Here is an excerpt from the hunting book I wrote, that might help.

It is however, just one of my ways, and one of many ways.

Spring Calling
When I hear the first sounds of the turkeys in the spring, just before daylight, I tree yelp softly to get their attention. If there are hens roosted nearby they may respond with their own tree yelps; toms often gobble. If you aren't fully awake yet the sound of an early morning gobble can really get your heart pumping. From here on it's a matter of experience and personal tactics. I try to imitate all the sounds that a tom is likely to hear from other turkeys. In the morning the tom expects to hear the sounds that a hen or flock makes on the roost; the tree yelp, pit and cluck. When the birds fly down they yelp or use the flying cackle. If the tom is close enough he expects to hear flapping wings too. I use all these sounds to convince the tom there is a hen or flock in the area, and to get him to come my way.

My first call is a tree yelp, and if I get a gobble I yelp a little louder. I may or may not get a response, but either way I have to make a decision to do something. I usually wait until I hear the turkeys moving, then I use the flying cackle and the Flapp 'n Tom or Wing Thing flapper to simulate the sound of a hen flying down. The combination of these sounds usually gets the attention of the tom and gets him fired up enough to gobble, and often to come in.

If the tom doesn't answer my calls, or is reluctant to come in, I make the sounds of birds feeding on the ground. I start out slow and easy with soft yelps, purrs, whines and clucks. I rustle the leaves with my hand, simulating scratching and feeding turkeys. If I get a response to my call I keep doing it, letting the tom set the tempo of the calling. When he gobbles, I wait awhile then gobble back. As long as he keeps answering and seems to be coming my way I keep it up. When it comes to calling my motto is, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

More times than not the bird will "hang up" and not come in. Maybe he is with a hen, maybe he is detouring around some obstacle, maybe he is spooky or alerted, or maybe he just doesn't want to come in. This is when I try something different or get aggressive, this is when experience helps and the game begins. There is no set routine to get a reluctant tom to come to your calls. This is the time to experiment, fail, and learn.

When a tom hangs up I use a loud assembly yelp or lost yelp, trying to imitate a hen looking for other hens. These calls work well on most toms and jakes, because it means there are hens nearby. If they don't work I use a series of loud hen clucks, imitating a hen trying to get another bird to show itself. If that doesn't work I use the fast cluck or cutting, the sound of a bird telling the other bird that if they are going to get together the other bird will have to do the walking. This call is very effective on reluctant dominant toms; it does not work well on subdominant toms and jakes because it may scare them.

When I use the fast cutt I make sure the call is loud and insistent, telling the other bird "come on over here". If the tom still won't come in I use the deep cluck or yelp of a jake, along with the hens cluck, to get the tom to think there is a young male with "his" hen. This may cause the tom to come in to establish dominance, ready to fight the jake for the hen.

If these calls fail, I resort to the fighting purr of two birds. This call appeals to a turkey's curiosity, it wants to know which birds are fighting and why. Just like teenage boys fighting in the parking lot after school, they just have to go and watch. Turkeys watch to see if a dominant bird is defeated, leaving room for them to move up in the hierarchy and gain dominance. The fighting purr works especially well on dominant toms because they want to know which birds in "their" area are fighting, and why; the fight may be over a receptive hen and the tom wants to breed.


I hope that helps.

If you have questions - fire away --- I'll do my best to answer.


God bless and good hunting,

T.R.