Bad Calling - Advantage or Disadvantage

[Greg Massey]

If i have one that's gobbling and coming from a distance and i have another one slipping in silent and confirm he's a long beard I will take advantage of the opportunity and take the shot. The bird that was gobbling in the process before i took the shot on the silent bird anything could possibly happen. He could spook or lose interest or other hens could come into the picture and talk him in another direction.  I feel i have accomplished my goal.   That gobbling bird lives for another day .
It takes calling regardless to gain the edge on either one ...IMO

[Tom007]

"A Gobbling Bird is a killable bird"

[Greg Massey]

"A Gobbling Bird is a killable bird"

I agree if he doesn't get spooked in the process of closing the distance.

[Old Swamper]

The guys who believe in patience are some of my favorites.

These are the men I paid the most attention to while coming up thru the ranks. Guys who would consistently call up and kill turkeys when nothing was gobbling. No ambushing, or deer hunting them. Knowing where turkeys were going to be. Being able to sneak into a setup undetected, just outside of their bubble. Having confidence in the setup, realism in their calling, and just enough patience to make him come looking. These type of guys are extremely dangerous, where ever they may go, and no matter what the turkeys are doing. Its been an honor learning from such men. 

[arkrem870]

It's more of a feel for me. I start light and let his mood dictate my calling. You gotta know when to shut up more than anything and when to give just a little more and that'll come with time/experience . I grew up hunting turkeys in the fall when they are vocal and my first kill was a hen. I also deer hunt a lot and turkey sounds in the woods are a constant. So hearing the little quirks and practicing them can give a gobbler a little something different. All that said..... some turkeys have a day where they want to die. And some days they won't budge.  And that's what makes it magic

To heck with YouTubers

[Gooserbat]

You do this long enough you just learn or take up fishing. I really can't explain it. Kinda like being right handed.  You learn and subconsciously adapt.  At some point the hunt becomes as much about the psychology as the physical.  I can go on for hours because I've learned this the hard way, the only mentor was my Dad and he learned from trial and error back in the 80s.  Public land taught me that I had to be better than 90% of the other hunters and the edge was three fold in calling.  Realism in tone and cadence, setup...be where a hen should be..., and learning when to say cluck, yelp, pur, cut, or whatever needs to be said.  Like I already stated cadence is imho more important than tone.  I will back this up by saying after hearing a lot of callers over blow the most raspy mouth calls, I believe a lot of turkeys are killed by guys who think they are using hen yelps but the turkey thought it was Jake yelps. 

[WV Flopper]

 Man, I am struggling to reply to this. Work has derailed me twice in mid stride.

Patience means different things to different people at different times. That's alot, I know.

It depends so much on your huntable population, on your available ground to hunt.

If you have ten acres to hunt with one turkey on it, you should slow down and be easy. If you have a thousand acres with 15 gobblers on it you do not have to show the same patience. Find a receptive turkey.

Now. I am talking two different times of patience in a hunt. Finding a turkey and working a turkey. Not the same!

You have found a receptive turkey. Work the turkey the way he wants to be talked too. If he is responsive to soft yelps do no more. Only advance your calling when step one doesn't work, soft yelps, step one.

When I was young, I would start out with a fly down cackle. Trust me, I haven't used a cackle unless I was in a deep hard core throw down with a hen for the last 20 years and usually it's only because I was so engaged it just rolled off my tongue or out of my pot call because I was so involved. I have killed several turkeys starting out this way when I was young. I have also hung several on the roost, as I refer to it as.

Slowing your calling down, understanding your available habitat and population is part of patience. The best teacher of this for me has been a 260 acre urban property I have to hunt. Some will think 260 acres is big. To me, it's a 10 minute walk and I am on to the next 1K acres. But not this piece, it's surrounded by private that can't be accessed.

If you blow through this property in 10 minutes you'll kill a turkey every couple days. If you slide through there gently youll kill one every day. Or two a day if you have a partner.

There's is more to the word when it comes to hunting turkey. If I have the land available, I will not spend two days on A turkey, I will move. I have learned many years ago to find a receptive turkey. A week or two the turkey that was not receptive may be, check back if possible, but give him time.

These guys that think they killed the impossible turkey...that's their ego. Their all killable, if your their when they are receptive.
But, they will never be receptive to YOU if you have pounded that one turkey all season long!

[WV Flopper]

Sam, did you mean left handed?

I am left handed, I have adapted, I can go either way. LOL.

[Gooserbat]

Sam, did you mean left handed?

I am left handed, I have adapted, I can go either way. LOL.

I have left handed people in my life.  They are definitely different and I proceed with caution.

[Crghss]

A lot of respected turkey hunters I talked to have said cadence is more important then the sound of calling. So who decides what is bad or good calling? The turkey.

In south Florida more Osceola come in silent then not from what I've seen. I'd pass on a lot of birds if I don't shoot ones that come in silent. Especially on public.

On public I hunt (non-quota) there is no patience. If you get a response you'd better close the distance. Someone will get between you and the turkey for sure. And there is no coming back for second chance he'll be pushed around for sure.

I called in a hen once with two Tom's following. I harvested one of the Tom's. Seems a lot of you would have passed on the shot?

[Brillo]

I would rather sound like a turkey than not.  A good caller can always call poorly if they want to. A bad caller cannot call well when they want to. I have not read or heard any example of an excellent caller    consciously deciding to call poorly to bring in a bird. Given the choice, I want you all, and them all, to think I am a real turkey.  If I am going to be ignored, I want to  be ignored for other reasons.

[Tom007]

Great posts here that show different thoughts and styles regarding calling, patience, and when to move on. As many above have said, if a bird gobbles but does not cooperate, they move on. A lot here depends on how much time a person gets to hunt during the season. When I was working, I only took off about 4 days to hunt during the week total each season. I did hunt Weekends when the seasons allowed it. I do sit on a Tom if he gobbles back, like I said in previous posts I have sat for hours to finally close the deal. When I was working, my patience level was indeed different due to my time constraints afield. I would move on faster than I do now that I am retired. I now spend 25-30 days solid each season in as many as 3 states. In my hunting areas, the population of birds in the last five years has definitely decreased. This seems to be a trend occurring all around the country. When there was more birds, I myself would not take hours to sit on a stubborn gobbler. I would move on to a receptive Tom. So now with a shortage of birds and more time in the field, I will be more patient and sit on a gobbling bird knowing my chance with him is better odds than striking a new one by moving on. This is just my style I use now in my areas, I had to adapt to smaller populations. No one likes to Run&Gun more than me, and yes there are many times each year that I'll walk 6-7 miles from daybreak till noon each day when the Tom's get quiet. I will say, I appreciate all the responses here, I am learning a lot of new things to try on my future hunts......

[eggshell]

Gooserbat, I agree on all your points. Pretty good perspective for a young pup, LOL

Tom007, You are right about less birds bring more patience. Way way back in the early 70s you most likely would only hear one maybe two gobbling birds. Once you found an active bird you stayed on him all day and everyday (which was a 3 day season), because there were no options. The year I killed my first there were 48 gobblers killed in the whole state, that's one for every 1 1/2 counties. I think we all have forgotten how good a job our wildlife agencies have actually done restoring this bird.

[Tom007]

Gooserbat, I agree on all your points. Pretty good perspective for a young pup, LOL

Tom007, You are right about less birds bring more patience. Way way back in the early 70s you most likely would only hear one maybe two gobbling birds. Once you found an active bird you stayed on him all day and everyday (which was a 3 day season), because there were no options. The year I killed my first there were 48 gobblers killed in the whole state, that's one for every 1 1/2 counties. I think we all have forgotten how good a job our wildlife agencies have actually done restoring this bird.

Agreed, adaptation moving forward in the sport we all love is and probably will be the most important tactic in everyone's turkey hunting future......

[Cut N Run]

I was on a gobbler that roosted on neighboring property two years ago that had enough hens to keep him occupied and throwing courtesy gobbles often enough to help me figure where he was going.  Sadly, he got on a different property before I could get ahead of him that day.  I went after him a few days later and he hit a couple of the same spots.  He was an old bird that definitely knew the game and was steadfastly waiting on the hen to come to him.  I started at a spot he hung for a while the last time, yet he wouldn't come.  I eased off the calling and went the next area he liked to strut.  You guessed it, he went to where I'd just left and gobbled for the hen for a long time.  We kept on with the chess match until it dawned on me that he'd probably heard so much human calling that I ought to just cluck quietly, scratch leaves, and put the calls up.  Again, he went to where I'd left, but was obviously still interested.  I went up on a hardwood flat across the creek and he wouldn't budge for 50 minutes.  I moved a little closer to the creek and scratched leaves only just to give him sounds from a different spot.  Within 2 minutes he was behind the tree I was sitting against trying to drum up the hen he'd heard.  He had me handcuffed and walked straight off behind me to the next property, where he got shot by a guy in a tent blind with decoys.  I checked my watch and from the time I got the first gobble back until the time he died was 7 hours. It was a great hunt with the worst kind of ending.

My calling was good enough to keep him interested, yet he wouldn't commit until I dialed it down to making few calls and natural sounds.  I'm sure he was leery because he could probably tell human calling from the real deal. Scratching is also a form of calling and may be one of the most effective tools to use in our favor.

about 25 years ago, I had an awful sounding live hen working the same gobbler I was on at a tried and true strut zone.  I was convinced it was a trespasser trying to move in on the same gobbler I was pursuing.   It wasn't until I dropped the hammer on that gobbler and the hen flew up over from behind me that I realized it was not a human.  She sounded bad, but she helped pull him where I was & he already wanted to go.

I considered Shannon's point about a gobbler ever hanging up on a live hen.  Every time I think of interactions with gobblers where "new" hens (one he's not already following) come around, the hens usually go straight to the gobbler.  Most of the hens don't play as hard to get as we hunters do.  I have seen where gobblers stay at a strut zone and wait for the hen to arrive versus go towards them, like we're counting on.

Jim