Sooo...

[sixbird]

I have the definitive answer...I don't know...
I did have an experience last year that convinced me that, at least some of the time, a gobbler recognizes a particular hen.
First thing at flydown, a hen started yelping (or yepping as you southern boys say). His cadence was somewhat fast and the last two notes were rising, always rising.
I started using that cadence...Nothing...I used that cadence and made the last two notes rising...GOBBLE, GOBBLE! They went crazy. They wanted those last two notes to rise. I killed a number of birds on that farm using that technique. So, yeah, I'm convinced they recognized "her" in my calling. She eventually got wise and started pulling the gobblers away as soon as I started mimicking her...
On that farm, and another one, they seemed to love a little copper call I have. Nothing remarkable about the cadence or the note structure. I think they just liked that tone.
I have a longbox (mora over white limba) that they loved on the first farm and a third place.
So make a guess and go with it...
I think they're a lot like us regarding their taste in women. Some guys like trashy girls. Some guys like classy girls. Some like them loud and some like them coy. Hell, some like them to sound like boys!
Did you ever hear a girl talking in the distance or on the phone and that voice just did something for you? I think that same phenomenon gets them going too...Any given gobbler just wants some certain thing at some particular time.
I think we can all pull our collective hair out trying to figure what they want and they'll want something else.
I do think, if you can mimic a hen from that flock, it'll get the gobblers going. I think being brash will get them going and I think being coy will also. As we all know, you just try different stuff and hope something will pique their interest. With experience, you kind of get a feel for what MIGHT work but to actually figure them out...I don't know that that's possible...

[1iagobblergetter]

Davisd9 beat me to it.   Recognition, and or irritation.   You can usually yank a gobble with a high frequency call where others fail.

Keep in mind, just because he responded to your call doesn't necessarily mean he's interested in meeting.

Years ago, last day of the season found me and my buddy standing across a vista where all season a couple birds had periodically gobbled off and on since early spring to many of the 5,000 or so different trucks that pulled off there to call. We were finished so what the heck, let's try those two gobblers. We each ran literally everything in our vests - pots, boxes, mouth calls, and zip. Not a peep.

Then I dug around and found a wing bone call in my truck I hadn't been confident enough to hunt, and tried that - lightning strike - both birds gobbled.

We ran through everything in our vest again, and nothing. I hit that little wing bone after all that racket, and - wham - double gobbles.

It must have been something familiar to them with that wing bone call. Recognition as GuessWho speculates.

Question is did you kill them??

[paboxcall]

Davisd9 beat me to it.   Recognition, and or irritation.   You can usually yank a gobble with a high frequency call where others fail.

Keep in mind, just because he responded to your call doesn't necessarily mean he's interested in meeting.

Years ago, last day of the season found me and my buddy standing across a vista where all season a couple birds had periodically gobbled off and on since early spring to many of the 5,000 or so different trucks that pulled off there to call. We were finished so what the heck, let's try those two gobblers. We each ran literally everything in our vests - pots, boxes, mouth calls, and zip. Not a peep.

Then I dug around and found a wing bone call in my truck I hadn't been confident enough to hunt, and tried that - lightning strike - both birds gobbled.

We ran through everything in our vest again, and nothing. I hit that little wing bone after all that racket, and - wham - double gobbles.

It must have been something familiar to them with that wing bone call. Recognition as GuessWho speculates.

Question is did you kill them??

Nope, last day and the clock on the season expired.

[SinGin]

Why do you think a turkey sometimes responds to one call better than another? I have my opinions but for once I will keep my yap shut for a bit.

Simple answer "because they are turkeys"

[Gooserbat]

The same reason as a dominant hen will march right in to a call.  Either through precieved recognition or the obvious interloper.  Both warent a response.

[1iagobblergetter]

Why do you think a turkey sometimes responds to one call better than another? I have my opinions but for once I will keep my yap shut for a bit.

Simple answer "because they are turkeys"

And that's what has kept me intrigued and after them all these years
When you think you have it all figured out they show you different..

[FLGobstopper]

Lot of people hitting on some things here with cadence and tone. I think sometimes the caller (or at least the way he's hitting the call) and not the call can make all the difference. I have a buddy of mine I got into turkey hunting about 6 years ago and kinda showed him the ropes, scouting, locating birds and and then calling in his first bird for him. After that I told him he's on his own. I mainly like to hunt on my own and now he hunts with his son a good bit, but occasionally we'll both hit some of the same properties. When we do it's usually with our boys and we spread out, them going to one area of the property with birds and me or us going to another.

Several of these hunts have ended up in dead birds for my son and I or at least some good quality birds worked and then him complaining that he can't get a bird to come at all or answer him. Drives him crazy!

I don't really know the answer other than been doing it for a long, long time and guessing it might be a combination of different factors. I think it has mainly to do with cadence, tone and some just dumb luck. But, I do know he carries the exact same calls in his vest as I do because he's gone out and bought every call from every maker I have and always asks me what I used. Kinda reminds me of other experiences I've had fishing before.

I used to do a bunch of tournament fishing and I've had a handful of instances fishing with a partner where he or I would be in the same boat fishing the same water and one of us would be getting bites and putting fish in the well and the other would be scratching their head. It gets even more interesting when we would start throwing the exact same bait on a similar outfit and setup and still only one guys getting the bites.

I remember one of my best tournaments ever I caught our entire limit of fish and culled throwing the exact same bait on almost the exact rod, standing right next to my partner trading off who was on the motor throughout the day. He was ticked... but glad we did really great in the tournament! Of course the situation has been flipped and I've had the exact same thing happen to me though so I know it's not necessarily me and it sucks when you're on the short end. Also, I've seen where just the slightest different size, color and or sound of a bait can also turn a hot school of fish cold real quick. So, I don't know what to say. Sometimes you're just hot and sometimes you're not.

I do have my favorite calls and style of hunting that seems to produce for me consistently and I go there first. I think we can get stuck in a rut though and sometimes the slightest change up might make all the difference. Sometimes I find it, sometimes I don't and sometimes I have to result to different stumbled upon tactics to get one to play.

[Gamblinman]

I think a lot of it has to do with what the gobbler hears day and day out. He will definitely be more comfortable hearing sounds that he recognizes.

Listening to the hens in the area and mimicking their tone, cadence, and quirks has helped me harvest gobblers

[Tail Feathers]

I use the southern belle mating call each spring.

I learned how to sound like a Georgia Peach saying "Oh Lawdy I feel like I'm getting drunk" in turkey. 

The toms come flying in hoping to get lucky!

[zelmo1]

I am going to try what tailfeathers said above, lol. Me and my hunting Partner use the same woodhaven diaphragm call and sound totally different. Some birds talk to me, some to Joe, if they talk to us both, they take a ride in my truck. He likes his box call and I use a pot call, whatever works is right in my book. Just my 2 cents.

[Greg Massey]

Does the terrain play a part in this also ?    woods , fields, valleys and mountains.. the call sounding lower or higher pitch and the call echoing creating different sound waves....?

[Fullfan]

Well I have been hunting them since 1976, and my thought is they are like women. sometimes they like what they hear and sometimes they don't.

[tha bugman]

I know my Boss Hen's voice and when she speaks my ears perk up to listen to what she has to say!

[Tail Feathers]

My thoughts is a particular call sounds like a bird they are familiar with.  Just like people turkeys all sound different.  May not be noticeable to us, but may be to them.

That is pretty much my line of thinking on it too.

[Marc]

I think that there are many factors that play into it...  I have not yet even come close to figuring it out.

I agree with others as far as recognition of a familiar sound...  You sound like that slutty hen that has been givin' it up to all the toms, and you get some responses...

But, I also consider whether the previous year was a good hatch or a poor hatch.  After a good hatch, you are likely to have more available young hens...  I might be apt to start with a more mellow high-pitch call...  On a year following a poor hatch, most of the hens are likely to be older birds, and I might try calling appropriately (i.e. deeper and more raspy)...

I have noticed with waterfowl, that I would rather have a call that was a bit too high-pitch, over a call that is too low-pitch...  I feel somewhat the same with turkeys.  Although sometimes it is that deep raspy call that gets the response.