owl hoot??????????

[mark hay]

crow calls ?  at least the type that the reed between two other pieces of plastic , ,,,don't put your teeth on the call . use your lips . cup your hands over the front of the call . huff the air from your diaphram . AND HUM OR GROWL FROM YOUR THROAT AS YOU FORCE AIR THROUGH THE CALL .

[ssm]

It also depends where you are. You can blow the reeds out of a hooter in Nebraska and you wont get a gobble for nothing, but you can blow a coyote howler 45 minutes before daylight and they will go nuts gobbling.

You blow a howler in south Alabama and they all shut up(most times).

I like to start off with a hooter as early as I think, and I start off low then build up. I have had turkeys 50 yards before, and did not know it. Once I start out low, I will raise cane until I get one to gobble.

I like to hoot with a hooter in timber, crow call in more open areas, the crow seems to carry so much farther in open areas. But if you start listening you will hear crows cawing just as early as owls.

[Bobbyparks]

I agree it can depend on where you are and any given day can bring an opposite response. ssw makes an interesting point about how the same call in different regions can bring on acompletely different response.

It depends on where I am and if I have an idea where birds are as to whether I'll hit the owl hooter early or wait and let things unfold naturally.  In one place I hunted I could just wait on the mule about a 1/4 mile away to sound off as he'd set everything within a half mile including me off. He was loud when he was hungry I guess and would let loose right at daybreak

I'd prefer to find birds like everyone else with the locators just for the obvious reason of moving into position without worrying about the bird coming towards me. More and more over the years though if I'm moving, I either go thru a sequence of hitting the crow call and then calling on a box or cutting on a slate with a graphite striker. The latter has  shocked birds for me in Georgia pretty well.  Some days nothing works and some days anything would work.

Like Shaman said theres often a count of quality gobbling days in a season. On those days alot more seems to work and all of a sudden you're a really good turkey hunter and caller[:)]

It's funny out west, more than once it was a hen that answered me (with a box or crystal) and let me know birds were around before the gobbler ever sounded off.

When I first got started in 93 I was stupid enough to be convinced that any gobbler that heard a locator call had to gobble, that they couldn't help it. It took that entire first season to figure out where the flaw in my thinking was. I must have mis read something.

[FireFly908]

Yes, I also agree that things are so different in different places at different times that it's impossible to say something will work all the time or something won't work at all.
I read about a guy that mounted a large bell in the back of his pickup and took his wife with him when he went hunting. She would stay in the truck and get out every half hour and ring the bell. The guy was prepared for the ringing and listened for the shock gobbles in his area. He stated it worked every time.

[WillowRidgeCalls]

I still like my silent dog whistle, and I can hear them gobble myself.

[nhtrkybstr]

That's a great idea, Scott!
I will have to give that a try!

Mike