How early do you begin calling?

[Huntin' and Jeepin']

I've watched hunting shows and read articles, but I wanted to check on here and see what everyone thinks about how early to begin calling. The farm i've been hunting has about 6-8 different longbeards that gobble constantly before daylight. I've only heard them fly down twice. They are roosting in about a 200 yard circle from our set-up. I've tried to listen to hens cackling as they fly down but haven't heard anything. As soon as it's light enough to see in the field, we have seen 4 different toms with hens already strutting. Should I start calling when it's pitch black to get a jump on the hens, or could that totally mess the toms up and send them away from the field?

[1shot 1kill]

I pearsonly dont like to call to a Tom until he flys down, he may site on that roost several hours becouse of your calling, he will most likely wait to see the hen he hears before he flys down, and by then he'll gobble in his real hens and maybee other hunters.

[Grant]

Tree yelps right about fly down time, the not alot else till he's on the ground.

[shaman]

I try to be neither the first nor the last to sound off. I usually wait until I hear hens before making my presence known. I call very sparingly until they fly down. Then i simulate a flydown-- again, I'm not the first to flap nor usually the last. If I call to a gobbler while he's on the roost, I make sure it's only to let him know I'm there. I then shut up. Before I shut up, however, I let the gobbler know that I'm not only there, but that I'm willing.

[notimlmit]

I usally wait for the gobbler to make his presence known then I do a soft call at him and wait till the hens fire up then I do everything they did and add a cut to it--my last bird I done this and when I knew he flew down and was making his way to the hens I done some hard cutting and it pulled him to me with them tagging behind--lucky I guess along with a hot bird

[buckfever]

Sounds to me like you're in a tough spot right now. The toms are gobbling from the roost, and they have hens coming to them every morning. Under those conditions, it's highly unlikely that you'll be able to call in those toms regardless of whether you call early or late.

Here's 3 options you might consider:

(1) Call the hens - Get to your spot at least an hour before shooting light and move a little closer to the roosted birds. Put out a strutting tom decoy along with a couple of hens. After you've heard your first bird gobble, do some sleepy tree yelps. Shortly thereafter, simulate 2-3 flydowns w/ cackles. You want to do this pretty early. Then, wait a couple of minutes and use a gobble call 4 or 5 times.

I've killed several toms off the roost by calling in the hens first. The hens sail into the spread after they heard the gobble call. The tom usually follows.

(2) Mid-Morning Hunt: Hunt a different area at daybreak and come back to this spot later in the morning. If the toms in your area are still too henned up to kill at daybreak and the hens keep taking them away from your position, simply wait until a little later in the morning when the hens have headed to the nest.

(3) Do Nothing Different: I took my kids to school the morning and stopped out at our farm just to see if anything was happening. This was 9 a.m. As I drove back, I saw 2 gobblers strutting by themselves in different fields and heard several gobblers gobbling. I decided to suit up and hunt for a couple of hours. A few aggressive cuts in response to some gobbles brought in 2 longbeards. My hunt was over at 10 a.m.

The point of this story is that the gobblers were not nearly as "henned up" today as they were a week ago. Since the regular season opened, I'm not sure that I've seen a gobbler that wasn't with hens during a hunt. We did OK during the youth season calling birds in, but even then, the henned up factor was pretty bad.

It's getting to be just about right. The gobblers might have a few hens with them at daybreak, but it's pretty evident that the hens are leaving them early in the day to go sit on the nests.

Lonely toms are the easiest toms to kill, and at some point, the 4 birds you're chasing are going to start getting lonely when those hens they're used to seeing every morning stop showing up. :D

Good luck. :)

[buckslayer23]

I usually call right before fly down.:)

[tf20]

what buck fever said. nothing to add

[turk2di]

what buck fever said. nothing to add

Except to add that you might try a struttin decoy.

[Huntin' and Jeepin']

Thanks for all the input and suggestions. We have been using B-Mobile with two hen decoys in our set-up. My cousin killed a nice bird opening morning, but no reponses since then. I think i'll go with Buck Fever's #3 idea for Friday morning and see if things have changed since last weekend. i can only hunt early morning so I'll see what happens and then maybe go with the mid-day set-up for sat.when i can hunt all day. Hopefully my next post will have some pics and a story instead of just having to get ideas. Thanks again ya'll.