While a hen making this call may be familiar to others, it was the first time I'd experienced it in over 25+ years of turkey hunting. The lone hen was only 20 yards away in a picked soybean field and came in around 8 a.m. to my gobble call. She gave very aggressive, loud, and short purrs followed by a yelp of equal effort. She did these at a rapid pace and non-stop for at least 4-5 minutes without a break. Her posture was very erect with her head popping from side to side, probably looking for me, the "gobbler". While she was doing this, from probably 200-300 yards a real gobbler sounded off and quickly closed the distance in very short order to what sounded like 100 yards. At this point, the hen continued her purring/yelp sequence, but reduced the volume. I though she would call him in and I'd fill my tag, but he stood his ground and she slowly worked her way to his position as he would gobble every minute or so. From my position, while I could clearly hear him, I never saw him. I heard him gobble as they moved away. Later, I tried to imitate her calling, but could not produce the intensity on my slate. With my mouth call, I could produce the volume and intensity, but not the consistent strong quality of her calling, especially the purr. It's something that I'm going to be working on with my mouth call. The Illinois season goes out on May 10th, so there's not much time to practice.
Without actually hearing the sound she was making it's hard to say for sure, but it sounds like she was just giving you her version of the old aggravated cluck and purr. I can't say I can ever remember having a hen (or gobbler) give me a combination yelp and purr before, but I suppose it is possible. The cluck and purr is pretty standard stuff in a situation like that, though.
Quote from: GobbleNut on May 06, 2018, 10:18:03 PM
Without actually hearing the sound she was making it's hard to say for sure, but it sounds like she was just giving you her version of the old aggravated cluck and purr. I can't say I can ever remember having a hen (or gobbler) give me a combination yelp and purr before, but I suppose it is possible. The cluck and purr is pretty standard stuff in a situation like that, though.
Sounds maybe like she was cutting with some purrs and clucks thrown in..Hard to say without hearing it...
Ive heard hens kee-kee sometimes in the spring also and a Gobbler will sound off which is neat and a extra call they've taught me to use.