What would you do?

[JHA]

New to the forum. I need some advice. I've had this situation happen to me the last two days. I've scouted a field that looks promising. This morning, I'm walking down the path to the field, blowing a crow call. I have a turkey gobble back at the call. I move further down the path and try the call again, this time the turkey sounds farther away when he gobbles. I backtrack to the original spot and try the crow call again, no response. 2 to 3 more attempts at the crow call, no response. I start back down the path to the field, I try the crow call, the turkey responds, sounds somewhat distant. I keep heading toward the field and pow, I jump the turkey off his roost. Same thing happened yesterday. Should I have just setup on the path and attempted to call the turkey into shooting range at the original spot I heard him gobble?

[Ozarks Hillbilly]

Hard to say in that situation the the bird you heard may or may not have been the bird you spooked off of the roost. Judging the distance to a gobbling bird can be tough at times whether he is facing toward or away from you, how much foliage is on and what type of terrain you are in. Did you try to entice another gobble after you spooked the one bird from his roost? The bird that spooked my have just been a tight lipped bird that just happened to be roosting there along your path. You may have been able to go ahead and work the bird that was actually doing the gobbling.

[JPH]

I assume that it is early in your season. I tend to be very reserved when moving in on roosted gobblers early in the season. The woods are bare and it is easy to get busted. I prefer to choose likely sets as my pre-dawn option and try to call them to me once on the ground. You spoke of a trail, that may have been your best option.
 
As the season wears on, I will get more aggressive about getting close to the roost, but only after I have more cover and I have learned the habits of the birds in my area.

[mark hay]

slow down . always stop moving when you hit a locator call . if in doubt as to where the gobbler actually is , repeat with the locator and possibly increase the volume and intensity of the locator.
if you did pinpoint his location with any of the locator calls , be it the first one or the third one , now it's time to figure out where to set up , or how far to move toward the bird and then set up .
from your description it is possible that there were more than one bird. maybe one was in the tree and one was on the ground , or 2 birds in 2 separate trees , with some distance between them .
if this happened 2 days in a row , and you can hunt tomorrow , my advice would be to get there earlier , move as quiet as possible , get near that same area and if possible get above the pathway .
but i don't know the lay of the land there , or what time your encounter took place. basically i'm just throwing out some things that might help.
good hunting to you and keep us posted with results.