Henned up gobblers: all day approach
Early May typically means the start of turkey season for most hunters on the eastern side of the United States. The first two weeks is also commonly considered early season, even though a lot of the country is about to wrap their seasons up. For Pennsylvania and other Northeastern hunters, this time of year brings lots of gobbles, lots of yelping and excitement in the woods. In addition to all of those things, it also bring henned’ up gobblers. For a lot of folks, that may mean “game over” but it doesn’t have to. There are many things you can try before you throw in the towel.
Calling: This is typically the first thing that comes into most hunters minds when talking about spring turkey hunting. This is a valuable tool to have once you understand how turkeys communicate, learn to read the emotions in the calls and how to “tell” them what you want to tell them. In the case of a gobbler with hens, calling can help you bring the group to you, or it can push them away. First ill explain the scenario in this video as it highlights how calling and hens can help bring the group to you.
That particular morning, I had roosted these birds the night before I knew they had some hens with them and typically hung around in this field shortly after fly down in the morning. I got in early and set my decoys out on 45 degrees to my left since I suspected the birds to be coming from either directly in front of my or my right. I started first thing with some tree calls (light clucks and yelps that a hen typically does on the limb) after the gobblers responded to me on the limb I went silent until right before I guessed they would fly down and then I did a fly down cackle and some yelps essentially saying “hey! here I am.” I knew they had heard me and knew exactly where I was, and I didn’t hear much hen talk on the roost so I thought maybe the dominant hen was not in this group. Calling too much to them on the limb can either hang them up, or force the hens to take them the opposite direction depending on the flock dynamics and which hen you are specifically dealing with. After they flew down, I sent a few series of yelps out to them and got a response on the first, but then they went silent. I could hear the hens start clucking so I copied every sound she made. When dealing with a vocal hen, the best strategy I have found is to mimic her exactly. If she yelps four times, I yelp four times… if she cuts I cut and so on. As this goes on she will sometimes get angry as that happens I step up my aggression also. Ill start to cut her off when she calls, in hope to further her anger. As you can see in the video, she comes out of the woods and spots the decoy immediately. From there, my calling is pretty much done. She will hopefully take care of the rest. As she approaches the decoy, you can see her start to puff out in preparation for a fight all the while, her friend starts firing up and behind her, are the two longbeards I am after. The scenario could not have played out any better, both gobblers came into the decoy set up and went right for the Avian X Jake decoy I had set out. Once they looked like they started to get a little spooky I had o transition from cameraman to shooter and the rest is history.
Patience: Sometimes calling doesn’t do the trick. Even when all the stars align, sometimes the dominant hen will decide she is not interested in a fight and would rather just avoid the “troublemaker” and go about her day feeding and pecking around until its time for her to visit her nest. When that happens your scouting will come into play. The hens are going to take the gobblers with them as they approach their nesting site. You have two options typically then. If you’re lucky enough that the birds are still gobbling to locator calls, you can follow them at a distance and wait for those hens to get to their nests. Typically from there, the gobblers will leave the hens in search of another mate. If that happens, its game on for you. They are going to be gobbling and receptive to calling. This is when you will need to “take the birds temperature.” Any and all types of calling are back in play depending on what he is telling you by his responses. If he is gobbling immediately to your calls, double gobbling, or cutting you off throw what you got at him. Hit him with some cuts, excited hen yelps and let him roll to you. If he is intermittently responding or there is a delay in his respone, tone it back a little. You can yelp, cluck & purr, and even scratch the leaves to simulate a content hen feeding. (only do this if he cant see you). If neither of those work, stay on him eventually he is going to give you an opportunity.
Scouting: Lets say all of that happens, then he shuts down. You can either call it a day and try again another morning or you can leverage your scouting and go wait him out in one of his hangouts. Turkeys typically have some type of routine and strut zones are a big part of that. In a normal day with no hunting pressure, that bird will leave his hens and typically go strut somewhere in hope of attracting another hen. From me experience its typically an area that has higher visibility available to him. He will hang out there for a good bit mid day to afternoon before making his way back to his roost site. (which is another tactic I will talk about later for those of us that can hunt all day)
Once you find his strut zone, get in there and get concealed as best as you can and just do some light calling as you wait for him to naturally come your way. The light calling is usually light clucks and purrs with soft yelps. Think of what a hen sounds like when she is content and feeding. Chances are he will come in silent, but that’s the sound you are looking for until he tells you differently. That goes back to reading his temp as I mentioned earlier. If you have never seen a strut zone before, which a lot of folks probably haven’t, or if they did they didn’t notice them… some telltale signs would be a high concentration of tracks with drag marks on either side and typically some wing feathers around. He is going to be strutting in this area in the hopes that a hen comes by and sees him out there showing off.
Roost Ambush: If he decides for whatever reason that day he doesn’t want to use that particular strut zone and leaves you hanging that afternoon. There is still one more thing you can try. In Pennsylvania and Nebraska I have noticed that the birds I hunt will typically roost in the same trees or at least a same general area each evening. That’s not the case out here in the west but we can talk about that later. When you have identified the area your birds typically roost in, you can try ambushing them as them come back into the roost. Find a good concealed spot as close to the roost tree as you can find, throw some decoys out there, typically for me I try to go low impact so I will only use a hen or two then wait them out. They may gobble as they make their way to the roost or the hens may start assembling their flocks which either one will give you an idea of where they are at. Try to blend in with the group, if she is hammering out assembly calls chime in with some yelps of your own. If the tom is gobbling his head off, give him some love too. Let him know you are there and waiting for him to come home. On occasion the birds will run ahead of the flock to try to recruit you before its time to go to bed. Other times you’ll get to just watch and listen to the show, but you will know exactly where they are and this entire process can restart tomorrow. If you have birds like we do out in Colorado that have a wide area of possible roost sites, then the game changes slightly. The best way to really find those birds is to follow them as closely as you can throughout the day and either call one to you right before fly up or roost them and hunt them in the morning.
In summary, turkey hunting in my opinion is not a “one and done” game. With patience, scouting, and smart calling you can offer yourself multiple opportunities throughout the day when most hunters have thrown in the towel.
