That is the question...
So what are your thoughts on this? When do you? Or.. when don't you?
A day I was out last week resulted in, I wish I didn't. The birds decided to sleep in late and it was unfortunate they changed the roost location, not for the better. We put out a Hoot only to have one gobble right on top of us. Long story short. You know the ending. We didn't get him.
For myself I just let nature wake the woods up ... I don't carry a hooter. I do sometimes carry a crow call but I very seldom use it ...
Only in the pre-dawn after setting up in a pre-selected spot. Nice to know if there is one around. Usually enough real owls have already taken care of it.
I like to let it happen naturally, but if it doesn't I'm hootin' or crow callin'.
I usually hoot once, and that starts up the real ones answering back.
I let nature do her thing. If that doesn't work, I hoot. And if that doesn't work, I crow call.
The other morning I did exactly that. Nothing from Mother Nature or my hoot, so I hit the crow call and :gobble:!!
Quote from: RutnNStrutn on May 06, 2025, 10:05:01 AMI let nature do her thing. If that doesn't work, I hoot. And if that doesn't work, I crow call.
The other morning I did exactly that. Nothing from Mother Nature or my hoot, so I hit the crow call and :gobble:!!
Where I hunt, everyone else hoots. I try to be less like everyone else as possible.
Good idea. I have used a pileated woodpecker call on occasion when everyone was owl hooting. If nothing else it's a surprise.
Turkeys around here get real tight-lipped. I think they here dozens and dozens of guys blowing away on the hooter. Very, very seldom do I get a response. I carry mine because it's a nice call and it looks cool, lol.
Generally if I'm in the right spot these Rios get fired up without help from me.
I don't carry a hoot call. I sometimes do it natural voice. Not well, but it occasionally works.
But if I'm hearing others in the area, I don't hoot. Done well, I don't think it hurts your chances whether the tom responds or not.
Quote from: WLT III on May 06, 2025, 10:20:10 AMWhere I hunt, everyone else hoots. I try to be less like everyone else as possible.
That's an excellent plan.....
IF you are hunting public land. I learned to turkey hunt on pressured public land in Florida.
These days I avoid those situations like the plague. Where I hunt these days, I'm not one of a hundred guys hooting. I'm just another owl.
I recently was after a specific bird but not really sure where in a 300 yard line he was roosting so I hooted. I Got three responses from a much wider zone but not him. I had heard him previously from the other side of a river so I knew he was roosting nearby but not exactly where. I did know he was between two other birds so that gave me a clue about where to set up. Did not see or hear him that day until around noon when he gobbled on his own. When I go back after him again I will stay quiet until it is time for tree talking and I will do very little of that.
Quote from: Greg Massey on May 05, 2025, 11:08:46 PMFor myself I just let nature wake the woods up ... I don't carry a hooter. I do sometimes carry a crow call but I very seldom use it ...
x2
Quote from: zelmo1 on Today at 05:14:30 AMQuote from: Greg Massey on May 05, 2025, 11:08:46 PMFor myself I just let nature wake the woods up ... I don't carry a hooter. I do sometimes carry a crow call but I very seldom use it ...
x3
Personally, I don't use one and I rarely hear a gobble with a real owl hoot. I don't use any locator calls and mainly rely on real crows to get them going in the mornings.
If I were to use a locator call, I would probably use a goose call. I hear more gobbles after a goose call then any other shock call.
It might just be the birds that I hunt
I believe this is worth throwing out there...I don't hoot at owl "hooting" times very often. I hoot after flydown/mid morning usually but am not scared to use it mid day.
My typical hunting style is running and gunning on public land so there are times where a turkey has moved off and in moving positions myself, I need to know where that gobbler is without drawing attention to myself and being a "hen". I'll usually hoot in these situations just to get a shock gobble out of them.
I don't think it's at all unnatural, as they just gobbled to it a couple hours before, I'm not blowing their ears out, and I'm not trying to call them in. It's simply just a way to locate them so I know my next move.
Like anything else, it doesn't always work, but even if it doesn't work, I'm very confident I didn't spook the turkey with it. I do think turkeys are sometimes spooked when you blow their ears up with a loud, crow call.