Better luck today Jdub ! Our season doesn't start till the end of the Month. Yesterday afternoon it was in the high 50's and had T Storm front roar thru - high winds/heavy rain and hail. Looked out after the shear winds and there were Birds strutting in the pouring rain and wind. Love is in the air 
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I was about to leave home this morning when I got a call from a friend. Last nite I had told him about the debacle earlier in the day. He relates he had gone up and sat on that roost site last nite to scout for me. He said exactly one bird had come in and roosted, one very large and mature gobbler. He said the rest of the flock had set up across the hiway on private land, hen-gobblers-jakes-whathaveyou.
I drove out calculating my chances. One solitary bird on the roost. With last nite's rain and littlel skiff of snow, I knew I would be able to move silent as an owl fart and could get right under the roost. I could take the bird right as he hit the ground without any other birds being disturbed off the site. Generally, shooting a bird right on the roost site will spook the birds off that site sometimes for years to come. Not generally a wise choice. Far as I can tell, if I took the one bird on that roost, none would live to tell the tale and the site would remain a viable roost.
That meant I could take the shortest, albeit steepest, climb to position. This also takes me under several of the best roost trees, so I HAVE to be quiet to say the least. I arrived early, no other vehicles parked nearby! Woohoo! I pulled the shotgun over my shoulder (chickened out and brought the modern 12 gauge), grabbed a padded cushion and started to glide up the hill. Several new blowdowns from the October blizzard blocked the steep deer trail, so I had to make a few detours, but I was on the spot in minutes and had my back against a large ponderosa pine while it was still black as the inside of an abandoned coal mine.
I settled in and checked the time, almost 50 minutes to sunrise, 20 minutes to legal shooting hours. With the cloud ceiling blocking out all starlight and the moon, the blustery wind, and the rain turning to snow...it was a lead pipe cinch that the birds would not pitch down from their roosts this morning until much later than normal. I made ready to spend a loooong time waiting.
The main flock across the hiway lit up about 10 minutes after legal shooting hours, which is 30 minutes before sunrise. There had to be at least 8 gobblers across the road and untold numbers of hens. My one and only, sad and lonely, solitary gobbler answered them with singles-doubles-and triple gobbles as the birds carped and moaned about the morning weather! He was deep in the narrow draw and low down on his chosen roost tree. Bad news for me, I had strong suspicions of his impending behavior.
Thinking I did not want to over play my hand like the clowns did yesterday, I opted to do no more than a few low tree yelps and stay quiet. Just let him think a hen sneaked in late, just a little something for him and him alone over here on the far side of the hiway from the rest of the flock. He liked the sound of the river cane segmented yelper. Soft yelps with the bell end of the yelper buried in my gloved hand to muffle the sound. But he lit up like Handel's Messiah Hallelujiah Chorus every time he heard it.
6:14 a.m., nearly a full half hour after legal shooting hours and I have given him no more than 4 sets of tree yelps. I hear the sound of him "rouse", shaking his feathers to get everything arranged, and I know he is ready to pitch. Get an idea how close I was to the roost....I could hear him rustle feathers! He pitches out of the tree and it is over in a flash. That's it, folks, that's the ballgame, thanks for coming, have a nice drive home.
Yup, he flew across the road to join the rest of the flock.
So. I gotta ask. At the risk of him pinpointing me and busting the game up, should I have called more aggressively? Aggressive calling may have convinced him I was hot and ready, fre for the taking, his and his alone.
By the way, in the three minutes it took me to hike back to the vehicle, the woods went from being full of gobbles and yelps to graveyard quiet. These birds are henned up tight. Talked with a couple guys that stayed out all day working site after site, only to have them tell me the only gobbling they heard was in the trees. Once their feet hit dirt, their beaks were sealed tight.
