7 expert tips for getting a hung-up turkey to come into your set-up

#3  DOUBLING DOWN

As for that hung-up tom at the beginning of this article? What finally broke the stalemate was the addition of a push-call to alternate with my slate, simulating two aggressive hens playing off each other. Five minutes later, the tom came in hot, spitting at my jake decoy as he strode past 10 metres to the left of my blind. Twenty minutes of avian ballet later, he experienced the shock and awe of a three-inch shell through a turkey choke from 24 yards—numerically matched by his weight when he tipped the scales at 24 pounds.

The point here is to go into the woods with as many different calls as you can proficiently use, prepared to switch them up or double down to create the illusion of different or multiple birds.

#4  THE SILENT TREATMENT

Having offered a stalled strutter everything in your calling repertoire without getting results, take the hint: shut up. Do that, and ideally the tom will think his potential mate is heading off into the bush or hooking up with a rival. That’s when his indifference becomes a double-edged sword—it’s one thing for him to be reluctant to commit, but it’s another for her to call his bluff and up the ante. Now the gobbler is likely to charge in looking for potential competitors, or silently sneak in to assess the situation from cover before committing.