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Re: Drumming

Posted: May 11th, 2014, 10:07 pm
by Gobbler
Many times a silent hunt that was causing a conflict in my mind whether to stay put or move was saved by the sound of drumming. :thumbup:

Re: Drumming

Posted: May 12th, 2014, 6:18 pm
by howl
I have documented and considerable high frequency loss, but I hear low frequency sounds fine. I've seen someone freaked out by drumming because it's like some unseen force that is everywhere all at once. You can kill several limits of the birds I hunt and never have one drum. I hardly ever even see one strut due to the way I have to set-up.

Re: Drumming

Posted: May 13th, 2014, 10:55 am
by Stinky J Picklestein
Gobbler wrote:Many times a silent hunt that was causing a conflict in my mind whether to stay put or move was saved by the sound of drumming. :thumbup:
This.^^^

Re: Drumming

Posted: May 22nd, 2014, 3:22 pm
by J. Adams
Gobbler wrote:Many times a silent hunt that was causing a conflict in my mind whether to stay put or move was saved by the sound of drumming. :thumbup:
this.....

For whatever reason I can hear it a long way, can't hear gobbling nearly as far as I "used to could" but hearing drumming has saved me several times, I also think some drum louder than others, that could be just my thinking though after too many 4ams and too much walking...


On the other hand I have a partner than can hear one gobble farther than any regular human should but couldn't hear one drum if he was in the truck with him doing it.....We hunt together a good bit and he has sent us on a good many "walks" to his hearing them far...I have walked "over that next hill" a few times thinking "there aint no way"....."it was right in here we should be close"....sure enough...

Re: Drumming

Posted: May 22nd, 2014, 8:31 pm
by Doedaddy
My wife can hear a pin drop in the next room but cannot hear drumming at 10 yards. I'm blessed to hear it a lot further than most. Killed a lot of drummers that never gobbled.

Re: Drumming

Posted: May 22nd, 2014, 9:18 pm
by trkykilr
I'm sure that there are people that just don't hear that frequency. Luckily, I pick up on it very well. I have taught several of my friends to hear it, when they had not ever picked up on it before. I know this sounds crazy, but I have described it to people as the noise a large bubble would make coming from the bottom of a glass of water IF you could hear it. That sounds ridiculous, but to me, thats the best way to describe it.

Re: Drumming

Posted: May 22nd, 2014, 10:27 pm
by howl
Curious to know if those that cannot hear it can hear the high pitched whine from electronics like tv monitors. I never had been able to hear that. Could just be our ears only operate over a finite range that may or may not go low enough.

Re: Drumming

Posted: May 23rd, 2014, 11:33 am
by ole5beards
I have hearing loss in my right ear(wear those ear plugs!). There is a constant ringing non-stop. It was hard to deal with at first but over time I've learned to ignore it, some days are worse than others. I can hear drumming fine, and hear it from a good distance away. But I can not hear high pitch sounds. It's weird I can hear very few high pitch electronic beeps but for the most part high pitch noises give me trouble. My kids thermometer makes a faint beep when it's done. I used to hear it but now my wife takes their temperature, or I'd still be waiting for the beep!

Re: Drumming

Posted: May 23rd, 2014, 5:08 pm
by howl
The ringing is due to high frequency hearing loss.

Re: Drumming

Posted: May 23rd, 2014, 5:12 pm
by guesswho
howl wrote:The ringing is due to high frequency hearing loss.
The ringing is due to the large amount of nothing between the eardrums.

Re: Drumming

Posted: May 23rd, 2014, 5:24 pm
by ole5beards
Says the man with jethro as his avatar!!

Re: Drumming

Posted: May 23rd, 2014, 5:35 pm
by guesswho
Jethro is a wise man.

Re: Drumming

Posted: May 24th, 2014, 3:57 am
by ICDEDTURKES
Thursday I took a buddy out that had never turkey hunted.. After one setup, we made a big loop on some birds in a field.. Crept up, to the field edge and I heard spitting and drumming probably 60 yards away.. I told him to crawl up to a rock.. Gave one set of yelps, spit and drum.. Bird came to 10 yards boom.. Asked my buddy after the hunt if he heard the spit and drumming, he looked at me :scratch: I than told him what it was and when a gobblers feathers jut out he is spitting and drumming, he said he saw that.. Dunno if he was unable to hear it, or if having no clue what to listen for he missed it..

Favorite sound, means something is gonna be dead soon..

Re: Drumming

Posted: May 24th, 2014, 8:51 am
by Stinky J Picklestein
ICDEDTURKES wrote:... or if having no clue what to listen for he missed it...
That's likely the case. I'd been around birds quite a bit before I noticed it. One morning I had a stutter hung up and pacing on the neighbor's side of the property line for a LONG time (probably just 15 minutes, but it seemed like for hours). I kept hearing the sound, but still thought it some kids cranking their subs way off in the background. Then I thought to myself, "Why are they playing with their car stereos before 7:00am?" And when bird finally walked off, I noticed the sound had stopped. I FINALLY pieced it together. It just didn't seem natural to attribute the sound of somebody tuning a string bass to a turkey.

End of the story: That bird sneaked across the property line about an hour later, and gobbled about 10 feet behind me...scared the sh#t outta me! He got shot. :)

Re: Drumming

Posted: May 24th, 2014, 10:16 am
by Gobbler
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkMmuRH ... x6EFA1fpPw

You can hear spit but maybe not drum

Re: Drumming

Posted: May 25th, 2014, 9:55 am
by GLS
Doug, I hear little drumming just beyond the spit...

Re: Drumming

Posted: June 19th, 2014, 11:49 am
by snapper1982
I have never heard a turkey drum. Tell you the truth I did not even know they could. How do you figure they learned how to and where do they get the drums?

Ok ok on the real side.


I have never been able to hear it. 3 times I have heard it that i recall. 2 while hunting and 1 while scouting. But like most have said my long distance hearing is pretty good. Now i have a buddy that says he hears it and has heard it while we are hunting but I think he is telling fibs!

Re: Drumming

Posted: June 20th, 2014, 2:53 pm
by drenalinld
I think most are capable of hearing it just haven't keyed in on it. Like gobbles in the distance, you have to be listening for them and learn to recognize them. My younger brother went for years not recognizing it and in the past two seasons has picked it up and can hear it very well.

The way I started picking up on it was hunting videos. When I play them with surround sound it really brings it out with a woofer box. Turn the bass and volume up and it's unreal how much drumming is in any turkey video. If they are strutting, they are drumming. You can see it. When their wings snap to the lowest full strut position they make the spit and drum as they slowly retract just a bit from the fullest strut and wings lift slightly. Learning to recognize it will make you a better turkey hunter and make the whole experience more enjoyable.

A word of caution though, many sounds in the woods can make you feel you are hearing drumming especially on breezy days. It can make you insane. You start to hear it everywhere, eating, sleeping, driving down the road......

Re: Drumming

Posted: June 20th, 2014, 9:18 pm
by savduck
Its one of those sounds, that your probably hearing and don't really even know it because of all the other noises in the woods. It can be subtle and all of a sudden it dawns on you that you hear drumming.

Re: Drumming

Posted: June 21st, 2014, 7:43 pm
by GLS
During an insomnia bout early this morning, I was listening to the BBC this a.m. and they had on a woman who specialized in recording and studying elephant vocalizations in the low frequency range which is impossible for humans to hear. Apparently some folks can feel it in their chests. It's even lower than turkey drumming frequency. The elephants can hear it and communicate several kilometers away. Humans only hear a third of the sound of a trumpeting elephant.

Re: Drumming

Posted: June 21st, 2014, 10:06 pm
by savduck
I hunted with Ricky Padgett two years ago opening weekend on his place in SC. He had a big breeding group mixed with multiple gobblers, jakes, and hens. We got in amongst them, Im talking AMONGST them two hours before daylight. We were sitting there for about 45 minutes and it dawned on me I heard drumming, and a bunch of it. Multiple birds. It was pitched black dark. I leaned over to Ricky and whispered that I thought I heard several birds drumming. He looked at me and goes "man, Im glad you said something. I heard them too, but didn't want to say anything because you would think I was crazy". It took 10 or 15 minutes before I realized that I had heard all the drumming, it just kind of blended in with all the wood noise. Once we both noticed it, there were 6 gobblers and they would all drum at each other. It stayed that way for a solid hour until dawn when they started gobbling. It was a cool experience and probably once in a lifetime.

Re: Drumming

Posted: June 22nd, 2014, 3:01 pm
by GLS
Del, did the hunt go uphill or downhill after that??? ;) Gil

Re: Drumming

Posted: June 22nd, 2014, 8:21 pm
by savduck
We couldn't do anything with the big breeding flock. Stayed with them for an hour. Got another bird behind us gobbling. Went to that one and worked him. Some jakes came running in and went to him. We moved thinking they were on a road and spooked them. Set up on a gobbler and two hens an hour later. Belly crawled into shooting position, only didn't have a clear shot. Did a five note yelp and the gobbler took off running two yards across a field. It was an awesome hunt, just no kill.

Re: Drumming

Posted: July 23rd, 2014, 6:50 am
by hookspur
I was in NY one spring and heard drumming a long time before daylight. Me and the kid I was guiding started easing towards it, and we kept going, and going, and going until I could finally tell the tom was right in front of us in the pitch black. Set up and waited another hour before he suddenly gobbled from a treelimb 40 yards away. We didn't kill him though....he ended up flying down to a group of hens chattering in the opposite direction and then went silent for the rest of the day. I couldn't believe we'd covered so much territory to reach that rascal, so I paced off the distance back to my van at just under 300 yards!!! I think the light misting rain conditions had a huge part in why I'd heard it so far away on that particular morning, and the lay of the land was a factor too, I'm sure. It is definitely my favorite sound to hear in the turkey woods, and I've found many turkeys just by easing along and listening for their drumming. However, in the last couple years I've begun to hear the sound less from my right ear, so I often think the turkey is further left than he really is.

Re: Drumming

Posted: January 25th, 2015, 10:56 am
by Cut N Run
I love the sound of drumming. It is my favorite sound in the whole world. I'm pretty sure drumming translates to "Take the safety off".

My high range hearing is hearing is screwed up (too much shooting and Rock & Roll). Hearing bad enough that it kept me out of the service. I never hear the high pitch alarm on my watch or small bells, but I hear low frequencies much better than most. I hear helicopters or diesel engines long before those with "normal" hearing around me do.

I called in a gobbler for a buddy that was drumming his @$$ off from less than 20 yards and my buddy never heard it the first time. I thought he was kidding.

In 2007 I had a gobbler come in from behind my tree and walk right up beside me. If he would have stood for it, I could have rocked up on my right butt cheek and touched the top of his head with my right hand. He drummed that close and I could feel it in my lungs. It felt strange. He looked me over for a few minutes before he made the mistake of walking out in front of me.

Jim