My turkey's don't gobble.

[eddie234]

I've only been at this crazy thing we call turkey hunting for five years, i've been lucky enough to harvest three birds. None of which came in gobbling, drumming or making any noise. I'm not complaining but real life is certainly not like all the video's out there.

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[WV TURKEY THUG]

There are turkeys that won't gobble had 1 come in from behind me yesterday. He didn't gobble once. Somedays they like to gobble other days they don't. Go out before season next year I bet u will hear some gobbling.

[pcgobbler]

I have noticed in areas with lots of predators, the two-legged kind and the four-legged kind, they will not gobble much.  Pine thickets are pretty common in my neck of the woods.  They are often choked with briars and underbrush.  If you are fortunate to get a shock-gobble from a bird in a thicket,  they will sometimes come to the call but don't expect them to gobble all the way to the call.  This makes them highly vulnerable to coyotes and such.

[eddie234]

I do have birds that gobble, it just seems the ones ive taken didnt. Thought it may be nice to see a turkey displaying and gobbling sometime. Lol

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[howl]

Those on the videos are overcalling to unpressured birds to get that kind of footage.

[El Pavo Grande]

A lot of factors affect gobbling and each spring I have experienced consisted of peaks and lulls, mostly centered around the breeding cycle.  As mentioned above, one large factor is the relation to predator numbers.  I doesn't take too many close calls dodging an ambush to lead a turkey to curtail the gobbling.  It's not that they are smart, but rather have an innate ability to survive, which includes adapting to what their environment provides.  In my opinion, one of the largest contributing factors is overall health of the turkeys.  If considering consistency of gobbling during an entire season, severe droughts and poor mast crops from the previous fall play a large role, at least in my neck of the woods.  Not that they won't have their days to gobble, but those will be much more few and far between over a season's length than those springs that follow a robust mast crop and favorable weather from the previous fall.  They simply don't have the energy to exert gobbling as much on a consistent basis.  Also as mentioned above, it seems to be in some turkeys' nature to just not gobble much. 

[ShotGunSniper]

Sounds like my hunting. Only heard one gobble and he was in full strut about 75 yards from me. I actually got him to gobble once with my crappy pan call..lol He was the same one that I ended up killing a week later and he never gobbled the whole time I stalked him and even got my call walkin half way. He was interrested but ended up coming up behind me. Same goes for all the other gobblers in the other flocks I was tryin to work. I could see them but not hear them. I had to look for the ones I stalked because if not then I would never been able to locate them.

[mikejd]

Same here. After birds hit the ground they are finished. Through the years I have seene coyotes come in to my calls while looking up into the trees. It wouldn't take me to long to realize I better shut up.

My friend also has a theory. He feels that through the years we have killed the more talkative birds obviosly because they are the eisier birds to work. Now the less talkative birds have been left to breed so we are breeding quieter birds. To me it os more likely that tje young birds are learning from the quiet birds so if pop stops gobbling thr second he hits the floor it only makes sense that the young are learning from this behavior.

[TRKYHTR]

Just because a turkey doesn't gobble doesn't mean he isn't interested in breeding. A turkey is a turkey and they can't turn that off. Even if they don't gobble they are probably answering your calls. They are just doing it by spitting and drumming. That is the true mating call of the wild turkey. I raise Rio Grande turkeys and can usually get my turkeys to gobble almost any time of the year. Except when they are getting ready to breed or actually on top of a hen. I have never been able to get one to gobble then or have never seen one gobble then. So when the breeding is in high gear you are not going to hear much gobbling at all. But that don't mean they aren't there or that they can't be called in and killed. My .02

TRKYHTR

[stinkpickle]

Exactly.  Overall, I didn't hear much gobbling this year, BUT I saw a ton of strutting.  When they're locked up with those hens, they don't need to gobble much.  Guessing the action level based on what I'm hearing alone would have me believe that the toms aren't interested.  However, actually getting my eyes on 'em and seeing them fanned out all day tells me otherwise.  Of course, they're still a pain the a$$ to hunt.