math breakdown of overcalling

[bowmike]

I have been watching some videos that I had taken on my phone of gobblers I had called in after I harvested my bird. I have found by reviewing the footage, that some of my calling I had done was only to hear the bird gobble. I break this down with math a bit later, to give you a better idea onto how often I was calling. I could tell the bird was coming in a bit and off of the roost but still kept at him. Now maybe this was just because i had filled my tag and was only out to practice my calling and such. I later found that this bird was hung up, strutting back and fourth at the lower end of a large field. If you have the chance to film yourself calling in a bird i would suggest you do so. You may see that even though you think you are calling sparringly you may still be over calling. Now some of these videos I would call and hear the bird gobble, then continue to call to him a few seconds after he would gobble to see if i could get him to gobble again.

I had also found that I have almost a chorus/rythm that I perform, that I am going to try break up. It typically goes from a few yelps in sequence and break it into cutting sharply. If I had a bird that was answering and coming in, nearly every time i ended my cutting he would gobble. I would also end my last yelp a bit louder and sharper to get the tom to gobble. I am thinking these gobbles may have been more of shock gobbles, mainly because looking at how my calling has gotten better my original cuts did not sound a whole lot like an actual turkey. I have found that these fast series of cuts can make the bird gobble most of the time.

THE MATH OF ONE PARTICULAR SESSION:

I had reviewed one outing where i had filmed for a just under 9 minutes of video and had the bird gobble 23 times on camera. I had called a few times between moves and such that also produced gobbles but I just want to break down while I was actually filming. That equates to one gobble for every 23 seconds if you do the math. (9min * 60 = 540 seconds. Divide 540 seconds by 23 gobbles, and you get 1 gobble every 23.5 seconds.

this bird never gobbled on his own and would only answer when i called. You can hear crows close by that he never gobbled to as well. So this tells you that i was pretty much calling every 30 seconds or less. Now i must add that i heard this bird fly out to a field, and later learnd that he was hung up because of a 3-4' deep ditch and some tall grass I had moved a total of 4 times while taking the video, because i heard him fly out to the field. I did notice that i did not call as much when i could tell the bird was just on the other side of the ditch.


In summary I believe I am overcalling only to hear the bird gobble. I think this may increase the time that it takes the bird to get to me, and also give away that birds location. Those are two bad combinations while turkey hunting, the more time you allow the bird to come in, the more likely he will be able to figure out that you are not a real hen.

I feel this was the reason that a guy had snuck in and cut off one of the Toms that I had coming in on a string. I later found out who he was while talking to him. I found out the bird had a 10.5" beard and 1 1/8" spurs. This guy was close to me and could obviously hear me calling and still moved in.

I think that the more you call the more likely the bird is to slow up or hang up. He will still be gobbling to your calls but may be more likely to stay and wait for the hen to come in.

I think this issue will be cured overtime for me and will call less and less as I become more used to the birds answering my calling. Anyone else think they may be over calling?

How can you tell that a bird is in fact hung up because of an obstacle, what do you do when you think that he is hung up?

I will try and upload the entire sequence of video. It is not that exciting because you never actually get to see the bird. My phone had died when snuck up to the ditch and could see him.

[bowmike]

I will add that this was my first real season of turkey hunting so getting a bird to respond to my calling was new to me, and more exciting to me than any other outdoor experience. I think that overcalling can be expected in your rookie years 

[ferocious calls]

Here is how my turkey hunting mentor discribed it.

When you have a girl coming your way shut up and let her come. Same for Toms'.
With that said, I love to hear gobbles and often over call just to make him gobble as many times as possible early in the season. By the end of the season it is often light clucks that break him.

Hung up and hung up at an obstical are different situations which would need to be decided in the situation. Repositioning on a hung up bird can work out well however, shutting up and waiting on him has been the end of many toms'. Gobbler talk will often move his feet when hung up.

Keep at them Mike!

[bowmike]

Being a mechanical designer I am used to breaking things down and analyzing things. I guess there is no way to set up when and how often to call. What works for one Tom might not work for the other. Too many variables to break this down to a science 

[bowmike]

Here are the videos. Again I am by no means a pro caller and do not claim to be. I have gotten a lot better since these videos were made, but still have a long way to go. Just wanted to put them up to go with the post. You will not see the bird in these videos, and will only hear my bad calling and the bird answering. Youtube makes it a bit tougher to hear him compared to the original videos.

Thanks for the insights as well. I think there is no way to break anything with turkey hunting down to a science. Each bird is different. In the last video i had just set up to about 25-35 yards from the field edge. He pretty much tripple gobbled there in the videos start. I am thinking he knew that I ,the hen, was coming in to him. I doubt he ever would have came in to that high grass area, and the fact that the hen was coming to him.

Had I had a tag and been in season. I think it would have been really tough to get set up on this guy. I will be trying my best to make him my first bird for next year, if he makes it through winter. I am hoping and praying he does. He will be at least a 3 year old

http://youtu.be/REzEipNrks8

http://youtu.be/zSdy6eHgakI

http://youtu.be/LqWFkmQMuYU

http://youtu.be/3WcsqGLHtIQ

[Tail Feathers]

I'll call as much as the tom will allow me to.  It's a part of turkey hunting that I really enjoy.
Sometimes maybe too much...
I LOVE the gobble and don't apologize for yanking a few out of a bird.
If you were tagged out...no harm no foul.  Just enjoy it!

[longspur]

Your doing well. It took me many years to learn to shut up. Even though my first bird was a very well known highly pressured bird that came in after 3 1/2 hours of silence. I had given up on him and was just waiting to see if I could hear him fly up. He walked up in my lap but I didn't make the connection with the silence.

[guesswho]

Over calling is a problem I've never had, even when I first started.  If anything I may be a little conservative when it comes to calling.  I call as little as needed. 

A gobble is nice to hear, but a gobble is not in your favor like a lot of hunters think.  I can get turkey's to hammer, but I know it's not to my advantage to do so when my goal is to kill him.  It sounds like your putting some thought into this and your learning curve will probably be a lot less than the majority of hunters just starting out.

Your right, there's no standard set-up and calling sequence thats more productive than others.  One thing that helped me with set-ups is to try to visualize what the gobbler see's from his anticipated approach, not what you see from your location.   A thick brush pile or blow down close to you may look like a negative from your perspective because you can't see through or around it.  So you move past it so you can see another hundred yards or so where you think the gobbler will come from.  But by doing that you just gave the gobbler all that distance he can now see from a hundred yards away.  If he can't see that hen from there he's probably going to strut a short time, maybe gobble then look and then move on.   From an approaching gobbler that brush pile is something that may be blocking him from being seen by the hen thats calling from the other side of it, so he may want to clear it before hanging up and strutting, hopefully putting him in gun range.  Also always remember that shade is on your side, direct sun light favors the turkey bird.

[barry]

A gobble is nice to hear, but a gobble is not in your favor like a lot of hunters think.  I can get turkey's to hammer, but I know it's not to my advantage to do so when my goal is to kill him. 

I love to hear a bird gobble as much as anyone but most often a gobbling bird is also a stationary bird and by gobbling he's letting you know where he is and will wait on "the hen" to com to him. It's when he goes silent that he starts looking for you.
Time spent hunting turkeys will make you a better turkey hunter.
Don't try to make it any harder than it already is. I've been doing this for 30 some years and I'm still learning!
Just my 2 cents...whatever that's worth!

[savduck]

I find myself calling less and less as a rule, but still some birds need hammering to get them on the move. I cant sit all day and wait em out.

[mudhen]

12 states.

Not quite 200 birds yet.

I don't think any 2 birds have been the same.

I agree with what someone has said above, I call as much as the bird will let me...

Of course, yrmv....

mudhen

[GobbleNut]

You can definitely call too much.
You can definitely call too little.
You can definitely not kill birds by doing one of those when you should have done the other!

[drenalinld]

I like to call, I like to make em gobble, if I have time I am decent at getting them in the mood to come to calling but if I really want to kill a bird I call very little.

[TRKYHTR]

I call as much as I need to to kill the turkey I'm hunting. Sometimes thats a lot, sometimes that a little and sometimes thats not calling at all.

TRKYHTR

[WildTigerTrout]

Hunting and calling wild turkeys is an ART not a SCIENCE. Just my opinion. I learned a long while ago to let the bird determine how much or how little calling is required to get him into range. I do know that most of the birds I have heard gobbling on their own after 9am have taken a dirt nap! LOL including this past spring's big,ol paintbrush bearded 21 pounder in my avatar. He took a dirt nap at 1045am. Never did get to meet his girlfriend either!