My spring (long)

[RickB]

Went out turkey hunting with a friend.  This was the first time I've been.  I would have gone more, but my friend couldn't get off work, so we went for the last two saturdays.
 
First outing:
 
Before the season started, I put up a blind near where I'd seen turkeys both in the fall and earlier in the spring.  The blind is in an open field near the tree edge.  At about first light, my buddy and I entered the field and walked to the blind.  I put out a decoy.  I called on the owl call and got no reply.  So we sat in the blind.  I heard the gobbles and started calling.  We sat in the blind until all the gobbling stopped, which happened around 8:30 a.m. or so.  We walked some and crow called, but never got another reply.  We sat in a couple of places for a while, hoping to get a tight lipped bird to come int, but we saw and heard nothing for the rest of the day.  Around 2:00 p.m. we picked some mushrooms and called it a day.
 
 
Second Outing:
 
We decided two things:  1) get out earlier and 2) be more mobile.
 
So we got into the blind before first light.  I owl called and got no response.  So we sat as the woods woke up.  Soon, we started hearing gobbles.  We could not agree on the directioin they were coming from, so we got out of the blind.  Soon we heard and agreed upon the direction.  We walked toward the gobbles.  When we got close to the edge of the woods, I owl called again and got a gobble reply.  Being very inexperienced, I have no clue as to how far away that bird was.  We grabbed the first tree we could find.  Now, the area we sat down at is on a ridge... the blind is below and behind us, and there is a ravine below and ahead of us.  My friend saw "movement" ahead in the ravine.  He does not know what he saw, just movement.  We sat and called in this location for a half an hour.  Never got another gobble in this area.  Heard gobbles in other locations, but never that bird again.
 
I'm guessing that we got too close to the bird and got made.
 
We packed up and chased down some other gobbles, but the woods were getting steadily quieter and quieter.  The last gobble we heard was around 9:00.  Aroudn 11:00 we wrapped up.
 
Any comments all y'all with experience want to share is welcome.  Feel free to call me an idiot, but tell me why, please.
 
I'm thinking there is no substitute for watching the real thing.  Does anyone have a good suggestion for a video to buy/checkout? 
 
Turkey season continues all thru May.  I may buy another tag and give it a go alone, but I need to do a search here to see how one hunts late in the day.  My land is 3 hours away and I cannot afford any more overnight stays in a hotel.
 
Thanks
 
Rick B

[BigBuckeye]

Stay at it Rick!
 
One question, if you set up a blind because you saw birds or evidence of birds, have you considered staying put and seeing if they pass your blind instead of chasing them?

[RickB]

Staying put vs chasing...
 
Well, the first outing we did indeed stay put for quite a while.  I'd say we stayed in the blind from sunrise until maybe 10:00 or so.  Then we were back in the blind in the afternoon for an hour or so.  The second outing, we were only in the blind for a short period of time. 
 
So, we did stay put for a while... several hours.  Tried it both ways.  Need more time in the woods to figure it out.
 
 
Rick

[WillowRidgeCalls]

When you seen the birds in the field where you put your blind, what time of the day were they there? Were the birds roosting in the same area each time you went out? If they are you may need to try to get close to the top of that ridge in the dark and start there. Your best off not doing any calling what so ever, until the brids hit the ground, just listen to them. They will tell you how much to call, if that tom is goggling his head off on the roost, that means he has hens with him because he'll answer every hen that talks to him. If he just gobbles a couple of times he may be alone. That will tell you how much calling you'll need to do. If he is alone you'll only need to call a couple of times very softly, if he answers you DO NOT call back to him until you know he is on the ground. Then call to him once softly, if he answers then just sit and wait, he'll come looking as long as your not calling to him, it may take him a couple of hours but you don't want to call more than once an hour just to let him know your still there.
If he is gobbling his head off you'll have to compete with other hens, so you'll need to call more, start off softly and increase your volume as you call. You should be able to hear the hens talking, if they start answering you copy the loudest hen call for call, because your going to need to challenge the hens to get that tom to come. It doesn't make a differance if your on the ridge or in your blind.
If you were seeing birds in the field mid day that's a good time to head there. Listen to the birds and let them tell you what to do.

Good Luck.