Public land calling help

[appalachianstruttstopper]

I hunt alot of public land birds in VA. A tactic that has worked well for me is to work birds from an unlikely direction. Most hunters around here are lazy and take the same path that every other unsuccessful hunter has on a bird. The tom hears owl hoot from the road, 25 min later yelping from the easiest place to set up. If I know where public land turkeys are, then I'm going to be on the opposite side from the typical hunter. I also use a wing bone yelper alot on public and private land.

[cahaba]

Do some leaf scratching and tone down your calling both in sound and sequence.

[BigGobbler]

Soft soft soft and very little and sit when you hear one gobble run to him and let know your there one more time and sit and wait and be quiet you do not want to make him gobble anymore or you will have someone else hear him and come in on you. That's the #1 problem on public land. I swear People get death and dumb when they hear one gobble. The newbs!!!!! Oh the newbs.. LoL good luck

[ridgerunner]

Sounds to me like you already got it figured out. You said you've had success. There is no magic recipe no matter what anyone tell you about great calling or great calls. We all want to thing we are great callers. Calling is a very small part of the puzzle...and I'd say woodsmanship, patience and scouting play a much bigger part than any calls. A simple yelp or cluck will seal the deal if everything else is good. Scouting your hunting ground is the most important thing you can do...If I had 5 days to hunt the first 3 days would be scouting..if you know where the birds roost and where they go after flydown...that's half the battle...setup then become the next factor. I hunt Public Lands mostly and have been very successful calling very little...scouting and setup pays bigtime.

  Most hens I hear in the woods wouldn't win no NWTF calling contest.

[BowBendr]

Calling is a very small part of the puzzle...and I'd say woodsmanship, patience and scouting play a much bigger part than any calls.

  Most hens I hear in the woods wouldn't win no NWTF calling contest.

I disagree a little......
I think calling is a huge part of the equation. Correct calling that is....
While I do think that scouting will better your odds of success better than anything, I don't leave the calls in the truck.
If woodsmanship and patience played such a major role in hunter success there would be no need for a turkey call. Just wait 'em out, you did your scouting, correct ?

I think the point that most guys were trying to make here was that when it comes to actual turkey calling, about 99% of most hunters sound like a broken chicken. They don't have proper cadence and there's no inflection or feeling in their calling. It's the same 'ol mono-tone 6 plain yelps over, and over, and over......
Turkeys are constantly making soft subtle sounds that most guys don't even recognize. When they want to get with other turkeys, they have emotion in their calling.

I believe most guys would be staggered by how much better they could do if proper calling was done in conjunction with scouting knowledge, woodsmanship and patience. I work very hard on my calling and I pay ultra, ultra close attention to the sounds I hear actual birds make in the woods. I let the birds educate me in their language and I replicate exactly what I hear.....and some of that isn't even a vocalization....turkeys make lots of "sounds".......

If you don't think that calling plays a major part in turkey hunting, just leave the calls at home and see how good you do, public or private. Calling plays a huge role in it....IF.....you sound like a real turkey.

[ridgerunner]

Calling is a very small part of the puzzle...and I'd say woodsmanship, patience and scouting play a much bigger part than any calls.

  Most hens I hear in the woods wouldn't win no NWTF calling contest.

I disagree a little......
I think calling is a huge part of the equation. Correct calling that is....
While I do think that scouting will better your odds of success better than anything, I don't leave the calls in the truck.
If woodsmanship and patience played such a major role in hunter success there would be no need for a turkey call. Just wait 'em out, you did your scouting, correct ?

I think the point that most guys were trying to make here was that when it comes to actual turkey calling, about 99% of most hunters sound like a broken chicken. They don't have proper cadence and there's no inflection or feeling in their calling. It's the same 'ol mono-tone 6 plain yelps over, and over, and over......
Turkeys are constantly making soft subtle sounds that most guys don't even recognize. When they want to get with other turkeys, they have emotion in their calling.

I believe most guys would be staggered by how much better they could do if proper calling was done in conjunction with scouting knowledge, woodsmanship and patience. I work very hard on my calling and I pay ultra, ultra close attention to the sounds I hear actual birds make in the woods. I let the birds educate me in their language and I replicate exactly what I hear.....and some of that isn't even a vocalization....turkeys make lots of "sounds".......

If you don't think that calling plays a major part in turkey hunting, just leave the calls at home and see how good you do, public or private. Calling plays a huge role in it....IF.....you sound like a real turkey.

I agree with ya on the language part of calling....but I rarely hear hens calling in the woods like many hunters will do, using that repeated series of yelps .... calling is a part of the game obviously.. I agree with ya there.. but not as big a part as many novice hunters think..that's my point.. spend more time scouting, learning the lay of the land and practice patience will pay bigger dividends IMO.
By the way..(not to be a smart arse), but I have killed more than one gobbler without ever using a call by just scratching the leaves like a feeding hen, wing beats etc., as you said, turkeys make lots of sounds.. many times, in my experience, very little calling is needed , or in many cases no calling.. Every situation is unique so I won't make a blanket statement that it isn't necessary to use a call, but try calling a lot less.

Once I stopped and listened to the turkey and left my calls in my vest, I learned what the turkeys do naturally without my interference....That's when I started learning..try it sometime..leave the calls in the truck and go kill a bird.. I've done it more than once hunting public lands...scouting pays off...find where the toms roost on a ridge, setup on the end of a ridge in the direction you've seen them go by scouting in advance, place one hen decoy out...wait till he flies down and heads your way,  reach down and scratch some leaves then get ready...that's one way.

[BowBendr]

^^ I agree ^^   

[chatterbox]

A couple years ago, I was hunting a snowmobile trail. The only action I had was one little hen that was hanging around.
I learned a lot by sitting there and watching her behavior. She would purr contentedly around my decoy, and scratch in the leaves and purr. Not once did she yelp her head off. She was just content to be in the company of my decoy.
Eventually, she wandered off. I learned that yelping is a call that I use the least, but purring and scratching  in the leaves along with a cluck or two, is very effective.
With calling, less is more than enough.

[bamagtrdude]

Here's video evidence of a hen yelping her head off, during spring turkey season: http://youtu.be/eGkuGbYfjts

I respectfully but totally disagree with the hunt philosophy of calling less; I'm more of a Billy Yargus/Will Primos "Hottest Hen In The Woods" hunter.  I'm not telling anyone on this board to hunt that way; I'm just saying, that's how I choose to hunt.

This past Saturday was a perfect example of why I prefer to hunt w/a more aggressive calling style.  Nothing was happening in the woods; we knew there were birds in the area, but -- none of them were gobbling.  Around 8am, I "showered down" & we heard 5 birds gobble.  Unfortunately, we also heard a boss hen lose her mind, & do exactly like this hen in the video above.  Due to BAD SETUP technique (not calling), we weren't able to seal the deal.  But, I'm 100% confident that if we hadn't called like crazy, nothing would have happened.

For public land, I totally see merit in the argument of getting a bird to sound off, but then moving in tight & bagging him with little to no calling; I've hunted my fair share of public land, & if there's a lot of hunt pressure, this is probably the tactic I'd take now.  Fortunately, I hunt private land now.

[guesswho]

I'm more of a just enough to kill him type, which most of the time isn't a whole lot of calling.   I'm a firm believer that hammering on the calls will kill birds, but less will kill more in the long run.

[bamagtrdude]

I'm more of a just enough to kill him type, which most of the time isn't a whole lot of calling.   I'm a firm believer that hammering on the calls will kill birds, but less will kill more in the long run.

Guesswho, you're probably right.  And, that's what is so cool about turkey hunting; different styles/techniques can still bag birds.  Again, Billy Yargis & Will Primos endorse this style of calling/hunting, & I subscribe to their model; as far as I can tell, they've both killed a truck trailer load of birds.  See this: http://www.mossyoak.com/our-obsession/blogs/turkey/2013/04/12/will-primos-calls-a-lot-and-calls-loud-to-turkeys

I've tried the little/no calling stuff -- and, to amend my statement, that's typically how I always start every hunt in the mornings - minimal, light calling.  But, if nothing's happened by around 8am, I'm letting it rip with a box call (or other call) w/loud, aggressive calling; my experience has shown me that this a) doesn't bother anything and b) 9/10 gets one to sound off at least once so I can then setup on him & hopefully knock him in the dirt.

Again, I'm just sharing what works for me (around my neck of the woods & my private land).  I've had this work for me on public land, too.  And, it would've worked this past Saturday when I had 5 toms gobbling, had my hunting buddy not done what he done.    But, that's another story...

[turkey_slayer]

I'm more of a just enough to kill him type, which most of the time isn't a whole lot of calling.   I'm a firm believer that hammering on the calls will kill birds, but less will kill more in the long run.

Nailed it

[bamagtrdude]

A friend of mine that only hunts public land and calls loud & often bagged this bird this morning; said he came in w/out gobbling to his setup.

[L.F. Cox]

Here's video evidence of a hen yelping her head off, during spring turkey season: http://youtu.be/eGkuGbYfjts

Video evidence of a hen coming to bust yer arse...

[L.F. Cox]

Guesswho just gave you the keys to the kingdom.

The thing about turkey calls is that each call type has a rather specific sound. If you pick up 10 box calls they may all sound slightly different, but they will still all sound like box calls. The best (and for that matter the worst) sounding box calls on the planet still have a box call sound. Same goes for every other call type.

There probably isn't a two year old gobbler out there that isn't already very familiar with diaphragm, pot, and box call sounds. The "secret" to suction yelpers, and to some extent tube calls, is that you are dealing with an entirely different type of sound that most turkeys have never heard before.

Turkeys come to turkey calls because they sound like a turkey....in the spring turkeys may come to investigate weird sounds but you'll never convince me they have a clue as to if you are playing a box call a diaphragm, trumpet or pot call.