I believe that most guys misuse their locator's
There's a lot of wisdom in bamaranger's post and I could not agree more with that particular statement, most tend to do so simply by using them.
Turkeys aren't all that bright in all honesty, they're really somewhat stupid. They do however have 10x binoculars for eyes as compared to our own, and they're deathly afraid of absolutely everything. Those two facts lend to making them seem pretty difficult to hunt. I'm thinking a more fitting description would be that they are very frustrating to hunt, not necessarily difficult.
Saying that they are afraid of everything is no exaggeration, and it doesn't stop with just their
bionic vision, they have exceptional hearing as well. Noises that are not natural in their normal day to day lives can be just as frightening to them as a flash of movement that doesn't belong. A crow or owl call executed flawlessly, still may not seem
natural to them and set them on edge. Set one on edge and you'll be hard pressed to get him to respond positively to your other calls that day.
That said, locater calls in my belief tend to scare them silent, more than they coerce them into giving up their location. Especially when the one using the call isn't using it properly or doesn't sound natural, be it the call, the cadence, or what ever, if it doesn't fit it doesn't fit, and turkeys know it.
I mean after all the story goes that a bird can identify another specific individual bird by it's voice. I've tested that theory on the local birds behind my home in my own unscientific way and I believe that they can not only identify individuals, but remember that voice and associated identification from one year to the next... and the next.
I do have a crow, owl, hawk, predator, and a couple of other calls in my locator call pocket in my vest, but they seldom see the light of day outside that pocket. I tend to do my homework first and figure out the areas that the birds are roosting, then position myself to listen to them start to talk on their own without ever making a sound before them. There are days that the toms just will not talk, even then I'll not tend to use locators, and trust me I've spent a lot of unsuccessful days in the spring turkey woods, but most springs since I began stalking them I've been blessed by harvesting two but that second harvest is usually very hard won.
Once they do get vocal, I'll lend myself more to a few soft tree yelps, then mimicking fly down sounds with a wing or even a hat against my thigh, followed with landing sounds in the leaves to give a more believable impression of a hen in the area getting out of bed. The clucks and yelps come later, sometimes much later, and sometimes aren't all that useful beyond.
I can recall one tom who almost landed in my lap when I started clearing leaves from the base of a tree that I chose as a set up just for him, he thought I was the hen he just heard fly down.
Mobuck is right too, the birds do seem far less vocal these days compared to 20 years ago. More often than not these days they gobble a few times on the roost, then tend to go hush-mouth once they hit the ground. Assault one with a loud, abrasive, and especially a poorly executed locator call and he'll gladly remain hush-mouth on the roost too. You'll leave the woods convinced that there were no birds in the area, when what you probably did was simply let him know that you too were in the area and he stayed below your radar.
IF you're going to use locator calls, practice with them religiously and use them sparingly. Maybe even save them as a last resort if you use them at all. Try thinking outside the box before you grab them.
In example, one thing that I've done on up in the morning when they're not very vocal, is use a small cotton camo pouch that I've filled with crumpled up Mylar and sewn shut. It can sound just like leaves on the ground when manipulated properly and takes very little movement to do so. I make the softer sounds of a walking and feeding hen who is clucking and purring softly to herself as she moves along. You'd be surprised by the number of wary toms that have fallen prey to that tactic, some scaring the begeezus out of me when they explode with a gobble fairly close by, but most creeping in silent and not making their presence known until they're in my view and practically in my lap.