The last couple seasons, I have heard a lot of hens on the limb...
I have heard the quiet tree-yelps, but they are often followed by louder "here I am" yelps... I have heard cutting, and angry mixes of cutting and yelping... But I heard a fly-down cackle for the first time last weekend... (As popular as the call is for hunters, I have heard it very little)
I actually saw the hen, and she did the cackle before flying down, and not during... It was my understanding that normally they cackle as flying down?
I also feel she was a dominant hen, cause as she hit the ground, so did a tom and a couple of jakes. Previous to her flying down, several hens had already hit the ground, and once the cackler was on the ground, more followed...
So is the fly-down a dominance call? Generally do birds cackle as they fly-down?
The larger the flock of birds the more I hear crackles on fly downs, yes most the time it's in flight but sometimes a short cackle just before take off. I think it's a "we're going this way" call so it'd stand to reason the boss hen would be setting the course for the day.
Not a call I use all the time but in the right spot it's put birds coming right off the roost a few times.
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Cackles are made by hens most often in the winter but are often used in early Spring. It doesn't alarm the gobblers and frequently excites the gobbler if not overdone. When the hens begin nesting, they quit that foolishment as they don't want to draw attention.
A good friend of mine cackles more than what he yelps. Kills his birds every year.
I use it from the beginning of the season to the end 5-10 minutes after a tree yelp. Toward the end of the season I want the gobbler to think there is a hen in his area that he has not bred yet. Deadly call for me every season. Alot of times it's gets a tight lipped bird to give up his position.
Where do you live the birds don't cackle flying down? Here it's fairly common.
I have hunted Merriam's turkeys in southern New Mexico for over fifty years now, and I have heard a turkey do a fly-down cackle exactly ONE time in that span. Our turkeys are just not cacklers. However, even here where turkeys rarely do it, there have been a few occasions where the cackle has worked to bring a gobbler to the gun. On the other hand, there have also been plenty of occasions where using that call has sent an otherwise seemingly interested gobbler running for the next county.
Around here, I always categorize the cackle as a "last resort" call. Then again, it seems a lot of hunters do not know the difference between cackling and cutting, and do something that is kind of a hybrid between the two. I think sometimes hunters do what they think is a cackle, while the turkey they are calling to is interpreting it as cutting,...and vice versa.
My best turkey encounter ever was when I used a fly down cackle in conjunction with a Wing Thing and scratching in the leaves. I had 3 come down to me, 2 of them rubbing their wings on either side of my blind and the third I could hear it's wing go against my backpack leaning against a tree less than a foot from me. Did not get them because of my back but it was exciting none the less.
I've heard them cackle both flying down and up in evening a lot but I believe that once they start laying and nesting they stop. I used a fly down cackle for the first time a little later in our season on a gobbler this year and he immediately gobbled three times in a row. When I knew he was on the ground I gave him some cutting and yelping and he cut me off hammering, and I shut up. A few minutes later another gobble about half the distance as before, and then I hear some different gobbling off to my left and even closer. About this time I started getting "turkey fever" and when they got to where I could see them here come two big jakes down the field edge I was sitting in. They were gobbling their heads off and watching toward where I thought the tom should appear any second. The jakes got in real close and busted me and started alarm putting (they probably saw me shaking ) It was toward the end of our season, and one of my last opportunities to hunt so I ended up taking the biggest of the two jakes, which was my tag out bird for the year(our season limit is two bearded turkeys. My first was a nice tom on opening day.) Never saw the other bird, but he sounded like an old mature bird. Needless to say I will try a fly down cackle again sometime.
It is a deadly call to have in your arsenal!
I hear cackles a lot. They will also cackle when flying across a creek, road, etc. Cackle is a good call to use when you are working a bird and maybe he doesn't move much and shuts up for a while. He will often answer it when he wont any other call allowing you to move on him.
Quote from: saverx on May 24, 2018, 06:08:19 PM
I hear cackles a lot. They will also cackle when flying across a creek, road, etc. Cackle is a good call to use when you are working a bird and maybe he doesn't move much and shuts up for a while. He will often answer it when he wont any other call allowing you to move on him.
Just had some Nebraska hens cackle at me today as they pitched across across a creek into my field. Was probably about 8:45 AM.
Seems the hens here are much more prone to cackle at flydown in the fall than in the spring.
Bird I killed last Saturday had 5 hens with him. I watched them all fly down. Not a one of them cackled. Seems to be the norm. Also been noticing over the last several years that if I toss a flydown cackle into my morning ritual, the hens are more likely to take their boy(s) the OTHER way.
I've heard it maybe twice. I don't use it in my calling arsenal.