I quit using crow calls some years ago but when I saw the thread about GN and the Haydel calls I picked one up. I have had good luck having turkeys on the ground answer the call.
Today I set up with decoys on a woods road where i had fooled with gobblers with hens twice before. The road had been scratched up since I was there last on Tuesday. At daylight I hear 6 gobblers, three of which are close enought to come in. The gobbler that I think is the boss only gobbled one time about 150 yards in front of me and then shutup completely. Two gobblers are together about 100 yards to my right. A hen cackled with them one time and they both gobbled. I did a wing flydown and cackled and nothing. The next time the birds gobbled they were so far away I could not believe it was the same turkeys, about 300 yards on the ground. I sat by the decoys for about thirty minutes and both gobblers would respond but they went up a creek bottom out of hearing. About 7:30 I picked up the decoys and took them back to my truck, mainly because I had walked out without my pot calls this morning.
I was going to try to get to one of the other turkeys that I had heard. As I am walking down a woods road a crow flew over about 100 yards in front of me and called, no response. I blew the Haydel and no response. When I got to where the crow had crossed I blew the Haydel again having already concluded that I would not get a response and a gobbler immediatly answered to my left. Since all the turkeys on this property seem to go to a major creek bottom and the road that I was on goes into the bottom I decided to move out into the bottom before making a call. I walked about 30 yards and a gobbler gobbled at the sound of me walking and was close, very close. I set down in the left edge of the road by a large pine with absolutely no cover, now the gobbler was behind me. The gobbler was much too close to call to so I just sat there. After about 5 minutes of silence I had decided to crawl across the road to another large pine that has some brush around the base that would give me a little cover and then start to call. Before I started to move a gobller in full strut walks out in the road on my left. I am in the wide open and am sure he is going to see me as he is facing right at me, then a second gobbler struts up behind him, now I know that I am going to get busted, the first turkey dances 360 degrees that would have allowed me to put the gun up but the second turkey was looking at me. The second gobbler drops strut and starts moving to the right across the road acting like he has seen something but not alarmed, the first turkey maintains strut. I decide that it is now or never and put the gun up in one motion, the second turkey starts to move away and the first does not break strut. I shoot the second one because he has his head up and roll him. At the crack of the gun the first gobbler flys out as well as seven hens.
The bird was farther away than I had thought, 49 steps, but the 20 gauge Federal heavyweight #7s dropped him like a rock. Probably the smallest 2 year old I have ever killed, 16.5 pounds with 1/2 in spurs and a 10 1/2 inch beard. I killed the bird at 8:30. If I were more computer literate I would post a picture......
In regard to the other thread about "where are we", at least in the area that I am hunting (Amelia, Cumberland, Powhatan) the gobblers are defintiely with hens.

way to execute in a tough situation. Congrats. work on those pictures for us

I am glad it worked for you, as it has for me many many times ...whene they wont gobble to hen or turkey calls they will sometimes go to stupid gobbling stages at the right crow calls> so congrats on your bird and glad you stuck with trying the crow. They dont answer every crow call you make but sometimes, like your hunt, it justt takes one answer to the crow to put you in business. I actually carry and often use different brands of several crow calls. I like the haydel bestb of currently available off the shelf crow because it is easily tunable to a very high pitch uf you move the reed around like you would tune a duck or goose reed call. If you learn to bite the back of the mouthpiece you can vary the pitch even more While you are actually calling. You can do about any call a crow can make with some practice.. From high pitched hail calls to a low death moan. They might gobble to any of them. And have.

9 times out of 10 the only answer I get is another crow. Although I never have spent any time practicing to improve on a crow call. Makes sense though to work on it. if you can't locate them you are pretty much guaranteed not to kill em. I tried using a woodpecker call this year and I seem to get decent results. Not the silver bullet I was looking for but better.