Dave Owens

I’ve been out of commission for two weeks with a surgery, so I’ve watched every “Pinhoti Project” video on the web!

What brand calls does that rascal use??

He makes his own diaghrams

Yep...it's a ghost cut that he makes and probably tweaks it/customizes it

That is correct

He makes me feel bad about about my calling lol but I still kill a few.

That's what I figured. Good grief they sound good. I'm like y'all said, I'm way out of practice today, but I used to think I was the best in the world. He makes me realize I was bad wrong!

And Chubbs makes this perfect little high-pitched putt/cluck...just a cross between "pleep" and "plurp", sheesh it sounds ALIVE!!!

The success he consistently has on public ground in Alabama is nothing short of amazing

I've learned a lot of from watching him and chubbs. They are stone cold killers.

Correct, but they both wear Southwood7 pajamas

What I like most is they hunt how I hunt(ed). A bunch of their hunting is on Choccolocco WMA, which is only 10 mins from me. They hunt in the woods, big hardwood ridges. I hate how TV is always in fields, with decoys, etc. They'll be set up calling, the turkey will gobble and give them a quick location, they'll jump and close the distance and set up again.....I love that, it's how we do it! Not sure if he still lives around here, but Chubbs is from Anniston, his stepfather used to be my dentist.

Ha! Not even close! Dave is like the Michael Jordan of turkey hunting and I’m not even Scottie Pippen 😂

Break the calls out and start chasing them again. I don’t see how one could be as passionate as you say you were about turkey hunting and then quit!

I didn’t even realize turkeys made sounds like they make sometimes. It blows my mind. I try and replicate all of that and can’t do any of it!

I know, I wonder that myself a lot. I always say it's because turkeys stopped gobbling, but according to their videos it's not true! Also, The Hunting Public did their "Turkey Tour '19" starting at Choccolocco WMA this year, the first 7 days of season, I was shocked! Catman was with them and he put out a couple of vids too, those suckers had turkeys gobbling all hours of the day. No they weren't smokin' it gobbling, but enough so that you could hunt them. (As much as anything, I got way deeper into fishing as I've gotten older, and March/April is prime time for bass and tournaments. Gotta justify that $$$$ Ranger somehow! )

Good Luck!

I understand that IKB, I have several buddies the don’t turkey because they love fishing more.

If Dave is the Jordan, and you are Pippen, then I reckon I'm this guy...

I picked up lots of tips watching Dave. The biggest was how close they were able to get to roosted birds before daylight. I have killed turkeys by simply being on the strutting zone before they flew down. With the proximity to the roost tree, I wouldn't have even tried to get there in the past. Instead, I would try to call them to where I could set up safely without spooking them. The past results were not very impressive. It amazes me how close they get to gobbling birds before setting up. When this is possible, the odds of killing that tom increase exponentially. I am still a mediocre turkey hunter but I am improving.

Biggest thing I learned from watching Dave is how much to pay attention to terrain and use it to your advantage. It has also changed my calling style dramatically.

changed it in what ways??

Biggest thing is that I have switched to using mouth calls almost exclusively. It caused me to practice with them more than I used to and because of that I sound better than i ever have. Also I have changed the sounds that I use in the woods; more putts, clucks, and purrs, I rarely yelp, and a lot more use of scratching/fly down flapping. Most of that stuff is fairly common knowledge but I would say that from watching pinhoti coupled with my tactics maturing from past experience I have had a much better season this year than in the past as far as encounters and the way I have worked birds.

awesome; thx for sharing!

[quote=Coosa1Also I have changed the sounds that I use in the woods; more putts, clucks, and purrs, I rarely yelp, and a lot more use of scratching/fly down flapping. . [/quote]


lol...... Why are you in the woods doing a putt on a mouth call? That's an alarm call that will send them running for cover.

lol...... Why are you in the woods doing a putt on a mouth call? That's an alarm call that will send them running for cover.
[/quote]

Haha maybe that's not the correct word. I know not to make an alarm putt.

Lmao..... I was confused.

not to microscopically dissect this or anything ... *BUT* ... a very soft, almost tree yelp - even when the birds are on the ground - has been a super killer call in my bag over the years ... i try to yelp so softly it barely makes a sound, and i restrict it to 3 notes (or less) ... there's a time & place for loud/aggressive stuff - but a very soft yelp has worked like a champ for me ... i do agree that the soft clucks & purrs are also money ... i've spooked birds & "purred" them back to me a bunch of times ...

Without a doubt they work when used right, and I do use light tree yelps but I have been using them a lot less than other sounds this year and have enjoyed the results. I guess by "rarely use" I really meant "use them a whole helluva lot less than I did when I was green and didn't know any better".

Those guys are awesome callers but I’ve seen turkeys go the others way from them just like they do most of us! I’d love to be able to run a mouth call like them but I know that’ll never happen so I’ll just stick to what I’ve been doing, and yes I yelp at turkeys and never seen a reason to putt at em😁😁😁

BC putts just to give em a running chance. Hes a true sportsman like that......

But theyre usually too close anyways and dont make it too far!

As far as running a mouth call..personally thats really all I use. Dave is a World Champion so he ought to sound pretty good.

This year Ive actually have gotten a lot of gobblers to hit a Kee Kee run or my purrs more then yelps. They hear a lot of yelping.

I think they like the Kee Kee Run of a lost Jenny a lot. I think theyre like "Hello little girl..Im here and I like em younger". Its done well for me this year.

My first bird I killed mostly just purring and clucking..followed by 3 or 4 real soft light yelps. He didnt gobble after hitting the ground..I heard him spitting and drumming behind me.

My 2nd bird didnt gobble much either, again I heard him coming through the leaves dragging his wing tips and spitting and drumming. he drummed LOUD!

I like calling less and lighter as Im hunting near or on public land. I like them to NOT know exactly where I am , but the general area and to come in to LOOK for me.

I seldom watch turkey tv, and I don't go to turkey conventions, and I've never even been to a calling contest, so I don't know some of the terminology that other hunters take for granted.

But I can tell you for sure that turkeys make a sound that I would call a putt that can be deadly. It is very close to the same sound as the alarm putt, but it's different, and it means, "Where are you, my love?". It's a sound that both gobblers and hens can make, but I have heard gobblers make it more than hens.

Funny timing on reading this thread but just tonight I was explaining that same putt type call to a buddy who is a new turkey hunter... only way i can put it is the cadence is different than an "alarm putt" but its not a cut or a "cluck" so i don't know what else to call it.

All of y'all that want to hear Dave doing some of this soft talk everybody is talking about, watch this video he posted last night. Watch the first part where he is trying to drag that bird up to the disabled hunters. https://go.mossyoak.com/pinhoti-project/season:2/videos/kinda-live-episode-14-pinhoti-project

Especially when they wander into a calling set up and don't see another turkey. I've had luck answering their 'putts' right back to put them at ease and bring them those few extra steps.

It’s an “I’m here where are you?” Putt. I knew of a fella that could make it pretty good with a rubber band and an empty Copenhagen can with a cardboard bottom

Yeah, you obviously know the sound I'm talking about. There were some times when I was a kid that I had a gobbler come in and make that putt, and I thought it was the alarm putt and he had seen me. But after hunting long enough, I figured out it was just a demand for the hen to show herself.

Are y'all talking about the "water drop" putt?

I hear that sound quite often when I'm turkey hunting, buts it's not the turkeys making the sound. It's usually the sound of my tears hitting the ground because the bastage beat my arse AGAIN!!!

Exactly Brent!

Ive always called it a "contact cluck". The gobbler comes in quiet, looks around and doesnt see a hen where there should be one.. He "Contact clucks" once. It sounds like 2 wood sticks hitting each other.

Its his way of saying, "IM here, where are you?"

I usually do a soft cluck right back on a mouth call, purr a little and scratch some leaves as I try my best to spot him. Sometimes they start strutting in right after you answer. When they hear that soft cluck back, purring and scratching they decide.."Oh heck..shes right over there feeding I just cant see her yet" and come a little further trying to.

I listen for that cluck as much as I do spitting and drumming. Those are the 2 sounds quiet gobblers make when they come in is my experience.

I think it's almost impossible for us humans to reproduce the alarm putt with the pitch ferocity and meaning that turkeys do wxcept maybe on a glass or box call? record it and listen,,,just my 2 cents

My biggest takeaway from watching Daves videos is yeah, there calling is as good as it gets. But I have never seen anyone with the drive and tenacity that they have.Being at there spots hours ahead of time and hiking or bicycling for miles and being under turkeys before daylight. Day after day after day, Pretty impressive !

I killed a gobbler the other day that was an older bird and he had a partner. as they came in i adjusted my gun towards one of them, the first one heard me move and stop and started this "putt" or "Cluck" sound becasue he heard me but he couldn't see me. he didn't want to gobble so he just clucked a couple of times. neither turkey was spooked or had any idea i was there so it wasn't an alarm sound. now after I shot, I got to hear one putt as the other ran off. I've had older, more pressured gobblers cluck in close quarters rather than gobble. PCP is exactly right IMO

I don't mean this to take away from their calling or maneuvering skill by any means, because they're clearly better than most at both...........but...one think I noticed watching the 2018 videos is that they manage to just about always at least find a bird to fool with, if not a couple to choose from. It seems like there were very very few days last season where they "didn't hear or see a thing".....

Now, I'm certainly FAR from being a "good" turkey hunter, but I honest-to-God believe that even I'm "ok enough" that I could kill 2 or 3 birds out of 10 that I got to "play the game". Problem is, where I suck particularly badly is in the scouting/locating area. I've heard exactly 1 gobbler all season long...and he gobbled twice. That's it.

I guess my point is..........being the best caller and the best "tactician" in the turkey woods doesn't do you a lick of good if you ain't around any birds. Conversely, you can be borderline inept and still manage to kill a few if you're hunting every day of the season, and get to work a bird more days than you don't.

You know you can hunt the same turkeys they hunt right? In fact if you left Tuscaloosa the same time they start walking in youd prob be there by daylight. So maybe it does have to do with drive.

X2. I know if I hadn't heard but 1 bird gobble 2 times all year, I'd have been driving somewhere else to hunt. I don't get to hunt enough to go listen to silence

I hunt several different places, including places where other people have been seeing/hearing birds this year and where I saw plenty of sign and heard a few last year.......... I put in a good amount of miles, both driving and then walking.........just no luck.

After killing 2 last year, I joked with someone on here that I was "basically an expert" now if they wanted any advice. Fred warned that I'd just jinxed/cursed myself and I dismissed it. I think he may have been onto something, now.

Although, it also took me like 12 or 13 seasons of deer hunting before I got a shot at a decent racked buck, while other people hunting the same clubs/leases were killing them regularly. I've often wondered if there's something about me that wild game can sense and just drives them away from me (a "curse"....an "aura"...."bad juju"....stinky britches.....whatever). Or maybe I'm just a terrible hunter in general.......or maybe both?

yup - that was my takeaway, too ... no doubt, GREAT callers - but they don't quit ...

I guess my point in the post above was not to downplay their calling skills, but that I think their scouting/recon skills don't get enough credit, just because most of that is done before season and/or off camera. It's just not exciting and doesn't really make for good footage. But they obviously put in a LOT of work scouting, and clearly they're good at it. I put in a decent amount of work scouting, but I'm obviously not very good at it because I've nothing to show for it.

Gomer, I just don’t know of many public lands near the central part of the state where you can’t get on a high spot and not hear a turkey gobble ALMOST every morning. Getting on them to kill is a total different story!
Serious question...
Have you had your hearing checked? Have you heard turkeys before and wondered what county or state they may be in? (Jokingly, of course) If not, you need your hearing checked. Are you going back to the same place on these different places you go to? Do you stand still when you listen? Like dead still? Not fiddling around in pockets or scratching your nuts or looking on Aldeer? Try cupping your hands behind your ears if you haven’t already. I’m just trying to come up with a way for you to hear better. It’s hard to believe you’ve hunted as much as you have and haven’t heard more turkeys.

Gomer, I don’t know if your hunting hills or flat ground but in any kind of hill country you should be able to get on the highest point and hear one from a mile away on a calm morning. After a couple mornings of silence I’m moving on. I don’t care what I heard there last year or what Jimmy told me about the bird he heard. Jimmys probably a liar 😀

well, that's another part...I am pretty sure I have hearing loss to some extent, which certainly doesn't help. I have noticed that, in particular, I have trouble picking specific sounds out through a lot of background noise. For example. I can be in our living room watching TV and my wife can be in the [closed-off] kitchen washing dishes, 2 rooms away, and I have trouble hearing the tv over the sound of the sink running.

With that said, I've often heard birds gobble from what seemed like a good distance off, although when they're a long way off I do have trouble determining a direction. If they gobble multiple times and I can turn my head WHILE they're mid-gobble, I can usually pinpoint a general direction. So, as long as it's a relatively calm day, my problem isn't so much hearing them, it's just telling where they are once I do hear them.

I watched several episodes where guys come down the road, stop the truck and call. The turkey Dave is working (or under the roost tree waiting) stops gobbling. After the hunter leaves, the game resumes. I will bet those guys were swearing that area had no turkeys.

I think you are assuming they have these birds pinpointed a lot better than they do. They are really good at reading a map and getting within earshot of a bird based on that. If they don’t kill him that day, they are honed in on him the next. There’s not much actual “feet on the ground scouting” involved in a U.S. Slam.

I’d agree with John, you may need to get your hearing checked. I’ve hunted a lot of wmas in this state, including the one you frequent. On a good weather morning, you’re gonna hear atleast a few ghost gobbles from a highpoint in turkey habitat. It would be an abnormal day not to.

Like I said, I know I've got hearing damage to some extent but there's not much that can be done about it. But last year I didnt have trouble hearing birds most mornings, it was just a matter of figuring out where they were and/or getting to them. This year, I'm not even hearing them at all and I have noticed any significant change in my hearing in the last 12 months.

Your point about reading maps and navigating terrain makes sense though. I'll concede that.

So how many birds did they actually kill out of 50 or so days of hunting?

The thing with Dave is twofold. First, there are several spots that he's familiar with that he checks every year. I hunted up at Mulberry Fork for about 6 years... and I could go up there tomorrow morning and take you to some places where birds will be holding (providing timber hasn't changed substantially). Once you find those spots (and some of them are "killing spots"), you tuck them away in the back of your mind and always visit them during the season. Second, Dave's been hunting long enough that he knows where turkeys will (and will not) be found. If you give him an aerial map with topo lines on it and tell him to hunt a small section of it, I guarantee you that when he walks in the woods he's going to get onto sign pretty quickly... he just knows where birds will be at different times of the year. Plus, he knows where birds typically will roost and their behavior at different times in the season.

As someone mentioned above, it's mainly about one's drive to master this sport. Going back to Mulberry Fork, I'm not going to get up at 3 PM so I can drive up to the WMA and sit at a gate for an hour... and then hike in for at least a mile. I'm just not that mad at them any longer... and I have a family that's more important to me than birds.

You can get some walkers game ears or something like that...I hunt with a guy that uses them now, and it's made it so he can finally get back to hearing the birds gobble again.

Prolly enough to significantly increase their likelihood of getting lung cancer. LOL!

Lol, I tried to count the number last year from the videos. If I remember correctly it was 35ish in 70ish days of hunting.

Yeah, I think I remember it being in the mid/upper-30's......that was 4 or 5 killers in a few different states