×
Camo
Can't find what you're looking for?
Realtree Camo Guide
Every spring, the results are the same. You call, but the turkeys don't come. Here's why.
Turkeys aren’t difficult to call. People keep telling you that. Yet, you know they don’t gobble at you much. Even when they do, they don’t come to you. You’ve never had any luck “blind calling,” and truth be told, you watched a group of jakes, supposedly the dumbest creatures in the woods, run the other way after you yelped at them last season.
You know the truth, unfortunately. You suck at calling turkeys. You don’t know why. And you sure don’t know how to fix it.
But that’s OK. Admitting you have a problem is the first step, and your pals here at Realtree are here to help with the intervention. Read through this list, and see if something sounds familiar.
You can match turkey sounds perfectly, but if you’re making them at the wrong cadence – too fast or too slow – you don’t sound like a turkey, and so you’ll rarely call one in. By contrast, making off-tone noises but with the correct cadence works well enough to kill spring turkeys every day of the season. Hunters across the nation do it all the time.
Occasionally, a live hen will sound like the milky soft, clear yelps you’re replicating on your slate, push-button or paddle box call. Far more often, she’ll belt out noises laced with sass and rasp. Different hens have different voices. Some are deep. Some are high-pitched. But many turkey calls — especially friction calls — sound a lot alike.
"Pappy told you that when you’re doing this, keep it quiet. Cluck and purr. Maybe a little yelp, but only once an hour. You’ve followed that advice religiously. And to this day, you’ve never seen it work."
You sit down on a ridge at mid-morning, between turkeys, to do some blind-calling. Pappy told you that when you’re doing this, keep it quiet. Cluck and purr. Maybe a little yelp, but only once an hour. You’ve followed that advice religiously. And to this day, you’ve never seen it work.
(Don't Miss: Pull Off a DIY Merriam's Turkey Hunt in 3 Days)
This is an easy mistake for new turkey hunters, especially, to make. Walk the floor of the NWTF Convention and you’ll hear this: Yelp, yelp, yelp. Yelp, yelp, yelp. Cluck. Yelp, yelp, yelp. Over and over again, to the point of madness.
The yelp is the fundamental call for all turkey hunters to learn, and it works. Because it works, it’s the one we practice and imitate the most. Yet, wild turkeys that are really talking make all sorts of sounds in combinations and at times that just can’t be taught without hearing them firsthand.
There’s a turkey gobbling! Better get set up, right now, before he stops or you mess it up. But a big part of successfully calling turkeys is being in a spot where they simply can’t resist checking you out. Maybe that’s in his strut zone, where he plans to be anyway. Or maybe that’s within 75 yards of him on the limb at daylight, where it’s as easy for him to sail down into gun range at daylight as it is for him to go the other way.
(Don't Miss: Bowhunting Turkeys is Hard. This Advice Makes it Easier.)
You’ve heard the story of the two bulls standing atop the pasture hill, eyeing a field full of cows below them. The young bull says, “Let’s run down there and breed one of them!” The old bull replies, “Let’s walk down there and breed them all.”
At some point or another, we all get in a hurry. And careless. Often, it’s the experienced hunter with a few gobblers under his belt who gets a little bit cocky, and a bit anxious, when the birds aren’t gobbling. “Run-and-gun” calling turns into run and spook. It’s happened to me and about every other experienced hunter I know.
Turkeys can be a cryptic bunch. It would seem easy to determine whether or not a gobbler likes the sounds you’re giving him – he either gobbles or he doesn’t. But gobblers gobble only as a way of communicating a message to other turkeys, because they ultimately intend to act upon that message. If the gobbler is answering you over and over and over again, but not coming to you, you aren’t getting the message. If he’s answering you twice an hour and has been for the past three hours and not coming to you – you aren’t getting the message.
He stands in the middle of that field with a dozen hens, every day. You saw him on the first of season last year, the last day of season, and even two weeks later, doing the same dang thing. An old, dominant field bird with a gaggle of hens is difficult, if not impossible, to lure to you with calls alone.
(Don't Miss: Are Southern Turkeys Harder to Kill?)
Friction calls are easier than mouth calls to master quickly, and there’s no doubt they still handle the bulk of turkey-calling chores for hunters across the country. But some of the most crucial sounds you can make when calling turkeys are the sounds that “finish him,” pulling him from 60 yards to 40 yards. In that situation, when he’s looking at you, moving your hands to work a friction call simply isn’t an option.
The old notion that “contest calling doesn’t work in the woods” isn’t true. Good turkey calling skills are a deadly asset in the woods. (And while I don’t follow the contest circuit closely, I’ve met many contest callers. I don’t know any who aren’t also good turkey hunters.)
Contest calling is a measure of your skills at making the sounds. Calling turkeys – and much of turkey hunting in general – is a measure of applying those skills. A good hunter with a solid understanding of turkey behavior, a good spot to hunt and mediocre calling skills will obviously kill more turkeys than a calling phenom lacking practical hunting experience and a place to go. You don’t see those two extreme ends of the spectrum in the spring woods very often, though.
You Might Also Like
Realtree is committed to providing an inclusive and accessible experience to everyone, including those with disabilities.
©2023 Jordan Outdoor Enterprises, Ltd.
All rights reserved.
Site by Gray Loon.