As the Texas season begins to wind down, old cagey toms will be harder to call but will also be looking for those last hens to breed.
It’s pretty simple on paper: Get between the dominant gobbler and hens and you can sometimes close the deal.
In this kind of situation, you need to rise earlier than ever, and slip into the woods toward roosted turkeys that you’ve located. You should know the number of hens and gobblers in the group if possible. You should know where they like to fly down before gathering and moving off. You should know where they are positioned the evening before the morning you hunt them.
Then get in tight, between the dominant spring gobbler and the hens, and let the show begin.
Sometimes you can time it so that you hear him gobble early—especially if the light is just coming on in the morning. If so, slowly rise, and ease in his direction, knowing you might be walking right past a hen or two.
Use terrain if it helps your approach, then sit tight, quietly waiting for the woods to wake up.
To avoid hand movements, if you must call, make it a mouth diaphragm. Still, if there’s ever a situation when you shouldn’t call, this might be one. Simply let the turkeys fly down, and if you’re lucky, that tom might do so in range.
Part of the fun of spring turkey hunting certainly involves the tactics you use, and consider, and how they work when applied. Calling is a factor — or staying quiet. So is where you sit in relation to turkeys in trees.
Use this insight — and usually it comes with plenty of time hunting them — to get in a situation when the gobbler is alone, and the hens are off elsewhere.
Is the longbeard in range? Then what are you waiting for? Shoot him!
