Bad Calling - Advantage or Disadvantage

[Ihuntoldschool]

Nah it's not an advantage.
Most are using the visual aids. Have to remember calling is less important when you have visual aids/crutches out there. 

[GobbleNut]

Calling is important.  It is just not as important as some folks think it is...   

[Tom007]

Never under estimate a good homemade blind in a strategic location in trying to call gobblers, let's not forget gobblers don't always gobble. So as the morning progresses and your running all over the place every 30 minutes and spooking birds off that 100 - 2000 ac because you don't have the time for patience, you might say to yourself am i doing this right. Sometimes moving slow and covering less ground could be a big advantage. So is there a right way or wrong way? I just like to have all the options on the table for myself.. 

What amazes me. sometimes you start talking blinds and these newer generation THINK POP-UP blinds... No No... Old school blinds the ones you make out of the surrounding brush, leaves, pine needles and whatever else you want to use. That's a blind.  Sure a Pop UP blind is a lot easier. I've used both and will always have a blind located in what i feel is a great location on the farm / land.  My main purpose for setting up that blind is out of necessity in those foul weather days. These blinds give me options to hunt on these type days.

Now trying to use a POP-UP on public is pretty much useless but it's not to say you can use some natural vegetation and construct you a homemade ground blind and as the morning progress make you way to that area and setup and do some blind calling. It's all about being stealth and using everything to your advantage as the morning becomes mid-day and the majority of the other hunters are at the bed and breakfast bar. Turkey season is only so long, so have patience and pack a lunch.

Left hand / right hand ... I'm AMBIDEXTROUS myself ... LOL             Lots of great information has been shared in these posts. Remember we are also trying to help the newbies to turkey hunting also... IMO

Dead on here with the natural blinds. I probably have a dozen or so natural set-ups. I check them all every year. These are proven gobbler harvesting spots. They are "naturally" well hidden, all have a large tree back-drop, and a flat sitting area (some have flat flagstone type rocks). I'll freshen them up with white pine branches, deadfall branches, with some leaves mixed in. These are real nice spots after I cover some ground, I'll return to one of these to sit the last hour or so till quitting time. They all get action at one time or another....

[deathfoot]

My grandpa once said..turkeys are just like people. Some are really smart. Some are really dumb. I think it depends on the turkeys mood. Like others have said, I've heard some real hens making bad sounding calls. I'm not a diaphragm caller, cause I suck at it. But I have a few friends who suck at it and kill birds as well lol.

I gauge the turkey. If he's hot, I hit him hard up to a point. If he's shy, I play shy and try to get him fired up at some point.

Regardless of call level...I love this game as we all do!

[GobbleNut]

My grandpa once said..turkeys are just like people. Some are really smart. Some are really dumb. I think it depends on the turkeys mood. Like others have said, I've heard some real hens making bad sounding calls. I'm not a diaphragm caller, cause I suck at it. But I have a few friends who suck at it and kill birds as well lol.

Yup.  Anybody who has hunted with many other hunters...especially the casual turkey hunter types and has let them do some calling...has most likely seen turkeys come to calling that sounded terrible (and that is being nice).  As one who has witnessed it many times, I have learned that turkeys are gonna respond to what THEY like,...not necessarily what WE think they are supposed to like. 

Nevertheless, it is a good idea to try to sound at least somewhat like a turkey when calling to them.   

[Greg Massey]

I feel turkeys / turkey responding to someone calling is different in how they do this depending on if there are more than one gobbler. If it's 2 or more gobblers together they are going to respond to hens yelping differently and will be more vocal than say 1 gobbler.  Same with hens talking / yelping 2 or more together are going to respond more than that leery 1 hen.  The more together are very likely to be less cautious and easier to call than that one gobbler who is a loner. IMO


Less or more calling is all about the mood you are receiving back for that gobbler.  In some cases just clucking and purring is all that's needed. But he may need that aggressive cutting and exciting hen yelping, in bringing him to you... I just like the ones that are slow and steady...

[jb1069]

If bad calling brings in a bird does it instantly become good calling? If a bird doesn't come to good calling is it now bad calling?

[Greg Massey]

If bad calling brings in a bird does it instantly become good calling? If a bird doesn't come to good calling is it now bad calling?

It's all about his mood good / bad...  A good cadence is always better in my opinion with what your trying to say ...