The spring hormonal surge in tom turkeys can be truly advantageous for hunters. Toms may throw caution to the wind, letting lust temporarily blind their incredible eye sight and mask their equally astonishing ability to hear the faintest sound. They may literally run to a rubber hen replica within your shotgun's range.
But the older (read wiser) gobblers have learned to control their spring urges and live for another day. These so-called boss gobblers are so convinced of their size, glorious good looks and flock status that they dictate the rules. They will mate with hens, many of them, but only on their terms. Their chances of ending up on a dinner table range between slim and none. They didn't get to beard-dragging size by acting foolishly.
Frustration is the word when you're trying to outsmart a boss gobbler. You will have plunked down a couple of hen dcoys in an open field perfect for strutting; slipped unseen into your blind at the field's edge; called expertly and alluringly. You know the tom is interested because he's gobbling regularly. And finally, there he is, pumped up and proud. But he's 300 yards from your set up. And there he stays. He won't come one step closer. You expect him to come in but he expects your immobile hens to come to him. He is, in the lexicon of turkey hunters, hung up.
Your best option is to retire for the day and change your next-day set up to play to the bird's curiosity and GPS-like hearing. A tom turkey's hearing is so well tuned he knows the coordinates of a hen's call to within a few square yards no matter how far away he is. But if he can't see the hen his curiosity and ego often cause him to come looking.
Instead of putting yourself at the edge of an open field, make the source of those tempting yelps hard to find. Hide yourself in the woods and put your decoy in a spot which requires the turkey to come into range before he can find it. This in-the-woods set up will demand extra vigilance on your part. You won't have the luxury of watching Mr. Boss approach. And he'll likely sneak in for a peek silently. Be ready to shoulder your gun with little warning.
This style of turkey hunting isn't as much fun as an open field set up. The visual pleasures are fewer. But desperate times require desperate tactics.
