Pre Season Calling

[OldSchool]

I see one of the guys I'm talking about downtown quite a bit and I'm going to suggest that he read this thread. If he does, maybe It'll finally sink in that he's doing himself more harm than good. Not to mention the rest of us.

Bob

[Happy]

Personally I don't call to any birds that I intend to hunt until I am hunting them. The exception is when I am trying to roost one for the next day. When I scout I just cover ground and look for sign. If you find fresh scratching then you have a good start. Gobblers are seldom far from hens in the spring. I feel the less I agitate them the better.

[Planner]

Turkeys call to each-other every day. Hens yelp... Toms gobble. Life happens. Not every time a hen yelps and a gobbler goes to check it out is the hen there. It happens. Coyotes, Bobcats, and other predators are in their world every day and interrupt their life. Somehow they manage to continue working through this, breeding successfully and continuing to communicate. I think the call/decoy shy thing is just an explanation for turkeys being turkeys and not running at the gun of every Hunter that enters the woods. Play this game enough and sometimes it seems like a Coke can with some rocks in it will call in a bird and other times nothing works. Don't over think it.


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[vabeardhunter]

Thanks for the lookout and information allhttp://oldgobbler.com/Forum/Smileys/classic/icon_thumright.gif
I checked already and I'm all good with the law... Just taking a few mouth calls, so I'll be on a covert mission (well maybe a pot call too)http://oldgobbler.com/Forum/Smileys/classic/wink.gif

[Vaturkeyhntr]

I couldn't agree more about not calling to birds before the season.  Nothing worse than trying to call in a bird that has been called to and run off when he shows up and see a person.

The good thing about the marine corps base I hunt is if the game wardens catch you calling to turkeys before the season with any type of turkey call, other than locator calls they will suspend you from hunting.

[drenalinld]

Calling to them seems harmless. Spooking them is a little different.

[buckrutt29]

I never call before season. Dont want to educate them

[BowBendr]

I will call to turkeys before the season to get a numbers count of how many birds there are in an area. Im not going to sit down and call one in, that would be crazy. But to assume that a turkey would be boogered up by another turkeys voice is absud...then again, I don't believe in giving animals humanistic traits. They have no idea what you are doing.


2015 Old Gobbler contest Champions

[VaTuRkStOmPeR]

You may want to check with the park to be sure its allowed... It is very uncomfortable to explain yourself to the ranger...

Tell the ranger to piss off.  They can follow you around if they want to but there's nothing illegal about calling up turkeys on state or county land that prohibits hunting.

[northwoodshntr]

northwoodshntr, I'll laugh with you for checking your "skills" on non-hunted turkey.

Hey! I had never called in a turkey at that point. Turkeys are turkeys. I also learned the futility of trying to call in field toms. BTW....I laugh at me too. Thanks for WITH me. 

[tha bugman]

I don't


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[Happy]

I think I need to explain something here. I don't think for a second that calling educates turkeys. However human intrusion will cause turkeys to change their patterns and behavior to some extent. Now I have noticed that when I used to call and scout I bumped way more birds than I did when I did not call.
A turkey will react when it is constantly spooked and pushed around. It will at the very least maintain a lower profile than it was if not relocate to a more peaceful area. They are not incredibly bright but they will react to negative experiences when they become somewhat repetitive. Here is something I have noticed but never heard anybody address. You walk a Ridgeline or logging road calling every 2 hundred yards or so. You hear nothing but next thing you know you have walked smack into a Tom and the results are pretty predictable. Now, why didn't that turkey gobble? My thoughts are why would he?
The hen is coming straight at him and all he has to do is watch and wait and he has every advantage. Now I hunt pressured birds and I have noticed unpressured birds don't do this nearly as much but it has happened far to often to me to just be chance.

[Tomcat655]

No. No and no

[OldSchool]

Just to be clear, I'm not saying that making turkey sounds before season or any other time for that matter, is going to have a negative effect on the birds. Like some of the others have said though, It's the intrusion, bumping birds, actually calling them in and spooking them. Those are the negatives I see in pre season calling. It just seems to me that the guys I know that do it around here aren't helping themselves, or anybody else by doing it. 

Bob

[silvestris]

Prove to me that turkeys are incapable of conscience thought; prove to me that there is or is not a God.  I tend to believe in God and conscious turkey thought.