Using the gobble in the woods ???

[ShootingABN!]

Used it to kill the Boss bird one year on private land. Two days later 5 other birds gobbling their heads off....

[TrackeySauresRex]

Deadly weapon for me on several occasions. I don't use it all the time. It has peaked there curiosity where they'd come in to investigate. 

[cutt down]

I've killed quite a few with a tube. It's also a "when all else fails" or if I see the bird & he's hung up for some time. It can be the most deadly call in my arsenal at times.

[FLGobstopper]

Like anything right time and right place. Best bird I ever killed, a long spurred and thick and long bearded GA public land gobbler came into the gobble after he had flown down and was moving away from me. I had hunted this bird many, many times and he rarely gobbled much and if he did only a few times to a hen call and continually moved away. He was always around but silent a bunch and 2x's I almost bush whacked him and 1 time even missed him.

About mid season I was in his area one evening where I had been hoping to catch him sneaking in silent as he went back to roost. I didn't but he made the mistake of gobbling 1x when he flew up to roost a couple hundred yards away. I closed the distance as it got darker and had him pegged as he hit to an owl call. Next morning slipped in within 80 yds and gave a couple couple real soft clucks and yelps which did nothing. Another bird lit up about 400 yds away and he gobbled after he did. He then pitched down slightly away and I hit him hard with some cuts which he responded to 1x then gobbled again 1 minute later and it was clear he was moving off towards the other gobbling turkey.

So, I gobbled at him and he responded almost instantly. Then I gobbled 3 or 4x's quickly at him and next time he gobbled he was clearly on his way. Couple minutes later I caught his big ol glowing white head half strutting up the little ridge looking. After I shot him I thought he was going to be just a shy 2 year old and to my surprise he was sporting the longest razor sharp spurs I'd ever touched and thickest and longest beard I'd ever seen. Awesome memory the way the whole thing unfolded and he was my 2nd eastern of a double single season slam that year. Only full body turkey mount I have and I'm glad I gobbled at him.

It's worked in other instances as well but not quite like it did that day. Still kind of a last resort kinda thing for me, but again right place right time situation it will bring em.

[TRG3]

Gobbling is my main effort to bag a bird on the small wood lots of private property I hunt. In the past decade, I've usually filled at least two of my three Illinois spring tags. I've had the best success during the 1st and 5th (last) seasons by giving some soft tree yelps and clucks while the tom is gobbling and before fly down. When I'm convinced that he has heard me, I'll shake my Primos gobble tube, giving the impression that there's not only a new hen in the area but an intruder tom, and usually get an immediate response from him. From that point on, when he gobbles, I return the favor and sometimes I will lead off in the gobbling only to have him respond. After fly down, I'll usually only respond to his gobble one time and then shut up because there's a very good chance that he's on his way, usually silently as he sizes up the Funky Chicken decoy I've put out. The usual response is for him to run right in face-to-face with the Funky Chicken and I'll have to wait for him to step back before I can shoot. While calling in a gobbler utilizing hen talk is used during the breeding season, peck order is a year around thing and a gobbler usually doesn't like a stranger challenging him in his own territory. While this technique often works at fly down, I've had success with it at all hours of the morning and as late as 12 noon (The Illinois season closes at 1 pm daily.) My biggest birds (23#+) have come during the last season around 8 a.m. when the boss gobbler has had limited responses from his harem but hears my hen yelps and the gobble of an intruder. Having a gobbler charge in to do battle with your decoy certainly gives one a rush!!

[Yoder409]

So, it seems that gobbling is a last resort for the majority of guys.........   Whether it works or not..........only the turkey can tell you.

[crow]

Using a gobble call is why I favor the full fan strutter hat over just the standard reaping fan,
the helmet leaves both hands free to get a more realistic gobble out of a tube call, 


A couple fall seasons ago I was Jake yelping and a bird gobbled back at me, switched over to a tube call and gobbled back at him every time they gobbled (it ended up being 2 longbeards), didn't let up on them and they came in gobbling and strutting.

It was about as much gobbling as I had heard all of of the previous spring season

[NCL]

I started using a gobble on a box call a few years ago. I do not use the gobble all the time but it does seem to evoke responses when a hen call does not woek

[jhoward11]

I have used on occasion. One area in MO, the birds would not respond at all to calls and thought I would throw a gobble at them, BAM! here he comes. The other guys with me tried and had success to. So what was going to be a bad week, turned into a successful one. So, not often, but as an ace up the sleeve if I need to.

[silvestris]

It can be an unfair advantage if you understand the breeding cycle and social structure. 

Knowing their situation in whole in your area, I'd say unfair is a very accurate description. When they're coming to a gobble, they usually come running.

Don't comprehend this post.  Sound stimulus is fair chase; sight stimulus is not.

[OJR]

I have and will again. All turkey sounds be it hen, Jake or gobbler are fair game in my opinion. As is scratching in the leaves, beating an old wing or my hat against my hand and leg, etc.
Guess I'm just not a purist.

[1ST DRAW]

I never tried it until 4 days ago in the hills of Virginia. It was a last resort but it sounded pretty good to him coming from one of Gooserbat's box calls. I had called the bird to within about 75 yards by clucking on a trumpet. Apparently, I had set up in an area with too much junk on the ground for his liking and he wandered back to the other side of the ridge. I moved about 100 yards closer to him and he would still answer the trumpet but he wasn't coming back. I waited for him to gobble and stepped on the end of his gobble with the box call gobble. Did it a few more times at the end of his gobble. He came back but hung up again about 50 yards out. I double gobbled on top of his gobble and he came in. It reminded me of arguing with a hen using her calls back at her. That bird schooled me last Friday but he came back to that gobble call. He picked me off at about 10 yards moving my gun. He was so close I could hear his chest thump when he gobbled but he was just over a roll in the terrain so I couldn't see him until he was on top of me.

[FLGobstopper]

It can be an unfair advantage if you understand the breeding cycle and social structure. 

Knowing their situation in whole in your area, I'd say unfair is a very accurate description. When they're coming to a gobble, they usually come running.

Don't comprehend this post.  Sound stimulus is fair chase; sight stimulus is not.

Is that written in some game regs somewhere, or just personal beliefs?

[guesswho]

It can be an unfair advantage if you understand the breeding cycle and social structure. 

Knowing their situation in whole in your area, I'd say unfair is a very accurate description. When they're coming to a gobble, they usually come running.

Don't comprehend this post.  Sound stimulus is fair chase; sight stimulus is not.

Is that written in some game regs somewhere, or just personal beliefs?

Good Lord people.  I figured I'd be called a purist an elitist  or something.   I said it can be an unfair advantage at the right time.  And it is.  Personal opinion!   I realize this and take full advantage of it every year.   Ive killed one or two every year by gobbling for a long time.   A prime example is when one half of a dynamic duo gets killed and the other lives.  There's about a 3 to 5 day window that the survivor is very vulnerable to gobbling.  So much so that I see it as an unfair advantage, and I take full
advantage of it.   I feel bad for killing him that way, but I get over it before he's finished flopping.

[HookedonHooks]

Good Lord people.  I figured I'd be called a purist an elitist  or something.   I said it can be an unfair advantage at the right time.  And it is.  Personal opinion!   I realize this and take full advantage of it every year.   Ive killed one or two every year by gobbling for a long time.   A prime example is when one half of a dynamic duo gets killed and the other lives.  There's about a 3 to 5 day window that the survivor is very vulnerable to gobbling.  So much so that I see it as an unfair advantage, and I take full
advantage of it.   I feel bad for killing him that way, but I get over it before he's finished flopping.

No kidding, these guys must not have enjoyed enough spring woods time if they're still this wound up. Maybe it's the end of COVID that's got them acting a fool.