Photo by Matt Lindler

Wait ‘em out

After unintentional spring scatter, don’t give up on the turkeys too quickly. If you have time, hang around for 30 minutes to an hour and see what happens when things calm down. Sometimes a tom from a scattered flock will start gobbling again without any prompting from you. But even if he doesn’t, try calling before throwing in the towel. A several note string of “I’m lost” yelps, with a friction or mouth call, may be all it takes to lure a lonely tom into range.

The unintentional scatter

Scattering turkeys is usually associated with fall hunting, a tactic sometimes used to break up a flock for the purpose of calling them back again. While there are certainly exceptions, scattering turkeys in the spring is usually an unintentional event, like the one described below.

On the April day in question, my best laid plans were dashed by uncooperative gobblers, which were with hens and quiet.

After several fruitless hours in the woods, I was out of time and hiking back to my pickup on a game trail when I rounded a bend and was face to beak with a small group of turkeys, including a gobbler nearly as big as a bomber. Not surprisingly, the turkeys reacted instantly and left for places unknown. The perfect end to a frustrating morning, I thought, as I trudged on.

How might an unintentional scatter affect your hunting on a particular day? The answer depends on the surrounding circumstances. How far did the turkeys go when they were spooked? Did they scatter like windblown dandelion seeds or leave as a group? If they all flew or ran off in the same direction, any attempt to call them back, at least that day, would most likely be futile. If the scatter was complete, though, chances are at least fair that any gobbler in the mix would be vulnerable to calling once he calmed down and started searching for hens again.

Scatter Shots

Several springs ago, my son, Mark, and I located a Rio Grande tom and several hens on their roosts at first light. After the birds flew down, we called to them several times, and the tom gobbled back repeatedly. However, since he already had company, he stayed put. And when the hens left the roost area by the far exit, the tom naturally tagged along.

Mulling over the situation, I figured our best chance was to circle the group and call to them from the direction they were already going. With that, we started covering ground as quickly as possible. However, when we were almost where we needed to be, we bumped a trio of bedded deer. As luck would have it, they bounced down the hill toward the turkeys, scattering them like giant quail as they went by.

Mark shrugged and said, “What now, Dad?”

“Good question,” I replied. “Those turkeys live with deer all the time so they should relax before long. Let’s sit here awhile and see what happens next.”

Our answer came 15 minutes later when the suddenly lonely gobbler opened up again. Wasting no time on indecision, Mark scooted down the hill, set up, and easily called the tom in with a few box call yelps. His shotgun blast ended the game, and he hiked back up the hill with the longbeard on his shoulder and a big smile on his face.

Another time, I was privy to what I think of as a two-part scatter. It started on a cloudy, misty morning when I walked along a rough ranch road and inadvertently bumped two hens that went airborne and flew across a narrow canyon. Behind them was a big black-bodied tom that turned and vanished on foot behind a high spot in the road. Nothing more happened that day, but the next morning, hoping to locate the tom again, I was set up in the dark on the hillside overlooking the general area.

Sure enough, the tom gobbled his wake-up call at first light. It sounded like he was clutching a limb in a stand of pine trees near the place where I had seen him the day before. Wanting to get closer, I stood up, whereby a hen clamored out of a pine tree directly overhead, nearly giving me cardiac arrest. After gathering my wits, I realized she probably did me a big favor. The tom was alone and he wasn’t about to have company anytime soon. At least, not the kind of feathered beauty he was expecting.

Keeping out of sight, I hurried downhill to the place where I had accidentally scattered the turkeys the day before. Setting up just above the old road, I produced a few plain yelps with a mouth call, and the tom answered immediately with a double gobble. When he gobbled again I could tell he was closer, and I wasn’t surprised when he came strutting into view a few minutes later. He was only 18 steps away when I made him mine.

Scatter Plots

There have been other unintentional scatter scenarios with equally good outcomes, and some that didn’t turn out so well. It all goes to prove that there are many variations to every aspect of turkey hunting, including an unintentional spring scatter, which will likely happen to all of us sooner or later. — John Higley