Elusive longbeards

[eroger]

Hey guys, I have been chasing turkeys for about 10 years now with a friend of mine. We almost exclusively hunt together when chasing turkeys. We have both been very fortunate over the years and usually each harvest a bird per season. The problem is in all these years each of us has only harvested one longbeard. The areas we have hunted in the past had good turkey populations, some with no hunting pressure and others with heavy hunting pressure. We seem to have little trouble calling in jakes and even hens but the longbeards elude us. We blind hunt and run & gun. We use diaphrams, friction, and box calls. I use the diaphram and friction calls and my friend uses the box. I only use the box when trying to locate a distant bird later in the morning however my friend uses his box exclusively. My feeling is this call is to loud so early in the morning and even when he gets one to answer his call he continues to use it. When he uses the box I try to stay off of my calling, if I do call I use soft clucks, putts, and purrs. I don't blame his calling as the culprit as I'm sure we are both doing something wrong. Sometimes I think I over analyize things. Can anyone out there give me some input in what we may be doing wrong or what we should be doing.

[SpitnDrum]

I'll throw my penny in the well and go ahead and say to ease your mind the Box call its self is not to blame.Its really got to do with the individual gobbler your working wether he likes loud,hard calling or not.I make it a rule to always test the gobblers attitude,but always start out with soft calling.The time of the season and what the turkeys are doing also dictate the way I call to a Tom.I just keep in mind what I can possibly get away with.Early in the season you can get away with more aggressive calling.As the season progresses and my hunting areas change I tone down my calling and even the time of day I hunt from mornings to the middle of the Day.Many a turkey has fell from the Lie of a box call likewise to many other varietys of calls.They have been tried and true over the years.Usually we have to work on how we present the call to the turkeys.

[WillowRidgeCalls]

I'm curious roger when you hunt together, are you both set up in the same setup? You said that you've both have been successful over the years. Which one of you useally gets his bird first?

[eggshell]

Sometimes there is a simple answer....if you shoot the first jake in you'll rarely kill the longbeard following. Also, those group of birds you hear are mostly jakes, set up on singles on points and big benches, if your in hill country. The old birds get the prime strutting spots. Learn to tell jake gobbles from old birds. Other than that it's a matter of time.

[eroger]

We sit together in the same set up. Whoever has the best shot gets the first bird and if the birds cooperate after that we rotate. We have been fortunate to shoot quite a few doubles albeit they were jakes.
 
We can distinguish jake gobbles from mature birds. The gobbles we hear are singles and not in groups. Our hunting area is comprised mostly of cypress swamps and the birds tend to roost over the water making it nearly impossible to set up for flydown. Down here in the deep south it's difficult to even know which tree they are roosted in because of the water. We have an idea of their location buts it's difficult to set up on them. One morning they fly down on this ridge and the following morning their on the opposite ridge. I will admit there have been times in the past when we were hunting in north Louisiana where we heard long beards and jakes and shot the first thing that came into our set up. I guess we may just have to let more jakes walk and see if the odds of a long beard improve for us.
 
I have even had the fortune of finding a roosting area along a creek adjacent to a clear cut. I went out early one afternoon and set up a blind and waited them out knowing they would be coming to roost. It was almost dark when they came in, the problem is they flew in from across the clearcut and landed in the tops of the trees. We ate another slice of humble pie.