Cracking the code to a strut zone gobbler?

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Cut N Run
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Cracking the code to a strut zone gobbler?

Post by Cut N Run »

I already have an idea of how to play this, but the turkey bug in me has welled up in me and I'm looking for suggestions or advice.

I was hunting a 120 acre farm last Spring (85 acres of woods) and I had a mature gobbler respond to my calls, then he set up in a strut zone & refuse to budge towards me. His favored spot is a logging road in a wide shallow bowl, which means that any way you go at him, he can see through open woods a long ways. In the times i messed with him, he'd stay in a small area strutting back & forth for over an hour , then he'd leave out a different direction. He roosts on neighboring land I can't hunt and I'm not exactly certain which way he enters that area. He gobbles at distance, then just sort of appears.

To say he's getting under my skin is an understatement.

I've fond an old stump hole below the ridge that has a leaning dead tree beside it that's in range of the strut zone. I have done some digging around the stump hole over the past couple of months to make a suitable foxhole to hunt from without getting busted. I still plan to call him in and I hate to deer hunt him, but I don't know any other way to get the drop on him.

I appreciate any suggestions how you handled a similar situation and I appreciate any other ideas.

Jim
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guesswho
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Re: Cracking the code to a strut zone gobbler?

Post by guesswho »

Gobble, voice spit and drum.
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Re: Cracking the code to a strut zone gobbler?

Post by Jstocks »

When you hunt big property, you can locate a bird, go to him, chase him around, and do whatever you feel you need to do to try and kill him.

When you hunt smaller property, you don't always have (almost never honestly have) the full range of opportunity. I'd say you got it about as good as it gets.
You know the bird don't roost close, so no risk of an early bump.
Get there at daylight, enjoy the woods waking up, hit him with a couple calls when the time is right, but not too many. Sit back and let the morning play out as he works his way to you performing his daily routine at his rate. Should be a fun hunt, just don't call too much, be patient, and enjoy the show.
Deputy 14
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Re: Cracking the code to a strut zone gobbler?

Post by Deputy 14 »

Ambush him and get him out of the gene pool. You don’t want that level of reasoning ability passed on to future birds.
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Re: Cracking the code to a strut zone gobbler?

Post by OLE RASPY »

I agree with jstocks and sometimes spit and drums will bring him in to. Thinkin nother bird is in his area.
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SwampDrummin
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Re: Cracking the code to a strut zone gobbler?

Post by SwampDrummin »

Deputy 14 wrote: February 2nd, 2019, 10:40 pm Ambush him and get him out of the gene pool. You don’t want that level of reasoning ability passed on to future birds.


Agreed. Ambush him and enjoy every second of it.
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Re: Cracking the code to a strut zone gobbler?

Post by decoykrvr »

Try roosting the gobbler the night before you plan on hunting, and next morning get in close in the dark between his roost and strut zone and soft call him in w/clucks and soft yelps. It's a lot more rewarding than an ambush because you've "earned" the kill.
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Re: Cracking the code to a strut zone gobbler?

Post by ol bob »

There are a few wise old gobblers that will only play by their rules you kill them any way that you can and when you walk out with them you know that you have a true trophy.
A wise old owl sat in a mighty oak , The more he saw the less he spoke, The less he spoke the more he heard, Why can't everyone be like this wise Ol bird
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Re: Cracking the code to a strut zone gobbler?

Post by Roy »

guesswho wrote: February 2nd, 2019, 10:10 pm Gobble, voice spit and drum.
I would do the exact opposite of whatever guesswho recommends.
" Y'all keep discussing it among yourselves...I'm sneakin' in to pop the noisy one. " - Stinky J Picklestein
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Re: Cracking the code to a strut zone gobbler?

Post by guesswho »

Roy wrote: February 4th, 2019, 10:12 am
guesswho wrote: February 2nd, 2019, 10:10 pm Gobble, voice spit and drum.
I would do the exact opposite of whatever guesswho recommends.
Smart man :lol:
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Re: Cracking the code to a strut zone gobbler?

Post by Roy »

guesswho wrote: February 4th, 2019, 10:33 am
Roy wrote: February 4th, 2019, 10:12 am
guesswho wrote: February 2nd, 2019, 10:10 pm Gobble, voice spit and drum.
I would do the exact opposite of whatever guesswho recommends.
Smart man :lol:
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Re: Cracking the code to a strut zone gobbler?

Post by SwampDrummin »

decoykrvr wrote: February 4th, 2019, 9:36 am Try roosting the gobbler the night before you plan on hunting, and next morning get in close in the dark between his roost and strut zone and soft call him in w/clucks and soft yelps. It's a lot more rewarding than an ambush because you've "earned" the kill.
Don’t listen to em. Nothing more rewarding than ambushing some SOB that thinks he’s too smart to be shot in the face.
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Re: Cracking the code to a strut zone gobbler?

Post by SwampDrummin »

No blinds though. Need to do it sitting against the tree waiting completely still and completely silent. You’ll have about a 3 second window.
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Re: Cracking the code to a strut zone gobbler?

Post by Hobbes »

Im not telling anyone how to best this gobbler. I actually think you'll be fortunate to see him do the same thing this year. However, for those concerned with ambushing him........is getting between him and the strut zone any different than sitting at the strut zone? Either requires spending enough observation of a Tom to understand what his routine is to place yourself in his normal path.
Yelp a few times on his route to or Yelp a few times at the strut zone, it's still an ambush. Not that I wouldn't do either one, and it's a rare day that I don't call to a bird even when hunting Easterns (but I tone it way down). However, probably many times I should just sit and wait.

We killed one of the few strut zone birds that I've found here in the West last year (these birds rarely do the same thing day after day). However, we killed him for no other reason than I got lucky and riled up the hen that he was strutting for and he followed her in two days in a row. I'd hunted him two previous days without success except learning a little more each day. I think I'd have had more trouble with an Eastern on most days, but there is always that one day.
Cut N Run
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Re: Cracking the code to a strut zone gobbler?

Post by Cut N Run »

Thanks for the replies guys. I'm not certain he'll even use the same area this year, but I want to be prepared if he does.

I would definitely rather call him to me once he gets on the ground on his way there. I wish I could get close to his roost, but he tends to roost a long way from where I've dealt with him in the past. Some days, I can't even hear him from the roost. Due to property lines, I can't move a whole lot closer than I already am. He just shows up mid-morning & frustrates the p1$$ out of me. The only common denominator seems to be where he struts.

Jim
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Re: Cracking the code to a strut zone gobbler?

Post by Brwndg »

Next time he leaves the strut zone move in ASAP and call him back to it. He is using it to attract a hen, make him think he did.
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Re: Cracking the code to a strut zone gobbler?

Post by Dtrkyman »

I love ambushing those stubborn birds, I even call at em then hall as- over to the spot before them, worked a few times, they never know what hit em!

Love the comment about eliminating them from the gene pool!
Cut N Run
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Re: Cracking the code to a strut zone gobbler?

Post by Cut N Run »

I hadn't been to the farm for over a month, so yesterday I checked on things. I found since we've had so much rain over the winter that the stump hole I was working on looks more like a half-full 100 gallon stock tank and probably can't be hunted from. The swamp is way up in the woods and a few sections of trails are way too boggy to walk. The silver lining is there's been zero horse traffic and more relaxed turkeys in that area. I'm hoping the water level goes down between now and opening day next month, but I'm not counting on it. I picked out the next biggest tree within range of the roadbed and it happens that a nearby leaning tree had come all the way down during recent storms. That downed tree should to give enough cover to hunt the area without as much chance of getting busted. If the gobbler stays on the road side, north of the downed tree, I'm probably good. If he comes in from the Southwest I will be sticking out like a sore thumb. Hunting the bottom of a sparsely wooded bowl seems stupid, but it is the only place that gobbler is comfortable enough to visit where I can hunt him.

There's lots more sign than usual around where the hens like to roost. I'm liking my chances out there. Hurry up and get here turkey season.

Jim
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Re: Cracking the code to a strut zone gobbler?

Post by Clydetaylor »

Jim I go with sometimes you have to do what you have to do to kill a aggravating bird. Worst part is when he's gone you won't get to dream about killing him anymore. I've had a few that I missed when they were gone.
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Re: Cracking the code to a strut zone gobbler?

Post by decoykrvr »

I hate manufactured nylon blinds and the only time I've ever had to hunt out of one was at a Wounded Warrior hunt. I would get out of the blind to call and listen then get back in and suceeded in calling a gobbler to the Vet's gun despite the fact that we had to hunt out of that abomination. With that said, I've got no problem going into the woods weeks before the season and dragging brush, limbs, and cedar/pine boughs to make a natural ground blind. IMO, the longer the brush blind is made before hunting it to let the birds become accustomed to its presence the better. I've watched turkeys shy and move away from recent blow downs after a storm which was something "new" in their territory, only to ignore its presence after just a few days. But word of caution, I hunt with an older gentleman who has the habit of making his "turkey hides", so tight and thick that he has trouble shooting out of them. Not only can the birds not see him, he can't see them. I always build my "hides" with positioned shooting lanes for the potential utilization of a decoy especially in open woods or fields. For this, I beg Tom Kelly's forgiveness.
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Re: Cracking the code to a strut zone gobbler?

Post by Cut N Run »

I will use what's there and may bring a short stake blind if the low growing cover doesn't green up soon enough. I've had some great hunts by using downed trees for cover and I really like not having a ceiling over my head. I'm actually pretty happy that tree came down, because it may have helped solve the problem for me. I'm not a fan of pop up blinds either. I've taken pictures out of one once, but that's my only experience with them. I will use existing features, but until the tree fell, that section of woods was pretty bare of cover big enough to hide a human. I'm extremely glad I checked yesterday, because it would not have been pretty if my fox hole of standing water is what I found in the dark on Opening Day morning.

A buddy of mine once hunted out of a rusted old shell of an ancient Buick that was losing its place in the world to weed, tree, and vine overgrowth. That hulk of a car carcass was the only place my buddy could set up to get the drop on a big gobbler who dared anyone to come at him from where he gobbled and strutted in a lumpy old pasture. The pasture edges were weed and honeysuckle covered three strand barbed wire with short, thick saplings sprouting close enough together all around it, where you couldn't swing a gun barrel any way you wanted without making it look like a bull moose crashing through. The gobbler roosted in some tall trees on a thinly wooded hillock overlooking the old pasture to one side and a creek bottom to the other. He may as well have been roosted in a fire tower. That old bird was quite adept at flying off the other direction whenever humans approached or he'd strutt out near the middle of the pasture, then dash off at the first sense of danger. You weren't getting inside that bird's bubble very easily and he'd already frustrated plenty of hunters who tried and failed. My buddy said the only way he saw where he might get the drop on that gobbler was to go in super early, do a ninja sneak, and go sit on what was left of the seat, and use the Buick as a blind. He had to contend with resident mice scurrying about under foot and scaring the crap out of him as he tried to stay still. Even though he said his calling sounded kind of muffled and metallic from inside the window-less car, it worked well enough. That gobbler sailed down to the pasture, towards the calling, and had no clue what hit him when my buddy lowered the BOOM on him out of that Buick. My friend used what he had to his advantage and won. Over the next summer, that farm got converted to a sterile, modern subdivision that no self respecting wild turkey would want to be close to. All that's left of it are a tamed creek, with ornamental band-aid trees planted where real ones once stood, and memories the current residents could not begin to comprehend.

Sorry to go off on a tangent. It's a true story that came to mind, which needed to be told.

Jim
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Re: Cracking the code to a strut zone gobbler?

Post by Gar Commander »

I once hunted a specific gobbler on a piece of public near my house. I accidentally discovered him one day at noon and was just hoping nobody would be parked there the next AM. I arrive early and get my turn in spot all to myself. As daylight came he started burning it up and a few hours later I left dejected. Hunted him the last 2 weeks of the season that year almost every day with same results, lots of courtesy gobbling. A guy I know saw my truck parked there and called me asking if I was hunting that old SOB that couldnt be killed. Seems everybody in the world had tried him and gave up on him. When we drive by that spot now I tell the story to my teenage son and he cant believe I couldnt kill that turkey. Not sure whatever became of the old bird, as I didnt waste any more time there the next year but I never saw any cars parked there as I passed by.
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Re: Cracking the code to a strut zone gobbler?

Post by appalachianassassin »

Hard to say what I would do without being there myself. I probably wouldn't hunt him but once every 10 days. Things change as the season progresses.
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Re: Cracking the code to a strut zone gobbler?

Post by decoykrvr »

One of the toughest gobblers I ever hunted was an old bird that had heard and seen everything and had frustrated and beat a bunch of good turkey hunters. The gobbler roosted in a thin strip of trees on the north end of a huge field and sailed down every morning to the center of the field where he strutted, courted and bred his hens which came to the center of the field which was 150 yards from the adjacent woods. If you called, he would always exit the field away from the calling source and often would fly out of the field towards a large creek bottom/swamp where he would disappear in silence. The gobbler had been shot at while exiting his roost and in the field, hunted in the swamp, the field, evenings at the roost, and the area adjacent to the roost. The old gobbler was in the third year of this routine when near the end of the season we hatched a plan. I was doing a lot of goose hunting in winter wheat fields and often would lay out surrounded by decoys on a military sleeping pad under green camo nets (before the advent of layout blinds), and figured a similar approach might work on the sly old gobbler. We got to the field well before first light and placed 8 or 9 turkey decoys ( one was mounted on a spring w/ a string attached to create movement) and placed the layout pad and nets in the 10" high grass surrounded by the decoy spread. At this point we flipped a coin to determine who got to hunt. I lost, and retired to the edge of the field back in the woods. There was a slight ground fog that morning and as was his M.O., the old gobbler sailed down and landed within 25 yards of the decoys and my friend. The gobbler straightened his body and shook his feathers when I heard a loud cluck and almost simultaneous shotgun blast. The gobbler sported 1 5/8 " spurs, a modest 10" beard and weighed 23 1/2 lb.. When we cleaned him we found 3 different shot sizes encapsulated in tissue in addition to those which killed him. In addition to the spurs, the most impressive feature of the old gobbler was his immense scarred head and the fact that he was blind in one eye. As a team effort we "Cracked the Code". The only calling that old bird heard that day was the cluck to raise his head.
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Re: Cracking the code to a strut zone gobbler?

Post by Realwarrior »

I like to hunt strut zone birds, I find them some of the easiest birds to kill. The key is to PLAN on a 3 day hunt. Plan on scouting, you have to Know EXACTLY where the strut zones are. I've found that these birds are older birds that know that hens are suppose to go to them. The first day you try to call him, if he goes to a strut zone quit calling. Don't move on him. Usually strut zone gobblers will gobble as they move between strut zones. If he goes silent, he's probably in the next strut zone, use locator calls to try to get him to give away the location of the 2nd strut zone. Don't hen call. Hell stay in that zone if you hen call, you want him to move to the next zone and repeat. The second day you repeat with the knowledge from the first day. After he leaves the first strut zone, like was suggested, move into the first strut zone and try to hen call him back to the strut zone. If he moves on to the second strut zone, you move to the third and call if he answers, shut up, in fact throw your calls away from you so they are out of reach then wait him out. If that doesn't work, the third morning be waiting in the first strut zone. The reason guys don't kill more "Strut Zone" gobblers, IMO, & give them mythical reasoning abilities is because they hunt them inpatiently and spook them or expect the bird to come to them and hunt them impatiently. If you go into the hunt and you build the 3 day plan, spending 2 on recon and 1 on execution, the plan will come together. Also, contrary to some of the other opinions, I've found that on private Land that hasn't changed much from one year to the next, they will use the same strut zones.
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