Call Shy?

[guesswho]

I feel much better about being beaten by an intelligent animal than a dumb one that just chases hens w/o rhyme nor reason.   

[guesswho]

Can we agree to disagree we can all think what we want to it dont hurt nobody(only the turkeys know)We just think we know.

I blame the NWTF for educating them.

[hobbes]

You'd blame the NWTF for the Kennedy assasination given the right opportunity. 

[guesswho]

You'd blame the NWTF for the Kennedy assasination given the right opportunity. 

I heard their was a conspiracy involving Castro, and he looks like he could be related to Keck, so you've convinced me they were in on it!

[shootumindaface]

Can we agree to disagree we can all think what we want to it dont hurt nobody(only the turkeys know)We just think we know.

I blame the NWTF for educating them.

True.. Only the stupid ones fall prey to the net trap.. They have taken these west of the Mississippi thus leaving us East of the Big River with the smart Genes.

[chatterbox]

You'd blame the NWTF for the Kennedy assasination given the right opportunity. 

I heard their was a conspiracy involving Castro, and he looks like he could be related to Keck, so you've convinced me they were in on it!

You forgot watergate, Ronnie!

[OLE RASPY]

Can we agree to disagree we can all think what we want to it dont hurt nobody(only the turkeys know)We just think we know.RIGHT.I dont care what it is as long as i kill him.

I actually like these topics, I think these topics are what a turkey forum is about.. It hasnt gotten heated by any means..

[VaTuRkStOmPeR]

Another excuse.  "Call smart" maybe. Guess that's an excuse to.

More like People shy.

DITTO

[guesswho]

True.. Only the stupid ones fall prey to the net trap.. They have taken these west of the Mississippi thus leaving us East of the Big River with the smart Genes.

What are you saying?  White tips are easy

[hobbes]

If I dont put down a couple easterns this year in IL, Im going to feel inferior with the white tips........especially if I dont even kill a white tip.

[RutnNStrutn]

Another excuse.  "Call smart" maybe. Guess that's an excuse to.

More like People shy.

That's what I'm thinking too. I'm not the greatest caller by any means, but I think I sound OK. Some people though, geez!!! They sound horrible!!
And though I probably call too much, there are some people that even I think call way too much. Then there are those that sound bad and call too much. I think if a turk gets too much of that, especially on public land with trucks driving around, and sees people moving, or gets shot at when coming in to that stuff, he gets wary, or should I say more wary.

[cahaba]

I think using the wrong call makes them appear call shy. Most people get out of their truck and yelp and cutt. In reality hens do way more purring and clucking or putting than yelping. IMO the gobbler thinks if a hen is yelping she stands a good chance of coming to him. He had much prefer it to play out this way. Yelping is usually the last call I use on smart public land Alabama birds.

[GobbleNut]

I agree that this is still a good topic for discussion, whether you believe in call shyness, or not.

Cahaba's point about people calling from their vehicles is a good one.  Can turkeys learn to associate calling with the sound of vehicles, and maybe human voices or other noises that occur when people hunt that way?  Sure they can.

But how does that correlate to a real turkey that calls that same way? ...Or even calls differently?  After all, these are natural turkey sounds that turkeys make to communicate with other turkeys.  Will a gobbler come to that real hen calling, recognizing the difference? 

There are thousands of good turkey hunters and callers.  We've all heard the same stuff.  "Don't call from your vehicle....Don't call aggressively to hard-hunted birds....Use soft clucks and purrs....set up right....yada.. yada.. yada." 

There are plenty of really good turkey hunters that go out each spring and make the right sounds and moves.  And yet, there are still plenty of gobblers left in the woods after the season is over.  The reason is a simple one, ...they learn to adapt to survive.  And part of that adaptation is to stay away from turkey calling, real or otherwise, and wait for the calling to come to them.

This is not to say that every gobbler that doesn't get killed is that way.  But there are definitely those out there in the woods that are.

Jim

[TnTurk]

Well I've read enough thus far to say I think you are all correct in your assumptions of turkeys being "call shy".  After all, isn't just turkeys being turkeys?  Isn't it what partly fuels our passion of pursuing these birds? Trying to figure out what makes them tick on any given day. If you look back there have been 5 pages of post's about one aspect of how to kill a turkey from some of the best turkey killers from across the country and there has not been overall agreement yet. Looks like the turkeys are still one up on us.  Or, maybe the NWTF is injecting  them with a smart gene before they release them so we will have a new generation of smarter turkeys every year. 

[redleg06]

I think it varies from bird to bird and day to day a lot of times.  Some days, a bird that you hunt might be viewed as "call-shy" only to come back the next day or week and have that same bird just be absolutely fired up...  Nothing appears on the surface to be different but some days they are just more fired up than others and if you catch them on the right day, it could change things quite a bit. 


I was watching a hunting show the other day where this dude is calling (pretty terribly I might add) at this bird across this pretty open area and the turkey is steady coming in on a rope....until the dude, for no reason at all, decides he needs to break into a calling clinic and what happens? - The turkey stops walking in and breaks down and strutts.  He never got that bird moving again once he stopped him and eventually, hens came into the field and took the bird away. 

In this example- the guy had the bird coming in and all he had to do was shut up and let him come but he couldnt help himself.   In this case, you didnt have to guess what happened because you could see the bird from a long way off but in a wooded area, the same situation could play out and you wouldve been left wonder what happened.  Was the bird "call-shy" NO- he was coming to the call, then the guy messed it up and the gobbler decided to do what's natural to him----wait for the hen to come to him. 

I imagine this happens quite a bit.