Drummin

[C.Kimzey95]

Can anyone else just not hear drumming? I for one have listened to several sound clips. Been on birds that my buddies said drummed (in close quarters) and I just can't hear it.

[Mike Honcho]

I have some hearing loss and I can't  hear it.

[spaightlabs]

Most hearing loss is at higher frequencies.  Drumming is at a very low frequency.   Think sub-woofer.

[catman529]

it's a very deep sound and it took me a couple years hunting before I heard one drumming. Some birds just don't make much drumming sound at all, others I can hear from a distance before I even see the bird.

[hobbes]

I have some high frequency hearing loss (mostly in my left ear).  I'm sure it's from blasting away with shotguns in my younger years in a duck blind and a dove field and the two stroke motorcycles probably didn't help.  Seems like they told me I even have a little low frequency loss.  I can, however, hear drumming.  The first time I heard it back in about 91, I didn't recognize it in all the excitement until after I'd already killed the tom.  Then it dawned on me.....what was that humming noise that was so loud..........Ahhh..that was drumming.  You can almost feel it as much as hear it.

I've had strutters that came in that didn't do it, but it seems that the majority of the time a strutter comes in...........I hear him drumming before I ever see him.  Are you sure that you just don't know what you are listening for?

[C.Kimzey95]

Hobbes that could very well be possible. I've had it explained to me before and imagined what it would sound like but have ever heard it.

[Spurs]

I have a constant ringing in my right ear and I can still hear it.  I can actually remember the first time I heard it.  It was very intimidating, but I knew what it was (saw it on a Primos video and heard my dad talk about it).

I was hunting in N Arkansas with my dad, I couldn't have been more than 14 years old.  My dad was the kind that didn't "give instructions". He just kinda said, "go that way, there is usually something there".  Well, this particular day, there were 3 gobblers running together.  I was running a Primos Freak slate call (yea, it is embarrassing but I was a kid).  I got on their same level because I had heard dad tell stories about that when he killed birds.  I purred, clucked, yelped, cackled, fighting purred, and I might have even done a fly down cackle....as I have already stated, I was young.  Next thing I knew, the race was on.  They were literally racing up that hill to see what this hot little hen was talking about.  All 3 of them were hammering, spittin, drumming, and I was FROZEN.  I'm talking can't move, shaking like a fat girl trying to twerk.  Well, I did finally shoot one when they spotted me, my deeply rooted killer instinct came out.  That was my first gobbler. (Killed my first Jake @ 12 by myself).  I still go back to that frozen little kid when I hear it....but I can find that trigger a little easier.


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[KYFrid]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQDSrIUaQ2U - Video Tube for YouTube - iPhone/iPad


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[Mabren2]

The first time I heard it, I heard it and didn't know what it was. A guy had taken me to show me the ropes, and I had only hunted a couple seasons prior to that. When had been circling a gobbling bird all morning, and at our last setup he was really fired up and really close. I never did see the bird, and he went quiet for 10-15 minutes. My friend was behind me calling, so at this point he crawled up and asked what happened, because the bird had been so close gobbling he expected me to shoot. As I was explaining that I'd never seen the bird, he said we don't need to go anywhere I can hear him drumming right now.

For me it was one of those things that once you hear it and know what it is, you can pick it out and there is no mistaking it. We didn't kill the bird I mentioned above, but as we were making our way back towards the truck we ran into a bird gobbling. We made a quick setup and he began to call. I thought the bird would approach to our left because there was a fence only a few steps away, and I thought he was on the other side of it. My friend was sure it would come up in front of us or slightly to the right. I trusted his instinct because he knows more about turkeys than I probably ever will, and I was looking down my barrel in the direction he suggested. Shortly I heard that unmistakable drumming noise that I'd just learned not 20 minutes ago, and I knew he was close. I peaked out of the corner of my eye, and there he stood just on the other side of the fence like I had predicted. I was able to spin and shoot him. I'll never forget that hunt, because a sound that wasn't registering with me was incredibly noticeable only twenty minutes later. I really believe that if it wasn't for my earlier experience I wouldn't have killed that second bird. Since then I have had no trouble hearing it, and I sure love it when I do!

[wvmntnhick]

I've only heard it a handful of times. The first time was on the first tom I'd ever killed. It flew in and landed right beside us. He spit, drummed and put on a show for a good solid minute and a half before anxiety got the best of me and I let him have it. Shot a bird a couple years ago that was drumming while on the limb. Heard a bird gobble way before daylight. Wouldn't gobble again so I just slipped into the woods thinking he was across the field. I'd never hunted the place before and ended up setting up about 20 feet away from the tree he was in. He flew down into the neighboring field about 70 yards away and came right back to me. The last one was when Happy and I were hunting together he'd called 2 birds in and they were getting quite close. Put on a decent show up until he shot his bird and I "whiffed" on mine. Man he was upset. I didn't care personally as it was fun to just be there but that fella genuinely wanted me to get a bird as well. Ended up getting him later in a field as we headed back to the truck but not how I really wanted to do it. Now, I plan to make the game a much closer event these days. Hopefully anyway.

[TauntoHawk]

I hear the spit better than the drum everytime, its a cool thing to experience though

[OldSchool]

I can't hear spitting and drumming any more unless they're almost on top of me and I miss it. The direction of a distant gobble can fool me too. Please don't take good hearing for granted and don't scoff at the idea of using hearing protection when shooting or working around loud noises. 

They're not loud sounds to begin with and It's not hard to miss them from any distance at all unless you're really tuned to them.

Bob

[Hooksfan]

My son wouldn't have killed the first bird we killed last weekend on a Youth hunt if I hadn't heard the bird drumming.  I tried to get my son, who has much better hearing than me, to hear it and he said he never did hear it, but he also knew that if I told him there was a turkey right behind the cedar in front of us that he better be ready to shoot it.

[hobbes]

Hobbes that could very well be possible. I've had it explained to me before and imagined what it would sound like but have ever heard it.

Are you a fairly new turkey hunter?  If so, I'd say that you probably just haven't recognized the sound yet.  If you've been hunting turkeys for a while now then I'd say it's due to some hearing issue.

Its a difficult sound to explain.  Like i said, I can almost "feel" it as much as hear it.  A similar sound is made by hummingbird wings (sort of).  Can you hear their wings?

I worry about my own hearing and do what I can to protect it nowadays.   My son will hear a tom gobble when I can't,  but I still had to point out drumming to him.  He recognizes it now, but he's up to about 7 years experience now.  My youngest heard it for the first time last year.

[trkehunr93]

In almost 25 years of chasing these things in the spring I heard my first strutting gobbler spitting last year but I could not hear him drum.  I just think some can hear it and some cannot.


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