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

[shaman]

It's funny y'all bring up this subject, because I was getting less and less enamored with locator calls.  I'm not going to say they're useless.  I am just beginning to rethink my reliance on them.  This year I used a locator call a total of . . . (think, think, ponder, ponder) . . . once.  It was a week or so before season started, and I was trying to figure out what had happened to a missing flock that I just KNEW was there.  I owled a few times, and then sat down in frustration and waited for the light to come up.  Well after sun rise, the gobbler went off about 80 yards from where I was sitting.

There was a conversation on here earlier in the year about crows and their animosity towards turkeys.  It got me to thinking about a sort of reverse-tactic to locator calls for turkeys.  It is surprising, now that I'm out looking for it at how often I see turkeys  or hear turkeys immediately after crows sound off in that general direction. It's also odd how often I get crows flying over just after making a run of yelps. This is worth more investigation:  can you use crows as an indicator of turkeys? 

This year I decided to hold back on the locator calls and just listen.  There  is enough in the environment to get most gobblers worked up-- owls, crows, hawks, woodpeckers, agricultural equipment-- my neighbor even has roosters and dogs.    I just waited and didn't force things this year.  I was surprised at:

1)  How little my gobs were gobbling overall.  I was out 13 of 23 days, and I tagged out day 18.  I can honestly say there were 5 days of good gobbling from the roost all season.  The rest of the days were marred with rain, wind, a combination of the two or . . .well, who knows?
2)  How little the natural locators got them cranked up.  If a barred owl 50 yards away won't get them going, why should I be trying?
3)  How easy it was to wait an extra bit  and just listen. 

Now I'm not ready to make major pronouncements, but it did give me food for thought. Next year, the big 2008 cohort will have grown to mature gobblers, and this crew may gobble at just an impure thought.  Who knows. 

What this all tells me is how variable the suceptibility of gobblers to locator calls really is.  It also makes me wonder how many silent gobblers are out there that we may be stepping over. 

[Dcoleinpa]

shaman i was actually going to bring this up as well. A friend of mine swears by going to where the crows are and so far this season ive seen it(heard it) too. actually yesterday i had a bird gobble  i set up and called off and on for a little while. I heard crows carrying on up the power line  so i moved closer to them a few minutes later that bird gobbled the crows were above him the whole time. who knows but im a beleaver

[mark hay]

the other day i slipped into the woods in the dark . thought i was close enough to make my final approach so i waited a while and gave out the one long note of the barred owl ,,,NOTHING . my first thought was that the overbearing gobbler of the previous days had changed his address . a moment later some hunter hit a crow call . there was barely enough light to make out the ground and this feller is hitting a crow call , and to top it off , it sounded like crap.  THE TURKEY GOBBLED .

[nhtrkybstr]

They are funny birds. I go between my owl and peacock calls with decent success. That being said, shaman is dead on about crows. One day pre-season scouting, I went to a place where two nice gobblers reside. I saw the back of a large turkey walking, but couldn't tell sex. I went up the road turned around, and pulled over. I just sat there and listened. I heard a crow call, and the big longbeard sounded off! The crow followed him up into the treeline! Not only did the crow get the tom to gobble, but it had a domino effect. That tom got another to also gobble! You just can't predict them.

[trkynut54]

I don't use owl hooters anymore I just listen until I hear one gobble. Most of this season so far I never heard one gobble in the evenings but I knew they were there. Every morning though they would gobble, on their own.

[trkynut54]

Woodswise, very nice gobbler, congrats. By the way, I love your avatar 

[woodswise13]

hey everyone last saturday my dad and i went hunting i had the camera of corse.. we went to a block of woods that i had scouted preseason and found alot of scratchings and a few roosts so i knew it held birds.. since i had my bird already i figured i would bring my dad there cause i was anxious to see if my scouting would pay off... we hit the field edge pre dawn, and not wanting to bump any birds decided to pull out my trusty owl hooter lol ya right.. so i told my dad to listen i gave off a series off hoots and low and behold not one not two but three different gobblers went off.. we actually were set up around 7 thats right 7 different gobblers that put on one hell of a gobbling sequence for about 40 minutes .. but they were on the other side of a beaver dam and wouldnt cross.... guess ya never know about the hooter ha!!!

[PAridgebirds]

Owl Hooters really seem to work for me, much more so than crow calls. I think sometimes the other crow calls and things are too loud.

[mark hay]

I agree RIDGEBIRDS , I prefer the owl for predawn , even though many times crows can be heard while it is fairly dark yet .
My crow calls don't sound natural until I blow pretty hard on it . Which in turn makes it too loud and unnatural. Lately I've turned away from the direction of suspected roost sites to give my crow calls .
 Been practicing for years on the barred owl with my voice . This season is the first that I've used it in the woods . I always start with the one note
'' WHOOOooo'' . Have had quite a few birds shock gobble at it . In determination to become better at my own owl hoots , I gave my '' STORE BOUGHT HOOTER ''  to a feller I helped get started this spring . He was glad to get it and I have less stuff to carry .
 

[nhtrkybstr]

My father-in-law got me onto peacock calls. The shrill call of a peacock will get gobblers to shock gobble better than anything I use. I can never make a crow call work. Mine always sound like a joybuzzer gone bad.