I tend to think that older birds have kind of a rattle to there gobble. That and like most have said there gobble sounds cut off.

Once again earlier this season I was shown that there is no foolproof way to tell if a gobble is from a jake or a tom. This past weekend I got on a bird with a full, mature sounding gobble. Ten minutes later it shows up, and its three jakes. So, as said before, I dont really think there is any way to tell with 100% certainty whether it is a jake or not. Certainly, there are times that the jakes do the halfgobble and its clear that its a immature gobbler. But not always.

I also think alot of it is where you hunt. From my hunting experience rio and merriams jakes gobble alot more than my easterns. Easterns have a deeper gobble more like a bass singer and rios and merriams have a higher pitched gobble. Alot of times a jake will even yelp after he lets out his pour excuse for a gobble. Roost sights are also another way, the big toms always try to take the best spots.

Probably the best advice is work the bird, if he comes in and is a jake, learn what you did right or wrong, let the bird walk and move on. If you shoot him, he will never make a longbeard. Good luck!

Like everyone's posted a jake's gobble is shorter, that's about all I can say. But you need to be careful. jakes often stick together so a lot of times they will all gobble at the same timeand it sounds like one full mature gobble. So listen carefully.

That is true about the jakes hanging together and sounding like one mature gobbler. Although, a jakes gobble is not always shorter, as I've found out before. Sometimes they are, but not always.

Yea sometimes jakes will sound mature. I'vebeen set up on one that would give 2-3 good gobbles and then give not even a half gobble like 1/4 of one. Sometimes that can inicate an imature 2 year old or a 1/2(super jake)