What is it with SHOCK calls?

[douglas34474]

What are the SHOCK calls, owl and crow, used for?

I have read that they are used to make a tom gobble. But when I go out in the woods around the house to hunt, I hear crows and owls all the time and on one gobbles.

There are turkey out here; I hear them all the time also.

Why don't the turkey react to the real crows and owls?:confused:

[proturkeyhntr]

It can just depend on the mood of the gobbler. Sometimes they gobble better on the roost with locator calls than on the ground. Most of the time I will hit my Quaker Boy Crankin crow on into the morning and afternoon and mainly use the owl call at daybreak. If they dont gobble at a locator call I then just go to some hard cutting and excited yelping. The advantage to getting one to gobble at your locator first is that you dont have the threat of the ol boy running in to you while your trying to set up....... To answer your question as to why they sometimes gobble at locator calls is, I feel its a display of dominance at some points "who is the king of the woods" I also feel that sometimes its literally a loud sound that the gobblers react to. Hence "shock gobble" There are many sounds that a bird will gobble at in the spring as a result of a "shock". From train horns, to slamming car doors, to thunder, Sirens of a passing emergency vehicle. Its just a reaction that occurs because of the loud noise. That also sometimes includes, geese, ducks, pileated woodpeckers or even a hawk screaming. Heck I've heard them gobble at a squirrel barking. One that was very close to him mind you....Hope this helps...

[douglas34474]

Thanks for the reply. I guess our turkeys don't shock that easy. I have pileated woodpeckers, hawks, crows, barred owls and even peacocks sounding off every morning.

I try to get out before daylight by 30 minutes or better. I still need a flashlight to find my way through the woods to my setup. Heard one fly down Monday morning but the bird did so without any talking.

New at this game and trying to learn. I live on the edge of a WMA and have hunting land on three sides of me. I've had birds roost 100 feet from the house.

Now I just need to get one to come in close enough to invite home for dinner.:)

[proturkeyhntr]

Not to be sarcastic, but if your walking through the woods with a flashlight that may be the reason your not hearing much gobbling. You could be alerting them to your presence. Not bumping them off the roost just getting them to not say much. How early are you easing through the woods????

scott

[douglas34474]

Sunrise is listed as 7:30 AM. I'm hitting the woods at 6:30 AM.

I had thought about my being to early and that having to use the light may not be the best idea.

I note you are just east of Tampa? Your sunrise can't be too far behind mine. I'm East of you maybe 50 miles. What time do you setup?

Do you think I might be better off waiting until I can see before I move out?

Thanks for your help.

Doug

[proturkeyhntr]

Well I would just use somthing like a streamlight. Its green LED light and use it sparingly. If you have a certain listening point I would want to be there no later than 6:30am...I wouldnt leave at light because you will definetly be seen and bump birds then...Also leaving that late could have had birds seeing you as well...some are early risers...

scott

[douglas34474]

No way I would take your comments as sarcastic. I am green as a gourd at this and can use any and all help I can get. :)

My woods are too dense to travel without a light. My trail wanders around through large pines and smaller oaks and maple until it opens up in to broken cover of just large pines. Range is maybe 25 yards at best. Most of the trail is in fact game trails I have opened up.

I have a spot that gives me a reasonable field of view and opens up into new, sparsely planted pines about 10 feet tall. Lots of grass and feed material. The land around me is paper company land so I would have to buy a permit (I don't need one on my land) and pay for the Use Permit, $200.00, if you can get one. They sold out this year in one hour.

NE of me there is a cypress dome about 1/4 mile away. I know for fact the turkey are there. I've seen then 2 dozen at a time in the past. I have found prints in the mud along the road that runs next to my land, so I know they come this way. Just got to learn to talk sweet enough to them to get 'em close enough to bring home.

So I have a lot of challenges to overcome.

Thanks for sharing your knowledge.

Doug

[shaman]

The best thing I can tell you is listen.

Early in the morning at my place, I can usually rely on my owls to piss off the gobblers. The owl hoots, the gobbler responds, and I didn't have to do squat. If you listen to what time that takes place, that's a fair indication of when the gobblers are going to be open to shock calling with an owl call. You can cheat it a few minutes, but owling in pitch dark generally won't get me anywhere. I also find that past sunrise, owling is useless.

Ditto with crows, hawks, woodpeckers, etc. Later on in the morning, listen to what sets off your gobblers. For me, it's loud crow calls. However, it usually isn't my calls that set them off. It's the other crows. I call to them, get them cranked up and then the gobblers respond to that. Get a tape on calling crows, and you'll learn the tricks that honk off crows and get them responding to you.

I've been using a hawk call more and more, simply because I hear more hawks these days than before. Last weekend was the first time, however, I've ever heard a gobbler respond to a hawk directly. Usually I get a response from the fuss created by the other birds when I go off with a hawk call, or when I hear hawks in the neighborhood.

Warning:
If you're too close to the gob, a loud barred owl call may make him hang up and stay hung up. Usually I owl no less than 200 yards away from where I think gobblers might be.

Regarding the flashlight thing:
As long as you keep the flashlight on the ground, you can get fairly close to a gobbler without a problem. Waving it around will increase the distance that is will spook game. I use a flashlight to get within 80 yards of a gobbler on a regular basis. However, if I was going to go closer, I'd wait for a little extra light and finish the sneak.

[proturkeyhntr]

Well Mr. Shaman,

I've never had, nor heard of an owl hoot causing a turkey to "hang up". Something must not be right about your hooter. Two if your not getting a gobbler to gobble at your own crow calling. Well it must not sound very much like a crow. Unless your just so far away he doesnt feel inclined to respond. As for using a flashlight withing 80 yards of a gobbling turkey??? Well thats just really increasing your odds of spooking him. If the terrain wont allow it due to cracking limbs and leaves, well I 'd just not get quite as close.

scott

[shaman]

Well Mr. Shaman,

I've never had, nor heard of an owl hoot causing a turkey to "hang up". Something must not be right about your hooter. Two if your not getting a gobbler to gobble at your own crow calling. Well it must not sound very much like a crow. Unless your just so far away he doesnt feel inclined to respond. As for using a flashlight withing 80 yards of a gobbling turkey??? Well thats just really increasing your odds of spooking him. If the terrain wont allow it due to cracking limbs and leaves, well I 'd just not get quite as close.

scott

Wow! This is a tough room.

I'm thinking more about my earlier years of hunting. I twice made the mistake of hooting too much, trying to get to a gobbler. When I got too close, the gobbler shut up, flew down and walked off. After that, I learned to hoot sparingly and to stop before I got too close. That goes back probably 15 years. Nowadays, I normally don't have to hoot at all, or if I do, it's just to get the party started. We have a lot of owls and once they start sounding off, the gobblers chime in. I have one favorite high spot near the house, where I try to be at just the right time. I can owl once there and set off several owls and then they do my work while I'm deciding which gobbler to hunt.

Crow calls? I can easily fool other crows, so I'm not worried about gobblers. Overall, the gobs in my neighborhood are not prone to shock calling during the mid-morning. I say that, because I do a lot of scouting pre-season, and I hardly ever hear a gobbler honor a crow or a hawk-- in six years, the first hawk call I heard that got a gobbler to sound off was this past weekend. Believe me, we have very vocal hawks, and it does not take much prodding from me to get them in a swizzle.

My point is that if you listen while you are scouting, you'll learn which shock calls work. Each locale is somewhat unique. I've got crows, owls, hawks and woodpeckers on my place, but shock calling in general does little good. Where I first learned to hunt, in SE Ohio, crow calls worked fantastically at mid morning, barred owl calls didn't, but great-horned hooty owl hoots did. Go figure.

What does work for me, from post-flydown until midday, is excited yelping. That's when I bring out the box call and crank on it in ever increasing volume. If there is a willing gobbler in earshot, he will usually respond. The other trick I find that works when shock calling is not is connecting up with hens, getting ahead of them and then setting up so the hens pass by me as they feed and picking off a quiet gobbler that may be following them.

Flashlight? In the pitch dark, I've gone in pretty close with a flashlight, but it was a flock I'd roosted the night before and I had a planned path. I'm a big guy and I hunt a lot of dense cedar woods, and I'm not the best one for pussyfooting. Also, I use a small-handheld light and keep it pointed at the ground. I gave up on head lights years ago. Normally, at least in my neighborhood, the turkeys seem unaware of it, as I frequently have the hens popping down and walking past me.

BTW: Do you know the ace #1 and #2 shock calls I've found. Roosters and donkeys. I have a neighbor on one side of me that had roosters. On the other, I used to have a neighbor with a donkey. The rooster would start sounding off about 4 AM, and keep going all day. If I was hunting that side of my place, I never shock called at all. The rooster would keep them busy. If I hunted the other side, I could wait for the donkey to bray, and that would set off the gobblers.

[douglas34474]

Shaman's reply is why I asked my question.

I have neighbors West of me. They have chickens, goats, peacocks, theres a bull, horses, etc. Of course there are the crows, barred owls, wood peckers and hawks. All of these are very load.

I have listened and I have not heard anyone gobble at the sounding off of any of these other gritters. Maybe they just don't get close enough to the tom to set him off.

I guess like anything in life, I'll have to keep plugging away at it.

Thanks for the info.

Doug

[shaman]

Hmmmm. I have two explanations for this.

1) The gobblers may not be around. That was always the problem I had on the first place I hunted turkeys. I'd do everything, but I could not get a gobble in the morning. Eventually I figured out they were roosting on another property and coming onto mine, often after the 12 Noon hunting cutoff.

2) Lockjaw. Sometimes gobblers won't gobble. I used to have a gobbler named Silent Bob. He'd never gobble, but you could always bet he'd be roosted in on one spot on the ridge. If nothing else, you could go hunt Bob and hoped he came in. Of course, you never knew until he was right on you, because Silent Bob was, well, silent. I think Bob's problem was that he was a Beta bird-- always getting kicked around by the other gobs. He learned to shut up as a way to survive. I knew Bob was there, because I would see him standing out in the pasture, watching other birds (especially big ol Mister Natural) strutting their stuff. I guess he was hoping he could get somebody's sloppy seconds. Lockjaw can be because of hunting pressure or the weather. A lot of pros will tell you Lockjaw doesn't exist. If it ain't lockjaw, then it's #1 above.


Are you finding roosts? Feathers and turds?

How about scratches? Dusting sites? Tracks?

Make sure the scratches are fresh. What fooled me about my first place was that I saw lots of scratches, but it took my buddy coming with me one year to point out that the scratches were several months old.

I've got one idea. It comes from no less than David Hale. David Hale got a bright idea from listening to gobblers honoring riverboat whistles. I used to hunt just upriver of the Markland Dam on the Ohio. He's right, gobblers will answer boat horns. His idea was to market a pocket camo freon air horn for shock calling lockjawed gobblers. Much to his chagrin, the next year the woods were filled with guys walking through tooting their horns and scaring off the birds. David pulled the product before the next year. However, if you have an air horn, try blowing it right at dawn or dusk and listening. Maybe it will work.

The other idea is Scot's, and it's one of my favorites: I like to go out just ahead of a thunderstorm and scout. Thunder makes gobblers sound off like crazy, especially late in the afternoon and up to near dark. If I'm having trouble locating a receptive gobbler, I take a run out into the pasture in my truck just as a storm is coming. I stay close to the truck so that I can duck in and not get zapped.