| Author | Message | ||
| TScottW99
|
I know we proably discussed this last year but...  what locator calls do you carry in the spring woods? This year I will be carrying a brand new MAD custom cherry crow call. It sounds great, can't wait to try it out come April. I carried a Knight & Hale crow call for years and it died last spring  I'll be carrying my Palmer Hoot Tube for the second year. I really liked this call last year and it located quite a few gobblers. Only regret I have with it is.. it's the plastic one, I would rather have the wood one. Though the plastic one does sound good, but the wood one sounds a bit better. I also keep a Primos Hawk/Quail call in my vest. I have used it several times in late morning to locate gobblers. Don't laugh at this one.... I have one of the Peacock calls ( i said don't laugh ) You know what though.. IT WORKS. I bought it about 5 years ago and the first time I used it my hunting buddy looked at me like I was fool. Until he heard the 6 gobblers gobble back That was the first day I got my first spring gobbler. I don't use it much but it does work. | ||
| Freddy McGuire (Vaturkey)
|
Hey Scott... I always carry a Primos Power Crow, and a Primos Tripleshock for coyote, peacock, and pileated woodpecker. I owl hoot with my natural voice and even crow with my natural voice some. GN is one person on this board that is an excellent locator- not only in locator calls, but in locating tactics. I have learned a lot from him over the last couple seasons... I'm sure he can provide some good insight on this topic... | ||
| GOBBLENOW |
Here is a summary of some of my theories on locator calls/tactics in the ridges and mountains. What works up here and what works in Ala/Georgia/Fla/Texas flat areas are two differnt things... In the mountains, early early in the am birds will shock gobble to about anything , but often only for the first time they hear it...so if you hit a crow on them first thing then they might not answer a crow for the rest of the mornings..thus I only use a crow early in the day as a last resort, as it generally is my best locator through the midday and I do not like to show it to them too soon...now if I am having to prospect really early, as I have heard nothing at daylight, then I might use a crow early and just take my chances on that call losing its efectiveness through the day. Often times in predawn or dawn periods I do not do anything to make a bird gobble and like to let them fire up on their own , thus I can make a locator call a little later on that they may answer at least one more time. Barred owls will get birds going about every morning and I have had great success with them in the middle of the day too(once I ran in to a local hunter on a ridge in midday, and we got to talking about the pressure on the birds and he said they were a lot of people who had no idea what they were doing, and that he had heard some "fool" blowing a barred owl call or imitating a barred owl in the middle of the day and that was the stupidist thing he had ever heard as no turkey was going to respond to an owl in the middle of the day... course it was a real owl making the call and a bird down the hill had just gobble at it, and I was sitting there listening to it, waiting for this fella (who obviously had not heard the turkey) to move on before I began my assault on the bird. I have found the single or double notes at the end of a barred owl call, blown first very soft and then later very very loud or done very soft and then later very loud with your voice to be an excellent midday locator -sometimes. But my crow call is my favorite locator after daylight and if you learn the many calls of the real crows, and listen to the crows around where you are hunting, you can sometimes locate turkey off their call without ever making a crow call yourself...particulary if you see them diving down in some cedars or pines and sort of doing a buzzing call...many many times they are aggrevating turkeys down in there somewhere. I use a really loud crow prospect through the day...I do not hear as well as I used to and often times the fella with me may hear a bird respond that i do not...I make the other fella get off 20 yds away from me when i call so he has a different angle to hear and locate the response from. On occassion I have hit the crow, had a bird respond practically in gun range but slightly over a rise or over the lip of a steep hill and barely had time to sit down and get the gun up as one walked in with no turkey all ever being made...more typically if one is close, you get down quick, get the gun up first , make a low hen call or two, maybe scratch some leaves and get ready. More often he is further away. If a gobbler pops rigth back but is distant I likely will relocate perhpas 50-75 yds and call again , moving slighlty at an angle towards the bird. Do this several times at 10-15 minute intervals and if you get a bird that is responding to every locator call, you can get practically in his pocket before you make the first(and maybe last) turkey call to him. I honestly have had birds repond to locators from another mountain that was a mile away on a calm morning...and in some cases I have walked (or driven) to the other mountain/place and worked that bird. alot of this was learned the hard way...you can call too much on laocators juts as you can with a turkey call...if you use the locator too often and too close together they sometimes shut down on responding. You sort of have to get a feel for the use of them. I have also use a hawk screamer too and a peacock and a coyote yelper..but those genrally are my last moves as I think the crow is the most effective locator for me. | ||
| TScottW99
|
wow GN!! thanks for the info. I appreciate it!!! If I had to choose my favorite locator it would be airplanes.. they locate a lot of birds for me. every time i hear a low flying aircraft i sit tight and listen. thanks again GN. | ||
| GN |
Good luck with getting those days off Scott..one thing about a turkey, you never know for sure what they will do on any day and at any time. I have heard birds gobble to gun shots, goose calls, duck calls, wood duck whistles, pileated s, trees falling, thunder, trains, train whistles, chain saws , trucks with no mufflers, cattle mooing, car doors slamming, dog barking ,pigs squeal, barnyard turkeys, roosters, goats bawling, horses neighing, people yelling, vehicles hitting a loose board on a bridge, and about everything else that is a sudden loud noise...and then I have had some of the same birds ignore everything I threw at 'em. | ||
| HODY |
Wow GN do you think you can develop a call that makes all those noises? If so you would make lots of money. On a serious note I have heard them gobble to several things on your list. Once while I still lived in PA I was chasing a big bird for a few days and was having trouble locating him, then the fire whistle in town blew and he gobbled his head off. I have gooten good with the owl call and it works great for me. My favotite thing is to actually call in an owl or two, and let them do the work, that makes a great hunt even if I dont fill a tag. GN well said about the crows I have learned the last year or so when to "Hunt the crows" | ||
| GN |
I left off church bells...we can hunt in Tenn on sundays, and one day while I was backsliding the 11 am bell rang at the church down at the bottom of the mountain and the devil gobbled right above me. | ||
| shopson |
I roosted one last year close to a factory and every time a trucks airbreaks hissed he would gobble. I carry a variety of locators too but prefer to let them start gobbling on their own in the morning. Have had more to gobble up in the day at a loud hard cutt than anything. | ||
| Piedmont Gobbler |
I was hunting down in Augusta County 2 years ago and everytime a passing train would blow its horn a gobbler in his strut zone would sound off. Wouldn't answer anything else, but was in love with the locomotive. I gave it some thought but those diesels are just too heavy to carry in the woods. PG | ||
| Gobbler Getter
|
About a quarter mile from my hunting area there is a rooster that sounds off at the crack of dawn every morning. I am usually out scouting hard in mid and late March and I have had more fun listening to one or more gobblers answer that rooster for 20 to 30 minutes on the roost. On several occasions I have tried my owl call to see if they would respond and they wouldn't. But as soon as that rooster would crow they answer. Reading these posts and thinking about past adventures is giving me the FEVER BAD!!! Kevin | ||
| Gn |
Hody, sometime I think I have more fun with the owls than the turkeys...if you realy get them going they will find the turkeys for you, as you said. And sometimes you can take an owl or two right around the mountain with you, like they were on a leash, as they will come right in to the single owl note or even the 9-note barred owl right through the middle of the day, and sit in a tree near you and carry on pretty good. That is really fun for me. I have a friend who is the best owler I have ever heard. And he can get the voices of about three differnt owls going and they start coming in from everywhere and he get tickled watching them and playing with them and sometinmes yo u sort of have to remind him you are on a turkey hunt when he gets so wrapped up in the owling..but that is all part of what makes this such a great spring time experiience. | ||
| HODY |
Well GN I would fit in good with him, cause I call in the owls all the time and enjoy listening to them. That is how I got good at owl calling. I have really improved on the laughing, and a lot of times that will pull a gobble when the 9 note will not. It is a blast when you get two or three in the trees around you and they start to carry on. A few times when I have taken other folks out they are amazed at all the different sounds that an owl makes. I am going out to listen for the first time next weekend since it will FINALLY be March. | ||
| LeeCo Tom |
This is great stuff here. I hope this helps me to find one in the middle of the day this year. I know they are there but I cannot make them gobble. | ||
| mudfork |
Without a doubt, the best locator I've ever seen is thunder (just can't figure out how to make it when I want it). A couple of years ago,a friend and I had the fortune of a mid morning thunderstorm rolling by in the distance. Turkeys went crazy. We were able to get to within of 75 yards (mountainous terrain) of two that were together before hitting the first call. They were in range within 5 min. of my first yelp and they are no longer with us. Anytime it thunders in the spring I run for the front porch 'cause any bird around is talkin. | ||
| GN |
Mudfork..I have had exactly the same experiences with thunder...it's sometimes dicey though to stay up there on top of them ridges holding a piece of steel in your hand when you stop to think about what makes thunder...as in lightning. Now if you hired two guys with a big piece of roofing tin , in the back of a truck, they could drive the road at the bottome of the hollow or above you on a mountain and get that tin vibrating just right and you would be almost there. | ||
| chad
|
great idea the peacock call i use the palmers hoot tube it works great in the rockys here ,chad, |