In the spring sweet-talking like a sexy hen is the way to lure a gobbler most of the time. But you shouldn't forget that toms need a little male bonding every once in a while. Sometimes gobblers like to hang out together. Some tough guys talk trash and look for fights. So a few manly tactics can help you collect beards and spurs.

Yelp like a Gobbler

"Some springs I gobbler yelp more than I hen yelp," says my buddy Ray Eye, the legendary turkey hunter from Missouri.

Eye points out that gobbler yelping works great if cold, rainy weather dictates a late spring green-up in an area. "Some longbeards will still be in winter flocks," he says. "The toms may become separated or just want male companionship, so they'll come to gobbler yelps."

How do you do it? "The main thing to remember is to slow down the length and rhythm of your yelps," Eye notes. "A gobbler's yelps may be raspy or clear, but they're always slower than a hen's yelps."

Gobbler yelp on a diaphragm or friction call in 3- or 4-note series. Mix in deep, coarse clucks for added realism.

Gobble At Longbeards

Gobbling on a rubber shaker or tube call is a good locating technique. Loud and attacking, the gobble works especially well when hunting Rio Grandes and Merriam's. A single call at dusk or dawn can set off a chain reaction of gobbling from toms packed into a live oak or pine roost. Back east, if standard owl hooting or crow calling fails to produce, why not faux gobble in hopes of shocking the real thing from a tight-lipped longbeard?

You can also use gobbling to challenge the dominance of an old tom with hens. If a bird shuns your hen calls, gobble at him. He just might gobble back and come running to kick some tail feathers, allowing you to lower the boom.

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Try Fighting Purrs

Back in the early 1990s Kentucky call makers Harold Knight and David Hale stood the turkey-hunting world on its ear with the introduction of the Fighting Purr system. In case you were asleep under a rock somewhere and missed it, here's the lowdown. You work a pair of push-peg calls simultaneously to aggravated purr and mimic 2 toms fighting for the right to breed hens. The theory is that nearby gobblers, like guys hanging around in a bar, should stroll over to watch two fellows slugging it out.

So does it work? Well, not all of the time or even most of the time. But Fighting Purrs are effective on occasion, enough so that I think every hunter should pack them in his vest. I've called in and shot probably a dozen longbeards with my old Fighting Purrs, a couple of original prototypes that Harold Knight hand-tuned and sent me years ago.

A note: Some toms gobble as they come to aggravated purrs. Other subdominant birds, probably fearing the wrath of the fighters, slip in silently to check out the racket. After a volley of fight calls lay down the boxes, pick up your shotgun, sit still and scan the woods for a turkey sneaking in.