# What should I have done differently?



## milkdud

Let me tell you what happened to me yesterday and please give me your thoughts on what I should have done differently. I have about a 150 foot climb up a moderately steep hill to get to my blind which I placed on a 2 track on top of the ridge. The top is about 25 yards wide then drops down a high wall into a pond which is 20 yards wide and 150 yards long. On the other side is another high wall which is about 50 feet higher than me. Yesterday morning about 8am I hear a gobble on the back side of the high wall across the pond. I yelp back to him and he answers. I yelp again and he comes to the top of his bank and gobbles his head off! I think he is going to glide across the pond and land in front of me. Instead he walks the entire length of the pond (150 yards) back and forth gobbling his head of for an hour! I didn't call a lot to him as I read that if I shut up he may come looking for me. He gobbled about every 10 to 20 seconds for an hour whether I called or not. When he got to the ends of the pond I thought he would come around to me but he would turn around and walk all the way to the other end of the pond. Back and forth for an hour and then he went quiet. I decided to stay in place till noon in case he came in quiet but he never did. The reason I didn't try to go after him was it is a very steep climb up that 2nd ridge. 25 years ago I would have tried it. I'm going back down Wednesday morning. Should I go extra early and try to get to that ridge or did I blow my chance? I am the only person hunting this 32 acres so there is no pressure. It is all woods with no fields so that's why I set up on the open ridge. Thanks for any input. I have only hunted turkeys for 5 years. (three by myself).


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## RMK

definitely wouldnt say you blew it. he just wouldnt tackle the obstacles in the way to come the rest of the way in. sometimes they ll come in through anything. other times they wont walk around a puddle to get to your set up. if possible i would consider setting up on the same ridge as him if possible next time. take the obstacles out of the equation... good luck!


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## jmyers8

I agree with the above I've had many turkeys hang up and never figure out why then you go to where they were and there is a small fence, creek or log and they just won t go around it and will wait for the hen to come to them which is what he was doing. I would also recommend getting on the same ridge he's on. It's always a crab shoot of what he will do when he flies down. I've seen them fly across ridge to ridge or just hop down. I would put out a sex it early to maybe give him something to look at in the roost hope this all helps


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## Lowerider1029

The first thing I would do is change my calls, try calling to him again and if he gobbles, start walking away from him calling as you walk. Just keep looking for large enough trees to sit in front of in case he comes in. If that doesn't work, get on the same Ridge or level that he is on and try calling to him from there. Hope this helps !!


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## STRONGPERSUADER

You have to remember that that in nature the hens go to the toms. So if you have a Tom hammering your calls remember that he expects to see a hen eventually. If not, the smart boss toms will hang up big time. If he’s with a few hens it’s really hard to get him to you. I would scout to find a roosting area and set up early accordingly. Set up is the most important thing with the hunt I think. Maybe a few soft tree yelps before you hear any gobbles, try and get one interested in you first. We have all had them hang up many times. That’s why it’s so fun to hunt them. Good luck.


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## lawrence1

I know what you mean about climbing those ridges, lol We got to hunt while we can, we're all going to run out of health before we run out of hunts.

He's using the edge of that pond as his strut zone. Gobbling attracts predators. After examining a bunch of strut zones you can clearly see they choose areas where they can see all around them and offers a clear flight of path for escape. I once watched two gobblers working together, one would gobble and the other got up on the stump of a blowdown and was the lookout.

If you can get on the same level as him when he's doing that back and forth wait till he gets to the other end of the pond then move within gun range of where he struts on your end and bushwack him when he comes back.

Good Luck!!!


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## Skippy

I've had this work a few times.. Once you feel he's hung up and won't come any closer hit him with a hen call then wait 30 seconds or so then face away from him and make a gobble call. Wait a minute or so then do the hen call followed by the gobble call. There's times you can piss him off enough where he thinks another tom turkey is moving in on his hens.. A few times I've had them come running right in so you have to be ready.. But with turkey hunting,, NOTHING works all the time. Good luck


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## Bass&Bucks

Try scratching around in the leaves in between calling to him.....very simple yet effective for added realism.


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## SJB

You certainly did not blow it as others have mentioned. And I agree, you found the strutting zone. That is a great place to set up if you think you can get there early in the morning. I have set up blinds in the middle, and I mean in the middle, of a field if that is where they normally strut. The toms naturally want to go there - for all the reasons already mentioned. My thoughts - don't fight this and get your butt where he wants to be!


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## Bwise

SJB said:


> You certainly did not blow it as others have mentioned. And I agree, you found the strutting zone. That is a great place to set up if you think you can get there early in the morning. I have set up blinds in the middle, and I mean in the middle, of a field if that is where they normally strut. The toms naturally want to go there - for all the reasons already mentioned. My thoughts - don't fight this and get your butt where he wants to be!


I agree with this 100%. Turkey hunting is so much easier when you find out where the birds want to be. Get there early!


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## milkdud

Thanks for all the suggestions. I am going to get up on HIS ridge in the morning. I will report back to what happens. I tried muffling my calls by turning away from him the other day but he just wouldn’t take the bait. My luck I’ll climb “Walton’s mountain”tomorrow and he’ll be on the lower ridge! It sure is fun trying to outsmart that peanut brain!


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## RMK

milkdud said:


> Thanks for all the suggestions. I am going to get up on HIS ridge in the morning. I will report back to what happens. I tried muffling my calls by turning away from him the other day but he just wouldn’t take the bait. My luck I’ll climb “Walton’s mountain”tomorrow and he’ll be on the lower ridge! It sure is fun trying to outsmart that peanut brain!


good luck and show us a kill pic tomorrow. in my original post i almost said about the time you set up on his ridge he will be on your original ridge. haha! hope you get him


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## Bwise

Good luck!!


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## SJB

And I would say, don't call too much. Many, many hunters overcall. Right now I am mentoring a few hunters and that is one of the basics we go over all the time. When you are bored and nothing is happening, calling seems like the right thing to do. But watch hens and how often they call. Quite a bit right at first light, and then very little.

In your situation, I would be very tempted to run a full strut jake decoy. That will get that ol' tom all fired up.


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## milkdud

The good news and the bad. I set up on top of the higher ridge this morning. I only gave a few soft yelps 1st thing then didn't call again until 8am. I usually blind call every 45 minutes or so. Is that still to much? I never saw or heard anything on the property I was on. I heard a gobbler across the road on another property gobble 4 or 5 times. That was it other than a few does. The good news? It was better than going to work! Oh well I will give it a go another day. Thanks for all the input everyone!


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## turkeyt

If he starts moving away you may be able to get to his spot and call him back to that spot. My friend and I had one just above us pace back and forth and would not come in. After awhile he would start to leave and I could call him back to that spot. After a couple times of him starting to leave, I had my friend climb up the bank and get in that spot. Called him back again and he met the ground. Sometimes they will get in a place that it is tough to get to them. Have had one like that this past week. He has been there everyday but, just almost 
impossible to set up on him. Only hope is he, moves out to better ground and commits. Just don't get caught up on one bird or you may have several days of frustration and lose hunting time. Some turkeys on some days are easy and some turkeys on some days are impossible to kill.


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## SJB

Just out of curiosity, what time of day did you see this Tom strut? I find the toms are often tied with the hens for breeding early morning, then will go and seek other straggler hens. If I can't get a tom in that first light, it seems that 10-11 am can be a magic hour in a known strutting zone. Not sure if that is the case here or not.

I will close with a thought. They are turkeys with the brain the size of a big pea. We try to figure out what they are thinking, when in reality, I don't believe turkeys think that much at all. They do more of a reaction. I know I have been caught up way too much trying to figure out what the birds will do next when in reality, they are not necessarily that calculating. So certainly don't beat yourself up too much on these feathered creatures - they are just turkeys after all!


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## milkdud

It all happened between 8-9am. I stayed put till noon but never heard or saw him again that morning. I've been fishing with my brother as he doesn't turkey hunt so I haven't been back out after him yet. Maybe 1 last chance this weekend. It is amazing how animals like deer, turkey, squirrels etc. do not have thinking or planning capabilities but they can still "outsmart" us!


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## STRONGPERSUADER

They are not dumb by any means. I don’t think that they really outsmart us. It’s that their senses are so keen along with being smart but they rely on their senses more than anything to survive. We are actually the ones who are trying to do the outsmarting. I once read that a turkey can see the blink of an eye at 100 yrds. They also can see in color like we can as soon as they hatch. On a side note, Ben Franklin wanted to make the wild turkey our national bird but the eagle came through for obvious reasons. It’s a real enjoyable challenge to hunt them.


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## dsoy28

@STRONGPERSUADER the "Ben Franklin turkey suggestion" is a known myth FYI. Benjamin Franklin was displeased with the bald eagle, and said it was a poor choice of representation due to the bad moral character of the bald eagle, and he merely said the turkey would have been a better choice, but openly stated he was against a bird as a symbol entirely. Just a morsel of history fer ya.


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