minimal turkey hunting stories

[common man]

Wanted to hear from you guys who have hunted pressured birds on what are some of the minimalist stuff you did to kill turkeys, clucked only, scratched leaves etc. Lets hear some stories

[Pygmy]

The longest spurred gobbler I have ever killed 1 9/16 " and needle sharp....

He wouldn't answer any hen calling.....I was on my way back to the road and bumped him, and from the area he flew into I guessed where he was likely to roost the next day....

I got in well before daylight and set up a popup blind on a field edge adjacent to where I suspected he would be roosted..I set out a single hen decoy....

About a half hour before sunrise, he gobbled, and he was less than 75 yards in the woods directly behind my blind....

I figured that being that close to the field, he would fly down and check the field for hens, so I decided that calling to him would only confuse things....I stayed quiet....

He flew down and walked into the field as I had expected...Strutted toward my decoy and I shot him at about 30 yards from my blind....

Sometimes the best call is no call at all... I think a lot more hunts have been ruined by overcalling, than by undercalling..

 

[stubborn1VT]

The most minimalist hunt I had was late season.  The grass was getting tall and was often wet with dew or rainwater in the mornings.  Toms were not gobbling much and birds wouldn't come out in the fields until later in the day when the grass had dried.  My brother patterned a tom, jake and hen that were coming out to a small strip of bare ground along the edge of the field.  They were well screened by dead reed canary grass on one side and the woods on the other.  They would fly down onto a nearby powerline and walk down it to the dirt patch to sun and scratch until it got good and light out.

With this info I set up behind a boulder the size of bathtub and used a smaller rock next to it for a bench rest.  The birds never made a peep.  I never heard them fly down.  They marched out to the dirt spot and preened and pecked around.  For 15 or 20 minutes I got to watch them.  The hen had zero interest in the tom.  The jake didn't dare show any interest in the hen.  The tom stayed right behind the hen and stayed in strut most of the time.  I waited for the hen to bring the tom from 40 yards to about 25 yards, then waited for her to get well out of the way and dropped the tom from a solid rest.  It was a heck of a nice morning.  No blind or calls.  No running and gunning.  No other hunters around.  It was the least stressful turkey hunt ever.  

Another hunt I got in close on a roosted tom in the dark, called once when he hit the ground and then wrapped a Velcro strap around my box call and tossed a couple feet out of my reach.  I sat there just under 30 minutes before I heard the tom spit and drum on the other side of a thick cedar.  I shot him at 18 yards when he came around the cedar.  

[Pygmy]

I was hunting in PA a few years back and stopped on a road along a big valley to listen...

A tom was gobbling on the other side of the valley, near the bottom of a big hayfield..

I drove over to the other side and walked out to a wood's edge on the uphill side of the hayfield from the gobbler.

The hill broke sharply, so I decided to belly crawl the last few yards to the field edge...

Once I got to where I wanted to be, I took the rubber band off my Lynch Foolproof box and set it aside...I was careless and the paddle slipped down across the lip and made an audible, if unintentional CLUCK....

The gobbler immediately lit up and marched up across the hayfield and I killed him without ever making an (intentional) call...

 

[Buckmaster7600]

Most of my favorite hunts I never made a turkey sound. Find the birds sneak into range or sneak into birds intended path.

When a Tom wants to die calling is almost like cheating, when they want to play hard to get sneaking to within 30yds of a flock of turkeys is by far the most challenging hunting strategy I’ve found and also the most rewarding!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[mowin]

Got in close the afternoon before. New the area they rooster. Wanted to know the limb his feet were wrapped around.  

Got in place the next morning within 75 yards of the tom. Didn't call until I could see his feet leaving the limb. I call aggressive as he's flying down. Sometimes he will pitch in to my setup. Killed many a boss tom as he landed in my setup. No deeks, no calling until he leaves the limb. Then a aggressive fly down cackle.  

 

Not a traditional method,  but its worked for me  several times.  

[Gobbler Chaser]

More than one occasion where I've come in at 9am after calling for distant toms who pretty much paid no mind only to hear them gobbling away 100yds out my door after I was back in with my gear off hours later. A couple of times I dropped what I was doing oil up to my elbows doing tractor maintenance to grab my gun and camo t-shirt and shuffle back into the woods and blast one. They will put you on a waiting list after they're done with what's right in front of them