i agree with Daver, i dont wast my time hunting early seasons,i wait til 4th, and go after em!i have shot 80% of my birds late, and my opinion is only mine, but heres my thoughts. the first two seasons, your usally dealing with rain, cold, sometimes snow, and then --the hens.if you do your scouting and know where they roost, where they, strut, feed, ect, stay in bed and hit it mid morning or after.4th season is different. most hens have been bred and will be on the nest mid morning, thats great!If you go out and a toms gobbling, thats a plus and a bird you should go after, 9 times out of ten, theyll come in quiet.i get to where i want to set up and sit down, and i wont call for 30min. when i do, its usally on flats where i know they frequent, and its purrs and putts only. for a few minutes then i quit!an accassional ( soft) yelp wont hurt, but dont give up your location!if one comes in looking and cant find the hen hes looking for, somtimes he'll sound off, thats what you want.somtimes they dont then ill do it softer 30minutes later in case he started to come , again, you donot want to give yourself up.small purrs, and raking the leaves around with my hand briefly, but i try and only use mouth calls after ive been their awhile. one trick you can try, when you first set up, use a box, or slate, soft yelps, and at the same time use your mouth call, doing purrs- putts, to simulate more than one hen, somtimes thats all it takes, but dont wait for the gobble, the older birds tend to come in quiet.
this happened to me 2 yrs ago, 1.00 pm. i heard a gobble on a ridge, snuck in quiet, set up, called , nothing!, sat there for 2 hrs,got up, started walking away from where ide heard the tom, and had my mouthcall purring and putting as i walked away, and 2 shock gobbeled less than 30yrds behind me!, i hit the deck next to the biggest tree i could find and here they came, 2 mature birds, gobbling so loud my chest shook!exciting, the first passed to my right within 5 yrds,tough to swing to my right as im a right handed shooter, but the second stayed more in front, and i nailed him, 27 lbs, inch and 1/8 spurs, 9 1/2 beard.
im no expert, but i have mounted 4 of my best tails, and made a nice necklace of spurs from the rest, and love to hunt windy days,because they dont like being in open felids , so i sneak in the timber, and let them look for me, cant say it works all the time, but, ive had real good luck, matter of fact, i took vacation starting the 8th of may to pursue my bird, no earlier.ive been bitten waiting this late before, but not many, well see, good luck to all, ill keep everyone posted here on how i do.:way: