What to Do When a Turkey Hangs-Up
Give Him Your All
Editor’s
Note: You won’t take a proud, mature gobbler with
conventional calling tactics. These
bronze barons have attitudes. They consider themselves
the finest birds any hen ever has seen. They feel so
sure of their masculinity and superiority that they
believe every hen in the woods will come running to
them. They won’t exert any extra energy to go
to a hen. You also can recognize a proud gobbler by
his extreme caution. A proud gobbler will stop about
50 to 60 yards from where you call, gobble, strut and
drum — but not come any closer. When a tom takes
this position, most hunters say he’s hung-up.
But you can take a bird that acts like this.
When a gobbler refuses to come close enough for you
to take a shot, you’ve lost the game. So, give
the bird every call and style of calling you have. I
often will cut and cackle on a diaphragm call, cluck
and yelp on a friction call and then fast yelp on a
box call to sound like a flock of turkeys. I’ll
call aggressively and subtly. I want that gobbler
to think a harem of hens has invited him to a party.
If the bird still doesn’t respond, I’ll
throw in a gobble call to make the hung-up tom think
the hens he’s heard calling have lured in another
gobbler. Often the tom will come running in to chase
off the intruding gobbler and pick up this harem of
hens. Use a gobble call only on private lands when you
have your back up against a big tree and can see in
all directions.
I’ll also use the fighting-purr call to cause
the gobbler to think a harem of hens has congregated
at that location with one gobbler. Then I’ll try
to make the tom think a second gobbler has come in and
started a fight with the first gobbler. I’ll give
cutting calls of hens at the same time I make fighting-purr
calls and use my hand to ruffle the leaves to sound
as though the fighting birds have beaten the ground
with their wings. I hope to make the gobbler think that
he has the opportunity to come in and steal one of the
hens while the two toms fight. This strategy either
will run off the bird or call him to you.
Tomorrow: Job ‘Em
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