What have you guys observed in your own experiences in regards to ideal weather conditions for gobbling? For me, it's this morning in a nutshell. Low to mid 50's, humid, it actually rained overnight but cleared out, barometer is hovering steady around 30. It is dead calm, but if i was hunting today, the damp woods would let me slip around like a ghost. In my experience, all other factors being equal such as timing of breeding season and degree of hunting pressure, i would expect them to be hammering this morning. Unfortunately, I'll never know, I'm stuck at work!
Forgot to add that i keep a hunting log, and that's where these observations come from. Seems they gobble better when the humidity is above 70, the overnight low temp in the 50s, and barometric pressure over 29.5. It also seems that days following the passage of a front are best. I know several old timers that swore that barometric pressure was the key, but I'm more apt to believe its a combination, of course outside the realm of hunting pressure and breeding phase.
It's always muggy in south MS. Clear still days seem to produce the most for me. Not sure if it's the weather or that I can hear better.
I am going to start keeping a log of my hunts also so I can try to remember what's worked and when etc...
The best gobbling days (I mean the real red letter days) are right before a thunderstorm. I remember a couple of days where they would just go absolutely ape sh@t when it would start to thunder....Of course I'm from Tx so in west Tx, maybe they were just so happy to see rain clouds that they couldnt stand it.
IMO here in NC Pennsylvania the best days seem to be those clear, crisp, cool sunny mornings with very little wind.
Here in central Illinois the toms like the cool, crisp mornings with little wind.
I have always heard more gobbling on cool clear mornings. I heard the first 2 gobbles of the year on Sunday Morning right at daylight. It had just stopped raining and had a southeast wind blowing. The bird that gobbled was southeast of where i was standing and he sounded like he was a mile away ! I went check out the area where the gobbles came from around 830 and as soon as I rounded the bend I heard puttt putt. They were right there.
Basically like most of yall have said...
THE PERFECT GOBBLING MORNING in Eastern NC:
Last week of march
50 degrees
wind < 5mph out of the south or west
weak front moved through overnight, quit raining a half hour before light
and plenty of barred owls in the area never hurts!
I feel the biggest hindrances to gobbling are: time of the year, high winds( > 15 mph ), really heavy rain, and hot and muggy weather.
I wish I had been keeping a log over the years but its seems like we hear more in those cool crisp calm mornings. Seems like those humid, muggy morning aren't as good.
Guys, this morning in north central Iowa we had no wind and fog. It didn't affect the gobbling one bit. We were on three different spots that had active birds. Between all of them, over 100 gobbles. I just about rolled over this morning! Never can tell. I would have never thunk it.
Around 50-60 degrees, light fog, and calm! Just this mornings weather and I had 3 birds that probably gobbled 100 times combined. Only bird not to gobble came in with 6 hens, and strutted and spit and drummed at 30 yards making for great video!
45-60