I didn't see this, but I have no reason to doubt.....a friend of mine claimed to have killed a turkey a couple of years ago that would gobble, but no sound would come out...he'd go through the motions of gobbling, but no sound.....the only thing he could hear was the feathers shake when he gobbled....like I say, I didn't see it, but have no reason to doubt the story.

Zeus would gobble really soft and you could barely hear him at 60 yards... he could really hammer if he wanted though...

Right Jeff?

I have seen a couple that do this as well, a gpbbler that lives behind my brothers hse can barely be heard at 50 yds. It is very noisy there so I think this is the way he compensates for lack of hearing. I also have seen 1 gobbler that could gobble continuously 10- 12 times with no break, just like a double ,triple gobble but 10-12 strung together ,amazing! Another old tom would string his gobble out until he ranout of breath and then squawk and cough on the inhale , I did get that trait out of the gene pool

BD... I have a bird on video that Amy killed that did the gobble until out of breath thing... it's hilarious. I need to see if I can pull it off the camera onto and audio file to post. He was literally gagging out his gobble...

Fun stuff!!

Zeus was a classic example (probably still is for all i know...i learned a long time ago when to call it quits on a gobbler) of an old, hard hunted SC lowcountry gobbler!
Freddy and I still talk about it to this day...wouldnt have believed it if we hadnt seen it first hand...might not have believed it if i had been alone..at least had someone else to confirm what we just witnessed.
he was 55 yards out, when he gobbled, it sounded like he was 150 yards away deep in the timber.
Sure makes us wonder about plotting distance on a gobbling turkey after that experience.

I killed one a few years ago that had a real low gobble. Sounded like a half-hearted gobble, shorter in length and low in volume, but could tell he was closer than he sounded because of the terrain. Thought it was a jake, but ended up being a 2 year old. Another gobbler was in the area gobbling when he came in, so I thought maybe he was trying to be quiet to keep from getting a beating?

As far as oddities - my dad killed one a few years ago with a big lump in his throat. It was kind of hard and about twice the size of a golf ball, but it was like a growth, not something stuck in his throat.

I have also killed a few gobblers w/ an enlarged, I call it a cranial plate. Where the top of the gobblers head is extremly wide and thick bulging out over the eyes. I mean half again as wide as normal giving the gobbler a menacing look. Boss toms for sure . I wish I could find the pics. Any body seen this?

Freddy,
Did you ever find out what the "rot" was on that toms head?

barry