# How far away can you hear a gobble?



## Payton Everett

I know it depends on the terrain and the thickness of the woods but on average how far away can you hear one gobble? 300-400 yards?


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## Dupree

on a clear morning im not sure, but a bird we went to in alabama on saturday morning had us over half a mile from the listening spot according to gps. it was .63 to be exact.


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## chevyman2000

2 years ago I heard a bird firing off all morning. I just did a quick measurement on google maps and it was just over 1100meters away!!!!


chev.


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## trkyburns

For most folks with normal to good hearing, my guess is up to 500 yds or maybe more, all depending on the terrain and leaf cover and other noises. But to be honest, I'm really not qualified to answer this...

For me, not nearly as far as I used to be able to. I'm not old, but I have had ear/jaw problems the last couple years and have begun to realize how it affects my turkey hunting. Some of the guys I hunt with have claimed to hear birds when I would have sworn they were lying. I have slowly begun to realize that the problem is with me. There's a few guys on here that can attest to this. This is my biggest concern for the upcoming season... Will this continue to happen? How many opportunities will it cost me? How many hunting buddies will I make mad telling them they're crazy for thinking they heard a gobble when they most likely really did? Sorry to go on and on, but I'd be interested to know if anybody else has experienced hearing loss and how it affected their hunting and how they dealt with it.


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## SGaither

Sounds like a set of action ears is needed for trkyburns


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## creekrocket

I hunted a 70 acre field a couple of times, and I have sat and watched a bird strutting and gobbling and never heard the first note. It all depends on the wind as well. With the wind in your face, you will hear him better if he is in front of you. The wind will carry that sound pretty far. The leaves will also play games with you the closer the season comes to an end. The more foliage on the trees will throw the sound all around and make it a little harder to determine the distance. It always pays to be a little caseous in the woods this time of year


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## Brad C.

I would say that most people with avg hearing and good terrain such as flat land with no hills or wind to muffle sound that 1/4 mile would be just about the norm.  Now if your hunting all fields with hardly any woods and no wind and have good hearing that distance may be increased a little bit.  But I know of very few people even with great hearing that can hear a turkey gobble at 1/2 mile or farther in reality.  There might be a few, but distance is like fish stories, they each get longer each time the story gets told.


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## Brad C.

Think of it like this.  1/2 mile is 885yds.  Now think of over 7 football fields from goalpost to goalpost is 840yds.  That's a long way to say I heard one gobble.  The bionic woman would have to really listen to hear that.


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## trkyburns

SGaither said:


> Sounds like a set of action ears is needed for trkyburns



You got that right.


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## Jaker

heard one gobble monday at well over 1000 yds, was sitting on a powerline, wind coming from the direction of the bird, and sitting on the highest point around, the bird was roosted directly on the powerline and almost as high up as we were. you could barely hear it, and couldn't hear it at all if you stepped about 20yds past the crest of the hill. took us a good 20 minutes on the jog to get down there to him, of course bein 20years old, i may have a hearing advantage


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## yelper43

My house faces Taylors ridge and it is probably 1/2 a mile away and I hear them gobblin a good bit. Last year we had a thunderstorm come in and everytime it would thunder they would shock gobble like crazy.


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## Timber1

We were up on a mountain top last year in the Smokies and heard one gobble a long ways off. It sounded like an Osceola to me. Unfortunately I did not have a Florida hunting license.


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## boparks

Depends on terrain, foliage, and wind direction.

 I have heard birds out west a half mile or better away.

Years ago I had a friend with me in Montana....we had heard a couple birds gobbling a long ways off before good light.

Since he had never killed a Merriam I stayed back and he went after them.


I walked up on hill and watched thru binoculars.



After it got light I Found the bird and then saw my friend sitting against a tree and the bird strutting.....when the bird gobbled there was a delay before I heard it....

The bird looked like it was right on him and kept strutting around but my friend didn't shoot......this went on for a while and I was thinking man he sure is cool about this and is just watching the show....and impressed he could wait so long to shoot.......  all of a sudden he got up on his knees...and then stood up......I'm thinking what in the heck is he doing?.........I couldn't believe the bird didn't see him and spook.....then I saw the fire come out of the barrel and the bird go down.....and a couple seconds later I heard the shot.

Come to find out the bird was just over a rise that he couldn't see over but he could hear him drumming so he stood up to see over the rise and shot


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## Dupree

Brad C, turkeys must not gobble as loud out your way. Funny a man half way across the country is gonna say we are stretching the truth on how far you can hear a turkey. 

When I was in college in s ga I bumped a lot of turkeys. In the thick swamps the gobbles were muffled. In the rolling hills and mountains before green up with little wind turkeys half a mile away are easily heard. I don't even want to take a guess how far away some of those birds you can barely hear are.


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## Brad C.

4x4powerstrokesd said:


> Brad C, turkeys must not gobble as loud out your way. Funny a man half way across the country is gonna say we are stretching the truth on how far you can hear a turkey.
> 
> When I was in college in s ga I bumped a lot of turkeys. In the thick swamps the gobbles were muffled. In the rolling hills and mountains before green up with little wind turkeys half a mile away are easily heard. I don't even want to take a guess how far away some of those birds you can barely hear are.



Well I don't hear like you younger boys do.  But if I hear one gobble at 500yds I am probably doing good.


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## dtala

The more important question is how far can a gobbler hear your calling???


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## HucK Finn

Timber1 said:


> We were up on a mountain top last year in the Smokies and heard one gobble a long ways off. It sounded like an Osceola to me. Unfortunately I did not have a Florida hunting license.


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## boparks

dtala said:


> The more important question is how far can a gobbler hear your calling???



Troy

I'd say it depends on the call you're using but with the right box call or crystal.......further than you can hear him gobble


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## MCNASTY

This time of the year from the highest point on our property, well over 1000 yds to the river bank if the turkey is on the roost.  But in the middle of April from that same spot you'd do well to hear one 300 yards.   If a turkey is OTG in the swamps, if you can hear him he's close.


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## wmahunter

Brad C. said:


> Think of it like this.  1/2 mile is 885yds.





4x4powerstrokesd said:


> Brad C, turkeys must not gobble as loud out your way.



Must be a lot of things different in MO than in GA.  Looks like miles are 10 yds longer there too.


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## stev

let them gobble within 100 yds .is all that counts ,close the distance and bang ,no more gobble .


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## 27metalman

Can't quite remember what the measurement was, but I know it was over a 1/2 mile according to the 4-wheeler odometer.  Like all the others are saying... wind, leaves, rolling hills, and the bird himself all have infuence on the situation.


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## swamppirate

Like most have said the denseness of the woods factors in as well as the geography....In the thick woods of GA maybe....300-400 yds....In the mountains of VA/WV, if it's calm.....3/4 of a mile.


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## GA DAWG

A long ways here right now..I know I can hear one over 1/2 a mile..Last yr I hunted our lease in south Ga for the first time..Real flat there and I figured I could hear one forever..I got out hooted and nothing..Hooted again and faintly heard one I thought..I thought he was way over yonder so I headed out..Now between me and him was a 300 yard wide plowed field..I get to the center and he gobbles but is closer..Then I see him fly down and come toward me..I could just barely hear him...This deer season I heard a bunch there and to me it Seems like we can hear them better up here in the hills..I guess because most times they roost on the big ridges??


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## Dupree

Just used a ruler on google earth to see how far it was for the farthest turkey I went to off of the roost last year, and from where I was at and he was rooster was approximately 740 yards. I heard plenty that were much farther but never went to them to have an exact location.


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## alan

Timber1 said:


> We were up on a mountain top last year in the Smokies and heard one gobble a long ways off. It sounded like an Osceola to me. Unfortunately I did not have a Florida hunting license.



Now thats funny


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## Ga. Swamper

Not very far without by Walker game ear.


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## Swamprat

In my experience of S Georgia and Florida a 1/4 mile is average. There have been some that I know were farther away but because at that point the gobble was so muffled you could not pinpoint an exact spot while on the ground.

I think though most I hear are within 300 yards or so.

In the late morning if I hear a faint gobble I might work closer but in the first morning hours when you have several gobbler firing off within 3-600 yards I will set tight.


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## Brad C.

wmahunter said:


> Must be a lot of things different in MO than in GA.  Looks like miles are 10 yds longer there too.



Yea the birds are bigger on avg so they don't have to gobble as loud.  

I guess I ought to clarify that I know I can't hear a gobbler gobble at 1/2 mile, but I have lost probably 20-25% of my hearing over the years.  But I think and this ain't directed towards anyone on here personally, but a lot of people aren't very good at telling the whole truth when it comes to how far something is.  The same goes for when they shoot a deer at 200yds.  In less than a day, the story has been stretched to over another 100yds to a 300yd shot.  There is a lot of people like that.  The same can be said for guys that step off their patterns on here and call it 40yds.  Now that's how a lot of guys will post their great patterns on here and in reality, they were shooting at 35yds.  That's a big difference right there.


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## bnew17

Heard one last week across a clear cut at 500-600 yards. Made my way through the clear cut only to find the bird was actually 200+ yards off the clear cut in some pines. So basically, a long ways.


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## hoppie

I have also watched birds gobble in a field a couple hundred yards away and it seem like the bird was a mile away it was so faint.


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## gregg

I've had birds gobble so lightly I could only hear them 75ish or less yards away in fairly thick cover.....I've also heard them a LONG way off, totally depends on the terrain/wind conditions and the bird himself.


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## meriweatherw

In the right place, weather conditions, and time of year, I believe a mile for sure.


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## Bama4me

Another factor that no one has mentioned on the thread earlier is the fact that a gobbler has the ability to tone down his gobble.  It doesn't happen regularly enough to realize it all the time, but I've especially had two-year old birds do it prior to killing them.  Guessing it has to do with them maybe having been wipped down.


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## Larry Young Jr

Payton Everett said:


> I know it depends on the terrain and the thickness of the woods but on average how far away can you hear one gobble? 300-400 yards?



X2 in the mtns out west you can hear them  1 mile and further.
larry


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## Fuller

hoppie said:


> I have also watched birds gobble in a field a couple hundred yards away and it seem like the bird was a mile away it was so faint.



Fire a shotgun in the woods and from 100 yards off it sounds like a cannon. Fire a shotgun in the middle of a huge field and from 100 yards it sounds like a pop gun. I have heard birds in the mountains that were a mile away. At my property in Oglethorpe, I have literally heard one, gotten in my truck and driven a mile up the road and gotten out and chased him. Several times. On that same note, I have had birds hammerin in a low spot 100 yards from me that sounded like they were 1/4 mile. Terrain and foliage are the factors.


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