Apparently cluck and purr is not a hunting call?

[Happy]

I have never heard an alerted or suspicious turkey purr. Loud clucks or putts if you will are the norm. I am not as seasoned as some on here but my observations have been that context is everything. I have had both hens and toms approach the call using what I call searching clucks. I have scared them and had them moving away on alert clucking. Same call just slightly louder and and sharper on the alert clucks. Purrs may very well be a territorial/aggressive call but if you have ever watched a group of turkeys feeding along then you realize that most turkeys only have a small area of personal space and as long as that is respected all is well. I have never seen feeding purrs alarm turkeys. Fighting purrs are a totally different call. That has more potential to scare away a submissive turkey but a dominate bird will react with similar aggression. It is more about context and delivery than anything else. The same way we can say "great! " and mean either that we are happy to have good news or show that we are being sarcastic.

[GobbleNut]

I have never heard an alerted or suspicious turkey purr. Loud clucks or putts if you will are the norm.

Interesting.  This makes me wonder about the differences in turkey behavior/vocabulary in the different subspecies, as well as in different areas of the country.  With our Merriam's turkeys here in New Mexico, it is almost guaranteed that if you call in a turkey, at some point when they start to get suspicious about things, they will start with the aggravated cluck and purr. 

On a side note, you will (almost) never hear a turkey cackle here.  I have heard hens flying off the roost hundreds of times and have heard something resembling a fly down cackle only twice in fifty years.  In some other places I have hunted, I have heard it with some regularity. 

[Happy]

Maybe i just scare them so bad they skip the purr formality and get the cluck out of dodge.  I do hear fly down cackles a good bit. Wouldn't say it is even 50% of the time but I do hear it a few times every spring. I honestly hear more in the fall though. I especially get a kick out of the young toms gobbling on a crisp fall morning

[Farmboy27]

I would say 60-70% of the hens I hear cackle at flydown. So I'm pretty big on using it.

[Old Gobbler]

Don't tell the couple thousand turkeys I've called in my life that a cluck and purr won't call them up 

I'm willing to wager any fantastical sum of money ...to any person , even some youtube prostaff quack , i can walk out into the woods and call up a wild turkey using a cluck and or purr or any combination etc...

[silvestris]

Don't tell the couple thousand turkeys I've called in my life that a cluck and purr won't call them up 

I'm willing to wager any fantastical sum of money ...to any person , even some youtube prostaff quack , i can walk out into the woods and call up a wild turkey using a cluck and or purr or any combination etc...

You would be a wealthy man with enough takers.

[owlhoot]

Don't tell the couple thousand turkeys I've called in my life that a cluck and purr won't call them up 

I'm willing to wager any fantastical sum of money ...to any person , even some youtube prostaff quack , i can walk out into the woods and call up a wild turkey using a cluck and or purr or any combination etc...

dang , no takers yet

[deerbasshunter3]

I have always been under the impression that most hunters don't even use a cluck and purr, and kills plenty of birds. I was taught that all you really need is a good yelp, and you can call in a gobbler.

[MK M GOBL]

All I can say is in any calling situation "Context" is the key...

I killed a gobbler over a live hen "aggressively" Clucking & Purring... fighting purr she was doing against my Upright DSD hen. As soon as the gobbler heard this going on he ran to the hen fight and stepped his last step at 15 yards.

MK M GOBL

[Dr Juice]

If clucking and purring is not a hunting call, I hope someone will share this latest break through with the turkeys :-)

[idratherb]

 

[catman529]

The cluck and purr I hear in real turkeys is a putt and purr when they don't like something. Fighting purrs are different... I mostly agree with the video except that I don't think it will "ruin your hunt". My first turkey I killed was a jake that followed a pissed off hen that came running to my amateur attempt at a cluck and purr on a tube call. I figure she took it as a challenge not a content or a spooked cluck and purr.

How many times have y'all heard em purring when they spot you but can't figure out what you are. And how often do you hear em purring when content and scratching in the leaves... I never hear the latter but I hear them purr all the time when they think something isn't right.


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[TauntoHawk]

this has been very interesting reading all the comments here and how divided people seem on the topic

[idratherb]

Who really cares, do what works for you. 90% of turkey hunting is having a good spot and the time to stay after them consistently, dont over think it.

[Spitten and drummen]

LOL. I think I will continue to use the soft clucks and purrs and continue to kill those hard pressured birds with them. A hen is very very vocal. She constantly makes little putts , whines , clucks and all sorts of soft sounds when content. Most of the time you have to be really close to them in order to hear all of this. most of the hens I see while hunting is constantly vocal albeit soft calling. I have rarely seen a completely silent hen. this is just my experience.