Turkey Tip #12: Three Strikes

[Ben Sobieck]

Turkey Tip #12: Three Strikes

When cutting and running, many hunters use the three-gobble rule to make sure a bird is hot enough to answer a call one or two more times before they hunt him. If the turkey doesn't answer another call, he likely just shock-gobbled at the first. If he answers the second, many hunters tone down their yelping and try to get the gobbler to answer something softer. If he does, he's hot.

[shaman]

The alternative to this is to start soft and work up, which is my personal preference.    If I'm know I am within earshot of a gobbler, I'll start off with the slightest,  lightest call I can.  If his head pivots around and he honors that call, I know he's hot on me.  If it takes him 3 calls of increasing volume and passion to get him to answer, he's maybe thinking about me, but he's got something else more important on his mind. These are often times the birds that show up later in the hunt.  Before I go hotter, I have to ask myself:  before I go and drop my drawers for this gob and give him my A-List, am I sure I'm not giving myself away to Mister Silent-- the other gob that may not be sounding off yet?   As that I'm playing the same bunch of gobs every day of season, I have to be careful what I show to these boys.

Assuming I get a gobbler on the ground cutting-in on my calls,  I'm like the sonar man on a tin can. I'm only actively pinging when I need to.  I want that negative delta range with zero-delta bearing-- collision course.  Once they're hooked, I usually always give them as little calling as possible to keep the gob coming towards me. 

Now, as I've said previously, I'm not fancy caller.  In fact, I kind of expect the gobs to laugh at me when I go out.  Based on that, I try to barely  show up on the radar screen above the chatter of the other hens, at least until I find a gobbler that is interested.    From that respect, I am sort of a me-too type of caller.  I let the real hens do the worst of the fluffing on the gobblers.  I save my hot stuff for turning his head later on in the game.

[Fargohunt]

Shaman, I truly enjoy reading your posts. They are typically well thought out and based on sound experience, but nothing fancy, just good ole fashion woodsmanship, common sense anmd just the right dash of wisdom mixed in to make it all believable thanks for participating on the forum.