I had a few questions. I was wondering when you get to the woods early in the morning to you do a fly down cackle or some other calling? What is your sequence of calling like time in between calls, soft or loud, etc..? I mainly use pot calls and diaphragms. If there are any tips that any has they would be much appreciated.
Early AM, when they are in the roost I do soft yelps. After that it depends on the situation. If the Tom is gobbling up a storm I call sporadically. I try to get him angry so he commits. Every situation is so different just go trial and error and do what works for you.
I wish we could give you clear simply answers, but that is not turkey hunting. I also usually start out with soft tree yelps in the morning and when it is fly down time, I do a fly down cackle and then beat my hat against my pants legs to mimic wing flaps. It doesnt hurt to hit the leaves a little and do a little scratching in the leaves either. My general rule of thumb is that when it comes to calling, less is better. Make that bird come and find you, if you sound too anxious and call too much he may hang up. Its fun to hear them keep firing gobbles back but may hurt your chances of getting him. That said, if I know the Tom is with hens and I can hear the hens calling I will mimic their sounds only louder. As the real hen starts calling I will cut her off to make me sound like the boss hen to tick her off into coming and hopefully bring the Tom with. As was said, each and every day, bird and situation is different and just when you have it figured out, you'll realize you do not. Don't do this on your hunting grounds, but one thing that has helped me out is to go to a state park or something like that and practice on the birds there. The more practice the better.
Im kinda what he said. I sometimes use a dried wing and slap it against my leg and then the ground simulating a Hen flying down. It really gets there attention especially when its a Lone bird with no hens.
