Calling Gobbler's Soft/Aggressive

[Wvdanimal]

Way louder and way more often than I should!  Always been that way and it's always worked for the past 35 years. 

[GobbleNut]

Can't really add much to what has already been said.  I will say that I prefer the gobblers that like to have a loud and lively chat over the ones that don't.  In about any place I have hunted, I will search for those loud-mouths first (generally with some pretty aggressive calling) before resorting to settling for the silent types (with the softer stuff).  Those vocal gobblers tend to be the ones that put on the best show, which is what I am personally really out there chasing them for.  I have found there are usually some of them running around,...it is just a matter of finding them.

[Spurs]

Soft anywhere in the South.  Very aggressive and loud 75% of the time if I'm hunting anywhere up north.  Just seems like hens are way more vocal the further north I've hunted.  I have harvested several birds in OH, PA, WI, and MN.  Birds up there seem to eat it up.

[g8rvet]

I call loud and hard until I wear the striker down to a nub, then I soften it up (like a pencil that has been sharpened too much). 

Oh no, wait, that is the people I always seem to wind up near in the woods.

Varies a lot.  Competing hens usually make me call louder.  Windy days = louder calling.  I was walking and calling one windy day and I struck two with a box call on flat terrain. If I had just stepped into the palmettos I would have killed one of them, but instead I tried to sit and before I could they were looking at me.  I am talking 45 seconds from gobble to facing each other.  Oops.  But they would have never even heard soft calling.   

Sitting and letting the woods quiet down - soft.  Walking and listening - soft, then louder if no answers. Like someone up thread said, it is better to have all the tools in the box.

[WV Flopper]

 I am aggressive, I will cut off a gobbler, "in the right situation." Mostly, I start slow and easy. Depending on the turkey I can get aggressive quickly as long as they are on the ground.
  If I strike a turkey late  I am usually aggressive right off the bat as that is how I struck him.
I will add, in my experience...... Once you go aggressive, you can't go back the other way, Unless you go 100% silent.

[eggshell]

After reading a few replies in this thread and thinking about it. I usually just do what I have developed as a habit over 50+ years. However, I do not think there is a right answer between the choices of soft or aggressive. The more standardized you become in your calling the more it hurts , especially if your hunting the same area repeatedly. Turkeys know members of their own flock and they will learn to associate your pattern of calling with danger....argue that all you want I'll hang my hat on the statement. It comes down to the old saying, "Read The Room". Assess the weather, terrain and activity of the gobblers, and then decide a calling strategy. Just like a good football coach studies an opponent and plays against their weakness, so are we. The true turkey assassins I have known pretty much all were good at adaptive calling and set ups. 

[the Ward]

I'm going with what some of the other members have posted. I try and get a read on the gobbler and situation. If he is with hens, or close by them, i will be much more aggressive with my calling, trying to get lead hen mad enough to come and drag mr. tom over to me. If he is alone i call much more softly and sparingly. Same with weather. I will be soft on rainy or cloudy days, much louder and more aggressive on windy brighter days. Seems to work o.k. for me mostly, but turkeys being turkeys, they've made me a fool more often than not!

[RutnNStrutn]

I'm probably more aggressive than I should be, but as a general rule, I try to mimic what's going on around me. With that said, softer calling seems to work better but when they are fired up, you'd better be getting aggressive.

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[greencop01]

Depends on the bird's temperature, then I go from there. But over the years I get a lot more toms come in to soft feeding calls with scratching than any other calling I try.

[Cottonmouth]

I've been hunting for 35+ years and only get aggressive as a last resort. Many times, soft calling is all it takes. As a Mississippi native, I've learned that aggressive calling can spook a bird. You can get away with aggressive calling on midwest birds that don't get the pressure that our birds get.

[justin.arps]

I base it upon the birds temperature, I always start out soft. Even when trying to locate, A little sweat talk then increasing the volume. I personally think purrs,clucks and scratching with the occasional soft yelp are my ticket to success.Every now and then you catch A hot bird that decided he had his final roost and you can match his energy.

[Gobble!]

Starting easy then letting the bird tell me how they want it. Lol.

[Paulmyr]

I'll preface this with the fact that I'm a woods hunter and usually pretty big woods.

If he's gobbling on his own when I show up, I'm playing it close my vest to start out. Just a little bit to let them know I'm around. I want to get the feel of what's going on. Are there hens around? Other Toms? Hunters? What is his/ their mood like. If it's a group  toms with hens are they vocal? If so, I'm gonna tend to jump right in. If not and hens are present I'll be listening hard for a satellite toms. Gobbles in the periphery, Quiet/half gobbling or maybe a gobbler yelp or 2 in the area. It may be a jake or it may be something more.

If I hear something I'll focus my attention there. They're probably not going be to so gun ho so it's probably going to take a while if at all and probably going to be fairly soft. I'm not going to be pressing anything. I'm hoping the ladies leave while I'm at it. If I have no luck with anything on edge my focus shifts back to him.

Are the hens gone yet? If so, its like 1st contact again. Start out soft trying to pull a response. I'll ratchet up the calling as needed until he answers or loses interest. If he answers it will go from asking him to come over to pleading for him to come and finally demanding that he comes over. If he's still playing coy, I'll play hard to get and go quiet. Before leaving I'll test to see if he's still around. A couple clicks and a hard cutt might pull a gobble from him. Well I'm not leaving without a fight. Some fighting purrs maybe, most likely a big series of aggressive cuts. By this time its getting late and I'm sneaking off to a new area or working my way back to the truck.

Not saying that's how it goes everytime but it's the plan going in. Usually it's, I call to him and gobbles as he's running away. Dang hens where'd they come from.

[shaman]

I am always amazed at how sensitive gobblers can be and how far calls can travel.

Usually, I start off about as low as I can go.   I try not to be first; I try not to be the loudest.  Before flydown, I'm usually just letting them know I'm there. 

After flydown, I usually clam up.  If a bird is interested, he's going to start making his way to me and let me know he's coming.  If nothing shows, I'll throw out calls of varying levels of volume and intensity every 15 minutes or so. It continues like that until I give up and go in.

In the afternoon, it usually gets windy.  I'll go somewhere that can throw a call a good long distance and do so every 15-30 minutes.   It may take a bird all afternoon to work his way towards me.  The places I go are places where I've seen hens doing this themselves. 

Where I hunt, there generally is not another hunter within a quarter-mile.  However, I can usually peg them.  They're way too loud and they call too much, and they're constantly moving.  A real hen usually won't do all three.  A truly frustrated hen will usually go somewhere and lament, usually in a spot where she can be heard.   If you ever get in a position where you're hearing real hens doing this to any large extent, it means there is a dearth of males in the area and you're hunting a dry hole.  I've witnessed one season like this on my farm, and another were there were too many males and not enough hens.

[ncmountainfella]

I take the birds temperature so to speak. If he's hot I pour it on. I generally am more aggressive though, especially on first 2-3 weeks of season and tone it down for the last   bit of the season.


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