Every turkey hunter has been there; the morning is still, robins are singing, and turkeys are gobbling, soon to fly down from roost. Anticipation is high. This is what it’s all about.
But wait, that’s an odd-sounding hen. It sounds awfully flat, oddly repetitive, and a bit out of place. It only takes you a few seconds to realize you’re not alone in the turkey woods; another hunter has entered the scene. Nobody wants to be that guy, infringing upon a fellow hunter, trying to pass mouth call squawks for hen yelps. Want to go from that guy to someone who could pass as a real turkey? Here are five tips to do just that.
Make Sure Your Calls Don’t Run Together
Nothing screams hunter like a bad mouth-call yelp. The tell-tale sign of another hunter is the yelp that runs together with no variance in tone, rhythm, or cadence.
If you listen closely to a wild turkey yelp, they have a beginning, middle, and an end. Yours should, too. Authentic yelps tend to start slow and quiet, then hit a climax where the pitch and volume are highest, and end with an audible closing of the bird’s mouth. I like to conclude my yelps with a “P” sound, which assures I close my mouth at the end of each yelp, helping distinguish one yelp from the next in the sequence.
Vary Your Volume and Intensity
Heavily influenced by the breeding cycle, weather, and hunting pressure, a turkey’s mood varies day by day, hour by hour. To become a better turkey caller, you should learn to gauge the flock’s mood prior to calling.
If the flock is yapping like crazy, their guard is down, and they’re feeling good. If they’re tight-lipped, perhaps due to being busted by other hunters or riding out a weather event, these turkeys are likely not talking much. If they are, it’s subtle clucks and yelps at very low volume.
Likewise, your calls should vary to match the attitude of the flock. Breaking the silence with a max volume yelp is going to be highly suspicious. Find a calling sequence that works for you, but be sure to vary your volume and intensity to match what you’re trying to say.
Walk Away from Your Calling Setup
Unless they’re on roost, turkeys are constantly on the move. One second, it sounds like the lead hen is yelping and headed your way. The next, she’s steering the flock 180 degrees away from you. On the other hand, your yelps have been stationary for 30 minutes straight.
No matter how well you broadcast your yelps in different directions, turkeys have an amazing ability to pinpoint your exact calling location, seemingly within inches. If cover and time allow, a trick I’ve used to seal the deal is getting up and leaving my calling setup, yelping on the way out.
You don’t have to go far, just far enough to distinguish your new location. After you’ve given the flock the impression that you’ve lost interest and vacated the area, silently sneak back to your prior calling location. Oftentimes, a tom will slip in silently, investigating what he doesn’t want to miss out on.
Hide Your Calling Location
Getting busted by a wary gobbler is a classic hang-up. The cause can vary from the tom losing faith in the authenticity of your calls to visually seeing something fishy about your setup. After all, a turkey’s superb vision is their main tool for staying alive.
As turkey researcher Dr. Mike Chamberlain explains, “Wild turkeys have monocular periscopic vision, meaning that they view their world much differently than we do with the luxury of binocular vision. Turkeys more than compensate by having more photoreceptors in their eyes than we do, and their eyes are located on the sides of their heads, which allows a nearly 360-degree field of view.”
With this type of equipment, a tom knows exactly where you are calling from. If he has a clear line of sight and doesn’t lay eyes on a hen, he’s bound to be suspicious. Do yourself a favor and put heavy vegetation or topography between you and the tom.
Introduce Nonvocal Turkey Sounds
Elk hunters like to use nonvocal elk sounds to convince rutting bulls that their imitation calls are authentic. This includes raking trees to imitate a challenging bull rubbing his antlers on trees in a display of dominance. Elk hunters also like to kick rocks, break branches, and thrash brush to sound like a herd of elk having a good time.
Turkey hunters can use similar tactics to replicate the sounds of a turkey flock traversing the landscape. A few tried-and-true ones include scratching the ground with your hand as if you are a hen scratching the ground in search of insects. Another classic is using your ballcap to replicate the sound of a turkey flying down from the roost. Another one that I’ve been playing with is imitating turkeys fighting, which, if you’ve ever had a tom whoop up on a jake decoy, you know that fighting can drive toms absolutely mad.
To do this, I use my cap to slap my thigh, paired with excited cutting on the diaphragm call. The idea is to sound like turkeys fighting and beating each other with their wings and spurs. The devil is in the details, and turkey calling is no different.
