i try to let them gobble on their own that also tells me how hot the birds are.

Where I live deep in the ozarks we have lots of crows, but rarely do you hear them before good daylight. So I dont try the crow call, early. Have had luck later in the day. You might try a owl call, have had a lot of luck early with them. You might also gobble. Last year their was a group of about 10 long beards roosting on the same ridge. One of them, The same one, every morning would gobble at 4:45. The first time I heard it I thought you have got to be joking. But after that Gobblr the woods would just echo from all the other gobblers. It just goes to show that any number of things might work. But I do not recommend trying more than one locater call from the same location as it seams to give your position away and you might not hear a thing.

I used to use an owl call 30 minutes prior to legal shooting when I first get to a property. I stopped worrying about how dark it is anymore and now primarily use a crow call at any point I need to located them. I use to think it didn't make sense to use a crow call so early, but now I think that was over-thinking what goes through their little brains. I've never had them stop responding due to over use, but I usually only use it to initially locate them and then again sometimes to see if they've flown down.

Mike