re: Turkey hunting question: Season over got my birds no complaints (happy to be alive) but …

Yeah it was weird. They have always replied to an owl call early in the morning on the roast. Always. On a good day I could get the real owls going and basically locate half the damn turkeys on the property. I eventually found certain spots I could do an owl call and it would carry and cover the areas I knew they generally roost. It got to where I could do about half a dozen owl calls and know where half a dozen birds were located and by knowing each bird’s territory and preferences for strut zones use that to plan my hunt. (Sounds cool right but when you start naming birds and knowing this much about them it obviously isn’t a good thing, that last 50 yards was always the key. )

Anyway, we finally managed to kill off a few old birds, (and some died by bobcat or old age) so we finally have a bunch of 2/3 year old killable birds.

But them refusing to gobble on the roost threw me for a loop. I couldn’t find my peacock call to try that but they didn’t respond to anything on the roost this year, i actually had one rustle his feather when I did an owl call, had to be less than 40 feet away, but I decided he probably made me too so left him alone. They would respond to any hen call either.

On my last hunt this caused me to set up 30 feet from one, (didn’t have that tree marked) which was obviously too close and he went the other way. Now once they hit the ground they were golden and easier than usual to call in. (Except the really foggy days, I am not hunting those anymore.)

Now Robert, the 40 pound bobcat was active the last few weeks because I have him on camera in daylight, but they didn’t respond weeks before that. So I don’t think that’s it.

Every thing else other than the early nesting was normal behavior even predictable. I guess I will have to use my thermal binoculars next year if they do this again.

It wouldn’t really matter except I have to use pop up tent on this property, or they see me, and they will not enter the fields without decoys. Easy if two people are hunting, (then you can ditch the tent too with a caller and a shooter) but a pain in the arse for an old man like me