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How far can a gobbler year a Yelp?

huvrman

huvrman

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Have yelped at birds I thought were so far away, I was certain they wouldn't hear it, only to have them come in. Have also had gobblers in sight and yelped so softly I could barely hear it, and had them react and strut. Just how sensitive is a gobblers ears and how far away can they hear a Yelp?
 
I was hunting with knightrider 3 years ago and we spotted 2 gobblers with hens it looked to be a gazillion miles away. We watched the hens stroll away and could hear a faint gobble when knightrider would yelp with the mouth call. 1.5 hours later I killed one of them. He traced it on google maps and it was about 800 yards shy of a mile from where they came from.
 
I'm always amazed how far they can hear just a light cluck, purr, or even scratching. Each spring I have an instance where a gobbler answers one of the above from way further off than you think he could hear it. it happened yesterday. Bird is on next ridge but goes silent. After about q0 minutes I give a light cluck and he answers from down in the hollow on the back side of the ridge. Like, his gobble was very faint. How in the heck did he hear that cluck through the dirt of the ridge!! Simply amazing. Im headed to MO for the 14th straight spring this weekend. In those woods, scratching contributes to over half my call ins. Heck, ill just slowly creep towards them, scratching as I go, and lone birds often come right in and check me out. Gobbling 100+ yards.away at simple scratching happens fairly commonly.
 
Bone Collector said:
I think it depends on the terrain and where the gobbler is. If he is up high and you are down low, you may not be able to pinpoint where he is, but you can hear him.
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Still, I hear ppl all the time talking about birds gobbling a half mile away. Can't imagine that personally. On a windy day i've seen birds gobble at 60 yards that I couldn't hear.
 
I heard some roosted birds gobbling this morning that couldn't have been any closer than 0.9 mile, and I believe they were about exactly 1.0 mile. I was on a very high point, so were they. Deep wooded creek bottom between us. There was only air between us, and I was downwind from them.

Also this morning, I was pestered by two little yappy dogs. They were making it harder to hear a turkey. They were in their owner's yard, different direction, and exactly 0.6 miles away. They "sounded" like they were only 50 yds away.

Sometimes you can hear things farther than most would think.
 
Nothing more than a few soft clucks and some intense leaf scratching was all it took to kill #2 this mornin. Very popular spot on a Gobbler who has been relentlessly hammered by veterans and googans alike since the opener. Been shot at atleast once that I know of. He was roosted off one end of a long bench, probably close to 375yrds long. Surprisingly, he gobbled decent on the limb, with nobody else around. Decided to go to him, but rather than try and get tight on 'em like everyone else, I actually retreated better than half way to the other end of the bench. These Turkeys feed and strut up and down this particular bench throughout the day. Chose good ground with a slight rise at 30 steps, allowing me to drift around undetected if necessary, as well as, putting him in range when he topped out to look for me. When his gobble changed and I determined he was on the ground, I did nothing more than send a few well spaced popping clucks to 'em on my Buice yelper. Dead calm this morning, so I knew he heard me. He steady marched over better than 150yrds, gobbling every 5 min or so. After around 30min, he stalled me out 30yrds short of that rise. I repositioned twice, once left 10yrds, then right 15rds, each time soft clucking once and steady scratching. He held his ground drumming hard for almost 10 minutes. I decided to retreat straight back 20yrds to keep the illusion of a feeding Hen as real as possible. Clucked softly one last time and got on the gun. After 15 minutes of more intense drumming he could not stand it and had to check me out. Caught his "lit up" red, white, and blue head topping out on that rise right down my barrel. Settled on his neck and touched it off. At better than 200yrds, that Gobbler came looking for the soft spoken, feeding hen he had heard at the far end of that bench. Never ceases to amaze me just how well they can hear and pinpoint sound;)
 
cowhunter71 said:
Either your hearing is not very good or you have not been Turkey hunting very long.
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I don't reckon those things are true. 20 years, 50 or so birds. I don't hunt open flat ground around here. I was thinking back though, and I suspect I've worked birds in the everglades that I heard gobble like that from a cypress head 3/4 miles away on a still morning. In the eastern part of the state I don't imagine it as much. In the hills, ppl say stuff like that all the time and it's rarely true.
 
Had a setup this weekend in KY where I put a friend ahead of me to be the shooter and I dropped back to call. We had glassed a bird from a ways away so we knew he was in the area. Very open country with a couple tree lines for cover. We get set up and I start calling and never hear a response at all. Eventually he heads off up a hill to a wooded knob on a property we can't hunt. Well my friend tells me he watched him gobble a couple times and could faintly hear at least one. Total distance from me was probably 300-500 yards. I'm 50 yards behind my buddy with no visual and I had no idea he ever made a sound. It really surprised me as I thought for sure I could have heard him from that distance.
Other times I feel I've been much further away and heard them especially first thing in the morning from the limb.
 
TheLBLman said:
I heard some roosted birds gobbling this morning that couldn't have been any closer than 0.9 mile, and I believe they were about exactly 1.0 mile. I was on a very high point, so were they. Deep wooded creek bottom between us. There was only air between us, and I was downwind from them.

Also this morning, I was pestered by two little yappy dogs. They were making it harder to hear a turkey. They were in their owner's yard, different direction, and exactly 0.6 miles away. They "sounded" like they were only 50 yds away.

Sometimes you can hear things farther than most would think.
Click to expand...
I've got more yappy dogs around my house this year than ever before, and they're really starting to be an annoyance when I'm trying to hunt.
 
cowhunter71 said:
Nothing more than a few soft clucks and some intense leaf scratching was all it took to kill #2 this mornin. Very popular spot on a Gobbler who has been relentlessly hammered by veterans and googans alike since the opener. Been shot at atleast once that I know of. He was roosted off one end of a long bench, probably close to 375yrds long. Surprisingly, he gobbled decent on the limb, with nobody else around. Decided to go to him, but rather than try and get tight on 'em like everyone else, I actually retreated better than half way to the other end of the bench. These Turkeys feed and strut up and down this particular bench throughout the day. Chose good ground with a slight rise at 30 steps, allowing me to drift around undetected if necessary, as well as, putting him in range when he topped out to look for me. When his gobble changed and I determined he was on the ground, I did nothing more than send a few well spaced popping clucks to 'em on my Buice yelper. Dead calm this morning, so I knew he heard me. He steady marched over better than 150yrds, gobbling every 5 min or so. After around 30min, he stalled me out 30yrds short of that rise. I repositioned twice, once left 10yrds, then right 15rds, each time soft clucking once and steady scratching. He held his ground drumming hard for almost 10 minutes. I decided to retreat straight back 20yrds to keep the illusion of a feeding Hen as real as possible. Clucked softly one last time and got on the gun. After 15 minutes of more intense drumming he could not stand it and had to check me out. Caught his "lit up" red, white, and blue head topping out on that rise right down my barrel. Settled on his neck and touched it off. At better than 200yrds, that Gobbler came looking for the soft spoken, feeding hen he had heard at the far end of that bench. Never ceases to amaze me just how well they can hear and pinpoint sound;)
Click to expand...
Dude, that's a GREAT hunt and a great story! Congrats! I enjoyed reading it, i wish I had been there! Even if you are an A$$hole :) thanks for sharing!
 

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