quite in the woods

[SCHUNTER]

guys what do you do when the turkeys just shut up and dont answer any calls?there is not a lot of pressure on the club.only 3 of us hunt.and not a lot durring the week mostly on weekend.it's the end of the 2nd week here in SC.2 more too go.and happy bunny day everyone

[trkynut54]

They are probably with hens in the morning. Wait until mid morning, around 10 or so then set up and start calling. By then the hens will be on their nests and the gobblers will be awful lonely.

[paboxcall]

Two options:
 
1.  If you have a bunch of ground, you can search till you find a gobbler who is all alone early morning and is responsive to your calling; or
 
2.  You can be patient, sit tight and if you know birds are in the area from your scouting before season, call quietly and wait till mid morning.  Hens will peel off to nest late morning and if a gobbler finds himself alone, he may actively begin searching for company.  Late morning hunts during the lull can suddenly turn wild.
 
Several drawbacks to option one are you can bump birds, and you can get tied up with a gobbler who responds to your calls well, but is henned up and doesn't cooperate all.  You'll hear a lot of gobbling, but chase that flock for the balance of the morning.  The one upside is if that flock has more than one gobbler, the sub-dominate gobbler may sneak in quiet to check out your calling.
 
One of these morning in the near future the woods will light up again.  Hang in there!
 
John

[shaman]

ORIGINAL: SCHUNTER

guys what do you do when the turkeys just shut up and dont answer any calls?there is not a lot of pressure on the club.only 3 of us hunt.and not a lot durring the week mostly on weekend.it's the end of the 2nd week here in SC.2 more too go.and happy bunny day everyone

I've had a lot of days like that.  Sometimes the birds are just not there.  I used to hunt a small place SE of Columbus, OH.  During season, the birds seldom roosted on the place and any amount of hunting pressure sent them elsewhere.  Most of the time, I was left to call in birds from across the property line. That was many years ago, and the flocks were not as big and there were few other hunters.  Nowadays, I would not be so bold.

This past Sunday AM all my gobblers had a severe case of lockjaw.  It had gotten really cold overnight, and I had successfully predicted that the birds would be quiet.  I just stayed home and sipped coffee out on the back of the house.  Season doesn't start until next weekend.

Much to my surprise, I had two gobblers come out and strut after the sun came up.  They came to spots where they knew they would be seen and places where the morning sun would hit them and get them warm, and they strutted and gobbled their heads off.

Later in the year, I see a similar behavior.  Some gobs like to walk quietly from one likely spot to the other. Some go to the head of each hollow and gobble.  Either way, they go out looking for nookie shortly after flydown and stay on it all day or at least until they find a partner for dancing.  Last year,  the last week, I had a gobbler that came out at 10 and 2 like clockwork and made a circuit around my pastures.  I was not ready for him until the last day of season and when I saw him make a similar circuit at 5 PM, I headed out to intercept him by one of our barns.  He and I got there about the same time-- didn't have a chance to get my headnet down.   Oh well.

My point in all this is: first make sure the turkeys haven't just run off.  Next, start looking for likely spots for gobblers to come looking for mates and get there early and call like a feeding hen.  Every little once in a while, give him an excited run like you really want it. Wash, rinse, repeat.

[swpatrkyhunter]

I assume you know the area your hunting in and theres signs of birds in the area. But do you know where they roost? Knowing where they are roosting will help you out alot. If they are henned up listen for the hens makeing noise instead of concentrating on hearing a gobble. One thing to remember is no matter what sometimes the turkeys will just be turkey and difficult! Hens can make a rough go of things. But sometimes calling to the hens will work too! If the toms are henned up and you get the hens to come into you they will drag the toms with them at times!
 
Good Luck!

[Fan Club]

> what do you do when the turkeys just shut up and dont answer any calls? <
 
I remind myself that I'm in Missouri. The birds there will gobble like crazy on the roost and then shut up. It's very rare to hear a gobble later in the day. Mostly they are henned up but even the loners are tight lipped. As a result, you adapt and hunt them according to their behavior. I have taken the majority of my Missouri birds between 10:00 and 12:00. Find out where the hens feed and where the strut zones are and wait. (often these are the same place) Soft call occasionally, mostly clucks and purrs...no power yelping. When you move, do so carefully- because you don't know where the birds are it is easy to bump them. If you can identify any travel corridors, such as the narrowest part of the field between two woodlots, that can be a good spot as well.
 
Here in southern Michigan the birds are a bit more vocal any time of the day. While I hesitate to call it "Run and Gun" because the properties are so broken up, calling occasionally while on the move is sometimes a more productive use of time than camping out somehere and burning up daylight.
 
Either way, knowing the land and where your turkeys roost, feed and travel is key. Being where the birds want to be will put you in the game whether they are talking or not.
 

[singleshot]

the hunting pressure where i can hunt has made the birds very call shy. so i call very softly and scrach the leaves to get them to come in. if you call agressively  all you see is fast movment to the next timezone. if that dosnt work ambushing does.

[Gobbleking57]

If you hear gobbling and yelping in mid January and your season doesn't start until March 21st and by mid April all gobbling has all but ceased but you have until mid May to hunt is it safe to assume your season is accelerated and the last month is a waste of time?

[Turkeybuster]

The last month is never a waste of time you will not hear as many birds but keep hunting usually when you find one that will gobble your chances of killing him are usually good. The pressure is off and he is still looking for company he is probably well educated at this point and you will probably have the woods to yourself. So take your time crowd him on the roost and as Fan Club mentioned earlier do not use any aggresive calling. Some of the best birds I have taken have been in the last few days of the season. Personally the last week of the season is my favorite week to hunt .

[SamuraiTater]

ORIGINAL: Gobbleking57

If you hear gobbling and yelping in mid January and your season doesn't start until March 21st and by mid April all gobbling has all but ceased but you have until mid May to hunt is it safe to assume your season is accelerated and the last month is a waste of time?

^^^^^  Bump.  ^^^^^


That's a question I had last season.  We had beautiful weather in SC all winter long, right through the pre-spring and spring season as well.  We might have had two days in the winter where it got down below freezing temp.  The skies were clear and it was warm every day from the 1st of March.  Our season starts April 1st in the upstate area and I just didn't hear much of anything from mid April.  Other hunters I talked to expressed the same observations.  I saw a hen crossing a road with poults in tow, toward the end of the 3rd week of the season.

This season came on the heels of a colder winter that stayed around all February.  March was off and on warm days followed by unseasonable cold.  Just when it seemed like the weeks in March would turn to the indian summers we're so familiar with, we'd get a few days of some really nasty rain and more cold fronts.  Consistent spring weather didn't get here until the last week of March.  I heard all sorts of activity early in the season this year.  Is this a result of ideal weather conditions or is it more a result of me being better educated about finding birds ?