Drummin

[Chilly]

It all depends on the situation for me. I have heard it on occasion but usually don't.  I have a friend of who cannot hear a turkey walking in the leaves 30 yards away but can hear drumming long before the bird shows up.  His hearing is not that good but how he hears drumming is beyond me. 
Hell, one day he told me we had a bird drumming and coming in and to get ready.  No gobbling whatsoever and it was in 30+ mph winds.  Two minutes later the bird was dead at 20 yards.

[g8rvet]

I have heard it, but not often. I always tell beginners that I feel it more than hear it.  On one of those YouSpace videos, I had a hard time hearing it though. 

I was walking the road back to my truck one day and coming to a bend in the two rut road and heard, beyond a shadow of a doubt in my mind, a turkey spit.  Had not heard a gobble all morning, but was sure it was a turkey spit. There were some large palmettos around the corner and he had to be close. Still had my mouth call in. I immediately squatted into a sitting position, Indian style, in the middle of the road. Brought my gun up and clucked.  He absolutely hammered when he gobbled he was so close.  If I had not known he was there I would have probably messed my self.  This story would be much better if he cleared the palmettos for a shot, but he did not. He kept going (after tracking later, he had already passed where I was) and would not back track, even 30 yards. 

I have a hard time hearing low talkers with deep voices and suspect I have some low range hearing loss, but have felt it a few times.

[Tennessee Lead]

I hear them drumming before I see em coming most of the time.

[hobbes]

g8rvet,  It seems odd to me that I hear it so much considering I have a hard time hearing folks that talk quiet in a low voice, especially if there is any bacground noise. 

I've heard birds drumming from much farther than shooting range if it's not windy.

[C.Kimzey95]

I can hear the spit, but not the drum. May just not be something I've picked up on. This is my 8th year hunting and I've taken 8 birds. I for sure heard the spit on the last one I shot Wednesday. But I didn't give him much time to do anything else 

[SteelerFan]

I really do believe it's a matter of individual hearing. Like others said, some hear the spit, some the drum, some both, some neither!

Hunting with friends, I sometimes get a chuckle at the "argument" we have at a whisper, when I hear the Pfffffttttttttt- Uuuuuuummmm and I tell my buddy to get ready, and they say "why?" 

[StrutStopper_71]

I can hear a bird spit from a long ways away a lot of times but cannot hear a drum to save my life. I have my hearing checked once a year at work and everything is just fine. A buddy that hunts with me can hear one drum and we argue all the time because I tell him he is crazy. Several  times we have killed birds that I have heard spit long before seeing them, that he could not hear. I think it just varys from person to person. He swears it sounds like subwoofers in someone trunk.

[jwright8]

When I was little and hunted with my dad he could always hear it. I never could. One day I finally heard it, and now I hear them before I see them just about everytime.

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[Marc]

Drumming sounds like a deep humming bird...  The spitting sounds like...  Well spitting.

Look at this video about 2:20 into in, and you can hear this bird drum (turn the sound up, but beware of the gobbling).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQDSrIUaQ2U&nohtml5=False

I never heard it for a long time, till I realized what it was.  I have some hearing loss, but can still hear some birds drum for a long ways off (100 yards under the right conditions).  Now I hear humming birds and start looking for turkeys...

Here is a commercial for a drumming gobbler call (which sounds nothing like a drumming gobbler to me), but the beginning of the video there is a great example of a bird drumming.  Turn up the sound and listen to this...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKfgnfIiPdQ

[g8rvet]

I can hear both of those examples, but barely.   With speakers way up. 

That is odd Hobbes.  I heard a hen sneak up behind me this morning, all she did was purr and I thought "That is a hen, no doubt".  A little but later she got close enough to hear well and then she clucked too.  Then she was about 10 yards from me.  I have actually heard a spit while walking two different times.  Froze in my tracks because I knew what it was.  Only heard drumming a handful of times, with some of the birds less than 15 yards from me that I could not hear. The best one I ever heard was about 40 yards from me.  I am sure, like gobbles and yelps, there is some variation in the frequencies. I am sure some of them were drumming. It just must be a frequency that is hard for me to pick up.  I agree, it is odd.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSkH45nGuM8

I could start hearing for sure at around 12 Hz.  Maybe at 10-11, but would have to be really quiet.

[NYlogbeards]

I always heard drumming during spring and thought it was turkeys that was doing the drumming but one time i spotted a Grouse drumming in some pines, so i'm not sure if i can say i've heard drumming.

[fallhnt]

I hear it before fly down too

[Happy]

Typically I have to be within 60 yards or so to hear drumming. I can hear the spit easier. Course my hearing isn't that great and birds typically sound further away than they really are to me. To much time around heavy machinery.

[wvmntnhick]

I always heard drumming during spring and thought it was turkeys that was doing the drumming but one time i spotted a Grouse drumming in some pines, so i'm not sure if i can say i've heard drumming.

The drumming of a turkey and the drumming of a grouse are two distinctly different sounds. A grouse drums by flapping his wings. This leads to multiple "thumps". A turkey on the other hand sounds (to me) more like a muffled vacuum tube at the bank drive through.

[NYlogbeards]

I always heard drumming during spring and thought it was turkeys that was doing the drumming but one time i spotted a Grouse drumming in some pines, so i'm not sure if i can say i've heard drumming.

The drumming of a turkey and the drumming of a grouse are two distinctly different sounds. A grouse drums by flapping his wings. This leads to multiple "thumps". A turkey on the other hand sounds (to me) more like a muffled vacuum tube at the bank drive through.

I love that sound Grouse make, sound like someone starting a lawn mower... I've never heard a Turkey drum but I do notice when they spit they also stomp their feet.