Spring turkey tactic

[Pipefish]

The Maine spring turkey season is over half done and I need some advice: I'm hunting land that is located across a country road with little traffic. On the other side of the road are a whole bunch of roosting toms. There are hundreds of acres of unhuntable land on that side of the road. The good news is that I believe the land owner (on my side) and I are the only ones going after the toms.  The hours I can get out to hunt are daybreak (4:30ish) to 7am. The toms are out of the roost by 6am usually and chasing hens all over the land on the wrong side of the road.

Any advice on how to get those roosted toms over to me? And before they get distracted by the hens in the wrong direction?

At my disposal are:
1- diaphragm call
2- stationary ground blind i built in a sparse forest gully (approx. 200 yards from roost site with road midway).
3- a large field 300 yards from the roost site (again across the road).
4- two hen decoys

Note: I have seen the turkeys in both AM and PM across the road chasing hens. I have also seen lone hens on the land I'm on.

Thanks for your help,

Dan

[Flingblade]

I've never been successful calling toms away from live hens.  The only way I've killed henned up toms is to call the hens in and the toms follow.  A group of hens can be tough to call in but a lone hen is easier.  Try sneaking onto the land across the road at night; circle around behind the toms and spook them out of their roost.  They should fly across the road and roost on your property if you spook them from the right direction.

[TomBow]

I have heard it can be tough to get birds to cross the road so good luck with that.  NOT using decoys may be a good idea, based on your saying that there's lots of hens across the road.  That way if Toms do come over, they may spend more time searching for the hen(s) they hear, rather than seeing decoys and holding up, waiting for the hen to come to them.
If you can get a hold of one, a gobble call (if you are NOT hunting public land) may be the way to go, idea would be to convince the other Toms that there is something worth crossing the road for.
One more suggestion would be staging a hen fight, unfortunately it requires another call or caller:  basically you aggressively purr and yelp hard on two calls so you sound like two hens battling it out.  I've heard the real thing and it really gets the gobblers going.  It's the " a fight draws a crowd" mentality, if the birds think a fight is going on, they may run in to see what's up.

Since turkeys love to stomp on the weaker members of the flock, you might try setting up something to resemble a wounded bird.  If you happen to have some turkey wings, put the hen decoy on the ground with the wings laid out so it looks like wounded.  This may bring curious birds closer.

Just a few wild ideas.  Good Luck!

[Pipefish]

Thanks for the ideas. The gobbler call is intriguing ( the owner of the land has us scheduled so there is only one hunter in the woods at a time).

I will post if successful!

Dan

Get a jake decoy--and a high-pitched gobble call.

[cahaba]

Excellent advice from all the above.. It is very hard to get a tom away from his harem. If you can get in a "conversation" with the boss hen she may drag him to you. The best time to hunt toms when they are henned up is when the hens start nesting. Also after he has done his business with his girls the hens will usually wonder off and ole tom will be looking for some new girls. That dont usually occur till around 10:00 a.m. Hang in there and if the breeding season winds down before the season goes out you may can get him to fly down in your lap. A couple of subtle tree calls just to let him know you are there then stop calling and let him make his move and see what happens.

[R. W. Mackey]

Dan:  What huntryx said, the only way that I have had any luck getting the gobblers to leave the hens is using a gobble call and Jake decoy. Worked several times for my hunting buddy and me this spring. A good high pitched shaker gobbler call is made by Quaker Boy calls, I suggest investing in the true to life decoys made by Zink or Best Turkey Decoys. Can't begin to tell you how many Gobblers ran right past the hen decoy to  pick a fight with the jake.  Worth a try....RW

[Pipefish]

A little update:

I managed to call a tom across the street! It flew over me (straight from the roost I think) and landed with a crash about 100 yards away. I was calling aggressively with a diaphragm call (hen) for nearly 2 hours when it decided to act. Once on my side, it would not come closer though, so I stalked it for 45 minutes. It dragged me on my stomach across a horse pasture and into another woodlot. Finally I got within 30 yards and into a conversation with it. It was coming for me, but slowly. I sat tight behind a tree ready... and that's when the owner of the property came walking down a path in the woods to see what the noise was and to say hi (AGGH! I didn't hear the tom again - I don't want to sound ungrateful here, just poor luck).

The tom has supposedly been back a few times when I haven't been there. So perhaps it has plans on crossing the street again.

My close encounter happened nearly a week ago and I have since taken the advice of several of you: I procured a jake call (primos shaker call). After two days of using it (both in the early AM and in the later morning). I have not yet been able to attract a jealous tom. In fact they seem to stop Gobbling about 5:30-6AM. The jake call definitely incites some big gobbles from the other side of the road but no action. I am trying the hen call (purrs and cuts) and cutting it off with a weak sounding jake gobble.

One week left in the season...

[Pipefish]

Forgot to add: I will try  a jake decoy this weekend with a hen or two near by. Are they better placed on the edge of a field/opening or in the woods?