When to move???

[proturkeyhntr]

Here's a good one to expound upon.....Not only when do you move and change set ups, but actual body motion when a turkey is in front of you????HMMM...give this one a whirl...

scott

[shaman]

That's a tough question to answer. The easiest to part is to say that the best time is the night before, but that is not always practical. It's hard to generalize, not knowing the conditions. Can you ask some clarifying questions?

When to move your body? When you're out of sight of the turkey and all his friends. That being said, I've seen times when I've moved, the gobbler saw me move, but he was so entranced with the thought of pitching woo at either my decoy or just the unseen source of the calls that he completely ignored me. That doesn't happen often, but it does happen.

Blinds, natural or otherwise can do a fair job of blocking the turkey's view. If I'm behind burlap or die-cut, I can move a lot with relative impunity. When it's just me, bare to the world, with my butt against a tree or behind a log, I am very careful.

[proturkeyhntr]

Well, my post is basically referring to what I had stated. When do you reposition your set up and when in a tight spot can you move your body.

As for the fore mentioned, I move when a gobbler is hung up or heading the other way, if he is still gobbling repositioning your set up can pay big.... Whether getting in front of him and letting him ease by you or just trying a new "calling" set up has worked for me many times over the years...

Body motion like you mentioned can be accomplished when he is behind a tree or even in full strut when his head is blocked by his fan. But you can also move when a turkey is in full view but in motion. As he is walking you can follow him with your shotgun and stop when he stops. I have also been able to actually move on birds in view but in painfully slow deliberate movement.
I feel in time a seasoned hunter knows when he is able to get away with motion. I also know several friends of mine, that are rookies to hunting this great bird, were so afraid to move that they blew their window of oppurtunity to take their bird . Food for thought......


Scott

[shaman]

I would quite agree. As long as the gobbler is honoring your calls, it is probably wise to stay put. I find it best to wait until I'm certain I should move and then wait an additional 10 minutes. This allows the gobbler to pass well away from you and let you get up and leave, and it also gives another gobbler a chance to pick up on your interaction with the first and swoop in. A lot of these are silent interlopers, and you don't know they are there until you stand up to leave.

My guess is they stay silent, because they figure the other gob will give them a good thrashing if they make their presence known. I had one like that I named "Silent Bob." Bob was fond of breaking away from his regular harem and going to look for some stray hens midday. He'd then go hang out at the edge of Mister Natural's strut zone and just watch. If Natural got some action, Bob would take the opportunity to run out into the field and do some strutting himself while Natural was away. Even without Binos, you'd know which was which-- Natural took the top center of the field. Bob always took the right corner. Eventually Bob would hook back up with his harem and they'd all go back to roost together.

The other thing I've notice is that if you pick up and leave a situation, you can sometimes come back and find turkeys right where you were and hour or two ago. It might have taken them a while to get to you, but they're there. One tactic, I think Ray Eye had it in his book, was backtracking. You go out and call in several spots and then turn around and retrace your steps, collecting turkeys as you go. I've not done it in quite so formal a fashion, but I've frequently found turkeys on my way out that are mulling around the places where I was calling on my way in.

As to tactical moving: Moving when they move is a good idea. The landscape is changing, and it's less likely they'll pick up on your movement, but you need to stop before they stop, otherwise you're busted.

The other part of moving worrying about who else is watching. One of the absolute hardest things to do is make a shift to put the bead on a gobbler when there are hens around. You may have half-a-dozen sets of eyes on you at once. When I do have a hen bust me, my first response is to lay into some aggressive calling. Sometimes this works, sometimes it doesn't. The idea is to get the other turkeys to think the hen is putting, because she got tangled with the sex-raged hen on the other side of the bush.

[LRO]

Here's a good one to expound upon.....Not only when do you move and change set ups, but actual body motion when a turkey is in front of you????HMMM...give this one a whirl...

scott



Depends. Are there other birds gobbling in the distance? Might make a difference on how long you are going wait out a bird that has shut up. Then if you are like me, when you are heading to the other bird, the first one gives you one last "where are you?" gobble..................right from where you were sitting. :D

Unless a bird was actually moving off as he was gobbling, you may as well give him some time.


As far as physical motion while you are setup. Do what you need to do. A bird can't see through trees, hills, his fan, etc.