put em to bed

DiSc0Rd

5 year old buck +
i have killed all of my turkeys with my bow while deer hunting. i have never really just gone turkey hunting. i have heard of putting them to bed and i wondered what and if you guys do this. do you call around dusk to have them talk back to you or are you just trying to see where they roost for the night. ill take any tips you guys have to offer
 
if you know where they’re at the night before, then you can make a plan for the morning. That’s all I’ve never known it to mean.
 
if you know where they’re at the night before, then you can make a plan for the morning. That’s all I’ve never known it to mean.
Yep. Might mean an area, or might mean a tree.
 
I’d recommend sleeping in and planting trees instead


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I plan to plant peach trees this year but I do love me the taste of wild turkeys
 
I agree with the others that the purpose is to have an idea where they are roosted, so that you can enter and get set up the next morning without messing things up. If you don't know where they are roosted, you might spook them when walking in or set up too close. I will add that around here, you seldom get a gobbler to answer more than one time at dusk.

But knowing where a gobbler is roosted doesn't always seal the deal. It is becoming increasingly more common in my area for gobblers to be roosted very close to hens, and maybe even have hens roosted all around him. If the hen sees you, she will take off the other direction when she flies down, and he is likely to follow.
 
On beautiful spring nights you don't even have to call. Just be close to where turkeys are and they will generally gobble from the roost. You can also run and gun...cover lots of ground owl hooting every few minutes to see if you'll get one to bite. Makes things a heck of a lot easier in the morning.
 
Yep, there's been times where I've been able to see what tree the gobblers go in the night before and I set up in a opening 100 yards off that tree and those birds flew down and came right in. In my area they do a lot of gobbling once they fly up but before its dark. It may be tougher in a big woods. I'm in more open ground so knowing what tree they're in may mean setting up on one side of a section or another, big advantage. Its sure nice to know ones there when you go out in the morning!
 
I like to do this, but I don't use a mouth call or a slate, as I want those birds to hear those for the first time the next morning. You can coyote call with a mouth call or even use something crazy like a peacock call (don't laugh I have one and it works) or an owl hooter. Those roosted birds won't move trees just because they hear a predator call, but they will often sound off multiple times and you can get a good idea where they are. Besides that, not too much gets my blood boiling like the sound of a deep, throaty gobble...
 
Here's my roosted bird plan...

Right before dusk, you can use an owl call as a locator call to get the gobbler to talk back. If you are familiar enough with the land, you should be able to figure out where he is roosted. Don't go track him down, stay a couple hundred yards away and out of site. Don't be slamming car doors, etc.

The morning hunt:
The next morning, you want to try and get within about 75 yards of his tree. EARLY! By that I mean that robins usually start chirping 30 minutes before sunrise. You want to be sitting in your spot about 30 minutes prior to that (an hour or more). Stay still and stay quiet. Get your gun and everything ready because once it gets light, he may be able to see you.

As for calling:
Don't call until you hear him gobble. Once you hear him, you'll be able to be comfortable that he's still where you expected him to be. At that point you should make a soft tree yelp just loud enough to let him know that a hen is close by (he will answer back). Many guys want to keep calling at this point to hear that gobble - rest assured, he's right where you wanted him, so stay quiet. It may sound like he's moving closer/further away as he shifts around on the limb gobbling, so don't get nervous and start calling him in. He's still in the tree, just moving around. If you call to him too much, he will stay roosted longer because he expects hens to come to his tree. So maybe one soft yelp every 10 minutes after you hear him just to keep his attention. You need to stay still too - hens may be headed for his tree. You don't want to be picked off.

If you are within 75 yards, you SHOULD hear him fly down (assuming it's not a windy day, etc.), wings flapping. At that point he may have flown down on your side of the tree (that's optimal). Once he hits the ground, you can give him a fly down cackle and start to call him in - work him hard! At that point, he should be hitting your calls back and you can start to call him in. If you're hunting with a partner, they should setup 25 yards behind you and doing all of the calling. Then you won't have to call at all and he should walk right up to you.

My only other tip (for easterns) is that a boss hen will yelp in a pattern of 5 when she is assembling the group (yelp-yelp-yelp-yelp-yelp). You can do the same and get the hens to come to you. So if he gets henned up you can mix in some purs and the 5-yelp and maybe bring the whole group to you.
 
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Here's what I know...

Right before dusk, you can use an owl call as a locator call to get the gobbler to talk back. If you are familiar enough with the land, you should be able to figure out where he is roosted. Don't go track him down, stay a couple hundred yards away and out of site. Don't be slamming car doors, etc.

The morning hunt:
The next morning, you want to try and get within about 75 yards of his tree. EARLY! By that, robins usually start chirping 30 minutes before sunrise. You want to be sitting in your spot about 30 minutes prior to that. Stay still and stay quiet. Get your gun and everything ready because once it gets light, he may be able to see you.

As for calling:
Don't call until you hear him gobble. Once you hear him, you'll be able to be comfortable that he's where you expected him to be. At that point you should make a soft tree yelp just loud enough to let him know that a hen is close by. Many guys want to hear that gobble - rest assured, he's right where you wanted him, so stay quiet. It may sound like he's moving closer/further away as he shifts around on the limb, so don't get nervous and start calling him in. If you call to him too much, he will stay roosted longer because he expects hens to come to his tree. So maybe one soft yelp every 10 minutes after you hear him. You need to stay still too - hens may be headed for his tree. you don't want to be picked off.

If you are within 75 yards, you will SHOULD hear him fly down (assuming it's not a windy day, etc.). At that point he may have flown down on your side of the tree (that's optimal). Once he hits the ground, you can give him a fly down cackle. At that point, he should be hitting your calls back and you can start to call him in. If you're hunting with a partner, they should setup 25 yards behind you. You won't have to call at all and he should walk right up to you.

My only other tip (for easterns) is that a boss hen will yelp in a pattern of 5 when she is assembling the group (yelp-yelp-yelp-yelp-yelp). You can do the same and get the hens to come to you. So if he gets henned up you can mix in some purs and the 5-yelp and maybe bring the whole group to you.
Great tips! Also, if you can hear a hen (possible a boss hen) yelping, try to imitate her, but only a bit more forceful and louder. Just make the same calls she does, hopefully with a mouth call so you dont have to move much. She will probably come right in to investigate the "intruder" in her territory and drag any following gobblers with her. I did this one year and had an old raspy boss hen pull 5 gobblers to within 60 yards of a tree that was suddenly very shaky....to note, only 4 of the gobblers continued to follow her after the encounter...
 
I've had better luck killing turkeys by patterning where they want to go at certain times in the day. For me that has lead to more dead birds than knowing exactly where they are roosted.

If I know where a tom roosted the night before I'll certainly set up there in the morning, but that is definitely not a slam dunk dead bird.
 
Great tips! Also, if you can hear a hen (possible a boss hen) yelping, try to imitate her, but only a bit more forceful and louder. Just make the same calls she does, hopefully with a mouth call so you dont have to move much. She will probably come right in to investigate the "intruder" in her territory and drag any following gobblers with her. I did this one year and had an old raspy boss hen pull 5 gobblers to within 60 yards of a tree that was suddenly very shaky....to note, only 4 of the gobblers continued to follow her after the encounter...
I had this him exactly what you said with a mad hen. It was comical. I copied every call she did, every time she got louder and more upset. She walked right up to me about 10ft in front of me before she picked me out.
 
I had this him exactly what you said with a mad hen. It was comical. I copied every call she did, every time she got louder and more upset. She walked right up to me about 10ft in front of me before she picked me out.
haha thats great! i had only read about that tactic the night before in a hunting magazine and when i heard that old hen fire up i just copied her as best i could, but more aggressive..at that time i didnt know how to use a mouth call so it was pretty funny with me surrounded by hammering gobblers and a ticked off old hen trying to balance my slate on my leg while holding up my 30" barrel 870 to aim and keep an eye on where all the birds were...
 
I've had better luck killing turkeys by patterning where they want to go at certain times in the day. For me that has lead to more dead birds than knowing exactly where they are roosted.

If I know where a tom roosted the night before I'll certainly set up there in the morning, but that is definitely not a slam dunk dead bird.

This is exactly how you have to hunt turkeys on one of my farms. The reason is because the preferred roosting is on the neighbor, but I have all of preferred dusting sites (fencerows with big cedars). Late morning to mid afternoon are the key times to hunt there.

However, on my other farm, I have the best roosting, so hunting birds just off the roost is very good there.
 
This is exactly how you have to hunt turkeys on one of my farms. The reason is because the preferred roosting is on the neighbor, but I have all of preferred dusting sites (fencerows with big cedars). Late morning to mid afternoon are the key times to hunt there.

However, on my other farm, I have the best roosting, so hunting birds just off the roost is very good there.
Good point. the area that I hunt is private with associated public. I have access to both so I can roost them, setup on the travel route to water and hunt them later in the day at the dusting/fields.
 
i have killed all of my turkeys with my bow while deer hunting. i have never really just gone turkey hunting. i have heard of putting them to bed and i wondered what and if you guys do this. do you call around dusk to have them talk back to you or are you just trying to see where they roost for the night. ill take any tips you guys have to offer
The easiest way to do it is to find a high point and just sit there towards dusk and listen. Obviously depends on what kind of area you're in. When we go up to our camp in Northern PA where there is a lot of large public areas we'll drive at dusk and stop and various locations to call or owl hoot to try to locate one going to or on roost so we have a good starting point in the morning. If you know the area well enough you can almost pinpoint the exact tree they're in. Like others have said it's never a sure thing but it's extremely helpful to be able to get in tight to one before they fly down in the morning. And especially before they find any hens. Next to archery season, spring gobbler is my favorite hunting season. Nothing like a fired up gobbler strutting your way.
 
I’m going to point out terrain and time of the season as a big factor on roosted birds. Here in the North there are no leaves or “air” cover in the first week or so of our season. A roosted bird can hear and see you even in the dark at very long distances. They may gobble but they know you‘re there and just go the other way. Once the leaves are on then you can get a lot closer to a roosted bird. Again they may not spook but, they do know you’re there if you get too close. And a roosted gobbler always knows where the hens are. If the gobbler is roosted between you and the hens , good luck on that! LOL. Don’t tell anybody, LOL but, a radical tactic I’ve found very useful is to find the roosted hens and bust them out at dark. If the gobbler doesn’t spook with them you’ve got a good hunt in the morning. :emoji_relaxed:
 
I seem to usually have them roost close enough to an open area that gets east sunlight or is close to an area like that.When hunting with a bow we set up with a hen decoy and a jake fan on a stick. Set it about 10 yards out and it's easier to be in a popup but you can set it up the night before if needed.We have shot all but a with bows without a blind.Just draw when they put their fan between you and their eyes.We put them up or to bed but don't like to get too close as they are really looking for danger before they fly down.
 
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