How much to call?

[JPH]

ORIGINAL: Cut N Run
The best I could come up with was; Who knows what makes turkeys do what they do or like what they like?   Go with what you get a positive response to. If it works, roll with it.

Sigh...

Jim, I know your conclusion is the correct one but since I cannot legally hunt wild turkeys for 11 months I need this. I want to live in a fantasy world where I can unlock the secret of why turkeys gobble and come to the call when they do. Please stop wrecking it for me.

Next stop, how do we accurately predict the whitetail rut and daylight deer movement! 

[DeanoZ]

Next stop, how do we accurately predict the whitetail rut and daylight deer movement!

Me too!   Good luck with that Joe...until then...Meet your host, and welcome to Fantasy Island!!!

[Bobbyparks]

ORIGINAL: Gobblerman

Okay,...so there are some differing opinions about calling methods here.  Let's take this one step further.  How many of you believe it is best to start out conservatively with your calling to get a feel for what a gobbler wants?  ....Or, how many feel it is okay just to start hammering away with agressive calling right off the bat? 

I don't consider myself to be a conservative caller.....I like getting a gobbler fired up with agressive calling as much as anybody.  But I rarely ever start out on a bird with that stuff.  I always try to feel a gobbler out first, starting with soft, conservative stuff first,...and then moving towards more agressive stuff if the bird indicates he might be in the mood for that. 

My outlook, which may or may not be correct, is that you can go from subtle to agressive with less potential for screwing things up with a bird than you can by starting out agressively and then trying to back off if he is not receptive to that.  What about you guys? 

Jim

I always start ou low and slow to see how he responds. I do this when I'm just blind calling or moving around. It's amazing how far a hot gobbler can hear when he wants to. Soft calling that you can just hear he picks up at 100 yards. If he cuts you off with his gobble , get ready because you're likely to have a good day.

If he doesn't gobble I keep raising volume to see if there's a decipal that triggers him. This was exactly how I worked and killed my last bird here. I called pretty soft...no response..I raised it up a little...no response...I made sure any birds withing 200 yards would hear me and he gobbled. He after a few calls and 4 gobbles drifted in but went 45 yards out in front of me. When I sat down it was cloudy. when he started coming the sun came out and I was under the sunshine spotlight and could not move to call ( I don't use mouth calls) I watched him dissappera into some brush thinking he would step out in front of my friend. I kept waiting for him to shoot.

After severall tense minutes Zach called to the bird and he didn't gobble and I knew the bird had moved off. I hit the call and he cut me off but was 120 yards away . I started cutting and doing some excited hen yelping and he was gobbling one time after the other and really fired up.

Then I stopped and although I couldn't see him Zach said he kind of shook and threw his head around and started coming in. I did a soft call just to keep him from drifting and watched him coming right to Zach. Only problem was Zachs gun was pointed way left of the bird and he couldn't move. Finally when the bird was withing 20-25 yards of Zach and I knew he couldn't move and the bird was about to figure something was up I got to look thru my new Buris Fastfire again and shot him. ....I didn't really mean to get into all this...I can't stay focused

Anyway if a birds gobbling but not cutting me off or not as responsive as I want I may throw another call or 2 or 3 to see if theres a magic sound for the day.

If there's much of a delay in his response I call low and slow and give him some time to see if he may start moving in. If he stands out there and I think the soft stuff doesn't work I'll go nuclear and try and fire him up. Sometimes this breaks him and sometimes it doesn't.
I like to call and I'm not afraid to crank it up if that what it takes to get him worked up .

Its' not always soft calling that kills even the older supposed wiser birds...It's just a matter of catching them on the day they have a high temperature

[WillowRidgeCalls]

As they say let the birds tell you what they want, and that is true, but I take it a step farther. If I'm only hearing a couple of birds on the roost then the soft tree talk works fine, but if I'm hearing 8-9 birds then I start with a mid range call from square one and go up. It's not only the gobblers that tell you how to call, the hens will also. When they are on the roost, most times they don't say to much just soft tree talk and some days they get wound up right on the roost. Today was a good example of just that. I only heard one tom gobble, 3 times on the roost. 4 hens came into the field and a couple minuts later 2 toms came in. They were about a 100 yds out from me, non of the hens said anything and neither did the toms. So I figured soft calling was on the menu, birds aren't talking today. A hen across the road fires up, non stop screaming. Both the toms took off on the run, leaving the 4 hens behind. They crossed my field, the road, and half way across the other field to the top of the knoll. That hen comes flying down to them, they never gobbled once on the ground. You never know what they want to hear unless you try it, there is no right or wrong way of calling turkeys, because you never know what's going to work, even listening to what the birds tell you?

[JPH]

ORIGINAL: WillowRidgeCalls

As they say let the birds tell you what they want, and that is true, but I take it a step farther. If I'm only hearing a couple of birds on the roost then the soft tree talk works fine, but if I'm hearing 8-9 birds then I start with a mid range call from square one and go up. It's not only the gobblers that tell you how to call, the hens will also. When they are on the roost, most times they don't say to much just soft tree talk and some days they get wound up right on the roost. Today was a good example of just that. I only heard one tom gobble, 3 times on the roost. 4 hens came into the field and a couple minuts later 2 toms came in. They were about a 100 yds out from me, non of the hens said anything and neither did the toms. So I figured soft calling was on the menu, birds aren't talking today. A hen across the road fires up, non stop screaming. Both the toms took off on the run, leaving the 4 hens behind. They crossed my field, the road, and half way across the other field to the top of the knoll. That hen comes flying down to them, they never gobbled once on the ground. You never know what they want to hear unless you try it, there is no right or wrong way of calling turkeys, because you never know what's going to work, even listening to what the birds tell you?

Great post WillowRidge! They sure can leave you scratching your head.

Roost calling is actually the one area where I have become a member of the "less is more" club. I almost never call to a roosted bird anymore, but like you said, they call to each other up there all the time. It just does not produce receptive toms once they hit the ground very often.

It's funny how we evolve. In my early days, I used to call a lot to roosted birds and play hard to get on the ground. Now I tend to keep my trap shut until I hear him drop down, then call like a brazen slut.

But like you said, every bird wants it differently on any given day.

[Turkeybuster]

Yep whatever it takes on a given day.
Jon [;)]

[DeanoZ]

I'm now more confused then ever! [8|]  Start low and slow, no tree yelps, get louder, clucks and soft purrs only...no wait, get aggressive...geez fellas, this can be tough to decipher yanno?  I guess it really is about taking their temperature...just wish i had the right thermometer [;)]

Bobby, this statement you made I find interesting...

If he doesn't gobble I keep raising volume to see if there's a decipal that triggers him. This was exactly how I worked and killed my last bird here. I called pretty soft...no response..I raised it up a little...no response...I made sure any birds withing 200 yards would hear me and he gobbled.

Just curious how long between calls before you pump up the volume...just looking for perspective, thanks!

[JPH]

If I am calling blindly, I often begin a 2-3 minute calling set every 15 minutes.
 
- The first set often begins with soft yelps and a little cluck and purr.
 
- The next set is a little louder and may also have a few cuts and a longer series of yelps.
 
- By the third set I am going hard and dueling two calls against each other with lots of cutting.
 
- The fouth set is often about sheer volume. Anything goes.
 
...but in looking at my journal, this style of calling only contitutes 20% of the birds that I have worked over the past three seasons. So take it with a grain of salt.

[DeanoZ]

Thanks Joe..appreciate the needed perspective...thats sorta what I've been doing.  I was getting the impression from Bobby's post that he may call low and slow initially and if he does not get an immediate response he throws out progressively louder sets one right after another?

[JPH]

ORIGINAL: DeanoZ

I was getting the impression from Bobby's post that he may call low and slow initially and if he does not get an immediate response he throws out progressively louder sets one right after another?

 
He very well might. If I can see a turkey and can watch how he reacts to my calling, I will often go from one level of calling to the next without much of a pause.