Calling Question

[hillhunter]

I have always had the state of mind to not overcall to a bird. Let him hear you and then shut up and let curiosity kill him. This morning I called very little, three times I think and only after he had been gobbling for 15 min.. The bird pitched down and went the other way.... did the same thing Wed. morning, so hear I am thinking that for the 3rd time this year I have been within 100 yards of this bird on the roost and would have been the 3rd time he got away except for a curious hen.

I walked around the ridge about 50 yards and heard a hen on other side of the ridge, I was then exactly between him and her. I called one more time and she really started cutting up. She came about 100 yards to me calling the WHOLE time, yelping clucking, putting. She only was quiet for period of no longer than 15 sec in a 5-7 min span. As luck would have it she saw my decoy and came right behind me and called the gobbler straight to me. It took her a good two or three min of constantly calling to get him to head to her and he had no other hens.

Once he came, he came right on. Covering about 125 yards in a couple of min. My question is have any of you ever tried calling this much. Its the second time this year that I have heard a live hen call this much and gobblers came to it both times. It almost had me convinced it was another hunter the way it sounded. No pattern to it or anything. She was also really loud.

What do you guys think?

[mshunter77]

Do very minimal calling while he is on the roost and then I like to give him one good series of a little more agressive calling when he hits the ground. From there you have to fill them out. If he is coming in keep it minimal, if he hangs up you will have to get more aggressive with you calling.

[Hole Hunter]

I personally don't think that there is a definitive answer to this question, albeit a very good question. You are likely to hear different options from most any hunter you ask. Bottomline, every turkey is different and will respond uniquely in different scenerios depending on all the factors involved.
Much like duck hunting you almost have to be at the right place at the right time. Even the wisest old gobbler is going to slip up one day if he is hot enough and all the cards line up in your favor.
That is why a love turkey hunting more than anything else. When it is good you can't beat it, but when it is bad it is almost as frustrating as golf.

[camlock]

I think the idea or concept of not "over-calling" is very over done. Of course there are times when you can call too much, but I think in the world of turkey hunting (from my personal perspective drawn from experiences) it's almost the status quo to lean on "calling too much" for anyone that can't get a bird to come in...or a way to hierarchically rank tenured hunters, as to who know when too much calling to really too much...etc

truth in my mind, every single hunt is different and in some situations when calling too much ruins your hunt it may not be enough in the next situation...just a matter of feeling out the situation and making best decision in the situation you have found yourself in.

Another comment I will make, in my opinion...most of the time if you are really cutting up you should be doing it at a hen and not a gobbler...keeping in mind that a hen is as much a part of the flock as the gobbler you are trying to kill, manipulating that situation correctly will kill a lot of turkeys...and in the grand scheme of things, you are the unknown in the situation...not the gobbling Tom or the cackling/yelping hen you are trying to fool.

[hillhunter]

I guess I answered my own question this morning. Went in about 8:15 this morning where I saw some gobblers last week. Sat down, yelped 4 times. Nothing. Waited about 5 min, called again more aggressively this time yelping and clucking and got a gobble. Started calling much more aggressively and got the hens he was with fired up. Turned out to be 3 gobblers in this bunch. Hens tried to lead them off. I kept calling really aggressively and he kept gobbling everytime I would call. One finally broke off and came on in. Smoked him at 40 yards at 9:30. I tried to mimic what that hen was doing yesterday and it worked, I called more working this bird today than I have all year combined. Thanks for all the responses, I've probably learned as much about calling this year as any.

[Sod Man]

I know many of you have probably read it but I have been
Reading Ray Eye turkey hunters bible this season and trying to use it in my
Hunts and I agree with it on calling. I used to be the "watch guy" and 3 calls every 30 mins was it
But this year I have done more aggressive calling and had better success.

[Ster]

Well, I am glad I am not the only one on this board that doesn't kill a Turkey every time you go into the woods. I have experienced a very similar situation this weekend that you describe, but I took a different approach. I called the heck out of the bird.

It has been a very slow turkey season around my area. Just about every morning I have gone hunting I would hear maybe two or three birds gobble only once or twice and then silence. There were several mornings when I just didn't hear a peep. Well, Friday I went to a spot on top of a ridge that I feel certain I have heard one a week before. I move about half way down an old log road what travels about another 80 yards to the bottom of the hill and ends in a green field surrounded by hard woods. I stayed up a little high so I could hear other areas in case this wasn't panning out as it should.

At day break this Tom started gobbling his head off. Probably sounded off 30- 40 times in the tree. I yelped a few times hoping he might come up the log road, but after about an hour of sounding off he shut up and was never heard from again. I decided the next morning that I would get down into the small green field, closer to where he had roosted the day before. On Saturday morning before the sun even rose the Owls started going nuts and the Turkeys followed in chorus. That morning, I located 3 different birds that I could hear from that field but felt like I would need to relocated to get a little closer to each of them. The sun had yet to rise, (I found it a little strange that the turkeys were gobbling so much with it still pitch dark) and was just about to relocated somewhere else to hunt one of those other birds when the Tom that I had targeted for the morning started going crazy. As soon as he started gobbling all the others shut up, and this old boy hammered about 60-70 times from a group of trees that were probably 60-70 yards into the hardwoods from where I was set up along the edge of the green field.

On Friday, I only called a few times. I took a different approach on Saturday and started calling more frequently. Everytime I started to yelp he would cut me off gobbling, at times double. After about 30 minutes two hens pitched down into the field I was set up and with him only about 60-70 yards away, I had already prepared myself for victory. The hens in the field with me started purring, but wouldn't do much. I started cutting and yelping, and I heard him fly down and it seemed like he pitched down a little further away from me. He continued to gobble frequently, and I proceeded to call back to him. The hens in the field with me were a disappointment as they would only purr and scratch around.

He continues about another 20 minutes of gobbling and he probably sounded off another 20 times or so once he was out of the tree. I continued to call, but it was obvious that he wasn't making any more headway towards my direction. About that time I heard another hen yelp in his direction, and then start cutting. From that moment own he went silent.

I felt like I was set up in the right location on the right bird, but unlike you I called frequently to him and in the end I still ended up walking out with my hands empty.

I guess to call or not to call doesn't really matter as much as just what is going on in the mind of that turkey. Two days in a row this guys mode of operation was to gobble his head off in the tree and when he hits the ground he expects to see some hens coming his way, and they always do.