HOW TO KILL A MID-MORNING GOBBLER

April 27th, 2023 

By: Alex Comstock(@whitetail_dna)

This year’s first season in Minnesota was nearing an end. The tag churning along in my pocket was yearning to be notched. As darkness escaped and the world around me began to wake up, I felt as though we were in the absolute perfect spot to kill a gobbler off the roost. All around me I could hear toms gobbling on the roost. We had them pinned, and our setup was almost certainly where they would end up in not too long.

The sun slowly began to light up the pasture around me, and in the distance, I could see a group of toms with numerous hens headed our way. As they dipped down into the bowl of the pasture and out of sight, I readied my gun thinking it was about to go down. Except, it didn’t go down. The birds continued gobbling as the sun rose higher into the sky. What they never did though was crest the hill in front of me like I thought they would. Before you knew it, the gobbling was distant again and I knew our roost hunt was more or less over. Due to work obligations, I was now down to just a couple hours left of hunting before I’d have to wait a month to be able to fill my tag. If I was going to make it happen, I’d have to kill a mid-morning gobbler. Here’s what I did and how you can kill a mid-morning gobbler.

Get a Bead on The Birds

As the toms moved off into a chunk of timber, we figured the only way we would kill one is if we could figure out where they were exactly without encroaching too close. Using the terrain to our advantage, we moved along a fence line paralleling the timber for a couple hundred yards. Then we did some light calling. Nothing responded so we gave it some time and called again, and a tom lit up. I pulled out my phone, and measured how far I figured he was on OnX. Me, Luke and Garrett who I was hunting figured he was about two hundred yards away. After consulting OnX and knowing the toms were most likely still around hens, we figured we had to get in their “bubble” to call them in.

Make Your Move

Thankfully this isn’t the first year we’ve hunted this property, and based on where we dropped the pin where we thought these toms were, we figured they were at the end of an old four wheeling trail in a corner of this timber where it opened up a bit. If we were right, they were on the backside of a hill, which would allow us to scoot directly into the timber and up the ridge. Our goal was to get right up to the edge of the old four wheeling trail, but keeping enough distance to where the slight change in elevation would hide our movement. In this kind of scenario, my best piece of advice to you is once you decide to make the move, do it and be quick about it.

We moved through the timber, up the ridge and got situated on the edge of the four-wheeling trail. Luke let out a couple soft yelps, hoping these birds would be on the backside of the hill in front of us, and boom multiple toms hammered, just on the other side of the hill. Our guess was that they were on the four-wheeling trail, probably 60-70 yards away.

Patience Kills

Once you make your move and have been aggressive, if you feel you’re in the bubble of a tom, it’s time to be patient. In our situation, we had birds hammering just out of eyesight and we figured we could eventually coax them in. They definitely made us work and tested my patience though.

After the initial gobbling once we were setup, we didn’t call for five minutes or so. Luke let out another soft yelp and nothing. Once more, and they gobbled again, probably in the same spot. We played this game for about 45 minutes. The gobbles would get a little further away and then a little closer. When this happens, the toms are most likely strutting back and forth in an area. With how close we were though, there were no moves left to make other than to be patient. We went quiet on them for about ten minutes at one point, let out another call and now the gobbling was markedly closer. They were clearly coming in.

At this point, I’d recommend staying quiet. If you think the tom is making his way to you, no need to overcall. Within a few minutes, multiple toms crested the hill on the four-wheeling trail and moments later that tag in my pocket would be notched.

Conclusion

I understand there are numerous situations and remedies as it pertains to killing a mid-morning gobbler. With my particular instance, I feel as though it was a textbook hunt, and many hunters will find themselves in a similar situation. Hopefully this piece will help you the next time you’re after a mid-morning gobbler.