Tactics for Calling Shy Toms

Tactics for Calling Shy Toms

By David Holder

This hunt is going to be over before even starts! One of the best feelings is when the tom in the tree a hundred yards in front of you is hammering at everything from songbirds to the soft tree yelps you are throwing at him. Ten minutes later, you hear the telltale sound of a turkey flying down from the roost. You fully expected him to pitch down in front of you and strut in to twenty yards, but instead he has pitched down the opposite way. No worries he is still gobbling his head off. Now it is time to throw some of that turkey talk at him that you have been practicing for the last 2 months.

As softly as you can, you cluck a couple times followed by three yelps. If you did not know better, you would have thought you were an actual hen turkey, so you fully expect the thunder chicken to hammer back at you, unfortunately, he does not. So, you wait a minute or two and repeat the sequence, only to receive the same silent treatment. What? This bird was freaking out 15 minutes ago, but now that he is on the ground, he will not answer anything you throw at him. To add insult to injury, over the next 45 minutes he occasionally sounds off on his own, but not once will he answer your call. As you throw your gear in the truck to head home, you keep replaying the morning and trying to figure out what you did wrong or what you could have done differently to change the outcome.

If you have turkey hunted for any length of time you have faced this situation if you haven’t, you have not been hunting turkeys long enough. So, what can we do to change the outcome next time. Well to be totally honest, you may not be able to change that situation every time, but there are a few little tricks that just might tip the scale in your favor.

Call to the Hens
Let’s look at a couple probable causes for the silent treatment and see if we can come up with a remedy. First off there is a possibility that the big tom had hens which in that case you have two possible solutions. First one is trying to get the hens to answer you and call to them rather than the tom. If you can get the hens to head your way the tom will be sure to follow. My best suggestion for this scenario is mimic the hen you hear. Yes, mimic her. That means find the call that sounds the most like her and do your best to copy her word for word. Now, I’m not a biologist so I can’t tell you exactly what you are accomplishing by doing this, all I can tell you is that more than once I have sucked hens into point blank range by mimicking them. It seems to agitate them and often their cadence, pitch and volume increases which means I do the same and then here they come with Mr. Tom tagging along.

The Silent Treatment
That is strategy one, strategy two is the exact opposite of strategy one. This time instead of hammering the hens, just be patient. Let’s say you hear the distinct sound of a hen once or twice and you know that call shy tom is for sure “henned up”. This is a time when I simply call less frequently and less aggressive. All I am trying to do is make sure Mr. Tom knows where I am, so that once he finishes going through his normal routine, he will remember me. You are probably wondering what exactly or how I know what a turkeys “normal routine” is. Well, it’s pretty much the same morning ritual once the toms can locate hens and formulate a harem.

The routine goes something like this: the tom gobbles in a tree, hens yelp in a tree, hens pitch down and the tom follows. Once they are all on the ground a round of courting goes on and toms will breed hens, and hens will start to wander off. If there aren’t too many hens, a very call shy gobbler can become almost easy to call in once he finds himself alone.

Those are a couple of call shy scenarios and some possible solutions to tip the tide in your favor. Now let’s talk about the call shy tom, the tom shy from too much pressure. After all this is probably the toughest tom to crack. These are the toms that can drive a turkey hunter crazy. They gobble but move away, they strut in, but stay 100 yards out, won’t commit to a decoy and often just don’t do what they are supposed to do.

Less is More
So how do we tackle the tom that doesn’t respond to the normal calls we throw at them. First, as hard as it may be, call less. Yes, when toms don’t want to answer, but you know they are in the area, you need to cut back on how much you call. Where normally I will call every 15 minutes or so, when I’m facing call shy birds, I will cut back to every 45 minutes to an hour. On top of this I will now depend on some other techniques, such as scratching the leaves without calling or using a wing to sound like a turkey flapping its wings. What I am looking for is anything that is a natural turkey sound, but not commonly used by other hunters. This technique has worked for me in many situations; however, nothing works better than just employing some good old fashion scouting.

Scout Before You Hunt
Scouting will help you locate places where turkeys are spending their time. Locate these places, sneak in, and throw out the best-looking decoy you can afford. Now, if I call at all, it won’t be very often. Honestly, I typically wait until I see or hear a real turkey before I make a sound. I know this technique doesn’t sound like much fun, and your right, but it can be super effective.
Without a doubt, the call shy tom can be one of the hardest nuts to crack, but understanding why the tom may not be answering, and how to respond to each scenario just might change the outcome for your next spring turkey hunt. Remember when it comes to calling, less is more, decoys need to be the best you can get, and nothing will pay off more than good old fashion scouting.

God Bless and Good Hunting!