The last fewe years I've seen a decline of response to the hooters I use Early in the morning. I've used the large barrel type and the smaller but higher pitched type also. Crow calls seem to be holding there own a little later in the day. Has anyone else seen this phenom and if anyone has a rec. for a brand of hooter I'd appreciate hearing about it.

It isn't an owl hooter, but I have had pretty good luck with a Peacock Call that I found. I have also heard of folks using duck calls for locators. Of course, Turkeys are different everywhere you go. Different habitat, pressures, etc. Worth a look though to consider something unusual.

I'm still pretty much a newbie to turkey, but That’s what I have found for what its worth

kwiac... I actually rarely use an owl hooter in the mornings. I usually just let them get started on their own in the mornings. I'll use an owl call in evenings and locate a lot of turkeys that way. I use my natural voice for hooting and it seems to work well. Amy uses the Primos Power Owl with good success too.

I think the lack of response is probably hunting pressure and quite possibly, for the last several years, we have been dealing with older age class birds and they have played the game a time or two as well.

hey kwiac...don't believe what freddy says...
fact is some folks can make 'em gobble with their natural voice and some can't

FREDDY CAN...I CAN'T
i can call in a ton of real live barred owls and have a great conversation, but i bet i get a gobbler to answer my owl call 1 out of 10 times if i'm lucky

real story...
freddy and i owling to a roosted gobbler just after dusk one evening...freddy gets the gobbler to answer his owl calls routinely...i owl at him...nothing...this goes on for a while. then i get a couple of barred owls to answer me...i hoot the owls answer...freddy hoots...the gobbler answers...both sound realistic for sure, but i think the volume that one gets (like freddy does) has a lot to do with getting a gobbler to answer.

interesting and frustrating at the same time

My experience has been in the mts owl, in flat grounds crow call gets the most response. I use a crow call but owl w/ my voice. Which really is due Im sure to more crows in farm land and lack of them in the mts. In the mtns they will sometimes answer owling all day.

I can't get those stupid SC turkeys to gobble at my owl though... dumb things!

Thanks for the responses. For years the o-lers(owl calls) have been working, I mean like automatic. Then things started to change, gradually until now the o-ler works 1/2 the time(or less). I'm hunting on the West side of the Shenandoah Valley so we have flatland turkeys and mountain turkeys(one and the same). Here's the bottom line up here... o-ler in the a.m. dark, crow calls after 8a.m. and o-lers after7pm.
Just like I expected...no silver bullets...you guys do turkey hunt!

Hey KWIAC. I have really noticed the amount of night gobbling lately. I get several responses in the am to my owl hoots but not always. I have also noticed the decline but likeI say mine is inthe eve roosting. Like diablo Ican call in a flock of Owls and get them going. That is fun too.

When I use a large barrel owl call or a Woods Wise walnut call I was getting owls in, too. I've never, to my knowledge, gotten any owls in with the smaller barrel, higher pitch calls. It could be me but I can get the pitch down by muffling the call. I can't call with my own voice. The smaller barrel calls seem to carry farther...doesn't make much difference I guess. It seems to be that on some days they'll gobble to about anything...car doors slamming and etc.. Uh, which brand of car or truck seems to work best?













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One other call nobody has mentioned is a goose call. I have hunted for years along the Cowpasture River and routinely have Canada geese flying the river in the spring. Can probably count on one hand out of a hundred times that a gobbler didn't turn loose at the geese honking their way down the river. Never tried the call, just relied on nature to do the trick.

Rhino great Idea!!!!.. I NEVER thought of that but it should work well... Maybe you should post it in the contest man!!! Good one!!

Rhino... a turkey tube call will also make very good goose honks... Thanks for spilling the beans on that one!

Sorry, boys, can't agree here on goose calls...reason>up on the Cacapon River there must be 40 pair each Spring in my range of hunting and they're going off all the time so, consequently, I guess that's why the gobblers NEVER gobble back. Maybe there's something to learn here? Maybe we should start using Sandhill Crane calls or something else they've never heard to get 'em going in the A.M.

Hey Freddy,

Those South Carolina Birds just don't understand your strange accent!

Sort of along these same lines, the past 5-6 years or so, I've noticed a decline in owl vocalization....I just don't hear the owls that I have in the past.......I mean, I hear a few hear and there, but for the most part, I don't hear them like I used to.....I have at times, blown the owl hoot once and let the other owls take over.....haven't done that in a good while.....has anyone else noticed a decline?? or is just me?