Patience. Patience has killed more gobblers than any turkey call ever thought about. If you really want to know how to hunt silent gobblers there are two main methods.
1. Slip around edges, cutovers, greenfields, pastures, etc, and see them before they see you. Use terrain and land features to get in front of them and wait them out. This is pretty much a straight bushwhack scenario but you can still be proud of him because you put in the work. Walk all day and put in your miles and you will find birds.
2. Go sit in an area that you know turkeys frequent and listen. I don't mean just sit there playing on your phone or trying not to doze off, but really listen. Listen for drumming, or a loudmouth hen clucking. I've killed a lot of turkeys because his loudmouthed girlfriend wouldn't keep her mouth shut while he was smart enough to keep that beak closed. My eyesight isn't much anymore, but I can hear one if he makes the slightest noise and is under 50 yards. If you can move on him without getting busted then do what you gotta do. A lot of people equate this to "deer hunting" them but I call it being a woodsman. Anyone can call one in on any given day and I've seen 5 year olds with box calls call the right gobbler in on a morning when he just wanted to commit suicide. If you can kill them when they aren't gobbling by using your skills and woodmanship then you are a complete turkey hunter. I can already hear the "If they don't fly down and come right to me I'm not interested" guys scoffing right now and so be it. While you are sitting on the couch watching Cops or cutting your grass or whatever, I'm killing turkeys. For the record every turkey I killed this year was called in so I didn't have to resort to those methods..... but I would have if it was necessary. I'm there to kill turkeys not just hear them gobble.
I need a like button! This is great information for those that have those hardheaded tight lipped birds
