road. When I stepped back onto the road, there was a hen staring me down about 200 yds further up the road. She high tailed it back up the road and then cut into the woods. I won't bore you with the play by play but decided to head on up the road and wound up spooking a total of 4 birds but I think I spooked the same hen 3 times. I ran into another hunter walking opposite direction on the same road and we waived each other off and turned back the way we each had come. I didn't really know what to do at this point so I decided to just get out of the area and head back where I was the other day.

I cut across a big field to get to the road that takes me into the area I want to be, jumping more turkeys on the way. I finally get to the road and start walking up hill, almost there. When I get about 50 yds from the top of the hill I hear wings beating to my left. Out of the 20 footers from the other day I watch a turkey take flight from my 9:00 going away in the opposite direction. I'm pretty sure I've set a record for number of turkeys spooked in a morning and my butt has not even hit the ground yet. At this point I'm really just in disbelief. I decide I'm just going to plant myself somewhere and try to get myself together. I continue up the hill. At the top of the hill the road turns 90* and divides the 20 footers from the mature pines from the other day. I don't continue down the road but go about 30 yds inside the mature pines and sit down. I'm calling about every 15 minutes and after an hour and 15 minutes decide it's time to move. I lean over to put something in my back pack and when I lean back I hear something at my 2 o'clock. Oh crap, not again! I'm facing away from the road, the tree line is 10 yds to my right. The turkey is at my 2 o'clock just outside the tree line maybe 20 yes away. At first I think I'm busted but I don't think that's what happened. I still don't know what it is exactly but I get my shotgun up and ready. The first indication I had was sound, not a gobble but a series of clucks. The turkey was clucking with every step it seemed like. He re-entered the wood and crossed my shooting lane at 28 yes (ranged it after the fact). I didn't shoot. That lane was maybe 3 yds wide, it took me 1/2 that to identify him as a Tom, he was not running but walking with purpose and that was too fast for me. I hit some yelps from my mouth call trying to turn him. It was way too much and way too loud but the whole thing freaked me out because it all happened so fast. As far as I could tell he never slowed down and never sped up and never looked my way though I know he heard me, just kept walking not running like he had somewhere to go. I could almost hear him saying "I got no time for beeches ese, I gotta go kick Roscoe's a$$"! I sat still hoping he would turn but he didn't. Maybe 5 min later I thought maybe I heard a distant gobble but it was probably my imagination but it was enough to get me on my feet and moving, trying to get in front of him. I walked as fast as I could for what was probably close to 1/2 mile. As I'm about to turn right back into the bottom which was in the direction he had gone, I heard something to my left and saw running up to a ridge another large turkey with a greenish black back. How many spooked turkeys is that, I've lost count! I think it's very possible that it was the same bird but I don't know. I entered the bottom but didn't stay. Decided to just get out of the area and wound up on another pine ridge. Sat there for about an hour and started nodding off. Decided to catch 40 winks and laid out with my backpack for a pillow. No sooner had I drifted off (or so it seemed to me) and I am awakened by the sound of beating wings! I looked to my left to see a turkey in flight from about 30 yds away! I don't know about this last one because I know I wasn't moving because I was asleep. Maybe I was snoring but I don't think so.

It was kind of a tough day but somehow I still had a lot of fun even though I screwed up so much. Looking back on it I'm pretty sure the tom never knew I was there but I could be wrong. In any event, I think I have him patterned because all the sign that had me hunting the area to begin with fits in neatly with what I saw today. I'm pretty sure his days are numbered.

Why would turkeys roost in the middle of the day? Is this normal behavior?

to be honest my last outing was like this. The bird i spooked flew up from a trail i was walking and it flew right into a limb im pretty sure it was a hen cause she was nesting i think and while i was getting closer to her she was purring but i did not knowwhat it was . But we are learning and at least we are on birds.As for the roosting part I had a bird fly up around 545 dont know why but it did. might have been trying to get away from a predator im thinking

Had a hen come in on me and fly up in a tree one time. I had called twice. She sat up there a few minutes looking around then flew down and went back the way she came. I can only assume she was looking for the hen she thought heard (me).