Calls/calling

[Bowguy]

Last night I was talking to someone I mentor as I often do. I realized many new hunters make the same assumptions about calling.
There's no magic to it, calling is simply enticing a bird to look for you. So, , they need to be around. Calling won't make birds just appear.,

Best you know this beforehand n are set nearby. Doesn't matter if you roost em, set up on fields with dekes or run n gun some. They've gotta be around to hear you.

Lots of posts I read talk about someone driving hundreds of miles to a place they havent seen in months, or a very small piece can't be visited til the day before. I understand work/life/family constraints but why wouldn't you want to know if the birds are even present before you invest a day of your life in the woods?
Locate the birds preseason, if they arent on your piece find another. Don't over pressure the birds.

[Happy]

You  are correct. Scouting is huge for success. It is always best to have birds in earshot and to be calling from an area that they want to go anyways. Makes the job way easier. Especially when dealing with henned up Toms. Stay on top of them throughout the season because things shift and change due to pressure and the breeding cycle as well. In my mind calling and woodsmanship go hand in hand and you can never be to good at both.

[silvestris]

I find communicating with turkeys to be mystifyingly magical.  It is the only reason I hunt them.

[GobbleNut]

You are so right, Bowguy.  It is a very rare place where any of us hunts that gobblers do not gobble in the springtime.  Learning to find them from their gobbling, before starting to hunt, is very often the simple key to success. 

The calling devices on the market today are so far advanced from those of just a few decades ago that even a beginning caller can take a turkey call and sound just like a real turkey with just a few minutes of practice.  Not only that, but the internet and YouTube allow anybody to spend a little time listening to real turkeys, and turkey callers, and get a pretty good idea of how to call like a real turkey when hunting. 

While it is true that hunters need to gain experience in the woods to know when to make certain sounds,...and when not to make them,...much of the success that some folks place on superior calling ability is due only to being within earshot of a willing gobbler at the right time.

[TauntoHawk]

Last night I was talking to someone I mentor as I often do. I realized many new hunters make the same assumptions about calling.
There's no magic to it, calling is simply enticing a bird to look for you. So, , they need to be around. Calling won't make birds just appear.,

Best you know this beforehand n are set nearby. Doesn't matter if you roost em, set up on fields with dekes or run n gun some. They've gotta be around to hear you.

Lots of posts I read talk about someone driving hundreds of miles to a place they havent seen in months, or a very small piece can't be visited til the day before. I understand work/life/family constraints but why wouldn't you want to know if the birds are even present before you invest a day of your life in the woods?
Locate the birds preseason, if they arent on your piece find another. Don't over pressure the birds.

You're making me feel bad now... The alarm went off this morning to go scout but it was 24 degrees out and I had been up late last night and just rolled back over and went to bed again...


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[SteelerFan]

You  are correct. Scouting is huge for success. It is always best to have birds in earshot and to be calling from an area that they want to go anyways. Makes the job way easier. Especially when dealing with henned up Toms. Stay on top of them throughout the season because things shift and change due to pressure and the breeding cycle as well. In my mind calling and woodsmanship go hand in hand and you can never be to good at both.

As hunters we often forget Mother Nature's plan for turkeys in the spring... Gobblers gobble & strut to attract hens to them. As hunters we are trying to reverse the process - sometimes successfully, other times not so much!

[Happy]

I guess I will respectfully disagree with some of what you said gobblenut. Yes on the right day a screeching wire on a fence post can call a gobbler in. However that doesn't happen everyday. Now I have seen good callers turn uninterested toms into interested toms and a flock that was previously silent into a vocal carnival. I have occasionally been lucky enough to do it myself. I think what you say on a call is more important that perfect replication but make no mistake a good caller will be more successful than a mediocre one. I have no doubt you have seen and killed more birds than I probably ever will but I will maintain that being both woodswise and skilled at calling is always going to pay off way more than just knowing there are birds in earshot.

[Spitten and drummen]

You are so right, Bowguy.  It is a very rare place where any of us hunts that gobblers do not gobble in the springtime.  Learning to find them from their gobbling, before starting to hunt, is very often the simple key to success. 

The calling devices on the market today are so far advanced from those of just a few decades ago that even a beginning caller can take a turkey call and sound just like a real turkey with just a few minutes of practice.  Not only that, but the internet and YouTube allow anybody to spend a little time listening to real turkeys, and turkey callers, and get a pretty good idea of how to call like a real turkey when hunting. 

While it is true that hunters need to gain experience in the woods to know when to make certain sounds,...and when not to make them,...much of the success that some folks place on superior calling ability is due only to being within earshot of a willing gobbler at the right time.

Well said. Some of us just keep adding call after call to our collection because this one or that one sounds a little better. The truth is you just need to find a willing Gobbler and any half way decent turkey call will work. Now when they get pressured and have heard everything under the sun , that's when a person that has different calls and calls better than average is rewarded

[GobbleNut]

I guess I will respectfully disagree with some of what you said gobblenut. Yes on the right day a screeching wire on a fence post can call a gobbler in. However that doesn't happen everyday. Now I have seen good callers turn uninterested toms into interested toms and a flock that was previously silent into a vocal carnival. I have occasionally been lucky enough to do it myself. I think what you say on a call is more important that perfect replication but make no mistake a good caller will be more successful than a mediocre one. I have no doubt you have seen and killed more birds than I probably ever will but I will maintain that being both woodswise and skilled at calling is always going to pay off way more than just knowing there are birds in earshot.

I totally agree that there are times when calling ability and knowing when and what to say are the keys to success.  In the context of Bowguy's original point, however, I believe many folks think they are not calling in birds due to their calling ability or woods skills when, in fact, they are sitting there calling to an empty woods. 

The bottom line is: Find gobblers first and then go about hunting them.  Assuming that they are out there everywhere and all's you have to do is make the right noise and they will come is a back-asswards strategy for turkey hunting. 

[SteelerFan]

"Assuming that they are out there everywhere and all's you have to do is make the right noise and they will come is a back-asswards strategy for turkey hunting."

Well shoot... there goes my plans for opening day! 

Excellent point GobbleNut

[Happy]

Gotcha. Kinda misinterpreted that gobblenut. My bad.

[Greg Massey]

A day in the woods regardless is better than setting at home or working. Different calls work for vocalization in getting a turkey to respond. That's why you need several different types. You do need to know how each call performs. Locator calls are your first step in finding turkeys or scouting days before season opens. It helps also in know how all your calls work for getting turkeys to respond to your different calls. Time and experience spent in the woods will help you find success in killing turkeys.

[Marc]

Time constraints make it difficult for me to scout.  Turkey properties being a bit of a drive, and having limited time (with two young children at home) can make it difficult.

However, I have found that the wife is a lot happier about my scouting when I take the kids with me...  I spend a bit of time collecting pine cones, and with two cute girls in the back seat, I might stop and ask permission (two cute girls waving at the landowner from the back seat does not hurt).

Last year, I took the kids up for a bit of fishing, and made a day out of scouting for turkeys and finding pine cones.

Waking up at 4 am to take the kids scouting probably will not work out for me (on many levels), but at least I can get out and look for turkey sign.

As far as calling, I find that most of us call too much when we first start hunting.  Can't stand not hearing that bird gobble for 5 or 10 minutes.  And that experience and knowing how and when to call is extremely important...  I still have not figured all that out, but I have gotten a lot better about not over-calling and paying attention to what the birds are responding to...  And, in the morning, I have learned to pay attention to what the hens are saying rather than the gobbling...

Also, when scouting, sometimes the gobblers do not gobble, but you might hear that hen yelp or cut back...  Just cause you do not hear a gobble does not mean there is not a tom out there.  Listening for hens is just as important, if not more important than getting that gobble sometimes (in my humble opinion).