I had a gobbler respond

[Brillo]

• Tweet

I was driving my gkids home through the suburb today and a flock of turkeys was in someone's yard.  I pulled over so we could watch them for a bit and saw a mouth call on my console.  I lowered the window and called with a few yelps.  Both gobblers in the flock responded immediately but only once.   We got a real kick out of it.  Now I am wondering if it was good calling or just a shock gobble?  What do you think?  Can a response to a turkey call be a shock gobble?  I know nothing and don't want to be thinking I did something competent when I may not be competent.

[Ctrize]

• Tweet

They absolutely will shock gobble if the timing is right. It is fun to get them going, as far as your calling record it on your phone and judge for yourself. Many guys are so happy to be able to make a call on a mouth call they figure they are good to go, when the reality is they are not making any kind of turkey sound. My best locator call is a loud squeal on a diaphragm, it sounds nothing like a turkey, but it gets them to gobble most times.

[Bowguy]

• Tweet

I’d never no how ever call at turkey before season. Even more so from a car or while they see me. Early season they may gobble at anything from a gun being loaded, someone throwing up, a jake brake on a truck, a backfire, etc etc. don’t read too far into it and don’t call at anything like that

[GobbleNut]

• Tweet

In answer to your question, it is difficult to say if the turkeys responded to your calling as either a shock response or otherwise.  As has been stated, it could be either.  However, if they only responded one time, and it was immediately after your first call, I would be inclined to think it might have been a shock response.  As for your calling, you should be able to make a reasonable assessment as to how you sound by listening to the umpteen zillion videos and instructional tapes out there in the turkey hunting world. 

Now, watching those videos and hearing those tapes, you should also be able to quite quickly determine that there are also "umpteen zillion" ways that real, live turkeys can sound.  You will also quickly become aware that there are lots of people that call turkeys that can only best be described as being mediocre to poor callers,...and some of them are downright horrible.  Yet, they still call and kill turkeys.

As for Bowguy's comment on calling to turkeys pre-season and in situations where they will associate you, as a human, with that calling, that is a "right on target" comment.  Anybody that has hunted turkeys for any length of time should reach the point where they understand that turkeys can become much more difficult to call if they have been "conditioned" to associate turkey calling they hear with human beings and danger. 

Having said that, in the situation you describe, which I would assume was with non-hunted turkeys in an urban or suburban setting, I would not be too concerned about practicing your calling on those birds.  You could, in theory, use their responses to your calling as a barometer as to whether you sound like a real turkey or not,...but I would not put too much stock in that.  Those birds have most likely been conditioned to respond to every sound imaginable they have heard from people. 

Again, though, do not practice calling birds you plan on hunting!  If you do, you will soon see the results of how that impacts your future encounters with those birds.  Simply put, you will very likely see no "positive outcome" in doing that. 

[Happy]

• Tweet

I enjoy calling to turkeys. However I don't mess with turkeys I plan on hunting. Just the other day I was messing with some off- limits turkeys and had a blast. Called in two gobblers, two jakes and a bunch of hens. The louder and more obnoxious I called the more worked up they got. Had the jakes and hens come within 30 yards of me and I was making no real effort to stay out of sight.

[Brillo]

• Tweet

It was a grin for sure.  These turkeys are about two miles from where they can be legally hunted.  There is a park on the other side of where these  were hanging out and I might slide in there tomorrow morning and practice on them.  I will not win a calling contest but I think I am improving with my mouth calling which isn't saying much.

[Zobo]

• Tweet

     I’ve inadvertently called in birds using a rope and rusty pulley while hoisting some construction materials. The squeaky wheel drew them in running and gobbling their heads off. 
     There are so many different turkey sounds you’ll hear in the fields and forests. Just hen clucks alone are so incredibly varied. So you don’t have to sound “spot on perfect” to illicit a gobble because there is no “spot on perfect.”
     However, I think you caused a shock gobble by stopping your car and hitting them with clucks and yelps out of nowhere in an unnatural setting/situation.
     But that does not mean you didn’t sound good or your diaphragm calling is not improving.   

[Rapscallion Vermilion]

• Tweet

The best indicator that you are making progress with your calling is when you start having conversations with the hens.  They seem much more discriminating than hormone pumped gobblers.

[Haymarket]

• Tweet

It was a grin for sure.  These turkeys are about two miles from where they can be legally hunted.  There is a park on the other side of where these  were hanging out and I might slide in there tomorrow morning and practice on them.  I will not win a calling contest but I think I am improving with my mouth calling which isn't saying much.

Sounds like you’re making progress. I really would really avoid practicing on live birds though. Turkeys can roam as far as you say they can be legally hunted…and even if you aren’t hunting these ones, it doesn’t help to educate them for other hunters.

[Uncle Tom]

• Tweet

The reason I always change calls if hunting the same area the next day….they know the call from yesterday that you made and I want them to hear a different one today. That is just educating them to your calling if you do not change up. You may fool them one time but your chances go down on doing it twice. Most birds I kill are on the first sit in an area and after that I don’t like to sit in same spot 2 days in a row, and if I do they are hearing something from me.

[EZ]

• Tweet

It was a grin for sure.  These turkeys are about two miles from where they can be legally hunted.  There is a park on the other side of where these  were hanging out and I might slide in there tomorrow morning and practice on them.  I will not win a calling contest but I think I am improving with my mouth calling which isn't saying much.

And so begins the evolution of a turkey hunter.
Enjoy the learning curve. That's all you can do is improve your calling, your knowledge of birds, your woodmanship, and learn something every time out.
It's a fun trip, enjoy the ride.