gmil6184

What part of central NY do you hunt? I hunt a lot in New Berlin, NY in Otsego County and I know last year they were real henned up near us. They would gobble on the roost but then once they hit the ground they would go their own way. However turkeys usually have a set travel route, so you might want to spend some more time scouting and figure out where they go off the roost. Its a lot easier to call a bird to a place he wants to go, instead of calling him away from his normal route. If you are sure hens are the problem you might want to try to call to the hens instead of the gobbler. The best thing i've found is when a hen starts calling immediately cut her off and call over top of her. If she is yelping interrupt her yelp with one of your own, but make yours a little louder and a little faster. If she is giving you that aggrivated cluck, start cutting back at her. A lot of times you will make those hens so mad they will come marching in looking to teach you a lesson, and sometimes their boyfriend will follow.

dog1

Everyone on here is giving you good info, I'm not sure how to do it, but I think you can go back thru the forum (I don't know how far back you can go either) and read what others' have done to be successful. I'll guarantee you there are plenty of turkey hunters that you'll get some good advice from.

I started turkey hunting over 30 years ago, taught myself, and made so many mistakes it's embarrassing to tell about them. However, I learned from each mistake and what makes them worse is, I still make some of them. If you started 2 years ago, hang in there, you have just begun an addiction compared to know other.

Good Luck,
dog1

frankw08

I hunt very close to New Berlin, I actually hunt in columbus just off of Route 8 and it seemed like the birds were henned up alot this year

gmil6184

frankw - well I'm glad I'm not the only one in the area that struggled with the birds last year haha. I managed to take two nice birds but down in the Hudson Valley area where they seemed much more cooperative. The last couple years I've had some luck hunting the birds hard at the end of the season. It seems like when I first started turkey hunting about 12 years or so ago the first two weeks were the best and the last two weeks were really slow. As of late it seems like that has reversed and I haven't had nearly as much luck the first two weeks, but the last two weeks the birds were much more active. My best guess would be that the couple mild winters we had meant more hens survived and with so many hens to go around the birds don't have to respond to calls, they just gobble up some hens off the roost and go to strut zones. As the season goes on and more and more hens start to go to nest I think all of a sudden the Toms start to get lonely and are easier to work.

This is why i think early in the year you have to hunt them almost like deer by getting into their natural travel routes because they usually will not leave hens to come to your calls (hen in the hand is worth two in the bush i guess, haha). Then if you still cant get them close enough start working on the hens. I have come to think that calling to the hens is even more fun then calling to the toms, because once you get those hens fired up it turns into a real pissing match haha. I've found this strategy to be very effective because very often the hens will come matching in to find you, especially if you have a real mouthy boss hen in the flock. Invariably the gobbler will follow them right in, usually pulling up the rear locked in a strut (I guess they like chick fights just like us, haha). The difficult thing about this strategy is that when the hens come in you have that many more eyes looking for you and you have to be extra careful with your movement. If you have one a decoy is often killer here because it gives the birds something to focus on.

frankw08

i agree that in the past ive had alot of gobbling in the early weeks and the later weeks were just a hit because you would have to sit there and wait for them instead of hear them coming. i cant wait to bag my first one it seems like i work so hard and get nothing in return i start to say im not going to hunt them no more but i do.