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Author Topic: Pinpointing drumming  (Read 11224 times)

Offline JMalin

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Pinpointing drumming
« on: May 11, 2020, 11:43:13 AM »
Anyone else struggle determining the direction that drumming is coming from?  Until they are fairly close (within gun range), I really can’t tell at all, especially if there’s any confounding terrain features/topography changes. 

Online paboxcall

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Re: Pinpointing drumming
« Reply #1 on: May 11, 2020, 01:36:15 PM »
I struggle triangulating the spit/drum for sure, especially once it greens up. Seems to come from everywhere.
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Offline Rapscallion Vermilion

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Re: Pinpointing drumming
« Reply #2 on: May 11, 2020, 01:51:11 PM »
Here is a post from Mike Battey from some years back.  He mentions the difficulty for humans in locating sounds below 80 Hz and specifically turkey drumming. His advice is to listen for the spit before the drumming.

http://oldgobbler.com/Forum/index.php/topic,20787.msg230173.html#msg230173

Offline JMalin

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Re: Pinpointing drumming
« Reply #3 on: May 11, 2020, 04:40:52 PM »
The weird thing was I could hear the drumming, but not the spit on my last turkey encounter.

Offline Rapscallion Vermilion

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Re: Pinpointing drumming
« Reply #4 on: May 11, 2020, 04:57:44 PM »
The weird thing was I could hear the drumming, but not the spit on my last turkey encounter.
Low frequencies travel further, so that maybe tells you something about how far away he was.  Some folks, and you're young so that helps, can hear drumming much further than others. If you are one of those lucky ones, you could easily find yourself in situations where you can hear the drumming and not the spit. 

Online paboxcall

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Re: Pinpointing drumming
« Reply #5 on: May 11, 2020, 05:00:20 PM »
Here is a post from Mike Battey from some years back.  He mentions the difficulty for humans in locating sounds below 80 Hz and specifically turkey drumming. His advice is to listen for the spit before the drumming.

http://oldgobbler.com/Forum/index.php/topic,20787.msg230173.html#msg230173

Thanks Raps for including that link back to Mike's post from 2012 - I had forgotten about that discussion. Lots of great information over the years on this site if you take a minute or two to search it out.
"A quality paddle caller will most run itself.  It just needs someone to carry it around the woods." Yoder409
"Sit down wrong, and you're beat." Jim Spencer
Don't go this year where youtubers went last year.
"It is a fallacy...that turkeys can see through rocks. Only Superman can do that. Instead turkeys see around them."Jim Spencer

Offline guesswho

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Re: Pinpointing drumming
« Reply #6 on: May 11, 2020, 06:05:28 PM »
Seems like I have a harder time pinpointing it the closer it is to me.   I can hear drumming at a pretty good distance, a lot farther than most people I hunt with.    100 yards or farther I can tell where it’s coming from most of the time.  Any closer than that I can narrow it down to between about 10 o’clock and 2 o’clock.  Drives me crazy, but it’s a fun crazy.
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Offline Turkeyman

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Re: Pinpointing drumming
« Reply #7 on: May 12, 2020, 07:29:41 AM »
I'm in the same boat...drumming sounds very ventriloquistic. I do know that, verified via range finder, I can hear drumming at least 75 yards.

Offline 1iagobblergetter

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Re: Pinpointing drumming
« Reply #8 on: May 12, 2020, 07:29:03 PM »
Hell I can hardly tell which way gobbling is coming from. You guys are doing great... :TooFunny:

Offline 3bailey3

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Re: Pinpointing drumming
« Reply #9 on: May 12, 2020, 09:16:43 PM »
I can tell which way he is coming more by drumming than gobbling. I have had my gun pointed right more times from drumming. A lot of times I think I hear drumming but I'm sure when I hear him spit, I hunt a lot of places where you hear some bass playing..

Offline bear hunter

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Re: Pinpointing drumming
« Reply #10 on: May 12, 2020, 09:19:03 PM »
I struggle to hear drumming gobbler has to be about 40 yards for me to hear it.

Offline Marc

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Re: Pinpointing drumming
« Reply #11 on: May 13, 2020, 12:10:18 AM »
Drumming is a confounding yet exciting sound...

Wind and terrain can fool you...  Birds on a crest of a hill upwind of me, well over 100 yards away were drumming for some time, and I was waiting for that red head to pop up in the crest right in front of me (until I finally saw those birds).

I have also sat frozen for extended periods of time due to a humming bird that sounded like it could be drumming....

I also hunted in low clouds/fog this year...  And drumming carried a long, long ways...

Due to tinnitus and some higher frequency hearing loss, it seems I can hear (or possibly focus on better) drumming...  Hearing that "spit" is a bit more difficult, and if I can hear that, the safety is coming off...

I heard a lot more drumming, and a lot less gobbling this year...  I assume in part due to increased hunting pressure?
Did I do that?

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Offline silvestris

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Re: Pinpointing drumming
« Reply #12 on: May 13, 2020, 06:03:04 PM »
Sometimes a gobbler will spit; sometimes a gobbler will drum; sometimes a gobbler will do both.  Very frequently either option will attract a hen.
“[T]he changing environment will someday be totally and irrevocably unsuitable for the wild turkey.  Unless mankind precedes the birds in extinction, we probably will not be hunting turkeys for too much longer.”  Ken Morgan, “Turkey Hunting, A One Man Game

Offline 3bailey3

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Re: Pinpointing drumming
« Reply #13 on: May 13, 2020, 09:09:52 PM »
Hey Sil I heard one drum and spit this season and another bird gobbled it him, first time I had ever heard  one gobble at it.

Offline silvestris

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Re: Pinpointing drumming
« Reply #14 on: May 13, 2020, 09:50:20 PM »
They hear it or they wouldn’t do it.
“[T]he changing environment will someday be totally and irrevocably unsuitable for the wild turkey.  Unless mankind precedes the birds in extinction, we probably will not be hunting turkeys for too much longer.”  Ken Morgan, “Turkey Hunting, A One Man Game