Who uses the gobble in the spring ??
I gotta admit, the use of the gobble is basically a zero occurrence for me. The very few times (like.....over a span of 40+ years) I've ever used it, I've had a grand total of NO positive results.
Do you use it ?? Often ?? Occasionally ??
Positive results ??
The first time I ever used it was this season, I had a bird that stopped gobbling, it was later in the morning around 9:30 or 10. He gobbled all morning hot and heavy from about 150 yards away on the spur ridge directly across the holler from me while I was working another bird, all of a sudden he wouldn't gobble to any of my calls, neither of my 2 pot calls, not my trumpet, box, several mouth calls. Wouldn't gobble to my locators either. I was trying to figure out if this was a lost cause or if the silence was him slipping in. I gobbled on my mouth call and he gobbled back from further away up the other ridge and made the decision easy to come back the next day when he was more ready to die.
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It can be an unfair advantage if you understand the breeding cycle and social structure.
I've seen it work.
Late season when the boys are getting back together it's an especially effective call. Last year I killed a LATE season bird gobbling on a Halloran box. Two came in both gobbling their heads off late afternoon. Nothing else had worked. I've also used it on occasion with a hung up gobbler. Another time last year me and a buddy were working a bird and he was hung up on a ridgeline. I signaled to him that I was going to call and when I did I wanted him to shake a gobble tube. He nodded and as I yelped he cut me off gobbling on that tube. To me a gobble tube sounds more like a jake than a mature bird. Well it worked and that old jealous boss come off the hill ready to put his spurs to that young bird's head. I think he was hellbent on getting that hen to come to him but the second he thought another, lesser gobbler had come into the equation all bets were off and he tossed caution to the wind.
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I won't for safety reasons. To many idiots in the areas I hunt and some of those idiots have rifles.
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Quote from: guesswho on May 15, 2021, 08:33:12 AM
It can be an unfair advantage if you understand the breeding cycle and social structure.
Knowing their situation in whole in your area, I'd say unfair is a very accurate description. When they're coming to a gobble, they usually come running.
I've used it for years with no problems. Also started using jake and gobbler yelps this season. Roger Parks makes awesome gobbler pot call... Just another item in your bag of tricks.
It is usually a last ditch effort from me to try to make him mad and I can't say it has helped me. On a fall hunt a couple years ago I think it did help me and made the birds gobble back at me. I will also use it as a locator in spring with some success.
I've tried, but it didn't work at that well. Spitting and drumming have been much more effective.
Have used it cautiously. Rare occasions, it can turn a stubborn bird into a foolish bird. It can turn a quiet bird into a vocal bird. Jake yelps can do the same, which I rely on much, much more.
I use it occasionally throughout the season. I hunt exclusively private in my home state with no other hunters. It has worked well over the years on certain days. I killed a bird 3-4 years ago just doing non stop gobbling late in the season. He came from over 500 yards away. He gobbled every time I did and worked his way in. This was effective that day over hen calling.
Used it last year with great success. Someone above me said it is last ditch and I guess that is true for me. We had a bird right near us hen up and move away and heard two a couple hundred yards away. They gobbled every once in a while and were skirting our calls. I hit the gobble tube and they hammered. Checked them again a few minutes later and they had closed the distance. Set it down and a few minutes later in they came. It was special op hunt and only one could be taken and my nephew killed him. No doubt it made the difference.
Only time I have ever used it for a kill.
I was taught that you NEVER gobble in the spring woods and it's something I never done until about 5 years ago. The first time I actually tried it I killed a late season longbeard. He had a buddy and they stuck together like glue. They didn't gobble until about 8:30am and would not come to a hen call PERIOD. I got fed up with them after a few days and one morning I was closer to them than I had ever been before and they would not respond to hen calls so I thought heck, I'll just gobble. I did and the more dominant bird lost his mind. Within minutes he was coming and coming hard. He was the first bird I killed with a 20ga. It is not something I'd do often and to be honest I haven't done it since that day BUT, if the situation requires those measures I'd give it a try again.
I have used it the past as a last ditch effort to locate a gobbler at roost time.
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Used it to kill the Boss bird one year on private land. Two days later 5 other birds gobbling their heads off....
Deadly weapon for me on several occasions. I don't use it all the time. It has peaked there curiosity where they'd come in to investigate.
I've killed quite a few with a tube. It's also a "when all else fails" or if I see the bird & he's hung up for some time. It can be the most deadly call in my arsenal at times.
Like anything right time and right place. Best bird I ever killed, a long spurred and thick and long bearded GA public land gobbler came into the gobble after he had flown down and was moving away from me. I had hunted this bird many, many times and he rarely gobbled much and if he did only a few times to a hen call and continually moved away. He was always around but silent a bunch and 2x's I almost bush whacked him and 1 time even missed him.
About mid season I was in his area one evening where I had been hoping to catch him sneaking in silent as he went back to roost. I didn't but he made the mistake of gobbling 1x when he flew up to roost a couple hundred yards away. I closed the distance as it got darker and had him pegged as he hit to an owl call. Next morning slipped in within 80 yds and gave a couple couple real soft clucks and yelps which did nothing. Another bird lit up about 400 yds away and he gobbled after he did. He then pitched down slightly away and I hit him hard with some cuts which he responded to 1x then gobbled again 1 minute later and it was clear he was moving off towards the other gobbling turkey.
So, I gobbled at him and he responded almost instantly. Then I gobbled 3 or 4x's quickly at him and next time he gobbled he was clearly on his way. Couple minutes later I caught his big ol glowing white head half strutting up the little ridge looking. After I shot him I thought he was going to be just a shy 2 year old and to my surprise he was sporting the longest razor sharp spurs I'd ever touched and thickest and longest beard I'd ever seen. Awesome memory the way the whole thing unfolded and he was my 2nd eastern of a double single season slam that year. Only full body turkey mount I have and I'm glad I gobbled at him.
It's worked in other instances as well but not quite like it did that day. Still kind of a last resort kinda thing for me, but again right place right time situation it will bring em.
Gobbling is my main effort to bag a bird on the small wood lots of private property I hunt. In the past decade, I've usually filled at least two of my three Illinois spring tags. I've had the best success during the 1st and 5th (last) seasons by giving some soft tree yelps and clucks while the tom is gobbling and before fly down. When I'm convinced that he has heard me, I'll shake my Primos gobble tube, giving the impression that there's not only a new hen in the area but an intruder tom, and usually get an immediate response from him. From that point on, when he gobbles, I return the favor and sometimes I will lead off in the gobbling only to have him respond. After fly down, I'll usually only respond to his gobble one time and then shut up because there's a very good chance that he's on his way, usually silently as he sizes up the Funky Chicken decoy I've put out. The usual response is for him to run right in face-to-face with the Funky Chicken and I'll have to wait for him to step back before I can shoot. While calling in a gobbler utilizing hen talk is used during the breeding season, peck order is a year around thing and a gobbler usually doesn't like a stranger challenging him in his own territory. While this technique often works at fly down, I've had success with it at all hours of the morning and as late as 12 noon (The Illinois season closes at 1 pm daily.) My biggest birds (23#+) have come during the last season around 8 a.m. when the boss gobbler has had limited responses from his harem but hears my hen yelps and the gobble of an intruder. Having a gobbler charge in to do battle with your decoy certainly gives one a rush!!
So, it seems that gobbling is a last resort for the majority of guys......... Whether it works or not..........only the turkey can tell you.
Using a gobble call is why I favor the full fan strutter hat over just the standard reaping fan,
the helmet leaves both hands free to get a more realistic gobble out of a tube call, :OGturkeyhead:
A couple fall seasons ago I was Jake yelping and a bird gobbled back at me, switched over to a tube call and gobbled back at him every time they gobbled (it ended up being 2 longbeards), didn't let up on them and they came in gobbling and strutting.
It was about as much gobbling as I had heard all of of the previous spring season
I started using a gobble on a box call a few years ago. I do not use the gobble all the time but it does seem to evoke responses when a hen call does not woek
I have used on occasion. One area in MO, the birds would not respond at all to calls and thought I would throw a gobble at them, BAM! here he comes. The other guys with me tried and had success to. So what was going to be a bad week, turned into a successful one. So, not often, but as an ace up the sleeve if I need to.
Quote from: HookedonHooks on May 15, 2021, 10:13:51 AM
Quote from: guesswho on May 15, 2021, 08:33:12 AM
It can be an unfair advantage if you understand the breeding cycle and social structure.
Knowing their situation in whole in your area, I'd say unfair is a very accurate description. When they're coming to a gobble, they usually come running.
Don't comprehend this post. Sound stimulus is fair chase; sight stimulus is not.
I have and will again. All turkey sounds be it hen, Jake or gobbler are fair game in my opinion. As is scratching in the leaves, beating an old wing or my hat against my hand and leg, etc.
Guess I'm just not a purist.
I never tried it until 4 days ago in the hills of Virginia. It was a last resort but it sounded pretty good to him coming from one of Gooserbat's box calls. I had called the bird to within about 75 yards by clucking on a trumpet. Apparently, I had set up in an area with too much junk on the ground for his liking and he wandered back to the other side of the ridge. I moved about 100 yards closer to him and he would still answer the trumpet but he wasn't coming back. I waited for him to gobble and stepped on the end of his gobble with the box call gobble. Did it a few more times at the end of his gobble. He came back but hung up again about 50 yards out. I double gobbled on top of his gobble and he came in. It reminded me of arguing with a hen using her calls back at her. That bird schooled me last Friday but he came back to that gobble call. He picked me off at about 10 yards moving my gun. He was so close I could hear his chest thump when he gobbled but he was just over a roll in the terrain so I couldn't see him until he was on top of me.
Quote from: silvestris on May 17, 2021, 01:34:53 PM
Quote from: HookedonHooks on May 15, 2021, 10:13:51 AM
Quote from: guesswho on May 15, 2021, 08:33:12 AM
It can be an unfair advantage if you understand the breeding cycle and social structure.
Knowing their situation in whole in your area, I'd say unfair is a very accurate description. When they're coming to a gobble, they usually come running.
Don't comprehend this post. Sound stimulus is fair chase; sight stimulus is not.
Is that written in some game regs somewhere, or just personal beliefs?
Quote from: FLGobstopper on May 17, 2021, 04:15:01 PM
Quote from: silvestris on May 17, 2021, 01:34:53 PM
Quote from: HookedonHooks on May 15, 2021, 10:13:51 AM
Quote from: guesswho on May 15, 2021, 08:33:12 AM
It can be an unfair advantage if you understand the breeding cycle and social structure.
Knowing their situation in whole in your area, I'd say unfair is a very accurate description. When they're coming to a gobble, they usually come running.
Don't comprehend this post. Sound stimulus is fair chase; sight stimulus is not.
Is that written in some game regs somewhere, or just personal beliefs?
Good Lord people. I figured I'd be called a purist an elitist or something. I said it can be an unfair advantage at the right time. And it is. Personal opinion! I realize this and take full advantage of it every year. Ive killed one or two every year by gobbling for a long time. A prime example is when one half of a dynamic duo gets killed and the other lives. There's about a 3 to 5 day window that the survivor is very vulnerable to gobbling. So much so that I see it as an unfair advantage, and I take full
advantage of it. I feel bad for killing him that way, but I get over it before he's finished flopping.
Quote from: guesswho on May 17, 2021, 04:39:05 PM
Good Lord people. I figured I'd be called a purist an elitist or something. I said it can be an unfair advantage at the right time. And it is. Personal opinion! I realize this and take full advantage of it every year. Ive killed one or two every year by gobbling for a long time. A prime example is when one half of a dynamic duo gets killed and the other lives. There's about a 3 to 5 day window that the survivor is very vulnerable to gobbling. So much so that I see it as an unfair advantage, and I take full
advantage of it. I feel bad for killing him that way, but I get over it before he's finished flopping.
No kidding, these guys must not have enjoyed enough spring woods time if they're still this wound up. Maybe it's the end of COVID that's got them acting a fool.
Quote from: HookedonHooks on May 17, 2021, 04:48:16 PM
No kidding, these guys must not have enjoyed enough spring woods time if they're still this wound up. Maybe it's the end of COVID that's got them acting a fool.
Ha that's funny! You can tell the seasons over when you got the jakes wanting to hang and impress the older gobblers. :TrainWreck1:
Quote from: FLGobstopper on May 17, 2021, 05:17:04 PM
Ha that's funny! You can tell the seasons over when you got the jakes wanting to hang and impress the older gobblers. :TrainWreck1:
I have to ask just out of curiosity. Would I be considered a Jake wanting to hang with and trying to impress the older gobblers, or an older gobbler that is unimpressed? :D
Quote from: FLGobstopper on May 17, 2021, 05:17:04 PM
Quote from: HookedonHooks on May 17, 2021, 04:48:16 PM
No kidding, these guys must not have enjoyed enough spring woods time if they're still this wound up. Maybe it's the end of COVID that's got them acting a fool.
Ha that's funny! You can tell the seasons over when you got the jakes wanting to hang and impress the older gobblers. :TrainWreck1:
Seasons closing in, but it ain't over yet. Sorry to hear the old gobblers are already done getting after it for the year, more for us "jakes" I guess. We push through the end of May and travel near and far seeking opportunity.
I use it as a last ditch effort to try and get a hung up gobbler to close the distance. Hasn't worked for me yet, but I won't give up on it either.
Quote from: guesswho on May 17, 2021, 05:27:13 PM
Quote from: FLGobstopper on May 17, 2021, 05:17:04 PM
Ha that's funny! You can tell the seasons over when you got the jakes wanting to hang and impress the older gobblers. :TrainWreck1:
I have to ask just out of curiosity. Would I be considered a Jake wanting to hang with and trying to impress the older gobblers, or an older gobbler that is unimpressed? :D
Nah you're more of one of them Ol elusive birds no one can figure out sometimes and then next thing ya know there he is. Actually in all honesty, I typically try and sort through and find some insight in the things you post so I'm glad you kinda explained a little further what you meant by your first post.
I was a little puzzled by the fair chase comment from someone else and wondered if that was something legit or...?
Then I saw a good opportunity to mess with the Jake and get him all riled up and had to jump on that one. :fud: :OGani:
;D I feel like I'm one of those old birds that's been shot multiple times, caught by a Bobcat but escaped, beat up by a gang of jakes and spurred by the boss. But I'm looking forward to next year already.
Quote from: HookedonHooks on May 17, 2021, 05:40:15 PM
Quote from: FLGobstopper on May 17, 2021, 05:17:04 PM
Quote from: HookedonHooks on May 17, 2021, 04:48:16 PM
No kidding, these guys must not have enjoyed enough spring woods time if they're still this wound up. Maybe it's the end of COVID that's got them acting a fool.
Ha that's funny! You can tell the seasons over when you got the jakes wanting to hang and impress the older gobblers. :TrainWreck1:
Seasons closing in, but it ain't over yet. Sorry to hear the old gobblers are already done getting after it for the year, more for us "jakes" I guess. We push through the end of May and travel near and far seeking opportunity.
Bummer, guess the Jakes are awesomer. I just finished up on Saturday and only got to hunt a few states and didn't quite make it until the end of May. And, yes I'm kinda old and tired and been going at it since Feb youth season in S FL. Over 2 months of hunting avg of 4 days a week and has me feeling like a :z-dizzy: If I had more time to go I'd shoot him out from in front of ya tomorrow though. :z-guntootsmiley:
Quote from: FLGobstopper on May 17, 2021, 06:27:00 PM
Quote from: HookedonHooks on May 17, 2021, 05:40:15 PM
Quote from: FLGobstopper on May 17, 2021, 05:17:04 PM
Quote from: HookedonHooks on May 17, 2021, 04:48:16 PM
No kidding, these guys must not have enjoyed enough spring woods time if they're still this wound up. Maybe it's the end of COVID that's got them acting a fool.
Ha that's funny! You can tell the seasons over when you got the jakes wanting to hang and impress the older gobblers. :TrainWreck1:
Seasons closing in, but it ain't over yet. Sorry to hear the old gobblers are already done getting after it for the year, more for us "jakes" I guess. We push through the end of May and travel near and far seeking opportunity.
Bummer, guess the Jakes are awesomer. I just finished up on Saturday and only got to hunt a few states and didn't quite make it until the end of May. And, yes I'm kinda old and tired and been going at it since Feb youth season in S FL. Over 2 months of hunting avg of 4 days a week and has me feeling like a :z-dizzy: If I had more time to go I'd shoot him out from in front of ya tomorrow though. :z-guntootsmiley:
You'd have shot him out in front of me this morning. I whiffed three times. That being said have had a very good season. Been in the field 30+ days and we've killed about 30% of the time.
Gobble, Gobble, Gobble :fud:
Quote from: HookedonHooks on May 17, 2021, 06:31:55 PM
You'd have shot him out in front of me this morning. I whiffed three times. That being said have had a very good season. Been in the field 30+ days and we've killed about 30% of the time.
Good stuff, missed a couple this year myself that were a real kick to the crotch! Had a few others with my 13yr old daughter and a couple new hunters here and there I had the privilege to take where at least 3 or 4 others should of died but didn't. It was a phenomenal season all in all and withdraws suck.
Glad you're having a great season, good luck and finish strong my friend!
I gobble occasionally, worked like a charm twice I can remember on stubborn hung up birds!
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Quote from: guesswho on May 17, 2021, 04:39:05 PM
Good Lord people. I figured I'd be called a purist an elitist or something. I said it can be an unfair advantage at the right time. And it is. Personal opinion! I realize this and take full advantage of it every year. Ive killed one or two every year by gobbling for a long time. A prime example is when one half of a dynamic duo gets killed and the other lives. There's about a 3 to 5 day window that the survivor is very vulnerable to gobbling. So much so that I see it as an unfair advantage, and I take full
advantage of it. I feel bad for killing him that way, but I get over it before he's finished flopping.
Very strong post.
:icon_thumright:
I am still reeling from the shock of the news that Ronnie has been killing turkeys all these years under the influence of PEG's.
Performance Enhancing Gobbles that is.
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I've had enough success that I won't go turkey hunting without a gobbler call. Listen to the gobbler that you are working and if another gobbler in the distance gobbles and the one you're working answers him with some authority he will probably come in if you challenge him. But if you're hen calling to one and you're not having any luck it won't hurt anything to try him with a gobble call. Like others have said I wouldn't be to hip on using it when other hunters are around.
When I first started hunting them in the mid nineties I had one, I saw no good out of it though
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