First, you need to
understand the reason for their silence before you decide your hunting tactics. It could
be it's a poor day for gobbling....high wind, cold, rainy, or snow conditions.
In poor weather like that,
follow my Bad Weather Tips.
Another reason could be
that you are hunting in the breeding portion of the spring mating season when hens are
with the gobblers most of the time.
When he has his girl friends
at his side, he's more interested in them than gobbling.
Review Spring Behavior of turkeys to learn
more about when and how this period of the season occurs.
Also review the Hens Are Trouble article for advice on
calling hens.
Or, if he's not with
hens, but happens to be with other gobblers, he's often contented to be with them and
won't come to your call nor gobble much. This could be
any time during the spring season.
A lone gobbler, the one
that should be the most venerable to your calling, may simply have developed his senses
for survival to a point that he survives nicely by not doing too much gobbling....thank
you very much.
I believe strongly that the
gobble is being slowly bred out of our toms. By this I mean that the birds that
gobble a lot and come to a call aren't around very long to pass on those genes. The
ones that don't gobble much live longer, spread their genes, thus future generations of
turkeys gobble less.
Finally, a bird that has
been gobbling on a certain interval, and then stops abruptly, could be coming your way. Don't get up and move because you think he has left. He might be
about in your lap.
Give a silent gobbler at least
another 30 minutes to show up.
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