WHATZUP WITH THESE TOMS

[fisherxp]

As I age I've had to cut back on my turkey hunting exploits. Only hunt my home state now and have 2 different spots. I've been hunting my son's property for at least 20, years and have have always killed at least one turkey there and sometime two.....until this year. Opening day we listened to several toms gobbling from their roosts until fly-down when they went silent and wandered off, presumably with hens. This is common place,although once in a while we'll have some early morning action. Had two toms fly into our set-up from the roost one year but most of the time we need to wait until 9:00 AM or so before we have some gobblers start looking after the hens start going to nest. This year, that did not happen either opening day or two days later. So, we went looking and found several groups of gobblers, 3 to 6 birds each, all bunched up, no hens in sight, not making a sound, not moving and not responding to any calls, including loud gobbler clucks. Just hanging out. They continued in this mode at least until noon time when we had to quit hunting.

I had this same thing happen 2 years ago in the other spot I hunt and haven't killed a bird there since. I'm hoping that you guys on this forum with all your collective turkey hunting wisdom can help me understand this phenomena. Are the toms through mating? Are there too many toms per hen, or visa versa?
Could it be cumulative hunting pressure? I don't have a clue but do know that birds behaving in this manner are unkillable.

[BoxCall@68]

Lots of birds get called at before the season,and get wary of any calls.crow,barred owl,even peacock.sometimes a silent dog whistle will get a response.

[Hoobilly]

Around northern Indiana we get mushroom hunters walking everywhere

But we do have a couple spots that seems dead this year.

[BoxCall@68]

I've also had them gobble to a solid hedgeapple box call.hand made and real high pitched.sometimes you got to give them a jolting call.lots of the commercial calls mostly sound the same.works on some,but not the old smart ones.

[Grumpy]

Do those mushroom hunter play soft banjo music while looking in the bushes.

[decoykrvr]

This year I have had several places, including our family farm, where the gobblers have disappeared or completely changed their pre-season behavior just prior to the weeks before opening season. Sadly, without egressing on adjacent private property, the reason for their departure has been explained by the bright yellow fat, and in several cases cracked corn in the crops,of killed gobblers. I've sacrificed my hunting opportunities on several properties by contacting the state to inform them about my findings. I'm about over being sensitive to neighbor relations and am fed up with the SOB's who can only kill turkeys over bait.

[willie]

same thing here in my part of the country.i have around 5 spots that are totally dead and been like that for 2 years.these places i have hunted for decades.my opinion is not hunting pressure at all the places because 1 place is mine but coyotes and other predators hawks, coyotes and eagles.this is why so many gobblers go to the middle of fields with a bunch of turkeys (more ears and eyes).reminds me of a situation last year(which is twice i have seen this).i was going to store to get a drink and i went by a 5 acre field with grass in it about 1 foot tall and a gobble in strut was standing next to hen.they were about 30 yards from ditch line and dirt road.i had a friend with me and i said u want to look at that turkey again and he said yes.i turned around and was creeping alone in truck and the hen was there standing and i just caught the gobble go out of sight.i stopped the truck and told the guy the gobbler is hiding.i got out of car and walked to the hen and when i got about 10 yards closer to her old mr, gobbler stood up who was squatting low enough to hide.he hauled butt and took flight and the hen took off running.now who would like to take a guess at how that turkey figured that out.

[Hoobilly]

same thing here in my part of the country.i have around 5 spots that are totally dead and been like that for 2 years.these places i have hunted for decades.my opinion is not hunting pressure at all the places because 1 place is mine but coyotes and other predators hawks, coyotes and eagles.this is why so many gobblers go to the middle of fields with a bunch of turkeys (more ears and eyes).reminds me of a situation last year(which is twice i have seen this).i was going to store to get a drink and i went by a 5 acre field with grass in it about 1 foot tall and a gobble in strut was standing next to hen.they were about 30 yards from ditch line and dirt road.i had a friend with me and i said u want to look at that turkey again and he said yes.i turned around and was creeping alone in truck and the hen was there standing and i just caught the gobble go out of sight.i stopped the truck and told the guy the gobbler is hiding.i got out of car and walked to the hen and when i got about 10 yards closer to her old mr, gobbler stood up who was squatting low enough to hide.he hauled butt and took flight and the hen took off running.now who would like to take a guess at how that turkey figured that out.

I hunt a area that had a junkyard on both sides of the road. feller passed away and his family sold the opposite side to the farmer. I had hunted this spot since I was 11 years old. Makes me sick, all fence rows gone and approximately 20 acres of woods is gone. Coyotes who loved hunting the junkyard for rabbits now are pushed north to my other spot and found a dead gobbler that I believe was killed by coyotes. Last Sunday my niece and nephew went with me and I had soft called twice and was then walking to get set up when my nephew whispered Coyoe, can I shoot him?? I said YEAH DUHHHH! He banged it at aprox 50 yards and I seen it roll and run. Looked for blood didn't see any. Found it Mid morning saturday about a hundred yards from where it had been shot. Seen another coyote that afternoon when we were checking spots. Looks like its coyote killing time now turkey season is over.

[Hognutz]

That’s what I’m talking about!

[fisherxp]

You guys may be right about coyote predation. We have plenty in our area and have noticed some toms with tail feathers missing which could be an indication some predator is harrassing them. Wild turkeys, like all wildlife, have a reason for everything they do. Trying to get inside their heads for answers is the difficult part. Thanks for the input.