Apparently cluck and purr is not a hunting call?

[Farmboy27]

That video may be as big a bunch of crap as I have ever seen.  Contented hen turkeys cluck and purr almost constantly when in the presence of other hens and the gobbler recognizes that everything is alright over there.  The "contest" cluck and purr is designed to attract the judge and rarely mimics the sound of a hen in the wild, especially in volume and frequently in delivery.  I have no reservations in clucking and purring often, but the human will not hear my cluck and purr farther than 25 yards, while the gobbler will hear it at 200 yards and know he is likely to be safe if he responds.  Most purring I hear on a slate caller sounds like a cricket and I don't know what most purring I hear from a mouth caller sounds like, but it is seldom that of a contented hen.

Wow!  If they can hear your purrs at 200 that a man can't at 25, then they must be able to hear my cackles and cutting at a few miles!  Oh wait, I forgot that they are super birds!  I'm waiting for the new kryptonite loads to come out. Just get out there and hunt guys!  They can't reason. They don't care that the purring is to loud, the yelp to often, the tree call is from the ground, the hen hasn't moved in an hour. They are birds. Don't overthink things. You'll just beat yourselves.

[hotspur]

The cluck and purr is the name for a sound turkeys make when alarmed or aggregated. I have seen it labeled such by Lovett Williams, and has been adopted  by calling contests  as a legitimate call for contestants to imitate. Over the years it has become a call you hear listed with  others such as assembly yelps and I assume people just think of giving a few clucks and a couple of purrs means  cluck and purr. Get lovetts cd

[Bowguy]

Lovvets CDs are great, in em he shows aggressive type calls n content explaining even a hard putt which should be an alarm sound if inserted into the proper context won't be seen as anything but a cluck. Gonna be all in the way calls are presented.

[EZ]

I couldn't disagree with the guy in the video more. Funny thing is he even states it's all about context and then believes there's only one context for the cluck and purr. As was stated, the turkey's mood dictates the degree to which she delivers a call, whether it be yelps, clucks or cluck and purrs.

Sure there's aggressive purrs and curiosity purrs and they can have a place in your hunting arsenal, but the killer call for me is the contentment (feeding) purrs. I can't even guess how many birds I've pulled in that last 20 yards with soft contentment purrs and for sure this spring, every single bird I killed or saw killed, was brought to the gun with soft purrs. They wanted nothing else.

[GobbleNut]

Boy, anybody reading this thread that does not know much about this topic would be totally confused at this point!  I guess we all look at things through a lens of our own personal experiences relating to our turkey interactions.

Some of us say the video has merit,...and some say it is hogwash.  Both points of view have some validity.  The fact is that the spectrum of turkey vocabulary that encompasses the "cluck" and "purr" and the combinations of both is not a black and white topic.  Furthermore, anybody that would attempt to clarify their many and varied meanings and uses in a video that is less than two minutes long is just asking for trouble.

Suffice it to say that the cluck and purr are sounds that turkeys make in a variety of situations, and which have a variety of meanings to other turkeys when communicated back and forth.  A hunter can use the cluck and purr to call turkeys in,...and just as assuredly, that same hunter can use a variation of that same call in the wrong situation and send the turkeys they are trying to call scurrying off towards the next time zone. 

There are lots of shades between black and white when speaking about the cluck and purr....

[hotspur]

I personally don't think it will hurt anything when calling to a turkey using these sounds, I read a thread on another turkey forum in which someone was calling a sound gobblers make akee yelp, saying it is a greeting call. I have a friend who has 20 turkeys penned and when I hear this sound the gobblers arestruting pushing  and shoving  each other or when they see another gobbler and start displaying  and approaching,I would say it isn't a friendly greeting but I don't think it would stop many toms from approaching on your calling.  2 cents

[EZ]

Some of us say the video has merit,...and some say it is hogwash.  Both points of view have some validity. 

Suffice it to say that the cluck and purr are sounds that turkeys make in a variety of situations, and which have a variety of meanings to other turkeys when communicated back and forth.  A hunter can use the cluck and purr to call turkeys in,...and just as assuredly, that same hunter can use a variation of that same call in the wrong situation and send the turkeys they are trying to call scurrying off towards the next time zone. 

It's hogwash. He states that it's not fit for the turkey woods. He specifically says, and even demonstrates (actually pretty well) what kind of purr and cluck he's talking about. That's a feeding (contentment) purr and is used to calm a gobbler that comes in and gets "concerned" that he doesn't see a hen where he thought she should be, or one that hangs up just out of range.

The call is so effective that I call it my "Turkey Dinner" call. And, I've never, ever seen a purr and cluck spook a turkey, lol.

Don't know where that guy hunts, but if he ever comes here to Pa. to hunt our hard hunted birds, he better know how to soft call.

Here's some Youtube clips that state it best:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LhPNBcHSVI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ra7mS6ezrQQ

[GobbleNut]

I will reiterate that our opinions are often based on our own experiences.  Here are my thoughts,...take them or leave them,...on hunting my haunts in the southwest.  I don't know how they fit in with the video in question, and they are not meant to be critical of others thoughts on the subject.  They "is what they is".

I can confidently state that anyone that hunts Merriams turkeys in the mountain ranges of southern NM who thinks they are going to very often call in gobblers by sitting somewhere and softly clucking and purring is most likely going to sit and watch the grass grow and the seasons change a long time before a gobbler shows up.  It may happen on the rare occasion, and maybe even, by some sheer stroke of miraculous good fortune, the very first time you try it,....but that strategy is way, way down the list of "smart things to do when hunting Merriams gobblers in New Mexico". 

And just as confidently, I will state that anybody that hunts here will regularly have turkeys come to their calling that will almost assuredly go into an aggravated cluck and purr routine if they get to where they think the hen they hear should be,...and there is no hen there.   (Now, admittedly, that scenario might not occur as often if a hunter uses decoys so that the hen/gobbler that's approaching has a visual confirmation.  I couldn't speak to that because I don't use decoys in my hunting,...just a personal choice,...no statement of disdain for them intended).

Per my earlier post on the subject,...there are indeed times when the cluck and purr is a useful,...and sometimes quite important call to use when turkey hunting.  ...But there are very definitely different meanings of the cluck and purr in its/their various forms,...and it is best to know what you are saying when you use them. 

[EZ]

I can confidently state that anyone that hunts Merriams turkeys in the mountain ranges of southern NM who thinks they are going to very often call in gobblers by sitting somewhere and softly clucking and purring is most likely going to sit and watch the grass grow and the seasons change a long time before a gobbler shows up.

I'd say you're right about that. It's not even a great technique to use here in the Northeast. My reference to the cluck and purr is as a finishing call (if needed).


Per my earlier post on the subject,...there are indeed times when the cluck and purr is a useful,...and sometimes quite important call to use when turkey hunting.  ...But there are very definitely different meanings of the cluck and purr in its/their various forms,...and it is best to know what you are saying when you use them.

I agree 100%.   

[silvestris]

I suspect (have no personal knowledge) that most areas that Merriams inhabit are frequently windy.  High wind requires me to call much louder than I prefer as the turkey has to hear you if he is to respond.  I try not to hunt in high wind situations, but sometimes get caught in windy weather patterns such that one has to fight the wind if one is to hunt at all.  I just haven't had a world of luck fighting high winds.  The true cluck and purr is next to useless in high winds.

[g8rvet]

First of all, he is a RUGGED AMERICAN HUNTER.  And he has a really butch name JASON CRUISE (it might as well be Bourne).

You guys are not on the web, so you don't know as much as him. (okay, I guess technically I am reading this on the web, and found it on the web, so you are actually on the web BUT you may be an American and a Hunter, but are you really a RUGGED AMERICAN HUNTER?). 

It was Abraham Lincoln that said "75% of what you read on the internet is false".

Also, 68.39% of all statistics are made up on the spot.

If you sit and whisper "Here turkey, turkey" in the woods with lots of birds, you will eventually call in a turkey (and by "call in" I mean a Tom will wander by in range, and when I say Tom I mean one that is hard of hearing, partially blind in one eye and slightly on the Forest Gump side of the intelligence spectrum, on a turkey scale, not a human scale, because Forest would actually be smart if he had been a turkey)

[GobbleNut]

First of all, he is a RUGGED AMERICAN HUNTER.  And he has a really butch name JASON CRUISE (it might as well be Bourne).

You guys are not on the web, so you don't know as much as him. (okay, I guess technically I am reading this on the web, and found it on the web, so you are actually on the web BUT you may be an American and a Hunter, but are you really a RUGGED AMERICAN HUNTER?). 

It was Abraham Lincoln that said "75% of what you read on the internet is false".

Also, 68.39% of all statistics are made up on the spot.

If you sit and whisper "Here turkey, turkey" in the woods with lots of birds, you will eventually call in a turkey (and by "call in" I mean a Tom will wander by in range, and when I say Tom I mean one that is hard of hearing, partially blind in one eye and slightly on the Forest Gump side of the intelligence spectrum, on a turkey scale, not a human scale, because Forest would actually be smart if he had been a turkey)

[Yoder409]

I guess nobody ever told me the  cluck-purr wasn't a fit call for the woods.   I reckon that's why some variation of the cluck-purr is the last thing probably  75% - 90% of the gobblers I've ever killed heard...........

Live and learn, I guess...........

[ferocious calls]

Hens purr just because they are a hen. Kinda like your wives, Chatta, Chatta, chatta. My wife too.

Since I started raising Easterns I have had an education on thier vocabulary. Many of the sounds are just to be heard without much meaning. Example: a hen will be by herself purring softly almost continuously. Like she just wants to talk. Sound familiar? Example: a hen will be alone on the roost preening away paying no attention to anything, purring constantly. Have even watched them Yelp away while preening, head under wing yelping away.

Now add the cluck: it seems to me when the cluck gets above the low volume, she has a concern as the concern grows so does the volume of the cluck. 

Purrs are very deadly to Toms. Kinda like that sexy smile females can send our way.

[ferocious calls]

I have to add that the cluck can also be a great sound to lure toms' into range. A mentor of mine once told me that an insistent cluck even at higher volume is deadly. Early in the season I often use this with good results on fired up toms.

Yesterday heard a hen Yelp across the road from me. I grabbed a box and shot back a few yelps. She returned some yelps. I was at a friends place. I asked if they would like to see that bird. They said yea rite. I added the cluck before the yelps. She clucked and yelped. I clucked a few times and one Yelp. She started clucking a bit louder. Staying just a bit louder I clucked faster. Out she pops onto the road clucking like a machine gun Yelp at the end. I love it.