Hi guys,
I've read various advice on cold calling and thought I'd share an experience that has got me questioning my tactics a bit.
My historical method of cold calling (calling when don't know if there are any birds in the area) has always been a bit reserved. If I was sneak hunting, I would call every 10 minutes or so, as well as when I was about to round a corner or crest a hill. If I was sitting somewhere for a spell, I'd tend to call every 15-20 minutes. With my calling, I switch between yelps, clucks, and purrs, and the occasional light cut mixed into the yelps. I also switch call types (slate, box, mouth, push-pin). I've certainly had my success over the years, but I've also had periods with no action.
Two weekends ago I participated in a youth mentor hunt. We were in an area that was a mixture of farmland, lowland, and not a ton of woods. On day one we saw some hens, but didn't hear a single gobble or see a jake or tom. Because I had a youth on his first hunt and his father along, we used a blind. I did my usual calling. After about 3 hours in a spot we would pack up our stuff and move to another side of the farm and repeat the process. On day two we had the same experience all morning. When we only had a couple of hours left to hunt, I decided to light it up! Since I had nothing to lose and I called as loud, hard, and excited as I have ever called. I called about every 5-10 minutes. I still switched between call types, but only did excited yelping and cutting. After about an hour I had 2 toms and a jake coming from 3 different directions. My youth got his first bird. It was awesome!
Moral of the story? I'm going to add more aggressive calling to my cold call mix!
I'm interested to hear others weigh in on this. I've always heard to be careful with the hard, loud calling. This holds especially true on calm days. That loud calling travels and doesn't sound natural to an old tom. Who knows though?
I guess it's hard telling the effect it has on birds unless you're hunting over a wide open field. If you're in the woods, you never know which birds your spooking. My theory with calling aggressively like that is that it only works on birds that are extremely hot. In other words, if they come into that type of loud, obnoxious calling, then they would have come into just about anything. I've had quite a few do that! Love those :z-guntootsmiley:
My grandpa used to say that if a bird is hot enough, he'll come into a knife scraping against a plate. :icon_thumright:
I get progressively more aggressive. I think cause I get bored.
Yes it works. Does it work every time? Nothing works every time. But there have been times I have walked up on a gobbler mid day, spotted him, set up and tried soft calling him and they either look up and go back to bugging or don't even take notice. Then fire up like a group of hens fussin with cutts, agressive purrs, sharp clucks and short demanding yelps and they come. Contented hen talk just don't get some of their attention. My favorite call sequence to get a mid day gobbler to gobble and reveal himself is three to five demanding raspy yelps followed by a sharp three note cutt. A lot of birds just will not gobble at soft calling mid day.
I like to get loud and nasty when birds are quiet, but only do it about once and sit and wait for him to get to my end of the breeding order. They hear you but they might just be pre-ocupied at the moment. Remember,they are males and want it every chance they can get it! Patience is the key and the longer I have waited out a turkey he usally ends up being a STUD but not all the time! ;D ;D ;D ;D
O.K. Here is my weigh in. I always get as tight in to the roost as I can and call hard.This is on public land in the spring in IL.Hunting hours end at 1:00 and pressure can be tough.Other hunters,mushroom hunters,horse riders etc.If you set up 150 yrds. away and call soft it won't happen. Add to this that I only bowhunt in the spring and I have had to change my style.So I get up early and pack in my blind etc. to within 60 yrds.of the roost most of the time.I also bowhunt NE. and KS. public land.If I can set up near the roost the birds never fly down to me.I call hard and stay all day.My two KS. birds,this year, came after an all day stay in 90 degree heat April 1st.One came from the west after a youth hunter shot birds in that direction with a gun and I called the other one across a big creek. Soft calling won't get it done that early out west. I call alot and have called in contests.I say this because when you practice it gives you confidence to call and that will kill turkeys. One other note is I fall/winter turkey hunt from Sept. to Jan. and this,I think, makes me a better turkey hunter.Late spring,early spring,I don't care becouse I use kee kee runs and gobbler yelping in the spring along with my hen calling.I get beat up bad in the sping in IL. but I keep going because our seasons are short and I don't want to look back at the end of the season and think I should have went yesterday for the hour before work.
Quote from: cfrye11 on May 03, 2012, 04:37:20 PM
I get progressively more aggressive. I think cause I get bored.
:z-winnersmiley:
Quote from: cfrye11 on May 03, 2012, 04:37:20 PM
I get progressively more aggressive. I think cause I get bored.
Exactly my problem.
Think of it this way. Your sitting in the den watching the game on TV. Your wife and her best friend are in the kitchen doing what women do best... talking. You can hear them but it is nothing you are interested in so you tune them out. All of a sudden they start shouting at each other and screaming. You think "WHAT THE HECK" and run into the kitchen! 'Bout the same thing. Only... lets hope there isn't a turkey in there with a shotgun.
When I'm running and gunning, I call very loud and very often. Its what works for me. I'm a firm believer that aggressive calling can fire up a gobbler that would have otherwise remained silent.
I want my calling to reach out and I'm hunting for birds on the edge of my hearing range. I can move on them then and tone it down if need be.
Quote from: Skeeterbait on May 03, 2012, 09:54:56 PM
Think of it this way. Your sitting in the den watching the game on TV. Your wife and her best friend are in the kitchen doing what women do best... talking. You can hear them but it is nothing you are interested in so you tune them out. All of a sudden they start shouting at each other and screaming. You think "WHAT THE HECK" and run into the kitchen! 'Bout the same thing. Only... lets hope there isn't a turkey in there with a shotgun.
I like that philosophy - makes a lot of sense!
Quote from: Skeeterbait on May 03, 2012, 05:01:25 PM
Yes it works. Does it work every time? Nothing works every time. But there have been times I have walked up on a gobbler mid day, spotted him, set up and tried soft calling him and they either look up and go back to bugging or don't even take notice. Then fire up like a group of hens fussin with cutts, agressive purrs, sharp clucks and short demanding yelps and they come. Contented hen talk just don't get some of their attention. My favorite call sequence to get a mid day gobbler to gobble and reveal himself is three to five demanding raspy yelps followed by a sharp three note cutt. A lot of birds just will not gobble at soft calling mid day.
100% agree with everything you said.
Quote from: redleg06 on May 04, 2012, 09:12:48 AM
Quote from: Skeeterbait on May 03, 2012, 05:01:25 PM
Yes it works. Does it work every time? Nothing works every time. But there have been times I have walked up on a gobbler mid day, spotted him, set up and tried soft calling him and they either look up and go back to bugging or don't even take notice. Then fire up like a group of hens fussin with cutts, agressive purrs, sharp clucks and short demanding yelps and they come. Contented hen talk just don't get some of their attention. My favorite call sequence to get a mid day gobbler to gobble and reveal himself is three to five demanding raspy yelps followed by a sharp three note cutt. A lot of birds just will not gobble at soft calling mid day.
100% agree with everything you said.
Thats good stuff,I pretty much work it the same way.
I've gotten lucky a few times this year ;D between 11 and 12, late morning birds running and gunning. Great tactic
I get pretty aggressive when cold calling, if a bird doesn't even want to give me a single gobble to some loud cutts and excited yelping then I dont wanna play with him either.
I got enough land and properties to keep moving til I find one that wants to go! If i'm contained to a single farm I will tone it down a good bit
Sounds to me like, we have numerous guys that have gotten away from the OLD SCHOOL theory of Soft, Subtle Hen Talk and wait at least 15 to 30 minutes before you call again to NEW SCHOOL--CRANK IT UP! I have to throw myself into this mix. If I'm calling softly and nothing happens, I figure what do I have to lose unless you want to set in one location and hope a Gobbler just happens to come by. Is that called impatience or hunting? We preach Patience but can't stand it when nothing is happening.
I tend to be very aggressive when cold calling but in short spurts. If you have been hunting long enough you have heard a hen get fired up for no apparent reason but it is usually shortlived. That is what i try to mimmick and then shut up for a bit. No really set time frame just when it feels right I call. Here in TN it is getting late and the birds have heard it all so I have added a Gobble to the end of my sequence the last two hunts and had a Longbeard take a ride home both times. One responded by gobbling all the way to the gun barrel and the other never made a sound. Don't be afraid to try new things, old man once told me act like a turkey!
One thing I think a lot of guys, including myself in the past, overlook when running and gunning is the ground you have covered. It is not unusual for there to be a silent bird trying to catch up with you, particularly in timberland. If you are walking a logging road calling, stop every few hundred yards, set up, and watch back down the road the way you came. I learned this by accident one time when I sat down to rest and here came two silent gobblers running up the road from where I had been trying to catch up with that group of hens they thought was traveling the road. Set up and watch back the way you came for 30-45 minutes periodically and you will kill a bird occasionally trying to catch up with you. Has worked for me several times.
Ok here's my take on it. Again as I often say the way I learned much of my tactics were from watching and listening to hens themselves. With that said here you are on a quiet day with no gobbling at all yet you are a hen who is ready to breed. She however the same as you cannot find a gobble because he is not gobbling so what does she do she starts calling like crazy I've seen it dozens of times. Usually you think its a hunter but then here she comes almost in a frantic state walking fast back and forth all because she needs an answer to. So if its good for them its good for me. So I often call loud and hard and I do feel it works better than soft,quiet and accasional. If I no birds are around that's a different story but if its been real quiet I turn it up.
Holy crap......you sat in one spot for three hours?
Congrats on a nice hunt. Nice to see youth score.
Quote from: savduck on May 04, 2012, 10:42:03 AM
Holy crap......you sat in one spot for three hours?
:TooFunny: :TooFunny:
I was thinking it, but you said it. ;D ;D
35 minutes is a long time in one place for me if I am prospecting (don't know there is a bird close or pattern of one being there at a certain time) and have not heard or seen anything. As one of my S. GA friends says, "I can't hardly stand to try to hunt a turkey like hunting a deer."
I got to hunt some private land today with a friend of mine. It was quiet this morning, I thought I heard a gobble this morning but wasn't sure. We decided to run and gun for awhile and made a big loop back to where we started. It was 9 am. I told him we'll just sit here until 12 and i'll call every 15 to 20 minutes. I would throw in a mix of calls like loud cutting, yelping, soft purring and clucking. I was swithching it up between a mouth call and slate call. About an hour and a half later, I got a feeling something was behind me. Never heard anything, leaves were wet from last evenings thunder storms, I turned my head to look around me and heard alarm putts. Never did see what is was either. :(
When if i'm cold calling it's in an area that,i don't know the or someone is taking me too their spot...and i'll ussally won't get agressive...I'll start out just clucking with a soft yelp thrown in...and if i do hear a gobbler...I'll let him set the tempo....if he wants to hear it and he keeps gobbling when i don't call...he'll get an earful..otherwise it's soft calling...Thunderbolt
my buddy has a place that gives us trouble alot. we have set up many times and called. the first few times we did the soft thing with no results... then one morning we set up and started with the soft stuff. nothing for about an hour. then i got loud and super aggressive and using a box and mouth while he worked a pot call. a bird fired off about 200 yds away. 2 minutes later and still calling virtually non stop he fired off again from 100 yds. a few minutes later again at 50 yds. we softened our calling but was still being super aggressive and almost non stop. his next gobble was at 30 yds. just over the lip of the hill. he was already on the gun and i shut up. 30 seconds he was standing in the deks. i called. his head shot up and boom bird flops. 1 3/8 inch spurs 11.5 inch beard 22 pounds.
since that hunt we have used the aggressive calls alot and they have worked about 75 percent of the time compared to 0 percent for the soft calling. some times it is just jakes that come sometimes toms but no matter it is better than nothing responding. oh and most of the time they have came silent.
I've fired up many a bird late morning with some hard cutting