The drumming is good advice, although some people can't hear it well.

I am one of those. Too many years of dove shoots and .22 squirrel hunts have damaged certain levels of my hearing. Drumming falls into one of those. I have heard drumming one time, and it was on youtube. I had to turn the volume up real high to hear it. My buddy was sitting there going, "You can't hear that!". Until I turned it way up I couldn't.

Dang 3Toe I hate to hear that. That would make turkey hunting alot tougher than it needs to be and take alot of the pleasure out of it for me. It's odd I can't hear a turkey walking or scratching leaves to save my life but I can hear one drum for 80-100 yards if the woods are still.

If I have plenty of cover and terrain to work with and can walk quietly lots of times I won't even sit down to work a turkey until I can hear him drum.

It sucks, but you adapt with other levels. I can hear everything a turkey does except that. I have heard that a drum is on a certain decibel wavelength or whatever you want to call it. I also have been told you can feel it in your chest as much as hear it.

I was hunting with hellfighter last year and we were set up and he was motioning he could hear the gobbler drumming. I didn't hear a damn thing. Didn't "feel" it in my chest either.

An other example will serve. My son came up with something off youtube that kids were supposedly using as ringtones because alot of adults past certain age lose that level of hearing. I couldn't hear it. My wife in the other room was like "what the heck is that sound?". My son was like "Dad can't hear it".

Scratch like a turkey (credit to Larry Norton). Turkeys have a cadence when they're feeding (2 then 1, or 1 then 2, etc). But I see the experts on tv sometimes just rustling the leaves real fast; they sound more like an armadillo/wounded squirrel than a turkey. Sometimes that works, but if you scratch like a turkey it'll work a LOT more.

Thanks for bringing drumming up. It is something I didn't think of either. There have been a few birds that I have killed over the years that I never heard gobble and might not have gobbled for a few hours on their own or I just couldn't hear them. On a few occasions I was just walking through the woods and heard drumming, sat down, and made a call and game over. If you can hear drumming it can really help when the bird gets close, BUT it is hard as heck to pinpoint in the woods sometimes. I have found that even when they are strutting that some birds drum when coming in, some don't, some seem much louder than others also. It seems like the older birds can really make it ring loud when they drum and younger birds are not as loud. Might just be me, but that is the way I have found it to be anyways. If and when I hear drumming I know it is time to flip the safety off and get the cheek on the stock because something is about to happen because he is 100 yards or closer.

Scratching is a great "call" too. Until about 5 years ago I never used it and then started using it sometimes and like someone said above it does work. Like longspur said, make it sound like the rhythm of a turkey not a dang dieing squirrel though. I usually pick up a stick and use it or my trigger finger hand.

Good stuff guys, keep it coming. Would ya'll like to see this thread get pinned to the top so new guys can read it and take something away from it? I think it would be a good idea as long as ya'll want to look at it for a while.

If you're hunting mountain birds, it's amazing how much those limestone rocks can reverberate the drumming sound and make it sound like it's coming from all around you. I have never been able to pinpoint a bird drumming in a rocky place. I hate it I never can figure out which way I need to be looking.

I have noticed the same thing in bankhead.

Really important to get on the same level as those mountain birds.

I'd like that...It's funny the number of "don't" written in here that I did last season! It was just so hard to be quiet when he was gobbling everytime I made a sound on the call!! LOL...

I don't really like stickys but one won't hurt.

I've got another one. I would agree that woodsmanship will kill more birds than championship calling, but calling definitely helps too. If you hunt an area that gets a decent amount of pressure, try running some different calls that they don't hear everyday. Use a tube call, wingbone, or scratchbox. Just something that has a little different sound. Every bird is different and sometimes one call will make a bird hammer every time and other just won't.

Yep, swapping calls has worked a time or two for me too when I had about given up on killing the bird or he was losing interest.

I use a wingbone and a snuff can for those call shy birds....calls they almost NEVER hear.

I can id a mouth call near every time, a box call can fool me, clucking on a wingbone will fool me. I'm pretty sure a turkey can out do me....

I've got an uncle that has a lot of hearing loss and he has never heard a turkey drum. 3toe, have you ever had a hearing test? I would suspect that your low-pitched hearing is severely damaged. I can't hear high-pitched sounds, but fortunately still hear the rest of the spectrum ok. I can't tell that my "turkey hearing" has gotten any worse thru the years, and I've heard turkeys drumming further than what the experts say is possible.

I was marking timber this afternoon on the side of a ridge and heard a jake yelping in the hollow below me, maybe 150 yds away. I didn't have any kind of call with me, and then I remembered my phone has a turkey call app. Its not very loud, but I gave him a couple of kee-kee series, and a few gobbles and went back to painting. He didn't answer, but about 30 seconds later he came up the hill on a dead run. At least he had enough sense to fly when he saw my orange cap. And some people find it "sporting" to call them up and murder them in the fall. Some even shoot the hens.

>>>Me and YEKRUT don't see eye to eye on many things<<<

I can't imagine that anyone could disagree with Yekrut on anything.

Well, maybe them Amish women he likes aren't that appealing to most folks.

I just realized I better delete that app from my phone before turkey season, or I would be guilty of hunting while in possession of an electronic call.

I have been rambling a lot with this post and added nothing to the original question, so I will tell everyone to just remember Rule No. 1 - don't scare the turkey. If you don't scare him off, you have a good chance to kill him. If you scare him off, its all over.

Don't you just love trying to figure out if you are hearing a hen or a hunter? I still get fooled thinking I am about to get run over by a hunter sometimes when out steps a hen. Some of them just sound so bad it almost has to be a hunter. I have heard some hunters that I thought were birds too though, but they are far and few between.

I hope its more than I can handle, cause that will make it 1000x's more fun!!! I will do as you say then...

WHERE you hunt can effect HOW you hunt. I usually don't owl hoot or crow call right out of the truck. I like to give them a chance to do it on their own, especially on public land. I roosted some turkeys one afternoon, got in on them the next morning before daylight. I heard a jeep pull up to a popular listening location and my heart sank. I thought I was going to have to share this turkey hunt. The guy owl hooted and crow called for about 5 minutes and drove off. Another hunter was doing the same thing from another direction. I heard him crank his truck and drive off. No sooner than they'd gone out of hearing the turkey started gobbling like he was behind schedule. I never killed him but had fun playing the game. However, on private property where I have a better idea of what turkeys have been exposed to, I don't hesitate to owl or crow call early.

On public land, I want a turkey to gobble as little as possible to keep from attracting other hunters. On private property, I'll call just to hear him gobble, , , for a little while at least.

On public land or in a club, I might hunt a bird more aggressively (considering I might never get another chance at him). On private land, I won't use a lot of different calls at one sitting. If he ends up getting spooked, I'll come back next time with a call he hasn't heard yet.

I know my low range hearing is damaged. Too many year of shotguns without hearing protection. Don't misunderstand', I am not deaf and have pointed out gobbling turkeys to friends wo didn't hear them. I just cant hear drumming like most folks.

Wish I could. I finally started hearing it well last year, but not at nearly the range you can hear it. Seemed like about 50-60 yards is about my max range for hearing it if it's really quiet out.

I carried my then seven year old daughter turkey hunting in Sumpter Co. We were easing along prolly 100 yards from the property line and heard a "hen" start yelping across the line. I stopped and listened for a minute, not saying anything. My daughter finally said "that guy is a terrrible caller"...and she was correct. Pretty bad when a seven year old calls it on you....

troy

Yeah Troy, that is pretty bad!