Hunting the Roost
By Rick Spoerl
My son Sean couldn’t get off of work during the week so he met us at camp late Friday afternoon. He missed the first two days but still made the five hour drive to northwestern Wisconsin for the weekend.
My 14 year old daughter Haley, my Uncle and I all had our birds and when Sean arrived he was pretty pumped up. I told him that I heard some birds gobbling in the morning and took him to the area and told him to hunt the roost until close. He brought his girlfriend along who also was a turkey hunter but had a permit for a different zone and time but wanted to come with.
Sean and his girlfriend Amanda headed up the hill for the one hour hunt. We went back to camp and soon they were back, without a turkey. Sean had told me that just a few minutes after he and Amanda got situated the big tom came strolling up the hill. It surprised Sean at twenty yards; the Tom saw him and froze. Sean shot high and the turkey was history. A few minutes later the rest of the flock showed up and all got into the trees around them. Sticks and twigs were flying everywhere as the birds were directly above the two of them. Soon they were dodging little white droppings.
The Tom never came back and they tried to leave quietly but ended up scaring the whole flock out of the trees. Pretty disappointed, hey headed back to camp.
The next morning Sean hunted another area while Amanda caught up on some college homework. He didn’t have much luck and tried another spot a few miles away where his sister Haley had shot her bird. Nothing panned out and He decided to hunt the same roost he had yesterday.
He and Amanda went up the hill into the hard woods a little earlier than the previous evening and set up. He made some lost hen calls and clucks every couple minutes keeping his eyes peeled for movement. They weren’t very optimistic as they had spooked all the birds out the day before. Just before close the woods got loud, real loud, hear they came. This time the big Tom was with the hens, Sean knew he was about to get a second chance. He placed the bead on the birds head and pulled the trigger; the Tom flipped over and toppled down a hundred yards of steep woods.
As we waited at camp my daughter Haley received the good news via text, Sean had scored. The Tom was huge weighing over 25 pounds with an inch and a quarter spur. He even had a day to relax before heading home on Sunday.
One tactic turkey hunters use to harvest a springtime tom is to "put a turkey to bed" or find out the area a tom is roosting. It’s a good tactic to use if you can pin point the exact area and hopefully will be there in the morning. As long as you can get a turkey to sound off, you’re ok. But what if the birds are silent or they roost to far away from you to pin point them.
Morning gobbles are much more common then evening gobbles and you’re more likely to pin point and exact location. Also you’ll be 99% sure that the turkey making all that noise is up in the tree where as the evening gobble may come from the ground and the bird may not even be near there when he finally jumps up in the tree.
Of coarse you will still hunt him in the morning after the fly down but if you never see him during the day you can bet that he will be near the roost come sun down.
Not all states allow evening hunting and some states hours end well before dark but sometimes turkeys come near the roost way before shooting light ends and it’s a great ambush tactic.
When you arrive at the roost site make some lost hen yelps and clucks. As it gets closer to sunset pour it on a little heavier trying cutting and fighting purrs. If the flock is near they may want to check it out. Be careful you’re not spotted by slow moving toms sneaking in to get a peek. Remember, turkeys are much harder to spot in the woods than the fields and if there spooked from the roost area you’ll have to start all over. If they show up and get into the trees before you can get a shot or no Toms are with the hens wait until dark and leave quietly so you don’t spook them off the roost. Than hunt them the next morning.
This used to be kind of a last ditch effort for me on the last day but lately I’ve been using it halfway thru the hunt if I haven’t been successful in the strutting fields. Some states have very liberal hunting seasons lasting a month or more but where I hunt in Wisconsin you only have five days to harvest one bird and if you can’t get off work during the week your down to just two days. If you don’t live in the area you hunt it can also be difficult to find where they roost.
This isn’t a text book tactic but just another way to hunt these weary birds. Even after you’ve harvested your bird it can be great fun to watch them fly up in the trees, there’s nothing quite like it, it also makes for some great photos, just watch out for flying debris coming from the trees, freshly roosted birds tend to relax as soon as there in the tree and little white droppings will come a falling.