It is said of spring gobbler hunting that three of the most important factors for success are woodsmanship, patience and calling expertise. Patience, on the one hand, seems to be something we are either born with or not. Woodsmanship, on the other hand, is something that evolves over years of spending time in the out of doors. That leaves calling techniques, which can be learned and perfected through reading, listening to tapes or DVDs, watching the many TV shows devoted to turkey hunting or with the aid of a fellow turkey hunter.

The popular scenario of spring gobbler hunting is to arrive at your predetermined hunting location well before daylight and, as the dawn begins to lighten the eastern sky, make a few soft calls, have the old Tom fly down from his roost and land 20 yards away, and then BOOM!

But, it is never that simple. More often than not, it turns out that, no matter how much you have learned over the years, your wealth of knowledge and experience never seems to apply the next time you encounter a wise old gobbler. There are, however, several things to keep in mind that will greatly increase your chance of success.

Limit your calling:

One of the greatest errors in turkey hunting is over calling. When watching some of the turkey hunting shows, it seems that the calling by the hunters is continual until a gobbler responds and that the hunter continues the calls until the incoming bird is finally within shotgun range. In reality, there is usually a lapse of time between calls that is edited out in order to produce the show. In real life — in the woods — when turkeys are calling, there is time between calls, not a continual yelping or clucking or purring that goes on and on. If you do a series of yelps, do 4 or 5 yelps, pause for several minutes, and then repeat the series. Wait for 10 to 20 minutes and then do the series of yelps again. Change up your calls by using several clucks, wait for a few minutes, and then repeat the clucks. Another realistic call is the purr — again done on a limited basis. In between the series of purrs, consider scratching in the leaves. This simulates a bird scratching for insects or seeds and the purring adds to the reality of the call.
With a lot of hunters in the spring woods, it doesn’t take long to “educate” the wild birds by the overcalling that sometimes occurs. As the season progresses, the birds are increasingly wary to any calling, so the more realistic you can make the calls, the better — as in NOT overcalling!

Try something new:

On more than one occasion I have lured in a gobbler by making no call at all, but instead by merely scratching in the leaves to simulate a turkey scratching for food. Scratch in dry leaves with a long branch, scratching in series of 3 or 4 times, then pausing, and scratching a series of 3 or 4 times again. Wait for several minutes and then repeat the series. This requires patience, but the payoff will be worth the wait.

Another infrequently used trick is to simulate the flapping of wings. You will hear naturally the wing beats of a turkey as they fly off the roost in the morning, and they will sometimes flap their wings as they stretch while feeding. Simulate this wing flapping either just after daylight to simulate a hen landing after leaving the roost, or use the wing flapping at times throughout the day — along with purring — to simulate a bird feeding.

Change things up:

Just as human voices vary in pitch and tone, so do the sounds of turkeys. And, you don’t have to worry about duplicating exactly the sounds a turkey makes. While all turkeys may sound alike to your human ear, they actually do vary. Thus, it is wise to vary your calling pitch and tone, but using different calls. This means changing up from a mouth call to a box call or to a pot call to vary the sounds you make. It will be more natural to the ear of the turkey.
Be safe, shoot straight and remember to always positively identify your target — and beyond!