Help me out please..How do you read a bird?

[flati]

Well tomorrow is the last day and I have yet to get a gobbler.  I definitely need some help, its been a bad year for me.  The last few times out this week I have heard birds and attepted to get within a hundred yards or so...some I've bumped because I apparently misjudged their location but others just gobbled while moving the other way or shut up never to be seen or heard again.  What am I doing wrong?  I was told to get a bird to answer so he knows your location then shut up and make him come looking for you, perhaps I was calling too much?
 
Today started with me owl hooting but nothing was heard.  After daylight I heard some crows calling as I was slowly walking around awaiting a gobble and that's when I heard three birds.  I positioned myself uphill about a hundred yards away and soft yelped, purred and clucked after they gobbled three times or so.  It sounded as if the birds were working away so at 7 am I repositioned to catch up with them and bumped two from a tree (an hour after daylight).  The remaining gobbler continued to gobble but also continued to move away..again I didn't call that much today thinking I would tone it down a bit.  Tell me your procedures especially how one "reads a bird" to determine what he wants to hear to lure hime in.

[Va.ridgerunner]

It is tough to read a bird and they can change thier minds during the course of a hunt.  I think the biggest obsticle is hens.  Were the birds you hunted with hens or could they have picked up hens during the hunt.  I have had several hot gobblers coming in hard only to shut up mid way.  They picked up a hen and the real thing out bid me.  Remember in real life the hen goes to him and he expects that.  As for reading a bird, if you call and he cuts you off or continues to gobble after you call he is HOT, I would hammer him.  If he shuts up you shut up.  This can change.  I hunted a bird in Pa. last year.  He gobblled a few times during an hour of off and on calling but would not come around a little knoll between us.  I waited possibly as long as 2o minutes at one point.  Some loggers a mile away dropped a tree and he gobbled.  Gave me an idea.  15 minutes later the loggers dropped another tree, he gobbled again, this time I hammered him cut, cluck, cackle,  he came in within 5 minutes.  He just had to be ready.
 

[allaboutshooting]

Hey Fred,

I'm not sure that any of us can actually read a turkey, know what he's looking for and act accordingly. Turkeys are turkeys and they just don't always do what we believe they should do.

Threre are days when it seems that you can do no wrong and other days when nothing seems to work. I believe you'll get more turkeys by being aggressive than by being passive. I would not be too concerned about bumping a bird or even bumping a few birds. It happens.

Part of hunting turkeys is the fact that we don't always get a bird. The best that we can do is to hunt where the birds are and go after them, safely of course but go after them and have no regrets when we leave the turkey woods.

It's truly the hunt and not the kill that really counts.

Thanks,
Clark