How often to call?

[Chase0621]

This is my first time turkey hunting ever.

Today I went out to scout and ended up calling a Tom into 60 yards of me.

I was wondering how often to call though?

how often do you call when your sitting down trying to locate them ? I was doing 10-15 minutes and calling for 15 seconds at time.

Then once you get a turkey calling back how often do you call him?

Thanks
Chase

 

[Chase0621]

also today I the turkey was across a big creek which was why he stopped coming to me and it had barb wire fence in between.




Will a turkey bother going around or flying over to get to a hen or will they just give up?

What about closing a distance on a turkey? if you see a turkey can you try closing the distance or is there eye sight to good that they will bust you always?

 

[go_deep]

A lot of question here.
So, to answer all your questions in one answer it depends.
Not what you wanted to hear, LOL!
I like to keep calling to a minimal, unless I can make a hen mad and get her calling back, then it's loud, and I talk over her any chance I got.
Usually turkeys won't cross water once they leave roost, but I've seen it happen, but not as much as I'd like.
Their eyesight is to good in most cases to sneak up on, unless you got some good cover. I killed a tom at 9 yards last year by belly crawling in on him, so it can be done, but the terrain was in my favor.

Best thing you can do is learn what each turkey noise means, and there are some great you tube video's that explain that.

Good luck, and God bless!

 

[Hilltop]

An old hunter I went with compared turkeys to women- they are always changing what they want. Go_deep says it right- It just depends. No hard and fast rules that I'm aware of. You will be able to tell when you have one excited and convinced. I typically will keep calling softly when I have them coming. I like to use soft clucks and short yelps to finish them. If you spend much time very close to hens you will realize they make quite a few noises as they feed and move around that aren't audible to us from longer range... imitate those noises and you will find calling toms a little easier.

 

[Fink]

Turkeys won't cross anything if they don't like your setup.... But they'll cross everything if they do. A large majority of the places I hunt have big creeks or rivers on them, and I consistently call birds across water or across fences and call them into range. This past Tuesday, I called 3 different gobblers across a big creek, with steep banks, right into the decoys. Unfortunately, I managed to miss every single one.... Turkeys live in the wild, they can't just not cross fences and water..
Calling really depends. If you can't call very well, you're probably better off not calling much. If you can call, I don't think you can call too much. A lonely hen in the woods can make a bunch of noise. When I'm running and gunning, I'll call quite a bit, but when I'm in a spot where I know birds work through often, lots of times, I'll call very sparingly.
It's been my experience that birds that live in more open areas talk a lot more than the birds do in the big timber areas.

Regarding your bird that hung up at 60.. Did you have a decoy? Were you in an area where the bird could see a long way? In the turkey world, hens are supposed to go to the gobbler, so if you aren't using a decoy, sometimes it helps to put some terrain in between you and him, to force him to keep coming to look for you.

As far as how often to talk back to a bird that's gobbled at you.. That really depends. It's all about reading that particular bird. Most of the time, when I know a bird is specifically gobbling to me, I'll respond to ever 3-4 gobbles for a few times, and then just shut it down and wait for him. He'll almost always come in, and it'll be quiet.. Listen for him to start spitting and drumming, and then he's toast.
Other times, usually in areas where the birds are more talkative, they want you to yap at them all the way into your lap...

 

[Chase0621]

ok thanks for the help guys.

no I was just scouting then the bird kept getting closer and closer till he hit the big creek then followed the creek which I thought he might cross and work his way towards me but I waited 20 minutes and did soft clucks every 5 mins and didn't see him.

But I do have 2 hens and 1 jake decoy. I'm thinking about putting 1 jake and 1 hen on the side of the creek and then the other hen on the other side and side by the water and have 40 yards in between both sides

 

[Wyoming Hart]

All good pointers so far. I like to call enough to keep their interest, but not too much where they are put off by it. All it takes is one yelp to let a gobbler know where you are and if he wants to come, he'll come. If I know a bird is coming, I don't like to call at all if I think they are just "over the knob" from where I am set up. I wanna have the gun at the ready where I think he'll pop out at use my eyes to scan to see him. If he hangs up a little, then I may throw out a soft yelp. I have hardly ever had a gobbler hang up at 50 to 100 yards. Any farther than that, they want you to go to them. If they get inside of 100 they seem to wanna get with you bad and come in for you to get a shot. One thing I might add and it may be just a personal opinion, but you said that you called a tom in when scouting. I don't use a turkey call. I just don't like maybe calling one in before I am hunting and maybe wisen them up a little. I stick to a crow call for scouting.