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Challenging Turkey Dominance

I want to use everything I can to make the situation appear both threatening and enticing to the dominant bird.

By Tim Herald

A turkey is a turkey, right? Well, they may all look close to the same, but there is a big difference in killing a lovesick, kamikaze two-year-old and a long-spurred five-year-old gobbler. I have been refining my bowhunting tactics for spring turkeys for the past few years, and my current system seems to net more boss birds than younger toms.

The first thing you must accept when you begin utilizing tactics for dominant gobblers is that you will scare off some subordinate birds. Occasionally, a two-year-old bird that has been put in its place by the resident boss gobbler would much rather keep its distance or vacate the area when challenged.

Once I find a group of birds that frequent a given area (and I said group because most of the time the boss bird has some ladies with him throughout the day), I begin formulating a game plan. I take into consideration the terrain, how many hens are around and if there are many satellite gobblers or jakes in the area. If I have been able to observe the birds from a distance, I’ll also try to figure out just how aggressive the dominant bird is.

Quite often these flocks will end up in a field sometime during the morning. My favorite setup is to take a Primos Double Bull blind and put it within 50 yards of where the birds usually strut, feed or travel. I want to be positioned close so I am invading the boss’s space. My aggressive tactics may not pull him 500 yards across a huge pasture, but it doesn’t take much to get him to come 30-40 yards to that well-positioned blind.

My most important tools to lure in dominant birds are decoys. If there is clearly one dominant bird around, I will use a strutting decoy and some combination of hen decoys. I prefer the Primos B-Mobile decoy with a real turkey fan used as the tail. I have had better luck with the B-Mobile than with all of the other strutting decoys I have tried, and I believe that’s because the body size of the B-Mobile is small. From Osceolas to Rios, the B-Mobile is just not that intimidating.

Along with my smallish strutting decoy, I use hen decoys. If there is a big flock of birds, I often use multiple hens. I think if a group of hens see another group of hens, they are more likely to come in than if there is just a single. That often will drag the boss tom right into my lap. If there are just a few birds, I use just one hen decoy with the strutter.

I try to situate the strutter facing me or broadside to position the real gobbler for a broadside or back shot when he comes to meet the challenging decoy. I also position one hen decoy directly in front of the strutter to look like he is about to breed her. I want to use everything I can to make the situation appear both threatening and enticing to the dominant bird.

Many times if you have positioned yourself right and a big gobbler sees your challenging decoy setup, that is all it takes and he will rush in ready to defend his rule. If not, I begin a calling regimen that starts with hen yelps and cuts. If that doesn’t work, I really get aggressive. I always have a tube call around my neck in the spring woods, and if a tom sees my dekes and doesn’t come in, I am quick to gobble at him with the tube. If I have a jake decoy out, I gobble and follow with two coarse and slow yelps to sound like a jake trying to learn to gobble. If the boss bird still doesn’t come in, I will do a series of fighting purrs. I prefer to do this on a slate call and a diaphragm. It sounds realistic, is easy to control and often puts the boss bird over the edge.

When you gobble or mock a fighting purr, if the real bird gobbles at you, he has honored those calls and often he is on the way in. Be ready. You may have to call more, but if he is honoring your calls, keep them going until you can tell he is completely committed. Sometimes an old bird will lock up 150 yards away, gobble his head off at you but stand his ground. Then you either add in one extra call or hit him one more time, and he’ll likely go over the edge and charge right in. You just have to keep on them and go for broke when hunting dominant birds.

I have killed a long-spurred Osceola gobbler on opening day each of the past three years by using these tactics. Last year I put my Double Bull right in the middle of a pasture where 30 birds, including six longbeards, were flying down. I snuck in an hour and a half before dawn, put my B-Mobile 4 yards from my blind and positioned a hen decoy right in front of him.

The flock flew down, but the hens fed on past me at 35 yards. The gobblers were strutting and gobbling all over the place and seemed like they would follow the hens but stayed just out of range. I got aggressive on my calls and they really got fired up. After cutting and yelping, I aggressively purred a couple of times and threw in a gobble. That was it. Four old longbeards charged in and surrounded my B-Mobile.

As I came to full draw they separated slightly, and I sent a Rage broadhead straight into the wing butt of the biggest bird. He was 4 yards away when I shot him, and he expired just 6 yards beyond that.

When I recovered that beautiful Osceola, I was pleased to discover that his spurs were over an inch-and-a-half long. It had all came together because he was a dominant bird and because I got aggressive with him and his pals. K

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