So, if you really want to score a big bird, the best bet is to hunt with a buddy who can call from a position behind you, farther from the bird. That's likely to lure the bird closer to the gun.

Vary your calls if the birds aren't coming toward you. Photo by Janet Romanelli.

If you're hunting solo, try calling away from the turkey instead of toward him. The idea is to give the impression the hen is moving away and entice the gobbler to give chase. Ideally, you can start this backward calling before your movement is likely to spook him, but that's easier said than done.

HENNED-UP HOPE?
Q: Is there any way to get a henned-up tom to leave his girls?

A: The common wisdom is that toms with hens aren't about to leave a sure thing in the hopes of getting lucky with a stranger, but that's only part of the story. Gobblers also feel safer with extra sets of eyes and ears on alert for danger. You can still get these birds. However, you have to abandon the notion of actually calling them to you. One suggestion is to stalk the gobbler.

"Just try to get as close to him as you can," said Robert Crawford of the National Wild Turkey Federation, a man who has probably killed more wild turkeys in the past 63 years than any other human.

"You have to be careful not to be seen, but you really have nothing to lose," he said. "If he sees you and runs, you're no worse off than if you had sat still trying to call him in -- it's an empty sack either way."

Something that might help in your stalk is to remember that turkeys feed in one direction. Watch which direction they're going and then try to pick a spot where they're going to show up. If you can get there first, without getting busted, you can wait in ambush. Just be prepared to agonize over whether you picked the right spot.

A similar tactic, but one with less guesswork, is patterning the birds. Blankinship said turkeys can be quite traditional: If you see them doing something one day and they aren't disturbed, it's likely they'll be doing the same thing at the same time the next day.

If you have the time to test this theory, you can pick a good spot and may bag a gobbler without even bringing a call into the woods.

For those who simply can't fathom not calling a bird in, you may still be able to get the tom to come to you by calling the dominant hen.

The technique is to simply wait for the hen to call, and then call back to her exactly the same way. Each time she calls, call back the same way. She'll start to get louder and madder. You should too, and start overlapping her calls with your own. Basically, you're trying to convince her another girl is making the moves on her man, and if you can get her mad enough to come over and look for a butt to kick, she'll likely have the gobbler in tow.

The other option is to use a gobbler call to make the tom think he has a challenger nearby. Give him visual proof with a jake decoy, and he may come at you in a rage. Just be very cautious with jake decoys, especially on public land where other hunters may be around; there's a much higher risk you could be accidentally shot.