Turkey Calls

[fourfive8]

Turkey hunting is all about figuring them out. Observing them early on roost before light and late on their way to and after they’ve gone to roost and what they do in between during the day. And by the season, year around. Learning how they think. Then calling them close.… 30 yards or so and shooting head/neck with shotgun. Close is where the low volume slate calls shine with the subtle putts and purrs.

I guess nothing happened without pics. My backyard.

Group of hens, jakes and drumming tom. They’re safe, I don’t hunt the turkeys, deer or elk on my property… but do shoot the coyotes, prairie dogs and rock squirrels.

 

[Mr. 16 gauge]

Kind of new to turkey hunting. Nothing new or 'custom'. I have diaphragm, box, push button, and slate calls. I primarily use the box and diaphragm calls......use the box call to bring them in and then use the diaphragm so they don't see my hands move.
.....but one of the best calls I have is a small garden rake......the tines are about as wide as my hand. I added a 12" handle to it and use it to rake the leaves where I'm sitting.....makes it sound like turkeys scratching in the leaf litter looking for bugs, acorns, etc. It's actually fairly effective.

 

[503]

Slate call, gloves, face mask thing. 12 gauge 870 with a jebs .675. Still doing some tss testing but it patterns well. Pocket knife, can of monster and some dekes.

I use the foam ones that fold up. They spin and move in the wind. Really makes the gobbler focus on them and not me.

Never leave home without them.

Cheers

503

 

[HankBuck]

Tss, binoculars, thermocell with extra pads and juice. 1 aluminum call my brother made with scratch pads. 1 small knife. 1 small little hand snips. I don’t leave home without my mouth call and if I do I go back home to get it. Been turkey hunting 32 or 33 seasons. Spent more time in the turkey woods then 99% of the people out there. Our season used to be 45 days and I spent 45 days before that scouting hard. But that was back in the day of no trail cams or fancy decoys and when you could kill 5 birds here in SC.
I used to sit in the woods scouting and stay close to birds to try to see their spurs and would hunt the biggest bird I could find opening day. Back when I would literally have 75+ longbeards scouted out preseason but had lots of access back then that has dwindled to not much now.

@3chunter - why do you think the “hunting - or was it ‘access’” Dwindled? Is your area getting built up with development or have you lost permission to hut some farms? Lastly, has the turkey population declined?
My area seems to have fewer turkeys then 5-7 years ago and the States published harvest reports support that theory. However, my Son hunts in NJ and his best spot is only a 15-20 acre patch of woods surrounded by homes and small “farmette’s”. The turkey population is consistently 15-20 birds including 4-6 Gobblers.

 

[3chunter]

@3chunter - why do you think the “hunting - or was it ‘access’” Dwindled? Is your area getting built up with development or have you lost permission to hut some farms? Lastly, has the turkey population declined?
My area seems to have fewer turkeys then 5-7 years ago and the States published harvest reports support that theory. However, my Son hunts in NJ and his best spot is only a 15-20 acre patch of woods surrounded by homes and small “farmette’s”. The turkey population is consistently 15-20 birds including 4-6 Gobblers.

More and more people moving to big cities and coming to the country on weekends and paying big money for leasing land. It’s all about money these days.
Our turkey population hasn’t really declined in my opinion here but I think the problem is strutter decoys coupled with current generation and etc. resulting in easy birds and lack of real hunt skill. hear me out.
Field birds used to be the toughest turkeys to hunt here. If you killed em, you earned them and most of the time you had to use woodsman skills to do it. Now you put a strutter out in the field and it’s like nothing for the dominate bird to come and kill him. This creates 3 big issues.
1. Old gobblers used to never die until later in the season. They were busy breeding many hens. Pecking order was established and didn’t change until middle-end of season. Almost never killed a long spurred turkey until late season. That was the case 95% of the time. A dominate gobbler will leave all his hens to come check out a real like strutter decoy. He will do almost guaranteed. This has flipped the dynamic on hunting once tough field birds.
2. Pecking order frenzy day 1 season starts. When that big old breeder gobbler dies opening day of season it creates havoc. Now all the local gobblers have to re-establish pecking order. This causes hens to maybe slow process of being bred which is critical.
3. Youth hunters don’t know how to hunt without a decoy. If you take their decoy away then they will probably get discouraged and leave. Plus of this is less competition and less pressure resulting in more turkeys. No strutter decoy will equal safety of more older gobblers resulting in more turkeys being bred during the time they should be and less pecking order chaos. The turkey woods in my opinion are meant to be tough hunting most of the time. Learn the skill of calling and woodsmanship and walking your butt off.

 

[Field28]

@3chunter - why do you think the “hunting - or was it ‘access’” Dwindled? Is your area getting built up with development or have you lost permission to hut some farms? Lastly, has the turkey population declined?
My area seems to have fewer turkeys then 5-7 years ago and the States published harvest reports support that theory. However, my Son hunts in NJ and his best spot is only a 15-20 acre patch of woods surrounded by homes and small “farmette’s”. The turkey population is consistently 15-20 birds including 4-6 Gobblers.

Here in SC land development definitely has contributed to our states decline.
I'm in the development and building business so I've seen it first hand.
I've said for a few years now that if it is found that turkeys are living on a piece of land that the developer should have to pay for the birds to be trapped and relocated to a WMA.

It's kind of sad that the state that was responsible for repopulating the Eastern to much of America now in decline. I also think that we allowed too many tags to oos hunters. We've long been a bucket list location for many diehard turkey hunters. The appeal was hunting the purest wild strain Easterns. I'm not against oos hunters, for most of my life residents were allowed five tags a year.

A few poor hatches, the explosion of the Coyote population and some hunting methods like reaping didn't help either.
I don't mind Tss in a 410 or 20, but i don't like it in a 12. There is no sport in shooting a turkey at 60 yards. To me turkey hunting is a close, Marco Polo kind of game. I'd much rather shoot birds at 5-20 paces.

 

[Field28]

More and more people moving to big cities and coming to the country on weekends and paying big money for leasing land. It’s all about money these days.
Our turkey population hasn’t really declined in my opinion here but I think the problem is strutter decoys coupled with current generation and etc. resulting in easy birds and lack of real hunt skill. hear me out.
Field birds used to be the toughest turkeys to hunt here. If you killed em, you earned them and most of the time you had to use woodsman skills to do it. Now you put a strutter out in the field and it’s like nothing for the dominate bird to come and kill him. This creates 3 big issues.
1. Old gobblers used to never die until later in the season. They were busy breeding many hens. Pecking order was established and didn’t change until middle-end of season. Almost never killed a long spurred turkey until late season. That was the case 95% of the time. A dominate gobbler will leave all his hens to come check out a real like strutter decoy. He will do almost guaranteed. This has flipped the dynamic on hunting once tough field birds.
2. Pecking order frenzy day 1 season starts. When that big old breeder gobbler dies opening day of season it creates havoc. Now all the local gobblers have to re-establish pecking order. This causes hens to maybe slow process of being bred which is critical.
3. Youth hunters don’t know how to hunt without a decoy. If you take their decoy away then they will probably get discouraged and leave. Plus of this is less competition and less pressure resulting in more turkeys. No strutter decoy will equal safety of more older gobblers resulting in more turkeys being bred during the time they should be and less pecking order chaos. The turkey woods in my opinion are meant to be tough hunting most of the time. Learn the skill of calling and woodsmanship and walking your butt places.

We've definitely had decline on the coast, it seems like if I go further inland I still see a good many birds. Give it another 10 years and there won't be a tree left in Horry county for birds to roost in.

 

[3chunter]

Here in SC land development definitely has contributed to our states decline.
I'm in the development and building business so I've seen it first hand.
I've said for a few years now that if it is found that turkeys are living on a piece of land that the developer should have to pay for the birds to be trapped and relocated to a WMA.

It's kind of sad that the state that was responsible for repopulating the Eastern to much of America now in decline. I also think that we allowed too many tags to oos hunters. We've long been a bucket list location for many diehard turkey hunters. The appeal was hunting the purest wild strain Easterns. I'm not against oos hunters, for most of my life residents were allowed five tags a year.

A few poor hatches, the explosion of the Coyote population and some hunting methods like reaping didn't help either.
I don't mind Tss in a 410 or 20, but i don't like it in a 12. There is no sport in shooting a turkey at 60 yards. To me turkey hunting is a close, Marco Polo kind of game. I'd much rather shoot birds at 5-20 paces.

I am sure some places development is creating lost habitat.
I believe many factors have put us where we are. But in the rural most SC counties if they cut out decoys. They could go back to 5 bird limit within 2 years and never skip a beat turkey population wise until development started happening.
Obviously weather and predation plays part but that played a part 50 years ago and hasn’t changed.
Major issue also is loss of roost habitat and sanctuaries they create. Once you cut down big hardwood swamps here, the turkeys will all but be gone. Maybe forever.
I think non resident hunters are not an issue now since they changed the season and limits.
I know of a guy that runs a plantation and it has eliminated his out of state hunters completely. Like to zero!

 

[HankBuck]

Here in SC land development definitely has contributed to our states decline.
I'm in the development and building business so I've seen it first hand.
I've said for a few years now that if it is found that turkeys are living on a piece of land that the developer should have to pay for the birds to be trapped and relocated to a WMA.

It's kind of sad that the state that was responsible for repopulating the Eastern to much of America now in decline. I also think that we allowed too many tags to oos hunters. We've long been a bucket list location for many diehard turkey hunters. The appeal was hunting the purest wild strain Easterns. I'm not against oos hunters, for most of my life residents were allowed five tags a year.

A few poor hatches, the explosion of the Coyote population and some hunting methods like reaping didn't help either.
I don't mind Tss in a 410 or 20, but i don't like it in a 12. There is no sport in shooting a turkey at 60 yards. To me turkey hunting is a close, Marco Polo kind of game. I'd much rather shoot birds at 5-20 paces.

@Field28 - I have No concern with improved shot types (Hevi, TSS etc..) for shotgun hunting Spring Gobblers but some States allow RIFLES for Spring Gobblers and that’s something I do Not use - even where it’s legal. I also haven’t quite found that I do not believe that better shot will reduce crippled and lost Gobblers because those hunters will continue to Stretch-the-range until they pass the limits of TSS and then still result in wounded Gobblers. SO whether Lead Shot is good to 45 yrds and you stretch to 55 or TSS is good to 75 and you stretch to 95 —- the wounding rate could be about the same. Regardless of my opinion on TSS - it’s here to stay…just like Scopes on Rifles - it’s an improvement whether it’s needed or Not, it increases range and is gonna stay around.
I do Not agree developers should be required to “Trap & relocate” Wild Turkeys from land they purchase. Consider that turkeys could have a varying home range or several square miles - purchase 300 acres and do what? - trap turkeys that wander onto it and “decrease” the population for a few square miles? The idea is Nobel but I don’t see how that could work? (But, I’m Not a Biologist).
I Do agree that if Turkey populations drop then permits or seasons must be reduced. I’d rather see the Developer pay a fee to the State that goes towards Habitat improvement for Wildlife and set aside more State land for Wildlife or require and large blocks of land purchased to have 20%+ of that land be placed in a “Habitat Conservation Program”.

 

[Field28]

I am sure some places development is creating lost habitat.
I believe many factors have put us where we are. But in the rural most SC counties if they cut out decoys. They could go back to 5 bird limit within 2 years and never skip a beat turkey population wise until development started happening.
Obviously weather and predation plays part but that played a part 50 years ago and hasn’t changed.
Major issue also is loss of roost habitat and sanctuaries they create. Once you cut down big hardwood swamps here, the turkeys will all but be gone. Maybe forever.
I think non resident hunters are not an issue now since they changed the season and limits.
I know of a guy that runs a plantation and it has eliminated his out of state hunters completely. Like to zero!

Agree completely on the decoys and especially in the previous post about field birds. I quit using decoys years ago, too bulky and I think they slow me down.

About 25 years ago i was on a beautiful afternoon hunt down in a oak bottom not far from the Savanah River in Allendale.
Not a cloud in the sky, just enough breeze to keep the bugs down, temperature was probably 66-67 degrees... perfect.
I had one lone hen decoy in front of me at ten yards. All of a sudden one of the largest bobcats I've ever seen came out of nowhere and rolled the decoy. He realized something was off and left. The next week a hunter in the Francis Marion NF was attacked by a bobcat while he was using a diaphragm call, fellow had to have numerous facial reconstructive surgeries. I've felt kinda leary of carrying around decoys since.

 

[Field28]

@Field28 - I have No concern with improved shot types (Hevi, TSS etc..) for shotgun hunting Spring Gobblers but some States allow RIFLES for Spring Gobblers and that’s something I do Not use - even where it’s legal. I also haven’t quite found that I do not believe that better shot will reduce crippled and lost Gobblers because those hunters will continue to Stretch-the-range until they pass the limits of TSS and then still result in wounded Gobblers. SO whether Lead Shot is good to 45 yrds and you stretch to 55 or TSS is good to 75 and you stretch to 95 —- the wounding rate could be about the same. Regardless of my opinion on TSS - it’s here to stay…just like Scopes on Rifles - it’s an improvement whether it’s needed or Not, it increases range and is gonna stay around.
I do Not agree developers should be required to “Trap & relocate” Wild Turkeys from land they purchase. Consider that turkeys could have a varying home range or several square miles - purchase 300 acres and do what? - trap turkeys that wander onto it and “decrease” the population for a few square miles? The idea is Nobel but I don’t see how that could work? (But, I’m Not a Biologist).
I Do agree that if Turkey populations drop then permits or seasons must be reduced. I’d rather see the Developer pay a fee to the State that goes towards Habitat improvement for Wildlife and set aside more State land for Wildlife or require and large blocks of land purchased to have 20%+ of that land be placed in a “Habitat Conservation Program”.

I have to admit that I am a bit of purist when it comes to recent advancements in the outdoor industry. I'm not totally against Tss, I have a little NEF 410 that I've killed several birds with using Tss.
I do like the close turkey game, I would say none were further than 15-20 paces.

As someone who makes their living from building and development, I don't have all the answers but I do say that we have some responsibility when it comes to habitat reduction. Displaced animals are a common occurrence in new neighborhoods, some seem able to adapt perfectly, others not so much.

 

[Tucketed]

How about bird flu? I have no doubt that wild pheasant were decimated in the east by it in the late 70’s. One year they were abundant next two or three years gone.