High Pressure Shut em Down
Turkey
High pressure typically does follow a cold front. The turkeys I hunt definitely gobble more when it's warm. Past that I couldn't tell you one way or another if they are affected by barometric pressure.
Up here in the NE barometric pressure does have an adverse affect on the vocalness of turkeys. We also see way less gobbling when its an East wind. Our normal wind direction here is WNW
I've noticed on mornings when they are fired, they are just quiet the next day. As far as pressure, I was sitting a field corner one morning and heard a group of gobblers approaching me, but they were out of view because the field was on a hill. Then I heard a shot and one of the toms flew my way and landed behind me in the woods. A few minutes later a guy came down and said the one that flew my way was the one he shot at. I thought it sounded like the Tom more or less crash landed. We walked down the hill and he got another shot to put it down. He said there was a group of three toms together and another one came behind him. I went back there the next morning, but setup at the opposite corner and those toms were back on the ridge with hens. I typically setup where toms will eventually show up and I kind of like it when they're quiet on the roost because they tend to more active later in the morning.
I have always heard the most gobbling activity on cool calm mornings in early april. It always seems when I expect to hear a lot I don't. Also have had days when I did not expect much and heard a lot. Go figure.
I've always heard the most gobbling in mid to late-March, after a few warm days, and a cool, crisp morning when you have about 30 toms trying to decide who is boss on the limb, and at fly down.
They're turkeys. We've had them gobbling their snoods off in high wind and rain, and then dead silent on "perfect" days.
Out here, rain seems to shut them off more than anything. We've killed a lot of birds in insane winds...but we only have about seven calm days a year, too.
They won't all be in the same tree, especially by now.
Most of the hens are tight, with a few toms with them, and others maybe scattered over 100 or so yards of timber.
The old boys kind of hang back, and let the two and some three year-olds duke it out and gather up some breeding flocks. Than about the time the first hen is ready to to squat, the longspurs come in and rearrange the order.
Kind of sounds like the wave just before fly down.
Those are Rios, and Rio/Eastern hybrids.
This time of year here, they are still flocked up. So, Heavy frost + clear sky = Lots of vocal turkeys. Lots of birds are vocal on the roost until breeding actually gets heavy. It isn't uncommon to hear a dozen or more spread out early in the spring. By the second week in April, you'll be lucky to hear 4 or 5 in the same area you heard 15 from 3 weeks ago. It signals breeding has started in earnest.
I guess what I'm saying is, when the hens are breeding but, not setting heavily yet, and the pecking order of the gobblers have been established, if there is any excuse not to gobble on the roost, they don't do much of it. I'd say that is where you are at in Alabama right now.
Good luck and God Bless.
Wind seems to shut them down. That's all I've really noticed, but that's largely the same w/ every wild animal I've hunted.
I called and shot them during wind, cold, snow, etc. Much like elk in Sept, it depends on the bird.
All of the examples of hunters being shot seem to be shotgun or rifle related. Has anyone ever heard of a turkey hunter being shot with an arrow?
If prairie turkeys only gobbled when it was calm, they'd get pretty frustrated.
