Turkey hunting forum for turkey hunting tips

Snowing pretty heavy here at the house but my buddy sent me a text this morning said the snow plow come down the four lane and made a turkey gobble up on the ridge above his house. Got me thinking about that shirt the MeatEater people made that lists off all the things that have made turkeys gobble. Craziest one I've ever had was a V-22 Osprey come flying over the ridge and made one shock gobble. What's the craziest thing you've heard one gobble to?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I duck hunt exclusively in flooded beaver swamps and they gobble to our shotguns firing a good bit.  I don't think that's uncommon though.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Was hunting on a real windy day, sitting when a large branch broke and hit the ground. Gobbler sounded off behind me.....

Quote from: Tom007 on January 16, 2022, 08:58:20 AM
Was hunting on a real windy day, sitting when a large branch broke and hit the ground. Gobbler sounded off behind me.....

Reminds me of the time I heard a tree pop a few times and then fall, he gobbled at it!

I guess hearing one gobble at wolves was a bit unique, just due to the limited distribution where wolves and turkeys coinhabit. (have heard them gobble at coyotes a lot though)

Heavy artillery firing.....

First bird I ever took gobbled when the farmer started his tractor

I was hunting South Carolina and set up on a roosted bird in a field edge. Had him going strong then he went quiet. I had hens moving in and didn't know where he was because of the brush. A guy working on telephone lines dropped a tool that made a loud "ping" and he sounded off. He dropped that tool 3 times and I knew every time the bird was getting close when he gobbled to it. He wouldn't answer my soft call like he had been earlier but thanks to that guy having slippery hands. That guy was working lines about 500 yards away and it was a quiet morning.

Quote from: Meleagris gallopavo on January 16, 2022, 08:52:16 AM
I duck hunt exclusively in flooded beaver swamps and they gobble to our shotguns firing a good bit.  I don't think that's uncommon though.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

That's why I look forward to water fowl season. Birds in my area don't seem to have issues gobbling in the fall but its almost guaranteed during water fowl season.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

Quote from: Will on January 16, 2022, 09:59:11 AM
I was hunting South Carolina and set up on a roosted bird in a field edge. Had him going strong then he went quiet. I had hens moving in and didn't know where he was because of the brush. A guy working on telephone lines dropped a tool that made a loud "ping" and he sounded off. He dropped that tool 3 times and I knew every time the bird was getting close when he gobbled to it. He wouldn't answer my soft call like he had been earlier but thanks to that guy having slippery hands. That guy was working lines about 500 yards away and it was a quiet morning.

Find out what tool he dropped, I'll put one in my vest...lol

Dynamite being used to blowing a beaver dam couple of farms over caused one to gobble one morning, that was pretty neat...

When I was a young boy my dad had taken me out with him. Set up close to a roost, I sneezed loudly and the Tom's fired off lol. My dad got quite a kick out of that.
One of the greatest mornings I've had outdoors was a beautiful morning in the mountains. Every time the bull elk would bugle the Tom's would Gobble.

Quote from: deerhunt1988 on January 16, 2022, 09:08:20 AM

Quote from: Tom007 on January 16, 2022, 08:58:20 AM
Was hunting on a real windy day, sitting when a large branch broke and hit the ground. Gobbler sounded off behind me.....

I guess hearing one gobble at wolves was a bit unique, just due to the limited distribution where wolves and turkeys coinhabit. (have heard them gobble at coyotes a lot though)

Have both wolves and turkeys in good numbers in a couple of areas I hunt. Never heard a gobble to a wolf howl however I have seen a wolf attack my dad's decoy on a logging road when I was hunting with him.

The release of air brakes from a lost 18 wheeler hauling a dozer. He pulled into the little parking lot of a wma where I just dropped my buddy off at 1st light. I could hear him coming a long ways off and so could the turkeys.

Not sure the oddest, but my favorite is a donkey.


The donkey would bray and the turkey would gobble.

The turkey would gobble and the donkey would bray.

Went on all season that year and I would laugh about every time, especially when the bird would sound off early and the donkey would immediately talk back

My buddy's calling. That is proof that they will literally gobble at anything.

52's firing off at the local air base 5 miles away.

Jake brake of a logging truck goin down the mountain.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

When I was a kid, I used to help an old farmer and did so basically full time in the summer. One summer we were working on some equipment in the middle of a hay field that was surrounded by woods. He started beating on a metal part with a sledge hammer and every time he hit it, a bird would gobble up on the ridge. Some of the most frequent and loudest gobbling I have ever heard.

Sent from my moto g power using Tapatalk

I used to hunt across the road from an aluminum plant. When those presses would make that first big boom in the morning it woke a few gobblers up. Got more sparing as shift went on but you could always get lucky in afternoon. Craziest one I ever saw was when I was at the barn talking to 3 other guys about the morning hunt. One guys son finished a coke and sat the can down in bed of his dads truck. When he sat the can down the kid stomped on it to crush it. I kid you not on the ridge behind the barn 2 of them fired up (less than 200 yards away) the following morning the boys dad killed one of them on that ridge right behind the barn. Only time I've ever seen birds on that ridge and only longbeard ever known to roost up there

The slamming gate of a dump truck from a maintenance crew emptying his load.   Every time the dump gate hit the bed making that boom boom boom sound a turkey would gobble. 

An odd one was the intercom system at a car lot.   Used cars line 2, used cars line 2......gobble, gobble, gobble.

Quote from: guesswho on January 17, 2022, 09:06:10 AM
The slamming gate of a dump truck from a maintenance crew emptying his load.   Every time the dump gate hit the bed making that boom boom boom sound a turkey would gobble. 

We actually have a group of gobblers we refer to as the "gate keepers".  There is one metal gate we have to go through that clangs whenever anybody opens and closes it.  Those gobblers roost in the same spot every night on a ridge above the gate and early morning or late evening when they are in the trees you can be sure that they will greet you with a chorus of gobbles when the gate clangs. 

Pack of coyotes howling had them fired up in Virginia a few weeks ago.

 I was about 20 years old. A friend and I had a gobbler we were after, he loved to gobble on the roost. So, we knew where he was and slid into position early, right above him, 50-60 yards from him on the limb.

The fire whistle goes off, he starts gobbling, it's odark30! Fire whistle keeps going off, he nonstop gobbled. Then we hear an ambulance, the gobbling doesn't stop. The ambulance comes right by us as we are only 200 yards above an old secondary road. We could here the ambulance for a few minutes after he went by us. That turkey could obviously hear the ambulance longer.

I would guess it was a minimum of 20 minutes of nonstop, one after another gobbling. By one turkey.

We never did kill that turkey, and we hunted him several times that spring.

Hunted a ridge outside a small town with a volunteer fire department. One quite morning that fire horn blew, and a dozen turkeys gobbled like crazy in every direction. When that horn shut down, those turkeys went quiet again.

At my family's property the Volunteer Fire Departments siren makes them gobble.
It also makes the trout bite.  The siren is amazing.

I've heard gobble at every thing from a wood duck whistle to a base ball aluminum bat hitting a baseball .

Thunder. Gobbled every time


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Took a cold one out of the ice chest. When ice fell in the empty spot where it was at he hammered right off the road. A lawn mower running over gravel. Trailer ramps rattling on a low boy that was hauling equipment to cut the woods I was hunting in.  :( :( :(

Quote from: GobbleNut on January 17, 2022, 09:59:08 AM

Quote from: guesswho on January 17, 2022, 09:06:10 AM
The slamming gate of a dump truck from a maintenance crew emptying his load.   Every time the dump gate hit the bed making that boom boom boom sound a turkey would gobble. 

We actually have a group of gobblers we refer to as the "gate keepers".  There is one metal gate we have to go through that clangs whenever anybody opens and closes it.  Those gobblers roost in the same spot every night on a ridge above the gate and early morning or late evening when they are in the trees you can be sure that they will greet you with a chorus of gobbles when the gate clangs.

Was thinking about this one as I read through them. Was hunting a plot that I knew had bird on it. Set up on one corner called nothing, another and nothing, another and nothing... neighbor was lay base rock for his driveway and came and dumped a load about the time I was maybe even walking back to my truck for an early lunch. Birds sounded off on the one hill I hadnt been to yet! Snuck up the hill and set up near the property line.... 100 yds on the other side they were.... after a good 30min of chit chat they all start running, flying and scattering past me. Coyote stopped 10 yards in front of me. I was walking to my truck with a dog and a bird after that.

Other one is a simple whistle! Just the puckered lip kind, not the high pitch finger in the mouth or plastic one. Opened the camper door this year and whistled for my dog. Bird gobbles 350 yds up on the knob above me. I couldnt believe it. Dog was at my feet so I whistled again. He gobbled again. Told the wife to watch the kids I was going hunting. We were literally leaving within the hour to go to town for something was around 9:30am. I came back 20 min later. Wife asked what I forgot and I showed her the bird. Thing came in on a rope since I was able to sneak within 80yds of it with the contours.

Air horn... carry them in my truck for work. Have touched them off a couple times to scare buddies. Birds like it too.

Almost forgot about this one... MY NAME... have it on video.... one of my buddies has a fair amount of turkeys and he always likes to hype me up for turkey season. I get this interesting? video of him hot tubing...looks about 25 out, he might even say that in the video. Frost white everywhere. He starts just saying my name in a girlish-high-pitch drawn out way..."cchhRRISSSTOPher... gobble gobble gobble....cchhRRISSSTOPher... gobble gobble gobble...." Everytime I show someone that video it starts with a what the heck are you making me watch until they here the gobbles!

Early season in Virginia stops at noon. I had hunted all morning without hearing anything and decided to head back to the truck since it was a few minutes before noon. As I'm walking, church bells start ringing and one fires off. I'd heard the bells most of the morning. Guess this tom had himself a watch.

Quote from: 5arraquiver on January 16, 2022, 10:23:19 AM
When I was a young boy my dad had taken me out with him. Set up close to a roost, I sneezed loudly and the Tom's fired off lol. My dad got quite a kick out of that.
One of the greatest mornings I've had outdoors was a beautiful morning in the mountains. Every time the bull elk would bugle the Tom's would Gobble.

That's the best of both worlds!!

I was sitting on state land on a roosted bird well before light. Every time a truck came down the road where it was wash boarded those trucks would rattle and he would sound off. Every one of those trucks stopped on the drainage we were set up on, exited their truck then called with various locator calls. That bird never answered a one.

Where I hunt at home we have to cross a wooden bridge to our house. The next bridge down stream had loose boards on top. Whenever the residents would drive across it, it sounded like a machine gun.

When I'd be hunting and hear the bridge, I would immediately freeze and listen. The turkeys really gobbled at it. They unfortunately fixed their bridge and I lost a good locator call. Lol

A few years ago I was crow hunting using an electric caller.  4 toms raced accrss a field to my caller that screaming a crow fight.  They were 30 yards away gobbling like mad at the caller.  I tried to switch the caller to a racoon fight but put in coyote howl by accident.  They kept right on gobbling.  I came back a month later in the youth season with my son and smacked a bird right there.  Not sure if it was on of those or not. 

Last year had em gobble at a rooster, donkey, Jake brake, can't remember what else


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Some of the stories here remind me of one incident that has gotten me some level of notoriety amongst my hunting partners.  It is a tale that gets told a few times each spring to all who will listen as a reminder of my superior abilities in pursuit of the wily gobbler.

As it were, two friends and I ventured over to Texas several years ago to a farm we had access to hunt.  There were LOTS of turkeys on this property and they all roosted in the same specific group of trees next to a big open pasture.  The evening before our hunt, we watched roughly 75 hens, and somewhere in the neighborhood of FIFTY mature toms, as well as a passel of jakes, filter into the roost from different directions across this pasture. (Did I mention there were LOTS of turkeys on the place?!)

Being the self-proclaimed leader of our little entourage, I told the other two,.."Here's the plan.  We are gonna sneak in there an hour before daylight very quietly and set up between the roost and the pasture in the dark.  We gotta be totally quiet...not make a sound.  I'll lead the way with you two right behind me.  WE GOTTA BE COMPLETELY QUIET!  You can't snap branches or let your guns rattle around OR ANYTHING!  NO NOISE...NOTHIN'!"

So, the next morning I am leading our little group in single file along the brush line at the edge of the pasture, demonstrating to my two companions how to sneak stealthily and quietly into the set-up, and occasionally glancing back to make sure they were dutifully following my lead.  As we neared the chosen set-up location...about fifty yards from the nearest turkeys...we had not raised a putt from a single bird.  I was pretty confident I had succeeded in demonstrating my unsurpassed abilities of stealth in approaching roosted turkeys. 

Unfortunately, in the dark I did not notice the barbed-wire strand stretched about ankle-high a few yards from our set-up.  As I stepped forward in one of the last few steps to our set, the strand caught my foot and I ingloriously proceeded to fall flat on my face with a resounding thud and a loud groan as all the air in my lungs exploded outward...in general, my descent to the ground sounding somewhat like a 747 landing. 

Immediately, the woods behind us erupted in turkeys gobbling, putting, and every other sound of instant alarm turkeys have been known to make.  My buddies could not control the laughter they tried to stifle as their fearless leader lay wallowing in a heap on the ground. 

....As I said before, that little story gets brought up a lot around these parts when someone starts extolling my skills and virtues as a turkey hunter!   I always tell them I was just demonstrating a unique and unorthodox method of verifying roost locations. ;D :toothy9:

I call bs on some of this..There is no way you have friends that would promote you to leadership status. The rest i find believable.

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

Quote from: Happy on January 21, 2022, 09:50:41 AM
I call bs on some of this..There is no way you have friends that would promote you to leadership status. The rest i find believable.

Yeah,...it took me a few decades to find a couple of guys who were gullible enough to let me be "the leader" in these situations.  They are gradually wising up, though.  I don't know what I am gonna do after that!  Of course, "leadership" is a relative term.  What some call leadership, others might refer to as "the blind leading the blind".   ;D

I have always said if I am the voice of logic and reason then we are in deep chit!

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

dairy cow bellering

Quote from: 5arraquiver on January 16, 2022, 10:23:19 AM
One of the greatest mornings I've had outdoors was a beautiful morning in the mountains. Every time the bull elk would bugle the Tom's would Gobble.

Man, how'd I forget about that one! While quartering up my first elk, a gobbler let one loose right at dark on the ridge above me.. A morning or two before one was responding to the bugles.





Last March while working in the woods, i got way ahead of a co-worker looking for a specific spot. I hollered "HEYYYYYYYYYYYYY" to let him know where I was, and gobbler fired off within 100 yards of me.

Quote from: chadly on January 20, 2022, 07:35:20 PM
A few years ago I was crow hunting using an electric caller.  4 toms raced accrss a field to my caller that screaming a crow fight.  They were 30 yards away gobbling like mad at the caller.  I tried to switch the caller to a racoon fight but put in coyote howl by accident.  They kept right on gobbling.

Thats one of my favorite ones so far, would have loved to saw that.

I stepped off a logging road into some dry leaves and immediately drew a gobble.  That wasn't particularly surprising, but the fact I moved off the road to let a logging skidder pass me made the gobbling a bit unusual.
Three minutes later that bird died of lead poisoning.

Was working a ridge calling for a gobbler with no success. I sit down on log to take a break and I hear the beep, beep, beep as a school bus backs up. Then I hear a gobble.

I tried to call to him but never heard another peep.

Used to hunt some big mountain ridges in central PA (think Penn State University area) 40+ years ago.  There was......somewhere, off in the distance........a bridge that the tri-axle coal trucks would go across when they were empty.  Apparently, the bump going on to the bridge made the big aluminum dump beds bounce and slam.  Fired every bird up in the country.

one of my favorite times of making a bird gobble was when we was working on a house and had to put some vinyl siding on. everytime we would hit with the hammer he would gobble. of course it was only a week or so before season so i was shook up listening to him and maybe missed a few times on purpose just to hear him gobble haha.

I remember a time when my cousin used to fire up the milk truck in the barn, used to elicit a few gobbles. It was nice when he headed down the hill and hit the Jake brake... I knew I had about 30 minutes from start up until he got to the hill.

A cough

Cracking open a can of Vienna sausage

I sat in my blind one morning, and did not know I had a tom in the tree above me. My opioid medications can cause some incredible constipation and I dropped a striker on the ground and when I bent over to get it I let out a real rip roaring fart that got him to shock gobble. He was so close I almost got rid of the constipation when he gobbled, Almost.

I don't know which ones better, a can of vienees or a fart Y'all win!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I raise Easterns. What haven't I heard them gobble at?

 :TooFunny:

Quote from: ChesterCopperpot on January 23, 2022, 06:06:42 PM
I don't know which ones better, a can of vienees or a fart Y'all win!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Funny responses. My best was a group of F-35s flying at about 1000 ft along the Utah/Nevada border. Had been real quiet till they flew over. Woods exploded with gobbles and they never quieted down till one went home with me.

Sent from my LM-G710 using Tapatalk

Was hunting in Virginia some time back and I heard some guys working
on a house. They were hammering away and as I got closer I thought
I was hearing a gobble every time the hammers would hit.
I worked my way closer until I could plainly hear it was a gobble.
Got about 100 yards from the bird, made a few calls, and had him in about
5 minutes.

The first time I ever went turkey I forgot to turn my alarm on my cell phone off. we where slipping in the woods in the dark trying to get close to where we thought they where roosted when my alarm went off. I remember my heart sinking when it went off then suddenly they started shock gobbling and the whole woods sounded like a turkey farm.

Had one gobble his head off at a freight train across the river. Could see him in the bottom and when the train went by it was so loud I could see him shaking his head continuously to gobble but couldn't hear a sound.

One of my father's favorites was a bird gobbling when someone down below on the road stopped and a beer can fell out of the car and hit the gravel.

Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk