Raspy & Old OR Young & Sweet??

[ilbucksndux]

I do one or the other till I get the response that im looking for.

[Marc]

In duck and goose hunting, I have noticed that "higher-pitch" calls often get a better response...  I have always tended to favor high-pitch calls for turkeys as well...

However, with a couple years of drought, and very poor production, I often found that the more raspy old hen often produced better (or more) responses...

That being said, if the woods are noisy with turkeys, I pay far more attention to the noises that the hens are making than the gobblers.  Later in the morning, I will try to emulate those hens that seemed to elicit the most excited responses in the morning...

I will also address those hens with their own sounds in the morning, and try to challenge a dominant hen to come in (as I have had very little luck pulling toms off live birds).

Everyone else tends to focus on those toms gobbling, I tend to focus on the hens, and which ones the birds are gobbling to...  Are they yelping or cutting, or clucking???  What is the cadence, pitch, and rasp of the birds those toms seem to like???

[Texforce]

VERY good stuff here, gentlemen !! Thanks for all of the responses. I love this site !!!

[WyoHunter]

 

I think cadence is more important than tone.

[Aurora Wild]

I lean pretty heavily on raspier calls.  If they fail to produce a response I will try a higher pitched, clearer call.  For whatever reason it's worked for me. One minute swear there's not a gobbler in the woods,  switch calls and one lights right up. Made the difference between working a bird and heading to the truck on more than one morning...

[GobbleNut]

As others have already stated, it is best to be versatile and have calls on hand that you can make a variety of different sounds with.

I will say that, from my experience over the years in both my own calling and from that of others, the back end of the yelp seems to be what gobblers key on.  I have seen it time and time again.  For some reason, calls (and callers) that can reproduce a certain tone, rasp, and inflection on the lower end just seem to get consistently more positive responses than any other.

We always talk about turkey yelps having a high front end and a lower, raspier back end,...which very often they do.  But again, as others have pointed out, turkeys have different voices.  Some will have a very obvious high end/low end distinction,...and some will have hardly any.  The key is hitting on the sound that will attract a gobbler's attention and make him come take a look.

From what I have seen, the one constant that seems to attract their attention over other sounds is the lower, back end of the yelp.  In my opinion, get that sound right, and you will call gobblers more consistently than with any other turkey sound, regardless of the time of the season.  Then again, there are exceptions to every generality, so be prepared to be versatile.

[jims]

Sometimes it takes loud raspy calls for toms to hear calling in the wind.  In super tight spots it may be best to use soft calls.   I often try to imitate hens in the area.  It seems like toms and hens sometimes get bored if they hear the same call...time after time....especially when hunting from a blind.  It often helps having a wide selection of different calls (clucks, purrs, etc).

The turkeys I hunt here in Colo hardly call once on the ground.  They learn they get eaten by coyotes, mtn lions, bobcats, etc if they make much noise.  I actually hear gobbling toms in the trees well before daylight and they even quit close to sunrise.  It's tough locating mountain merriams in trees and hills when they are so quiet!  Once in a while I can get toms to gobble with hen calls. 

As mentioned several times above it is good watching the reaction of toms and hens...and adapting to their reaction.

[shaman]

This is just an observation from a couple decades on online forums and sitting in the middle of my property and listening to other hunters.  It's not meant as a comment on anyone here. A lot of guys tend to get overly sold on the idea of calling in general, and beyond that, they get sold on whatever hyperbole there is and take it over the top. 

Raspy, Ultra-Raspy, Super-Ultra-Raspy, Cosmic-Super-Ultra-Raspy.

Somebody way back in the late 70's put two reeds together and made a raspy mouth call. Here it is in the 20-teens and we're up to . . . how many reeds?  Cuts, slashes, viper tongues?  I can remember when my favorite turkey call was made out of the same material as my favorite condom, and somebody was calling it the state of the art because it had golden ribs. 

The same is true with pot calls.  It used to be you had slate, then glass, then. . ? 

Ultra-this, ultra-that.  Pretty soon every new turkey hunter is going out on his own making himself deaf with his ultra-loud ultra-raspy ultra-whatever calls.  I can hear them perfectly from two ridges over.  Normally you can tell the age and experience of a turkey hunter from a half-mile off from:

1) How loud the call is
2) How fast the call moves about the landscape
3) How piercing it is.
4) How relentless the calling
5) How unnaturally raspy it is.

I'm not throwing stones.  Lord knows I used to do the same thing.  However, now in my 60th year, I've slowly realized turning everything up to Eleven is not usually the best way to find a turkey.  I'm not saying a clean sound beats raspy or that  turkeys run away from a loud call.  I'm just saying moderation is something that comes with experience.  I will also say that when I hear a totally gonzo caller, I can usually be certain I won't hear a shot from that quarter that morning.

I have heard ultra-raspy hens.  In fact I've heard a hen that called in gobblers that sounded so unnaturally raspy, I would not have believed a turkey (or a turkey caller) would make that noise.  However, it was an older hen, and her volume was waaay down.    The old girl was just outside my blind and I doubt you could have heard her at 50 yards.  She brought a gobbler out of a cedar thicket, though, and right into my gun. 

I've heard a raucous hens moving about the landscape so fast, I was sure it was a human caller, and was ready to confront a poacher, but they did not call constantly as they moved.  I heard them only once per every ten to twenty minutes.  Normally, hens that get agitated like that stay put to sound off.  I've never heard a hen get wound up and stay wound up and then keep moving.  When I did finally catch sight of them, it was a group of 5 hens that obviously had dominance problems.  They were fighting more than feeding.  The funny thing was no gobbler was coming near them, nor honoring their calls.  I guess the gobs saw trouble and stayed away.

Bottom line on all this:  My advice is to keep the superlatives in their place.  I spend most of my time calling from the middle-- let the gobblers know I'm there and then let them make a move if they're interested.  I do bring out the big guns and go over the top at times, but it is never my main strategy.  That goes for volume, as well as sound quality.

[walk_n_squawk24]

I like the sound of a raspy hen but it really depends on the individual bird. Sometimes they go ballistic over a raspy call and other times they get tight lipped soon as they hear a peep from it.

[Chris O]

Chain smoking bearded hen gets my vote. 

Raspy usually gets it done for me also

[Cut N Run]

Most of my calls don't have much rasp and are higher pitch.  I tend to call less than most of the guys I've hunted with.  I cutt loud and aggressively when I first strike a gobbler, then tone down the volume and frequency to tease him into coming my way. Breeze also help dictate volume.  Late season is generally when I have the most success, when the majority of hens are on the nest.  Lots of guys call too much, too loud, or don't vary their call type, rhythm, and location, no matter what time of season it is. 

I'll call just enough to keep them interested, no matter what call I'm using.  I want them to gobble way more than I call back to him.  I believe in keeping them guessing. I'll also quietly gather up loose leaves in a small pile beside me to scratch.  I want the leaves crispy, as they help me seal the deal as much as any man made call does.

Jim

[Muzzy61]

TURKEYS   DO   WHAT  TURKEYS   DO

This might be the truest statement I've ever heard about turkey hunting.

[nyhunter]

I carry both raspy old hen and clear young hen calls  in my vest in the fallowing  , mouth,box,tube,pot calls... that way i can change it up if what i'm doing isn't working. surprisingly i have had great success the last few years with a matt mclaine tube call.  another thing i been doing is using box calls with different woods that most people don't use.  Don't be afraid to use gobbler call's either, some gobblers are more comfortable coming to other gobblers. Either that or they've gone the other way ...

[bobk]

After many seasons behind me.  My approach is to be versatile.

[EZ]

Yes. 

Not the answer you were expecting,  but that's the one you're getting. It all depends on the birds in your area, what they're doing as far as breeding, flocking up, number of hens to gobblers, to jakes, etc.   There is no one answer...  Just need to find what  YOUR BIRDS want and give it to em, then give it to em!   

Yep.