Importance of Yelping on a Call

[VtBowhunter]

This is all my own Opinion and I'ld like to hear other's as well.

More and more I hear how everyone can yelp with the best of 'em, but I don't hear to much about the cutts and purrs as much. It's my own opinion and observation that EVERYONE yelps when calling, especially the new turkey hunters. I feel it's more important to learn to cutt and purr then it is to yelp, and here's why: If everyone is out there yelping the darned fool heads off, don't you think the birds are going to get wise to it. Now if they're all yelping and your doing some cuttin' and purrin', who do you suppose those birds are going to go to? Don't get me wrong, yelping has it's place, like when to sun first starts to peak out and the birds are flying down from the roost or if you have an exceptionally hot gobbler thundering off, but I've found that the softer calls seem to drag them in when yelping won't.

Example: Last year on opening day of the season I was set up in a DoubleBull blind in the middle of a green field. There were other hunters on the land and they were yelping to beat the band, and getting nowhere fast. I was Cuttin' and Purrin' and from the accounts of the other hunters (I didn't know where they were) whenever they heard my cutts the birds they saw were turning to come into me and only turned back when they saw the other hunters raising their guns. The next day the same hunters were in the woods doing their same yelping and I called like this.....Yelped when the sun started to rise, the stopped the yelps and went to Cutts and the occasional Purr......within an hour I had 10 birds looking for me and Vtbowman busted his first bird.

Bottom line here is listen for what others are doing and if you know others are hunting the same area.....stay away from yelping much past sun-up when the birds leave the roost.

[dogdoc]

that may be very true on public land. I had a tom last year that just wouldn't come in to the yelp--he'd gobble everytime but didn't move from the neighbors property. I finally got real aggressive and started to some loud cutting that I would turn into a yelp--then some purring--once I started using all 3 calls together the dude ran in--all the way into a load #4s

[redbeard]

For me, the most important hen call is the cluck

Cluck Cluck

[buckbuster11]

I could not possibly agree more. I try to do the exact opposite of what I hear other hunters in my area doing. You are right, most of the time I hear hunters just yelping their heads off. I have rarely heard another hunter in the woods that used clucks and purrs with any regularity.

On thing I have noticed is that when I run into a flock or birds I rarely hear hens doing any kind of yelping. It's always soft clucks and purrs....so I try to do the same.

I usually save the yelping for early morning when the birds are still on the roost and the majority of the time after that I go to the clucks, purrs and cutting.

[VermontHunter]

Some-more great stuff to stick into my memory bank for this springs Turkey Hunt, Thanks Guys...

[huntinsonovagun]

Good info!! It is hard to quit that yelpin' once you get started.....but I'll quit yelping as much this year! I have noticed wild hens don't yelp as much as hunters.

[13littleones]

[ QUOTE ]
For me, the most important hen call is the cluck

Cluck Cluck

[/ QUOTE ]

[borch]

The most important call is the one that'll get that turkey to commit. Sometimes it's yelping, sometimes purring, sometimes clucking anf sometimes cutting.

It all depends on the bird and his mood.

Borch

[redbeard]

Amen, Borch. The tom will tell ya!

[13littleones]

[ QUOTE ]
Amen, Borch. The tom will tell ya!

[/ QUOTE ]

[Covehnter]

It's all what they want to hear, key is to be able to do whatever they like. . . had birds love long lonesome yelps and wouldnt get excited about anything else. . had a few birds that the only way you could turn there head was with a springtime key key, others it just straight up acting like a hot hen. Its whatever they want its how you need to give it!

[VTbowman]

I agree for reasons Josh stated. LOL
It works...
I saw it with me own 2. LOL
Then shot 2 in 2 mornings out of the same blind.

[VtBowhunter]

Those were the craziest 2 mornings I've ever seen in my brief 3 year turkey hunting career.

[Strut10]

Lots of good points!!

To me, it's not what call or sequence of calls you use or don't use..........or what somebody else is using. To me it's the realism level you're putting out there. I, too, have heard guys call all morning long using the "3-yelp and wait" method. That doesn't mean I won't go right into that area and refuse to yelp. What I will do is yelp with inflection, yelp with some "slur", throw a half-cutt in the middle of a string of yelps, run a 10-yelp string, or any other of a gazillion variations that I've heard real hens actually use. Sound like a real hen and all the other guys who sound like broken records now become non-issues, for the most part.

Practice, practice, practice.

[Rhino]

[ QUOTE ]
To me it's the realism level you're putting out there......Sound like a real hen and all the other guys who sound like broken records now become non-issues, for the most part.

Practice, practice, practice.

[/ QUOTE ]

Can't argue with that. Well said Strut! I don't worry what somebody else sounds like. I just try to sound like real hens. Over the years I've noticed very few turkey hunters actually do that. Realism in my calling coupled with sound turkey hunting woodsmanship skills puts turkeys in the bag year after year for me.