Gobble calls
 

Have any of you ever called in a tom by using a gobble call only?
This weekend is the last of Indiana's turkey season and my wife was drawn to hunt one of the local reservoirs. Anyway we heard a bird gobbling around 10:30 yesterday a good distance away so we moved to a position in front of where I thought he was headed, sat down and made a few soft calls on a slate and with a mouth call. No response, the bird would occasionally gobble but was not getting any closer. So we made a move closer but was still at least 200 yards from him and tried again with the same results. So I decided to try and gobble at him and he immediately gobbled back so I gobbled again and he instantly answered again so i waited a few minutes and he gobbled again and had cut the distance in half. A few minutes later at about 70 yards and still out of sight he yelped a couple of times and I answered him with a couple yelps of my own. Five minutes later he gobbled again around 200 yards away.
A few minutes later he gobbled and I answered with a gobble and the whole scenario played out the same way again but this time when he yelped from 70 yards away I answered with a gobble trying to sound more like a jake than a tom. He yelped a couple more times and I answered with gobbles only. In just a few short minutes he made his way around the bulldozer pile that I had not realized was between him and I, and walked right up the end of my wife's shot gun barrel.
On a side note my wife lost her dad last fall and her older brother gave her there dads shot gun because her and I hunt and she really wanted to get a turkey with her dads gun. Mission accomplished!

First off....that is a neat story about her using her dad's gun.

I have never used a gobble call myself to get it done. This might have been the perfect season to try it out. I may invest in a Haint gobble call. When that ol' boy won't answer a call and wants to walk away that might be the best medicine.

Great job on getting it done with her fathers gun. That's a great story itself.

I've used a gobble call a couple times when I knew it was
very unlikely other hunters were in the area and all else
had failed. In my case it was usually when the Tom was with hens and the hens came to the gobble bringing the tom with them.
Congratulations!

A gobble tends to be the last resort, for me. One time I was scouting after morning shooting hours had ended, in the late afternoon, in the woods. I hadn't heard any birds, and I was sitting against a stump on a flat, just above a ravine. I decided to gobble, and was answered immediately with a gobble, about 200 yards away. I didn't sound off again, and a few minutes later, here came two toms. They came within 10 ft of me, and one bird began strutting, spitting and drumming, after a short time, the birds left, re-tracing their steps, and I heard them fly up to roost a bit later. I was amazed at how accurately they could pinpoint my call, with just one call.