9 Helpful Tips for Hung-up Gobblers

Hard lessons are quickly learned on turkey hunts. Months of anticipation spent practicing turkey sounds on different calls make sleeping the night before a turkey hunt impossible. Finally, the moment of truth arrives; turkeys gobbling on a warm spring morning. The morning progresses and a big boy gobbles back at your hen sounds. You feel a flush of excitement as the gobbling gets louder, but then it starts sounding farther away. Soon his sounds are distant.

The next day you find another active gobbler. You turn on the charm with clucks, purrs and a few light yelps to make this guy come in. He is gobbling, but not coming closer.

These situations are common and well known to veteran turkey hunters as "hung-up" birds--a game you won't always win, so here are several reasons why this happens and how to respond.

Human activity: Public and sometimes private woods are full of human activity. Moderate amounts of human activity may change how turkeys communicate or react.

"How you call is more important than how often when a lot of human activity is present," said Chris Parrish, world champion caller and veteran turkey hunter. "Human hearing can't pick up every turkey sound. They make a lot of soft clucking and purring, almost muttered. Hens always make soft sounds. Humans can't hear this light conversation, but a gobbler can." Producers of turkey hunting videos learn how to deal with hunting pressure early in their career.

"Most videos shot are of hunters calling in birds with little or no hunting pressure," said Preston Pittman, world championship caller and president of Pittman Calls. "I hunt Mississippi where gobblers are educated and extremely hard to hunt because they receive a lot of pressure. I believe simplicity is better with limited clucks and yelps to let the gobblers know where you are. Avoid cutting, cackling or aggressive calling."

Henned up: This is probably the most common reason hunters experience hung-up birds. Gobbling turkeys moving in will sometimes excite hunters into over calling.

"Aggressive calling on an incoming gobbler may make him hang up," Parrish said. "Other hens may hear your commotion and step in to intercept the gobbler. Pre-scouting will tell you if a lot of hens surrounds the gobbler. You hear that aggressive calling will bring a hen in, closely followed by the gobbler. This does work, but nine times out of ten, she will be jealous then turn to walk away, taking the gobbler."

Parrish likes to play the coy hen by making exceptionally soft hen sounds while raking in the leaves, indicating live turkeys approaching. "I occasionally spit and drum with my voice at gobblers who are walking away with hens," Parrish said. "This makes them jealous and sometimes they will come back. I add these important sounds with soft calling or almost no calling at all." Roosted birds: Early morning mistakes can cause a bird to hang-up or go the other direction.

"There are a lot of situations when little or no calling is better than calling," Parrish said. "A solitary roosted gobbler may answer your calls with great passion. Back off calling so he will come to you. Otherwise, he may wait for the hen to come his way if she seems overly excited. Stop calling and wait for him to fly down."

Old longbeard gobblers: Old turkeys did not reach a ripe old age by being careless. Their cautious nature can mean a hung-up bird. Big gobblers are smart in their world. Novice callers tend to kill more two-yearold birds who didn't know better while bigger birds walked the other direction.

"Older birds have been lied to many times by callers," Pittman said. "The more you call, the more likely he may become suspicious." Novice callers often make the common mistake of repeating calling sounds.

"A hen does not call the same way every time," Parrish said. "Her calling is generally broken up. Old turkeys should be worked delicately. The first step is moving close to his position, let him know a hen is close and then back off calling. Turkeys have great hearing so call softly and very seldom."

Shock gobbling: The old adage, keep making noise until something gobbles may have been true in the early days of turkey hunting or even now for birds without hunting pressure, but no longer for pressured birds that will hang up for no understandable reason.

"You can shock call too much," Mark Prudhomme, world champion owl hooter said. "Some make the same noise too often. Chances are, gobblers will eventually stop responding to these same sounds. A hot turkey may gobble every time, but most won't. I change location when one gobbles the first time and set up so I'm close to my hunting spot before shock gobbling again."

(Photo: Courtesy of Jami Linder, winner of NWTF Photo Contest)

Food sources: Food sources are excellent areas for finding turkeys. The problem is that these fields are often big and the turkeys might be anywhere with little reason to move towards your best calling efforts. The trick is watching turkey movements before the season opens.

"I scout food sources throughout the early spring before turkey season," Parrish said. "I find the productive feeding areas like clover in the spring and set up two to four blinds on each side of the field."

Good morning hunting spots are located between roosting and feeding areas. Large areas of mass crops may require setting blinds in two or three spots on a ridge or even between the roosting and feeding area. These blinds are productive for spring or fall birds, depending on where they are feeding.

Open country: Hunting in open fields is a challenge because turkeys like to stay in a safe area. They will gobble back, then stay hung-up. Ray Eye, a famed turkey hunter from Missouri, has spent most of his life hunting the open country of Missouri and Iowa.

"I like to spot turkeys from a distance with good binoculars," Eye said. "You can glass gobblers from old gravel farm roads. Many of the old farms I hunt have gobblers strutting on every open hillside. Calling from a distance has little effect, even from a hundred yards. I work through ditches just under the hill to get close, hopefully within 20 yards. I like to set up in natural cover. Behind brush or just inside the edge of cover by an old fence row works well."

Timber or conifers: Heavy timber or conifers are likely places for gobblers. This thicker cover can be excellent or challenging when bow or shotgun hunting.

Hunters tend to get comfortable in heavy brush, thinking the gobbler will not spot them. Turkeys stay alive by noticing or hearing anything out of place, even in thick brush. A wrong move and out-of-place noise can quickly hang up a gobbler.

Even a non-gobbling turkey makes a lot of noise when strutting and moving through the brush. Eddie Salter, world champion turkey caller, learned early that the heavy brush's mistakes will hang up a gobbler.

"I listen then draw back my bow when the gobbler is on the other side of a tree or brush," Salter said. "A decoy gives the gobbler something to look at while moving in, even in thick cover. Occasionally, the bird may hone in on your position, making setting out a decoy impossible, so sit still."

When to move on a hung up gobbler: I only move on a gobbler when the season is about over. Chances are I will hunt an early-season hung-up bird another day, hopefully with a better plan. You take the chance of pushing or spooking that big boy anytime you move, a bad proposition when you can hunt another time. Mistakes are easily made when trying to reposition on a bird with the sharpest hearing and eyesight in any woodlot.

(Left) Ken shows off one of his gobblers harvested in the Spring time. (Photo: Courtesy of Kenneth L. Kieser)

I move on a gobbler later in the season after he has hung-up an hour or more. I once called a gobbler over an hour, moving back and forth in thick cover, not over 30 yards away. His impatience was made clear by identical pacing and calling. I could hear him crunching leaves. He wanted and possibly expected that hen to come in instead of him going out. I enjoyed this chess game and continued softly calling until he gave up and stepped out for an easy kill.

Some hunters may have moved on that bird, but he was close and clearly interested. An uninterested bird will often move away. Then you can plan your move, guided by his gobbling. Moving on to a silent gobbler can be a matter of luck and probably best avoided.

Moves don't always have to be far. I once watched top turkey hunter, Brad Harris move ten feet up a grassy bank after calling to gobblers down a big, woody hill for at least 45 minutes. He listened 10 minutes before calling again, slightly farther up the bank. The gobblers noted his new position and apparently thought the hen was moving away. Soon two big gobblers stepped out in the sunlight; their bright red heads made fine targets. A fast-moving gobbler is generally gone unless they decide to turn and find the trailing hen—but don't count on that happening. A fast mover is either spooked or headed for some predetermined destination. Chances are no amount of sexy hen talk will turn him, but it has happened. You can't always predict a gobbler's behavior. They can do some strange, unexpected maneuvers, so always be alert.

Crunching brush is not a bad mistake if you purposely sound like a turkey or deer and not a human. Only a human sounds like a human in the woods by walking with a constant rhythm. Turkeys move, then stop and move again. Most are not in a hurry. Those moving quickly may signal danger to others.

Moving on a gobbler requires moving slightly faster than usual when hunting. Too fast creates noise that will alert the bird. Not fast enough won't allow you to gain the required position before the gobbler is gone. Experience is your best teacher judging speeds and trails when changing positions on a moving or hungup bird. Never generalize gobblers. React to what he gives you.

Avoid moving on a hung-up bird on public ground. Sadly, a few hunters shoot at movement. You can't be too careful in public or private turkey woods. Avoid using turkey calls while you move. I always sit against a wide tree to avoid being shot in the back by a slob hunter. Even private woodlots sometimes get uninvited visitors. So be careful and good luck.

Kenneth L. Kieser

A turkey hunter needs to have many options available to harvest these elusive birds in Missouri. (Photo: Courtey of Kenneth L. Kieser)