Jeff Scott with his 22-pound turkey with 9-inch beard and 1 5/8 spurs. Submitted photo

Rain this past week has begun to start the annual process of melting off the feet of snow at The View. The sight of grass, a bunch of sticks and little gifts Dakota has left for me all winter mean one thing in the Robbins household: spring is around the corner.

After the holidays each year, I begin in earnest the building of turkey calls for the coming spring season. I have, and hopefully will always be, a fan of the wild turkey and the way they communicate with each other. I have spent more than three decades attempting to mimic the sounds turkey, ducks, deer, geese, and elk make.

You should see the look on folks’ faces when I show them the different sounds that different woods make against a surface. Case in point: take a basic glass over glass pot-style call. Run a hickory striker, then try dense wood like, purple heart or zebra. The different sound in each striker is amazing.

Being totally infatuated with wild critters and the sounds they make, then trying to build something with my own two hands, is what some would consider a sickness. I prefer to consider it a passion/gift.

During a spring turkey hunt we are going after a male of the species. During a spring turkey hunt, we are attempting to call males into our ambush, with primarily female calls. Seldom does gobbling work to bring a mature gobbler into range.

We all have experienced the hunts where we are trying to pull a gobbler away from a live bird. The way it works in the wild is, a hen calls, the male sounds off, the female then runs to the male.

When hunting spring gobblers, we are attempting to do it backwards. We are calling the male to us not the other way nature has conditioned the turkey to do. This makes spring gobbler hunting a challenging and exciting adventure.

A couple years back, I was guiding a new turkey hunter. As we set, listened and watched the woods come to life, the sound of gobbles broke the morning peace and quiet. My new turkey hunter turned and looked at me and I saw at that moment he was hooked. Even though he had a full camo face mask on, I saw the smile and how his eyes grew wide at each gobble.

As darkness slowly turned to daylight, I spotted the top of a fan on the crest of the field, following two hens. The first hen was the lead bird, but the sent hen and gobbler were “holding hands.” In other words, they were very close to each other. Our decoy spread consisted of a jake, hen and full-body motion decoy. With this spread and some soft calling we have found that even gobblers with hens come within range.

During this encounter, notwithstanding a few looks, the lead hen wanted nothing to do with us. What I brought away from this encounter was how the gobbler acted and when he sounded off and when he didn’t. What we discovered on this spring morning, was during this hunt, the gobbler was vocal, more so than what I had expected. But what we observed was he pretty much was in full strut the entire time we watched him — distance of 100 yards — strutting away from us. As luck would have it, our two hens led our gobbler off to complete their spring ritual.

Over the years, many things about turkey hunting have changed in the spring woods, but the one thing that has not is the sound of a mature bird sounding off at first light. Every spring turkey hunter has one thing in common: we love the sound of the gobble.

Often as I sit in the spring woods and listen to the world around me coming alive, I think about strange things. One thing has crossed my mind. I have tried to figure out why turkeys gobble and, more importantly, why they don’t. You have done your homework and know that long beards are in your hunting area. There are tracks, sights and droppings, and the morning before you heard birds talking at first light, but very next morning you heard nothing. Why is this?

Over the years I have talked and interviewed hundreds of turkey hunters. In our conversations, the question of turkey gobbling always comes up. Why on some days they talk and other days they just have lockjaw. Is it the weather, hunter pressure, barometric pressure, predator pressure or just their mood?

Some new research has come to light about why turkeys gobble, with a few interesting conclusions.

A couple weeks ago, we discussed a little bit about research that has been done about why turkeys gobble. As one that has been a sucker for wildlife research of any kind over the years — heck some guy did the work to sit and document all these sites, sounds and observation — I figured the least I could do is read the paper.

The thing I have realized after all the research is this: how does this affect the way I hunt or fish and how am I able to take some of the information and incorporate it into the way I do things and, in turn, make me more successful.

This past spring, I was able to travel to South Dakota for the second time to go after my Merriam turkey. After a long 22-hour drive — only to stop for a two-hour nap — we hit South Dakota. My first attempt to fulfill my lifelong quest for the wild turkey Grand Slam, I was excited and nervous as we pulled into the ranch.

The rancher had already set blinds out for us, and within 75 minutes touching down, we were set up in a blind hunting spring gobblers in South Dakota. It did not take long to figure out we were not in Western New York anymore.

As mule deer came bouncing by only minutes after we entered the blind. Within 30 minutes we had turkeys a few hundred yards in front of us and, before the dinner bell rang that night, Jeff had his first Merriam on the ground.

We learned a ton about calling and vocalization of the South Dakota turkeys that first evening, but the next morning we had a master class of what not to do. It seems the Merriam’s where we hunt at this time, did not like to be challenged. Hence, single hen decoy was our best bet.

Whether it’s calling or set-ups or decoys, we all should always be learning. They say the first sign of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. I learned that hard lesson early the first full morning in South Dakota.

The full body decoy with motion full fantail near a hen was not the right deal. Within 30 minutes of taking the masterfully crafted motion gobbler decoy down, we had birds working our way.

Soft, sexy calling was not working, but what they seemed to like and respond to more than anything was high-pitch squeaky box call and new loud pot call — purpleheart pot with brushed copper over acrylic. If one were to break this call out around here, every turkey in ear shot would be laughing their way into the next county.

Always be willing to change and learn. As I walk more steps than I have left to walk on this great earth, I understand that learning is good, but making the adjustments quickly will make the difference and consistency.

It is no huge secret that the turkey we chase here in Western New York are some of the most educated birds in the country. I have made this very statement for several years and still stand by it. Also, I have stated that we have some of the best turkey hunters right here in our own backyard.

To be successful at anything in life one needs to study and learn. We have some of the finest turkey hunters anywhere in the country right here. For this reason, the educated turkeys are hardest to kill.

While some are only beginning to think of putting up the snow shovel and taking the plow off the tractor, many of us have already been taking long drives on country roads looking for turkey and our new hunting spot.

So, the next time you pull up to a pickup truck at a stop light and the guy or gal driving it has their half cupped over their mouth, realize ya may be just getting a front row seat to a turkey hunter practicing.