Some more musings

[silvestris]

I must be missing something on the location thing.

You need to be where a turkey will feel comfortable in coming.  While hunting the same property as Kenny Morgan in the 70-80s, there was one particular ridge road that gobblers just would not walk up on to.  We would frequently call up hens, but the gobblers would absolutely refuse to come up on to that road.  Kenny and I frequently mused about the reason why and we never came up with a reason that satisfied our questions.  All I know for sure is that that road was not the location one wanted to sitting be if killing was the objective.  We could kill them in the bottom on the east side of the road but not on the west side and the flora was identical.  I still ponder that question.  And insofar as calling was concerned, if Kenny Morgan couldn't call them there, it just wasn't gonna happen.

[mtns2hunt]

I must be missing something on the location thing.

You need to be where a turkey will feel comfortable in coming.  While hunting the same property as Kenny Morgan in the 70-80s, there was one particular ridge road that gobblers just would not walk up on to.  We would frequently call up hens, but the gobblers would absolutely refuse to come up on to that road.  Kenny and I frequently mused about the reason why and we never came up with a reason that satisfied our questions.  All I know for sure is that that road was not the location one wanted to sitting be if killing was the objective.  We could kill them in the bottom on the east side of the road but not on the west side and the flora was identical.  I still ponder that question.  And insofar as calling was concerned, if Kenny Morgan couldn't call them there, it just wasn't gonna happen.

I see what you are saying. There are areas more prone to attracting Turkeys then others and areas Turkeys tend to avoid. I do have areas that are better than others and sometimes fall back on them if the hunting is slow. But the way I look at a property is: hey I have never killed a Turkey in this field and I will then work extra hard to do so. I normally succeed. In the mountains it is a different story and I focus more on just finding Turkeys and have certain areas to focus on. Guess I am too fortunate hunting farm Turkeys as they are everywhere where I hunt.

[Greg Massey]

I must be missing something on the location thing.

You need to be where a turkey will feel comfortable in coming.  While hunting the same property as Kenny Morgan in the 70-80s, there was one particular ridge road that gobblers just would not walk up on to.  We would frequently call up hens, but the gobblers would absolutely refuse to come up on to that road.  Kenny and I frequently mused about the reason why and we never came up with a reason that satisfied our questions.  All I know for sure is that that road was not the location one wanted to sitting be if killing was the objective.  We could kill them in the bottom on the east side of the road but not on the west side and the flora was identical.  I still ponder that question.  And insofar as calling was concerned, if Kenny Morgan couldn't call them there, it just wasn't gonna happen.

I see what you are saying. There are areas more prone to attracting Turkeys then others and areas Turkeys tend to avoid. I do have areas that are better than others and sometimes fall back on them if the hunting is slow. But the way I look at a property is: hey I have never killed a Turkey in this field and I will then work extra hard to do so. I normally succeed. In the mountains it is a different story and I focus more on just finding Turkeys and have certain areas to focus on. Guess I am too fortunate hunting farm Turkeys as they are everywhere where I hunt.

I hunt nothing but fields , i don't hunt in the woods at all, way too many deer for running around in the woods...

[hotspur]

Confidence in a particular call goes a long way

[Old Gobbler]

All that gobbler knows , is if you sound just like a another turkey ...or you don't ....

With that said I do my very best to sound as authentic as possible , if I can do it with just one call that's good , if it takes me 10 calls to do it , then that's what I'll do

[davisd9]

It definately won't hurt.   But I think most hunters would benefit more from learning what makes for a killing spot (set-up) versus a this looks good spot.   I'd choose a killing spot and one call I play pretty well over a good looking spot and ten calls I can play well.

Agreed!  I cut back on the calls I carry every year, but I do like having a variety of calls that sound differently.  May just be a couple trumpets by different makers with different pitch or raspiness, but I have tried a call that was a winner in the spot the day before and get nothing, then switch to something a little different and have one hammer, sometimes it is just a striker change.  Give me one good trumpet, one good pots with a couple strikers, and a good box and I have all the confidence in the world.

[GobbleNut]

Good subject and good commentary.

Given the choices of turkey calls, and their quality, available today, there is no reason that any hunter should not be able to own a number of different types of calls that they can play well with any reasonable level of practice.  Having a variety of different sounding calls which you can make a variety of different sounding and somewhat realistic "turkey noises" with will never be a bad thing for a hunter. 

There are turkeys out there in the woods that, for whatever reason, respond better to certain sounding calls than they do others.  The more variation a guy can have in the sounds he can produce with a single, or many, calls then the more likely he will be able to "hit" on the sound that any particular gobbler might want to hear. 

Of course, the other variables in the hunt that have been mentioned,...positioning, set-up, etc.,...can often influence your success to a greater degree than the sound of your calls, but having the ability to effectively make a variety of different sounds on different calls will never be a disadvantage.  Now, if someone sounds like a choking goose with one of his calls, then he should have enough sense to either work harder at learning to use it, or leave it at home.  Again, however, there are just way too many good turkey calls (and resources available for learning how to sound like a turkey) on the market today for anyone to be in that position.