WV Hunter

I' ve been turkey hunting for a while, and as most of us know...you seem to learn something every time you go. I primarily use friction and mouth calls. I wouldn' t consider myself an expert by any means, but I have had some success.
My question is....what is your ace in the hole, when it comes to closing the deal? The last few years, I' ve had trouble getting a mature bird in that last little distance, enough to make the shot. They (more often than not) seem to hang up just out of sight. I have had some jakes come in....but I' m not really after them. And of course...if you turkey hunt enough, you' ll have the occasional bird commit suicide after only one or two series of yelps(had two in two days a couple years ago do that). But overall , what seems to work best for you call wise? (yelps, cut, cluck...etc?) Do you have any particuar order you use the different types of calls? I' m not the greatest caller in the world for sure, but I' m wondering if maybe I' m doing something wrong. I usually have decent success getting them to come in just using yelps, and some clucks thrown in. Then when they get close I try and call softly (usually yelps or clucks again)...and depending on the situation, the silent treatment sometimes will work for me also. Thanks

maineac

I think it is different with each bird. When the bird hangs up start with some soft purrs or clucks. Read his response. Does he gobble, do you hear him spit and drum? Scratch the leaves. Listen. I have also tried just shutting up and letting there curiosity get the best of them. Other times really firing up with clucks and cutts. Every bird is different. Feel them out and react with what they want.

snowdog2

Soft clucks with a pushbutton if I have a decoy, leaf scratching if not. This on cautious birds. For those ones that sprint to my location (due, no doubt, to my sexy hen talk), nothing.

HomerJ

Make sure the safety if off.

snowdog2

The other thing is, I think hangups often are due to poor setup location. For example, if you are in the edge of the woods and the turkey is strutting and gobbling in an adjacent field, you shouldn' t expect the gobbler will actually enter the woods, he very likely won' t. In a case like that, all you can hope is that you get him close to the edge of the field where you can whack ' em. So you shouldn' t set up too deeply off the field' s edge. Likewise, if he can see your decoy from a strut area (as opposed to a non-strut area), he' ll rather your hen decoy come to him. [If I know I' m going to be stuck with that circumstance, I put a string on my decoy and use motion to try pull the tom from his strut zone. Gentleman that Sir Tom is, he usually will agree to a bit of a compromise with a pretty hen who appears to be moving towards him, and come in her direction, more than halfway.] Although I have called toms downhill, I think the general consensus is that calling from above the tom works better, and you may get a hangup if you are below the tom. Fences, creeks, lots of fallen timber, heavy brush all can be hangups, and you should consider their potential problem-causing when you set up. Finally, sometimes you just have to realize that a turkey is a turkey, and the best setup, sweetest hen calling, etc., on occasion will not succeed, and in those instances, you' ve just got ot tip your hat to the bird. After all, that' s why they call it hunting, not shooting.

WV Hunter

Snowdog...good points, I agree. I also usually try and set up so they have to come uphill to me. I' ve learned the hard way about obstacles...they definitely don' t like them as a rule. I realize that it' s definitely hunting, and there are a million things that can change from hunt to hunt, or even within a hunt. I' m not sure the reasons most of these won' t come...I suspect hens may be nearby sometimes...but the birds I ususally end up having trouble with hang up at 100+ yds, where I can' t see them, so I can' t put a finger on it. Maybe it' s just me..?? Either way, I' m keeping after them for sure By the way...what type of pushbutton call do you use? I' ve looked at some but never actually dropped the dime on any.

Washington Hunter

From what I' ve experianced Snowdog is right, it' s much easier to call a turkey uphill, than it is to call them downhill. What you have to remember is that Turkeys are top heavy, so if you try calling a Tom downhill its easy for him lose his balance and roll down the hill injuring himself. It' s like most of us have been told to run downhill from a bear if chased, same theory applies, bears are top heavy and it' s hard for them to keep thier balance running at a downward angle! Generally to " close the deal" I do a few soft clucks

wacker

Just wondering if anyone has seen a tom lose his balance and roll down a hill injuring himself?It sounds good in theory but I doubt that it happens.

who_else

that is a good question, it would be funny if u saw a big old tom fall down a hill and then get up and look around like " did anybody see my make a dumb mistake?' lol who_else

snowdog2

w_e and wacker: I saw a big old tom lose his balance and roll down a steep hill off a ridgetop just last weekend. Of course, he lost his balance when he ran into a load of #4 lead shot.

WV Hunter: My pushbutton is from Quaker Boy, I think.

100 yard hang-ups--just real s-o-b' s to answer. I had one last spring, where I know the hangup was that the bird would have to cross a very large field (it was probably more than a 100 yard hangup, but he was response gobbling on top of my every yelp), and probably was in his strut zone. The hunter I was calling for lacked mobility, though, so we couldn' t reposition ourselves. I yelped with every call I had, for over an hour, and that tom gobbled back at every yelp. He just wouldn' t come in, because of that big field, I believe. (There' s a lot more than I' m telling--he was west of me, in the field, on the edge of the field, in a hollow. To the North was a huge open field, so he couldn' t travel an edge to the north and cross over to the east side of the field. To the South was a treeline and woods, but between us was a single strip of trees running North about halfway up from the South woods edge.) Had I been alone, I' d have relocated, at least to the strip of trees. I was tempted to play silent and see if that would drive him nuts and make him come across the field, but I didn' t because he was so hot, and my hunter was enjoying the show.

The only other 100 yard hangup I can remember was when the tom was in his strut zone in a clearing in the woods and I was a ways away in the woods, and it was all tangle and downed trees in between.

As you can see, I blame setup for both these hangups.

My general rule is that if they hangup, I know they are hungup, the silent treatment doesn' t get ' em and I can' t see them, I reposition and try again. I never take a direct route to them, though, always circuitous.

I thought when you meant " close the deal" you were referring to those times when you have ' em coming, you can see ' em, they' re at 75 yards, they see your decoy, and you want to finish ' em. That' s when I go pushbutton or, if no decoy, leaf scratching.