Hung up Gobbler trick

This doesn’t work all the time but I have had it work with some great success.

So you have been sitting for awhile and you can get the gobbler to gobble every time you call but you can’t get him to come in.

This ONLY works if he can’t see you. So he is doing his thing and you still can’t seem to convince him to come your way. Maybe you have tried another call in your arsenal of calls from your heavy vest with ten thousand pockets.
The trick here is to go in the opposite direction of where his is calling and call back to him. I like to start out going about 20-25 yards and then give a call. If he calls back just wait for a couple of minutes then call again. Listen to see if he is getting closer that way the run for the blind isn’t farther than it needs to be. I will try this once if it doesn’t work then I will proceed to move back 50 yards away and up to 100 yards away.

DON’T get to excited with the call when he gobbles back and gets close. Its a hard thing to resist but your best chance is a turkey that is interested in why that hen moved away in the first place.

When/If he starts to come in Maybe do one or two calls and do the calls that gets him excited if its a loud call keep it loud don’t change it up to a soft purr stick with what has been working. After that call and if he starts to come in he might get hung up again. Then its a waiting game don’t call to much maybe once every 10 minutes or so. Just to let him know where you are.

The best way for this to work is patience.
I will say this always with turkey hunting patience pays off.

Give it a whirl if the situation presents itself.

Great tip Benny!

Do you “setup” at each call location then, or go 25, call, then go 50, call?

Joel

I get the blind set up to where I think they might travel.

I will leave the blind and call from 25 away from the blind and then listen to see what happens. Sometimes if there isn’t any noise better get back to the blind fast because he could be in route.

Keep the blind in between you and him. Helps to have the door on that side to. In case of emergency!

Its to hard to move the blind with you every time and really hard to do with a bow in one hand and be really quiet.

So I will leave the blind run out call from 25 yards back play it by ear and see how the turkey reacts. If that doesn’t work go back 50 and so on. The time of this can be really slow and I don’t call that much just enough to grab his attention. Two/three gobbles to each call instead of one gobble then call. Get to excited with the call can let that older bird know something is fishy.

Excellent tip Benny! This is also very effective when you have another hunting partner with you and they are the one that keeps on separating the distance of the tom while the shooter stays put.

Do you also try and play around with the volume of your calls? Sometimes instead of moving first, I will call softer and softer giving the impression that I’m moving farther and farther away from the hung up tom.

Brad, I do! Calling soft can work. IMO a turkey that has been around the block a time or two knows and can tell right where that sound is. Calling soft still leaves you in the same spot. This sometimes isn’t enough to trick and older bird.

Calling soft is a good place to start. The safest place when hunting turkeys is in that blind. Once you leave that blind a turkey can spot you from way to far away.

For me If I have been sitting on the same bird that is hung up for like an hour and half or something like that. I need to change it up before he loses interest. Its more of when all else fails because once you have set up the blind its really tuff to leave.

Do you ever stop calling and start softly scratching the leaves instead? I’ve done this a few times as well…

Quote:

---

Do you ever stop calling and start softly scratching the leaves instead? I’ve done this a few times as well…

---

my favorite call

No I have never scratched the leaves. But I do carry a wing with me and flap that around.

Leave scratchin I will have to give that a try.

Benny, Great post! One thing I have noticed is when I only use hen decoys and a tom comes in gobbling, he more than likely will lock up just out of range. The tom will sit there for what seems like 30 minutes gobbling trying to get the hen(your decoy) to come to him. Sometimes no decoy is better than one or two hen decoys, then the tom will keep trying to find the hen. I think the best set up is to have a hen and a jake or full-strut tom decoy, that way the tom won’t lock up and try to coax the hen to him, but rather he will come in to kick some tail and run the other tom off and hopefully present you with a shot. Oh boy, I am fired up! Here I come Nebraska!

I’ve noticed in the past when photographing turkeys that when the toms are really primed everytime you call they put the bakes on and freeze up right there strutting. I know Overcalling isn’t the thing to do just like deer hunting, its going to be a learning situation for me this spring.

Quote:

---

Benny, Great post! One thing I have noticed is when I only use hen decoys and a tom comes in gobbling, he more than likely will lock up just out of range. The tom will sit there for what seems like 30 minutes gobbling trying to get the hen(your decoy) to come to him. Sometimes no decoy is better than one or two hen decoys, then the tom will keep trying to find the hen. I think the best set up is to have a hen and a jake or full-strut tom decoy, that way the tom won’t lock up and try to coax the hen to him, but rather he will come in to kick some tail and run the other tom off and hopefully present you with a shot. Oh boy, I am fired up! Here I come Nebraska!

---

Totally agree. I’m doing a better job of “hiding” my decoys so to speak these days. Rarely do I put a big decoy staked-high for all the world to see out in the wide-open. Like you said, too often it invites the tom to lock-up just out of range. I find myself (mostly when gun-hunting) setting up dekes, if at all, along an edge just barely concealed in the grass/brush. I think it creates a situation where depending on their angle and distance the bird is easier or more difficult to see. This keeps them guessing and ultimately draws them close enough for a shot IMO.

When I use dekes, it’s to close the deal, not make it.

Joel

Great post
One month for me….