Ok, I spent the 5 day Iowa second season on a farm 30 minutes from my house. My turkey hunting buddy and I thought would have been heaven. We were hunting on 120 acre section of the farm where deer hunters had seen up to 30 turkeys at a time. Lots of thick timber, many creeks and water sources, many open grass and clover fields, surrounded by hundreds of acres of last years corn fields.
But as it turned out, neither of us could get a gobbler even close. The weather definitely wasn't on our side, near 90 the first two days, 60mph winds the third day, 25 mph winds the fourth day, and 2" of rain the fifth day. But the weather wasn't our biggest problem, not even close.
Our problem was the hens! We'd get a gobbler(s) going a few hundred yards away and one of a few things would happen. One, he wouldn't move, he'd gobble for awhile, we'd get as close as we could, which was still a couple hundred yards away, and couldn't see him, he must be hiding in the timber and then after gobbling for a while longer would go silent. Or two, the gobbler would be coming in by the sounds of it but would all the sudden go silent like he was intercepted by another hen. Or three, and this happened repeatidly, he'd gobble, he wouldn't move to us, we'd stalk closer to him, see him strutting in a field, move closer without being seen using the timber as cover, and set up. We'd start calling again and he'd drop back a couple hundred yards and start gobbling again and then go into another opening and start strutting and gobbling. We'd follow, stalking very slowly, and set up again, and he fall back to the next clearing and strut some more over and over. Playing the follow me around game.....
And the hens at the sound of a hot hen call would come in looking for a tom to bread her. I had one hen I spotted on a ridge well over 300 yards away that ran down the ridge, crossed a creek, two fenses, and then ran to my jake decoy.... :roll:
We finally, on the last afternoon, gave up on this property. We moved to another farm and changed tactics, more of a spot and stalk. I spotted a tom strutting in a field and stalked up to 150 yards away with a timbered draw and creek between us. I called him over my side and he stayed 70 yards in front of me in the field. I was trying to coax him closer when a hen, less than 20 yards from me and moving closer, spooked.
This is the first time I've hunted in April, I usually hunt in May (4th season) and don't usually have a problem with hens, but that's probably because it's late in the mating cycle and most of the hens have already been bred and cooled off.
Is this normal hen/gobbler behavior for the early seasons? What tactics do you use to bag a gobbler surrounded by hens so hot they'll run 300+ yards through thick terrain and rape your jake decoy?
:eek:
I'm going to get a tag for fourth season and hit my normal spots and hopefully bag a turkey in May. But for future years I'm not sure I'll hunt the early seasons again if this is normal.... Or maybe I just need to never go back to that farm for spring turkey hunting. And put it at the top of my list for fall turkey hunting when hens are legal to take. :wink:
later,
scruffy
