While you are calling turkeys, you are also calling predators.
It is good advice (especially in bobcat or mountain lion country) to keep your back against a large tree while calling turkeys to avoid being jumped from behind. Over the years, I have heard many reports of this sort of thing happening to both turkey hunters and predator hunters that were using mouth calls. Some hunters have also had their hats ripped off by aerial predators like hawks and owls.
I came wicked close to losing my boonie hat to a red-tailed hawk one time when I was predator calling. I was using a Sceery rabbit distress mouth call and happened to look up just in time to see a screaming hawk in full dive bomb mode with talons aimed right at me. Luckily he veered off as soon as he realized I was not a rabbit.
Maine Turkey Hunter Attacked By Coyote
According to a recent news story, on opening day of turkey season in Maine, a guy was using a turkey mouth call. He was seated next to a small spruce tree (an Xmas tree) that he could not see around and the coyote approached him from that side. It goes on to say that the coyote “came in high” or lunged with paws raised, which indicates that the coyote definitely thought it was jumping a turkey.
MACHIAS, Maine — Opening day of turkey season turned out to be a bit more than Bill Robinson had in mind Monday when he set out his decoy at dawn’s first light.
“I’ll never forget looking up and seeing a jaw full of teeth coming at me,” Robinson said Tuesday, the day after being attacked and bitten on the right arm by a coyote. The wild canine sprang while the Maine Guide was hunkered down in the brush, using a mouth-call to lure a turkey into the open while hunting on private property near the Washington County community of Cooper.
via Coyote lunges for turkey on opening day, bites a hunter instead — Down East — Bangor Daily News — BDN Maine by way of Coyote Attacks Turkey Hunter
This video shot by another turkey hunter, shows a coyote stalking him and ends with a close encounter.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NT6sePYyeL0