Turkey Drumming..... I can’t hear it

[Tail Feathers]

I've only heard a couple drum.  I usually can't hear it. 

[ChesterCopperpot]

I never hear it. Happens at too low of a register for me to pick up. If the 37 year old me could tell the 15 year old me anything it would be, TURN THAT MUSIC DOWN!!!


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[THattaway]

I can hear them spit further than the drum. When I hear either they are usually close, getting in gun range.

[Rzrbac]

Used to, it's been many years though. I assume it's from hearing loss. Sometimes I can still hear them spit.

[MO_HUNTER]

Was just talking about this the other day. Those that can hear the drum from a hundred yards away are blessed. If I hear it, it's fixing to get real! About 30-35 yds is as far as I can hear it, I believe. It would for sure help out if I could here it from a distance further than 35 yds.

[zsully]

For years I was like so many and couldn't hear it. Then one day with 4 longbeards at 5 yards I heard it. Last year I killed a bird in WV in the fog and for 1/2 an hour that bird sent my nerves through the roof with his drumming. There was no doubt about it and I felt that in my chest. This past spring I bought some chickens and got a pair of turkeys too. One didn't make it but the other one turns out to be a gobbler. After standing directly over him while he spits and drums I can hear it consistently. It has really helped me. I think this spring in the woods I'll be able to hear drumming much easier.

[Hooksfan]

What is even more frustrating than not hearing it, I suppose, is trying to get someone else to hear it who cant.
I started taking my son on youth hunts in Missouri and Kansas from the time I felt comfortable with his shooting.  We had many encounters with Toms, but I never could get him to hear drumming. I would do my best imitation of what it sounded like, but he never heard it.  I completely gave up trying to get him to hear it.  Last year, at 18 years of age, on his second Missouri bird, we had a bird hang up just inside the woods in thick buck brush for about 20 minutes before he popped out in the field at about 12 steps. When he shot the bird, he turned to me and exclaimed that he heard it drumming.  Now that his ears are tuned to it, I guess we will find out if it was a one time occurence.
Another time, I was taking a gentleman in his sixties to try to get his first turkey. We got set up in the dark and ended up waaay too close to a roosted bird. I heard the bird drum and I told him to not move a muscle....that we had a gobbler right on top of us.
A few minutes later a bird gobbled about 100 yards down the tree line and he flung his arm around and started pointing towards the gobbling bird, shaking it violently and saying, in a not quiet voice "Naw...hes down yonder way!!" He couldnt hear him drum, but he got to hear what a gobbler pitching outta tree right over us sounded like. We didnt get either bird that morning.

[Tail Feathers]

Last one I heard was in TN.  I was walking down a hill on a road.  As I approached a curve I heard what sounded like a distant car radio almost  I'd heard drumming described like that.  Peaked around and saw him about 100 yards away.  He was loud.
The only other one I heard was about 15 yards away and was more a dull humming sound.

[ditchdigger]

I can't hear it at all, never have. Like others have said, I hear the spit but that's it. I have always had the theory that it must be a frequency thing that my ears just fail to pick up. My wife has always said I need a hearing aid. Maybe there's more to what she says than I gave her credit for!!...lol

[Jstocks]

I can hear it at amazing distances compared most of the people I hunt with.  Clear calm morning under the right conditions I can pick up on it a couple hundred yards or so away.  That is abig advantage being able to do so.  Pinpointing it is another ballgame.   I can usually narrow it down between 10 and 2.   But have been off by as much as 180 degrees.    Seems like the closer it is the harder for me to pinpoint the direction.  As mentioned earlier, it's almost like I can feel it in my chest.

I too have been blessed with this type of hearing, but have trouble coursing it as well. There have been times where I have kept tabs on a turkey for hours in the Ozarks just by him drumming. There was a time when the wind was blowing so hard in Alabama, that most people would not be in the woods. I told my cousin I heard one drumming. We were in a wide open creek bottom with big mature pine ridges running down to it. He wanted to keep walking and I convinced him to set up and make a call. The turkey gobbles just out of sight and you could barely hear him. I killed that turkey 20 minutes or so later. He still tells that story and that was 20 years ago.

[mcw3734]

I knew of the term 'drummin', but I'll admit I didn't really know what that sound was even though I was getting into, and killing, birds for several years. The spit is easy to pick up, but even on YouTube videos the drumming part was a mystery to me.

Then one morning a couple years ago I got into birds and I heard it. And ever since then, I've heard it a lot more often. I have to believe that I had been hearing it before, but never realized what it was.

Anybody else have that Eureka moment and then heard it regularly from that point on?

[Jstocks]

I knew of the term 'drummin', but I'll admit I didn't really know what that sound was even though I was getting into, and killing, birds for several years. The spit is easy to pick up, but even on YouTube videos the drumming part was a mystery to me.

Then one morning a couple years ago I got into birds and I heard it. And ever since then, I've heard it a lot more often. I have to believe that I had been hearing it before, but never realized what it was.

Anybody else have that Eureka moment and then heard it regularly from that point on?

Eureka moment:
18 years old. Working a bird all morning. Kept hearing this annoying hum. Thought it was some kind of airplane or equipment running. Had no idea what it was. I could feel it and it almost hurt it was so loud. Finally I realized it was the turkey making that noise. We killed him (he was obviously close).

[bbcoach]

I can hear it at pretty good distance, probably 75 yards or so.  With that being said, I had a buddy that I had been mentoring for about 2 years.  We were hunting one morning and I had called in a bird from about 400 yards away.  When he approached, I heard him spitting and drumming.  I ask my partner if he could hear the bird spitting and drumming and he said, "What?."  I said listen.  After he listened intently, he ask, "What is that?"  I told him, THAT is the sound of a Gobbler spitting and drumming.  He had never heard it so he just didn't PICK up on it.  He now knows the sound and pays particular attention for the sound, especially when a bird comes in silent.

[quavers59]

   I do hear the Spit + Drum from a few of the Gobblers,  I feed every morning. 

[btomlin]

I can hear it and can do pretty good job at pinpointing it. I feel very sorry for the folks that can't.  I like it almost as much as a gobble.  Kit-OOHHHMMMMMMM