Pinpointing drumming

[AppalachianHollers]

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I have wondered at times if I’ve heard a gobbler do a single yelp or even purr. Would make sense for them to do something that doesn’t give their position away, almost like elk out West learning to bugle less after wolf reintroduction.


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[Marc]

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I have wondered at times if I’ve heard a gobbler do a single yelp or even purr. Would make sense for them to do something that doesn’t give their position away, almost like elk out West learning to bugle less after wolf reintroduction.

Back in the day (before my day), apparently pheasants used to hold, and cackle when flushed...

Now, wild pheasants run like heck, and generally flush silently...  No doubt but that human hunting pressure created a long-term genetic incentive to change behavior...  The pheasants that held and cackled when flushed got shot, and taken out of the gene pool...  The birds that ran survived, the birds that flushed silently survived more, and the birds that ran and flushed silently were able to propagate and continue their genetics...

With the increasing popularity of turkey hunting, and with the exceptional increase in hunting pressure this season, birds that gobbled either got harassed or shot...

[Tail Feathers]

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I've only heard it a few times.  Take care of your hearing, it don't come back!

[countryboy3006]

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I can hear the spit but I can’t say that I have ever heard the drumming.  I’ve tried listening for it when I have had toms around but either they weren’t doing it or I can’t hear it.

[Paulmyr]

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 When I 1st hear it it's such a low frequency it sounds like it all around me. For some reason I always end up looking up until I can pinpoint it.

[TonyTurk]

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I can hear the spit but I can’t say that I have ever heard the drumming.  I’ve tried listening for it when I have had toms around but either they weren’t doing it or I can’t hear it.

This is my situation as well.  I can hear the spit clearly, but not the drum.  Maybe I just don’t know what to listen for? 

[Marc]

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I can hear the spit but I can’t say that I have ever heard the drumming.  I’ve tried listening for it when I have had toms around but either they weren’t doing it or I can’t hear it.

This is my situation as well.  I can hear the spit clearly, but not the drum.  Maybe I just don’t know what to listen for?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQDSrIUaQ2U

go to about 1:43 and 2:15-2:44

For whatever reason, drumming does not seem to be captured well on recordings???  But think of the sound of a humming bird, but a bit deeper.  (I have been made to hold still for several minutes by a humming bird on multiple occasions)

On video and audio, I can hear the spitting better, in the woods, I can hear drumming much further off...  And I have some hearing loss along with tinnitus.   

I noticed that this season, I heard a lot more birds come in drumming than I did gobbling.  I also noticed that the with right acoustics, I could hear birds drumming from a long ways off (i.e. I hunted a foggy day, and could hear birds drumming from a couple hundred yards away).

Generally, if I can hear them drum, I assume they are close.  That sound means "hold still," and maybe do a couple clucks/purrs if you can do so without moving.

[West Augusta]

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Not sure if I've ever heard one drum.  The nurse at work says my hearing is fine. 

[paboxcall]

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Not sure if I've ever heard one drum.  The nurse at work says my hearing is fine.

Seems like I more "feel" the drumming than hear the drumming. All I know is when I realize that's what I'm hearing I know that gobbler is super close. And that's when the adrenaline dumps too!

[Tailwalk]

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Greatest sound on earth. The Spit drum


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[West Augusta]

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I can't say for sure that I've ever heard a drum.
I hear the spit will and can locate it.

[Turkeyman]

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Those of you that don't know if you can hear a drum find yourself a power transformer near you...they're at your nearest substation. Listen. If you can hear it, you can hear a drum...just concentrate.

From someone that's a certified electrician for over over 50 years LOL.

[Marc]

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Not sure if I've ever heard one drum.  The nurse at work says my hearing is fine.

I can't say for sure that I've ever heard a drum.
I hear the spit will and can locate it.

I previously had some minor high-frequency hearing loss, and in the past year developed significant tinnitus, and have an even more difficult time hearing the higher pitches...

Drumming is a low-pitch sound, and I can hear drumming more easily than I can spitting...  Although when the bird is close, the spitting is obvious as well.

It was a few years before I ever heard drumming....  I can pick out gobbling sooner and more often with friends I take (with far better hearing than mine) that do not turkey hunt so much.  I believe that when we are turkey hunting, we to some degree hyper-focus for the turkey sounds we hope and expect to hear....

Once you actually verifiably hear drumming a couple times, you ears will learn to focus on that sound, just like gobbling...  In other words, it probably is not that you cannot hear drumming, it is that you do not yet know what to listen for.

[Happy]

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I typically pick up the spit first. This year while scouting I was listening to some gobblers on a distant hillside and then decided to shortcut through some pines on my way back to the truck. When I was nearing the logging road I had come in on I heard/felt the spit and drum. Of course I hit the deck and this gobbler went strutting by me at about 15 feet. Snapped a pick after he passed by headed to a hen. Hope he had fun cause my boy packed him out a week later.

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[nyhunter]

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Will or can a gobbler drum when he's not strutting? I have been hunting turkeys since 1989 and I've heard lots of drumming over the years but only when the bird is strutting. So this year a buddy and i called in 2 adults , we heard a lot of drumming but neither of these birds was strutting and we didn't see another gobbler after my buddy shot one and we got together we surmised that Maybe A bird came in behind us and we couldn't see him.