I was reading another thread and it got me thinking... if turkey's didn't gobble, would I hunt them?? I cut my teeth in SC and now hunt in Texas where I'm very blessed to hunt the very vocal Rio. Part of what I love most is listening to their thunderous and contagious gobbles echo through the live oak lined dry creek beds. As they move about their routines their gobbles build the excitement of the hunt as we play the game.... absent that, I think it wouldn't be nearly as fun. What do you think?
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Yup
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Thankfully they do.. cause I'm just not sure that I would..
I know I have no interest in hunting the Oscellated because of that.
I do that now. No gobbling SOB's.
The fact that you hunted in SC makes you appreciate a bird that free gobbles.
Quote from: dirt road ninja on March 14, 2019, 01:51:19 PM
I do that now. No gobbling SOB's.
I hear you. I do to. I love to hear them gobble as much as anyone. Gets my blood pumping. But when they are silent and I'm able to call them up its an unbelievable Adrenaline rush when I see that red head sneaking through the woods. Never know where he will come from so you can't have your gun already pointed at him. The game ain't over yet. Love it.
Don't believe I would.
Don't blaspheme. :funnyturkey: I probably wouldn't either. I love that music
Yes Sir! Heck, half the toms I shot never made a sound. They just kinda snuck up on me :funnyturkey:
If they didn't gobble, perhaps, if they were still prone to being called in. If they didn't acknowledge a call then you'd be nothing more than a bushwhacker and I probably wouldn't bother.
If they stopped tomorrow I'd still hunt them but it would take some of the excitement out of it. Not sure I ever would have got into it if they didn't.
Just not as much probably
Yes, but probably with not nearly as much passion / additction
No I probably would not.
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No. And I wish they would quit so I could stop
Hunting them
Quote from: bghunter777 on March 14, 2019, 02:31:54 PM
Yes, but probably with not nearly as much passion / additction
My thought as well
Yes, that spit and drum drives me just as crazy as a gobble. Sometimes I prefer they do not gobble so a nosy hen or hunter would stick to what they are up to.
I would, but wouldn't be nearly as excited about it. To be honest if I was serious about maximizing my time/kill ratio I wouldn't go into the woods till 9:00 or so. But I have to hear that morning serenade.
Out of the 3 I shot last year only one gobbled...the other two showed up on their own. It almost felt like I was deer hunting them. I knew turkeys were in the area but they never made a sound. It just wasn't as exciting to me.
I would because in the younger days of my turkey hunting , we were lucky to hear couple gobblers all season , so yes i would ... for years i hunted deer without knowing they made all these sounds until Knight Hale came out with the first grunt call...lol :TooFunny:
If they never gobbled,probably not. Have killed a few I never heard, they just snuck in. Nothing like hearing that gobble!!!!!!!
Quote from: Greg Massey on March 14, 2019, 03:11:08 PM
I would because in the younger days of my turkey hunting , we were lucky to hear couple gobblers all season , so yes i would ... for years i hunted deer without knowing they made all these sounds until Knight Hale came out with the first grunt call...lol :TooFunny:
Man, I can identify with that - being lucky to hear a couple gobbles in a whole season . I climbed Clinch mountain so many mornings in hopes of hearing one. That is one steep long haul before daylight. On top of the physical challenge, if you did hear one it would be a couple ridges down the mountain and it just about took a Billy goat to get around the heads of those hollows to close the distance some. Been too much water under the bridge for me to do that nowadays. I don't believe that even back then I would have hunted Old Tom if I couldn't have heard Him sound off once in a while.
I quit turkey hunting a few years back. Partly because of family/career, partly because I moved to an area where the turkeys just don't gobble much. My club consists of big cutovers, planted pine flats, and places where turkeys can see for a mile. They don't need to gobble... I finally said "screw it" and I'm going to hunt them how they want to be hunted.
Quote from: davisd9 on March 14, 2019, 02:47:30 PM
Yes, that spit and drum drives me just as crazy as a gobble. Sometimes I prefer they do not gobble so a nosy hen or hunter would stick to what they are up to.
Oh, How I would love to be able to hear the spit and drum. Only heard it one time in my entire career, the bird was behind me and at arms length. You fellows hat can hear that we'll are very blessed.
I would still hunt them but it sure wouldnt be as exciting listening to the woods wake up and not hearing anything on roost. It would be like fall hunting, spot and stalk
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I don't think i would. It'd be just about like deer hunting, and if i didn't like eating deer meat so much i wouldn't hunt them either. But, they do gobble so here i am :fud: :OGani:
I think so, but not if the fish were biting....
No. Deer don't gobble either that's why I stopped hunting them. Turkeys don't gobble everyday but there's at least a chance they will.
I definitely wouldn't hunt them as much. I struggle every year between Spring time fishing and turkey hunting. The thing that I do now is hunt in the morning and fish in the afternoons. If they didn't gobble, fishing would definitely be the thing especially if they were biting good.
Thankfully they do gobble which is what gets me excited and gobbling to the gun is always my goal.
Probably not. Can't hear them drumming, so what would be the point??? Something about the gobble that gets me! If you've never hunted a mountain eastern in MO or AR (and probably other states like GA, NC and WV to name a few) then IMO you've not experienced what I am talking about. They just sound different - almost like a MS gobbler with a megaphone!
Quote from: catman529 on March 14, 2019, 03:43:40 PM
I would still hunt them but it sure wouldnt be as exciting listening to the woods wake up and not hearing anything on roost. It would be like fall hunting, spot and stalk
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This
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I definitely would still hunt them. I've shot a'lot of birds that have came in silent and still have a great time. It would take some of the excitement out of it,but not enough to make me stop hunting them.
All I know is that I am glad they do. Love that spit and drum also.
I would, even if they stopped gobbling now. But if they didn't gobble back when I got started, I probably wouldn't have gotten started.
Prob not
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If they stopped gobbling today now that I'm hooked, I would still hunt them. However, when I was a newbie with no experience it was the gobbling that caught me!
I would keep hunting them, but for me it wouldn't be near as exciting.
I've always said that my idea of the perfect turkey hunt is one that....
takes a couple of hours of cat and mouse to play out
requires me to change my location/set up and calls multiple times
ends with a turkey that has a very severe sore throat from gobbling when my gun finally goes boom!
I'm old school and do love to hear them gobble, especially on the roost at daylight. I don't hear it as often but spittin-n-drumin is really something I love to hear as well. I have killed several birds who came in and didn't say a word and if they quit talking all together, I'm so addicted, I would still hunt them and love doing it but to be honest probably not as much as when they were more vocal. I also like to hear a good hen cutting as well!
yes
Probably.......they do taste good.
As long as they spit & drum and don't change the way they taste, I'm still in.
If they stop gobbling, does that mean we could yell at them? Because more than a few have p!$$ed me off.
Jim
I'd just pop them with a rifle and be done with it because they taste so good. But I wouldn't go to all the effort I do if they didn't gobble.
I wouldn't hunt em if they didn't gobble. Thank the Lord they do!
Several of the birds I've killed didn't come in gobbling. Maybe even most of the birds I've killed didn't. I know the first 3 birds I ever killed didn't come in gobbling, but that fourth bird did and it flat tore me up. Nothing like hearing them hammer when they're close. Now that you ask though, it kinda makes me wonder if I would've wanted to start hunting them if they didn't gobble.
No
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No...Since I depend on the peck order to lure in a gobbler, there would be no way that another tom would know that my gobbles were challenging his position.
Add me to the "NO" list.
I would have given it a try but surely wouldn't have stuck with it
The almighty gobble!
Would I hunt them? Let's put it this way, I would take a shot at one if it walked past my stand in archery season, which is something I never do now. But I don't consider that to be hunting turkeys. So no, I would not.
Have to admit, I'm addicted to the gobble. Killing a gobbling bird is always a thrill. Birds that sneak in silent are just plain rude - which is why I shoot them, too! ;D
Knowing how I get now when I don't hear gobbling for days, I'm pretty sure I would just lose interest eventually...
As much as I would miss the Gobbling I would continue to hunt them. Late season birds where I hunt are very quiet, but there's still the spitten n' drummen to listen for. Plus that white baseball head bobbin through the woods and the crimson red wattle sure does set the heart a pounding. When they appear in full strut is pretty cool.I like watching and listening to the hens , welcoming the dawn of a new day, spring peepers, ducks a quacken,etc. it's all part of what makes spring turkey hunting special
Simply put, no. Heck, if they're not talking, I just go home anyway.
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I think I still would but with less passion. It just wouldn't be the same. And it would make them a lot more tougher to hunt. Not hearing them , where do you look for them coming in, a 360 degree area of approach, a lot tougher hunt. But the gobble makes your heart speed up, breathe harder, makes' you hunt turkeys not because you want to but because you have to.' My :z-twocents: worth.
Fellow, turkey hunters, as an old turkey man myself, who has hunted gobblers for over sixty years; with the lack of hearing gone and cannot hear a gobble; much over one hundred yards. I hunted from 1959 to 1965 before I got hearing-aids, without hearing a gobble at any time; during that time frame. However, in those early years, I watched an old gobbler that was strutting back and forth, upon a huge chestnut log, where he was displaying for his lady friends. Watching him displaying, created a passion within me, to want to see and watch other gobblers displaying, which has lasted all my years. Watching a gobbler displaying. does to me, what hearing a gobble does to most others. I have never got enough of watching them through all my years.
There's enough days now to make it frustrating, if they weren't vocal at all it would not be Turkey hunting in my way of thinking. When I started hunting them all I wanted to do was "kill" a Turkey, I learned to find the shorter lush green corner of a field that had the gobbler droppings and just sit on it. Usually around noon a gobbler would show and come strutting up to the decoys, basically deer hunting them. Only took one good cat and mouse game through the ridges with a vocal bird to show me what Turkey hunting was all about. Nope, wouldn't hunt them if they didn't gobble.
yes, but it would definitely take something out of it.... :gobble:
I probably would at first but not for very long though. The ones I've killed that come in silent I feel as if they have cheated me! lol
Probably not
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Any chance to hunt and be in the woods is a gift as far as I'm concerned. Gobbling or No Gobbling makes no difference to me. I'll be out there regardless! :fud:
Seems like I hear less and less each year but I still chase them. That moment when he's just out of range but rattles the ground with a gobble, that's what I'm actually hunting. Everything after that is anticlimactic.
As long as they don't stop strutting too!
I reckon if they didn't gobble, I'd have never started. Likewise, if they stopped tomorrow, I can't think of a compelling reason to continue.
Quote from: guesswho on March 14, 2019, 02:37:22 PM
No. And I wish they would quit so I could stop
Hunting them
:TooFunny: :TooFunny:
Doubtful.......
I live for the gobble!
The biggest bird I ever killed came in double and triple gobbling, and when he hammered down in the hollow before he came in the field, it was the most beautiful music I ever heard!
Love to here that gobble probably not
NOPE
Quote from: chatterbox on March 16, 2019, 05:35:29 AM
Doubtful.......
I live for the gobble!
The biggest bird I ever killed came in double and triple gobbling, and when he hammered down in the hollow before he came in the field, it was the most beautiful music I ever heard!
Ahhhh you inspired my favorite memory...
I remember last day of season in KY a few moons ago...my buddy Brent had been trying to kill "The Brothers," a pair of birds that had eluded him all season. We heard two strong gobbles that last morning down the holler and the echoes after flydown were deafening as I hit the call. Well they got softer and softer as they drifted away...the only time I DO NOT like the sound of a gobble (just kidding, I just hate the heartbreak...).
It was last day with nothing to lose so I cracked that box call and cut like crazy...no gobbles. I hit it again, more passionately and pleading...no gobbles.
I hit it one last time like the desperate hen-man I had become - and still no gobble.
Tick tock and after what seemed like hours, a final pleading call. The explosion of double and triple gobbling in the holler about made my heart stop. In fact it did as my mouth dried and I started shaking. They'd done this before...
To be ready, however, Brent and I got set as the sound of those gobbles continued and suddenly broke into the meadow as the echos diminished to "that sound" when you know they are outta the woods...and still coming.
Two lightbulbs bobbed the last 100 yards as The Brothers ran over each other up the hill to kick decoy's tail, only to hear Brent whisper, "one...two..."
Baboom!!!!
Ten minutes later Brent was on the phone to his bride..."The Brothers are dead!"
To this day every gobble I hear takes me to every moment of that hunt.
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Great story! I imagine many of us have had that experience at one time or another. Without those gobbles, I doubt the excitement,...or the outcome,...would be the same for most of us!
For me the answer is absolutely NO. I'm sure I wouldn't. Even when I hear the oscellated do whatever noise they make cause it's not a gobble I seem to fast fwd or turn off whatever is making that horrendous weak sound. Can't even imagine a bird not roaring a gobble every so often. If I lived by the oscellated birds I'd do something else. If they made no noise I'd feel the same. A bird sneaking in silent is even no fun
Wouldn't hunt them. Some thing about that gobbler coming through the Illinois woods. I keep saying to myself 'where is he, where is he'. Nothing quite like it.
I don't fall hunt because they don't gobble.
I had not thought about it until reading the question. Since I have often referred to turkey hunting as a poor mans substitute for hunting bugling elk I think probably not. As stated so many time previously, the excitement of a gobbling turkey is electric
I would not. Something about that ground rattling gobble that keeps me coming back for more.
No
Probably why I don't hunt them in the fall but am sure would still try
No
Not so much, I like to hear'em Holler!
Likely not. Nothing gets the motor revving like a gobbler!!
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I have a dear friend that served as an Israeli Paratrooper. She used to use the phrase "If my mother had wheels, she'd be a dump truck." It denoted a what-if scenario that was so outside reality as to be absurd.
However, I'll make a stab at this one.
1) If turkeys did not call-- if gobblers didn't gobble-- then I would have probably given up after my first hunting trip. I went out on my first excursion, ripped off a turkey yelp at first light, and immediately got an answering gobble. That hooked me for life. Without that gobble, I'd be sitting on the couch in April.
2) If turkeys did not gobble and hens not yelp, and if the hen call was not easily reproducible, then the modern sport of turkey hunting would have been a non-starter. The whole point of the thing is calling turkeys into calls.
3) If the modern sport of turkey hunting did not exist, then I do not know if turkeys would have ever been brought back from near-extinction.
Turkeys around me rarely gobble after fly-down, they normally sneak in the majority of the time. I usually wait them out in a high traffice area.
Now if our birds gobbled MORE, especially to calls after fly down, I would probably hunt them more.
I don't think I would. The excitement of the gobble is what gets us all out there. Even those that have said they've killed birds that don't gobble at all, they're still out there waiting to hear that gobbling sound off in the distance. Hearing a thunderous gobble at day break really gets the heart pumpin'.
Quote from: Tom Threetoes on March 16, 2019, 09:12:58 PM
I don't fall hunt because they don't gobble.
LOL
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Man,you guys that think a turkey only gobbles in the Spring need to get outside more often. Not only do they gobble, they strut and spit n drum too. I guess it's part of communication. Nothing better than being in the woods in the Fall turkey hunting. A few Fall longbeards. All but my late afternoon Fall hunt in the cornfield were better than Spring. Fighting, strutting and yes gobbling were all part of those hunts. Best part is,it was real turkey calling. Bird to bird. In other words you need to sound like a longbeard, not some hen that yelps three times every 20 to 30 minutes. (https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20190403/c98ca6ab0d1fb3efa9511b6f8dc63027.jpg)(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20190403/fdd72cffcd899e08b285fef18ef7a7c7.jpg)(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20190403/8a71fdbaa92d36c0d98c2a001e29ba06.jpg)(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20190403/71976d5583885ecf98415e6240984689.jpg)
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I don't think i would. The gobbling is what it's all about for me.
Nope. I'd shift my focus back to bass fishing.
Yep, but the gobble sure does help!
I would about trade a good day of gobbling birds with no shot...for a quiet day with a successful harvest
I LOVE the gobbling some day would like to hunt in an area devoid of palmettos and humidity so I could hear more of it
I am super stoked that this season in FLA I've gotten on vocal birds 4 out of 6 days. Opening weekend had wretched weather but I called in some very vocal hens and had drumming going on. Was very excited / satisfied with the results until late morning non-hunting land users unknowingly blew my setup.
Quote from: shemp on April 04, 2019, 10:09:15 AM
I would about trade a good day of gobbling birds with no shot...for a quiet day with a successful harvest
I LOVE the gobbling some day would like to hunt in an area devoid of palmettos and humidity so I could hear more of it
I am super stoked that this season in FLA I've gotten on vocal birds 4 out of 6 days. Opening weekend had wretched weather but I called in some very vocal hens and had drumming going on. Was very excited / satisfied with the results until late morning non-hunting land users unknowingly blew my setup.
Sounds like you need to do a mountain merriam hunt.