turkeys. cant get em close. what do you think?

[Tim Kosteczko]

overall been having a good season so far, in birds almost everyday, but i cant get them to close from shotgun range to my bow range. I am pretty new at all this and just looking for outside opinions.

I get the birds to come in to about 20 yards and then they hold up nad just look at my decoys for what seems like forever and then simply turn and strut off in the other direction. the simply loose interest completely.
I have a feeding hen and alert Jake decoy out in front.
I think i keep the calling pretty consistant (as much as i can as they close in) to what i was doing to get them that close.
They dont pick anything up because not once did one bird spook and one time there was 7 at 20 yards all looking in.

what do you guys think change decoys? or what i am clueless i cant seem to close the deal

[adg120383]

how far are the decoys from u

[Tim Kosteczko]

6 yards

[ishiwannabe]

You could either bring the decoys in closer to you....or even try setting them up behind you.
If you hunt with a partner, switch off calling for eachother, and have the shooter up front 20-30 yards. Having the birds walk past you in either case. Good luck!

[BMOELLER]

Try just a hen and face it to you.

[Tim Kosteczko]

this is what the set up looks like:
   
   

[Tim Kosteczko]

ttt

[beaglesandbucks]

I'm with BMO.....hen decoy only facing you.

Another trick...no decoys.  Set a little further back in the tree line...and make them come looking for you.

If you know where they are roosting....set up in there.  Don't put out any decoys and don't say a word.

It may be boring.....but it is productive.

[AnointedArcher]

20 yards?  I'm flinging arrows!

[stabow]

3 1/2'' 12 gauge......stabow

[Steelhead]

Yaa the 12 gauge will get it done LOL.You might try to tie a piece of mono to the hen decoy and get it to move a bit.i have had birds get suspicious of decoys more than once..i agree put the dekes behind your blind from where you think the birds are coming from.I have had birds not want to close the distance and leave when I was using a decoy named Bubba.Itwas in strut though and must have looked scary.

[AnointedArcher]

Another thing you might try is set your decoys so it looks like the jake is trying to mount the hen, if there is a mature Tom around that will set him over the edge!

[whitebuffalo]

Try one hen or no dekes at all, keep them looking or move them out to 12 to 15 yards. Stop calling once they've made the desision to come in but use your own judgement if they need a little more clucking. Move your set up,, and last but not least have a freind call 40 yards behind you and go no decoy and shoot the bird as it passes if it can work like that. The reason I feel your dekes are to close is they stop and are probably looking at your blind, they don't spook from it but its probably enough to hang them up,, had it happen sat. to Tim Fishell in my blind, hen came in,,dekes at 8 to 14 yards,,she looked at the blind and stoped,,parascoped it out and fed in front of it at about 15 yards or so, didn't spook but stopped her from comming forward anymore. Maybe add some brush to it too.. take care and good luck hunting. JB

[mcgroundstalker]

Get yourself a can of "Fish A$$ Holes" and open it when the gobbler gets close...Bet-cha he jumps right into the blind with you... Then shoot in self defense!!!...     ...

... mike ...     ...

[scot]

loose the jake decoy

[flatlander37]

I would agree with the hen only decoy.  My dad and I hunted out of my double bull and I never got a shot because he wanted to use his pretty boy dominant tom decoy with a hen.  We had 6 jakes come in to 25 yards and hang up, and  I couldn't get a shot.  12gauge, 3" mag worked for him though.  Didn't even get to fling an arrow this year.  Ah well, hunting with my dad is priceless.

[razorsharptokill]

I had the same problem this year. Birds came in exactly opposite my decoys so the were staring right at the blind. The sun was high behind my blind and very bright. Not sure if they caught a shadow of me moving in the blind or if they were just decoy shy.

[Tim Kosteczko]

the hen only deal was what i was thinking, wanted to see what you guys thought, seems to be a lot of the same, i will try it thursay am.

AnoitedArcher i hear ya but 20 yards is outside my personally set limit for turks. took a lot with 7 of em grouped together but in the end made the rite decision.

Mcgroundstalker. i think i know where to find them too.
p.s. you should know they have been put to good use lol

12 ga would be last resort, but i woulda been done if i started with that, first two days and the season would have been over i am glad i didnt.

[cory hunter]

try and set you dekes up in a natural funnel. i use a corn field with the road going inbetween a treeline in the feild. the birds must pass the through this funnel to get to the decoys on the other side. then set you blind up on one side of this passing and get em' as he walks though. just food for thought, seen it work before.
good luck buddy!

-cory

[John Krause]

The last few seasons I have been successful and I think I know why (maybe)     I set up so by the time the tom sees the decoys he is right on top of them. It seems they are so close they just move right on in and challenge the jake decoy. This could be the tom coming up a slope and can't see the decoys until he tops out or coming thru a break in a fencerow from another field and bang he is right on top of them.  I set up in a slightly different spot this year and two came in but hung up instead of coming right in. I think this is because they had a longer look at the decoys. I think if they see them too far away they have a tendency to stop , strut and wait for the hen to come to them (as it is in nature).

 

You can see in this picture the blind is kind of in a corner and cut in from the main row of pines. I have had birds come the whole length of the pines an come around that little corner and bang. Out of frame they come thru a break in the fencerow from another field and are RIGHT there when they come thru.

This season I set up further down the fencerow and had them come close but hang up. Think they got too long a look at the dekes.