A gobbler barks from a lofty ridge . . . you, unfortunately, have located that bird at the bottom of that mountain or steep hill. Don't give up though. There are still ways to get inside that male turkey's comfort zone, and call it into range.
(1) You could try to drive up there using a muddy two-track, though this gonzo approach risks spooking the bird. Still, breed-driven toms you run off may come back. Quaker Boy's Ernie Calandrelli and I once pulled the pickup truck into a field at mid-morning, only to see a Missouri strutter and hen leg it into the woods. Did we try another spot? Heck no. We set up at the last place we saw the pair. After things settled down, Big Ern called that longbeard into range from one direction, while the hen came from another. I dropped the strutter at 18 steps.
(2) Assuming you have plenty of time to hunt that day, you could make a slow climb up that hill, using terrain to hide your movements, and occasional locator calls to track that wild turkey's position--assuming it doesn't sound off on its own. I did that once in New York State, making the long, slow climb up a power line cut, and using another access trail, put myself above a lone ridgetop gobbler. It took me over an hour to reach the rise to be just above the hillside bird, and roughly fifteen minutes to call it into range. The longbeard weighed 21 pounds and change, and its spurs suggested the tom had been around awhile.
(3) Energy providing, you could rise well before your usual early time, and hike up there in the dark to be in position to work that bird when it wakes up on the roost--assuming it stays there; assuming maybe you roosted it the evening before; assuming you have the next day to hunt; assuming . . . Chance and circumstance in good turkey habitat often play a role, and sometimes we're in the right place at the right time to do that.
--Steve Hickoff
(NWTF photo)
