Roosting birds

[Thegreatwhitehunter1776]

Does anyone have any advice for roosting birds the night before a hunt. What ive been doing is driving around dirt access roads on the wma and stopping every 1/4 mile in the last half hour of light and howl hooting. so far I've only managed to strike one bird in over 3 evenings of roosting, which took about 25 spots to hoot into and he gobbled in the last minute of daylight. Am I missing something or is roosting a bird in the evening 10x as difficult as roosting them in the morning. In the morning they sound off everywhere, I go back to where they were gobbling in the morning, the following evening and I don't hear a peep. Any advice will be appreciated.

 

[Southern Sportsman]

In my experience, one gobble in 3 evenings is pretty dam good. I've found a few that gobbled good late, but only on rare occasions. Most of the time our easterns just save it for the morning. Or maybe two mornings after that.

Also, listen to this podcast and the research on how quickly turkeys move away from roads and cut down on gobbling once hunting pressure starts.

viewtopic.php?f=12&t=385835

 

[Boll Weevil]

Also, listen to this podcast and the research on how quickly turkeys move away from roads and cut down on gobbling once hunting pressure starts.

^ This. If you can imagine how many trucks drive dirt roads, stop and shut off, owl a few times, start up and slam the truck door...well you get the idea. Most birds probably don't even pay attention to owling from roads beyond a day or 3 into the season. They know the deal.

 

[Chief44]

I'm lucky to have a pretty good population of birds on my farm as well as on the neighboring property that I have access to. I generally get out and listen most evenings weather permitting. It's been my experience that the birds will gobble some evenings and not others. I've had birds gobble only once and heard them gobble their head off. If they are going to gobble, I can generally get them to answer an owl hoot but it's been my experience that you need to be fairly close to them to get that response. The time of evening that I can get birds to gobble is pretty short and usually almost dark. My advise is to check a couple of spots that are fairly close together during that peak time. I also believe the sound of a truck or ATV can keep them from gobbling, especially after season is open. I have an electric golf cart that I ease around on and hear a lot more birds when I'm on it as a posed to my ranger. Both mornings and evenings.

 

[woodsman04]

They don't gobble much in the afternoons regardless. I wouldn't advise driving around hooting everywhere. If you want to roost a turkey, go in 20 minutes before dark extremely quiet and carefully, get a spot where you can hear good and listen if you can hear them flying up. And also listen for a gobble, because they might gobble.

Them public land birds are used to hearing trucks on gravel roads stop, hoot, then drive off to do it somewhere else. They know what's up.


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[ROVERBOY]

Oh yeah, it ain't easy roosting birds. I've done it but, its tough sometimes. Good luck.

 

[PickettSFHunter]

For whatever reason, I've never been able to have success at it around where I live at enough of a rate to even continue trying. However, down in the Deep South, I've had a lot of luck doing it, like roosting birds the majority of evenings with a owl hoot right at dark. I've just quit trying here locally.

 

[Southern Sportsman]

I'm not much of a field hunter, but on the rare occasion I'm messing with field birds I will sometimes get to where I can watch the field before dark. If they fly up from the field, you'll have them pinpointed to guess at a landing spot for the morning. But the only time I set out to roost them by gobbles in the evening is if I'm on a multi-day hunt away from home. And that's just because hunt time is more limited and I usually don't have anything better to do in the evening.