Spooky jakes

[williamson88]

Hunting in Colorado with a heads up decoy on my bow, got on group of jakes early this morning but they spooked. Anyone have any tips?

 

[Art Vandeley]

Call them in without the decoy. Don't move

 

[blutooth]

Jakes usually don't like coming up on toms. They expect a strutting tom to just chase them off anyway.

 

[KMT]

Agree with the guys above. Jakes don't like getting beat up. Some gobblers are a little spooky too. I use a hen decoy and some times throw out a jake decoy. Never a full tom, though.

 

[land cruiser]

Hunting in Colorado with a heads up decoy on my bow, got on group of jakes early this morning but they spooked. Anyone have any tips?

I would still use a hen decoy. Make sure it is position facing you.

 

[williamson88]

Im gonna try hen decoy and sit in a blind tomorrow

 

[topher89]

Sometimes it is hard to tell. I was sitting on the S Platte yesterday and called in two jakes from the other side of the river. They flew in and hung around for about 20 minutes about 50 yards away. Something happened and they took off. I was sitting perfectly still and there wasn't anything I could detect.

Turkeys are wary, wary birds

 

[Backyard]

In my experience a lone tom will always give way to a group of jakes. As they tend to bully everything around when there is a group of em.
None the less I wouldn't use a tom decoy either. Couple hens and maybe a jake mixed in works every time for me. 'course ya need to do some calling too.

Good luck!

 

[williamson88]

Thanks yall I'll keep you posted on morning hunt

 

[charvey9]

If you are calling, they may come in real cautious and bolt if anything doesn't look right. Like if they get there and don't see a turkey or decoy in the area the noise is coming from. If you are off the beaten path, mountain turkeys are also a hell of a lot smarter than the "domesticated" turkeys that roam around the farmland and neighborhoods you often see on the hunting shows.

 

[williamson88]

Lone hen worked this morning nice Tom came right in but equipment fail cost me the bird but gotta keep hunting

 

[chippewawarrior]

In my experience, I have found that a lone Jake or Jake/Hen combo works best here in WI. Usually, a lone Jake decoy works best on a Tom (or Jake) with 3 Hens or less. If a Tom has a larger group of Hens, the Jake/Hen combo has worked better for me because the Tom won't leave a larger group of Hens, but the Hens have a tendency to check out my combo. Thereby, drawing the Tom in with them. I should mention, I'm hunting open fields.
Only once have I called in a Tom without a decoy, but my buddy who hunts in timber does it all the time.

 

[Forestryguy]

Hunting in the timber, lose the dek. It keeps them looking.

 

[Backyard]

Lone hen worked this morning nice Tom came right in but equipment fail cost me the bird but gotta keep hunting

NIce! Keep on it, persistance pays.

 

[woods89]

Hunting in the timber, lose the dek. It keeps them looking.

In my experience this is good advice.

 

[williamson88]

Where I'm at is thin timber with some open patches

 

[woods89]

If its thin than its outside of my expertise. I hunt the Ozarks and have done just fine in the last few years without decoys, but in a little thicker timber probably. Turkeys are tough, that's what makes them such a blast to hunt. As the old saying goes " If they could smell like a deer, we'd never kill them!" Good luck!

 

[Josh Wright]

No decoy in timber.