smoothsteve

i am getting into turkey hunting and am wondering what calls would work best in fall and spring. There are so many type of calls out there and i am wondering which ones work the best and are the easiest to use

Adrian J Hare

All the Turkey calls on the market are used for both Spring and Fall. The easyest call to use is the push button, Friction calls are hard to learn to do the fall call (Kee-Kee) on. One can master the mouth call with practice. Having a number of different calls is good practice and learning to use them will go a long way. As far as the moving thing , I believe that a friction caller is just a successfull as the mouth caller ,its just in the way one hunts. A couple of videos and some Call practice can get a hunter into the killing part of the game. Don't be scared to go to sports shows and ask some of the call companies on how to use different type calls , most are glad to help out...BT

Tail Feathers

Since buying and using turkey calls is so much fun, you should try at least two types.
Buy a box, Lynch makes some good production ones, and a slate type call. K&H Ol' Yeller is a good one is Primos Ol' Glory or any number of others.
Pick up one double reed diaphragm call to try and learn on.
Toss in a copy of the tape "So You Want to Be a Turkey Hunter?", hang around here a lot and you will be pretty well prepared to start turkey hunting.

KitsapCaller

Try to master the diaphragm call, box call, and slate call. Purchase a turkey hunting video such as "So You Wanna Be a Turkey Hunter" or any of the Primos "Truth Series" videos. While you're watching them, try to mimic or imitate the sounds you're hearing from the professionals. The beginner's turkey sounds you should try to learn are: basic yelp, tree yelp, cluck, and purr. Advanced calling techniques include cutting, fly-down cackle, and the fighting purr. You can also use Primos' wing call which is a call made of and handle and feathers to imitate a turkey flying down from the roost in the early morning. And don't neglect "scratching" as a calling technique. Scratching is simply running your hands through the dead leaves to sound like a turkey foraging or food. Combine this with clucks and you've got a pretty good combination.

But if you all you can do is yelp, you can successfully hunt turkeys. If you would like to hear what some of these turkey sounds sound like, visit this website: http://lakewashnwtf.tripod.com and just go to "Turkey Sounds" on the menu on the left of the homepage. You must have realplayer installed to hear them.

Good luck and good hunting!

Bobgobble2

The best call out there for you individually is the one your most comfortable with and the one your most able to produce quality sounds out of.To often guys get in this mind set of I have to use this call or I need to learn how to use that call.Its great to be versitale in your repertoire of calls you take to the woods but its much better taking just one you know how to use instead of many your half as*** on.Some take more practice than others and still you'll have to learn how to use it in the field instead of your living room but thats where it starts.Bottom line is in the right hands/mouth of a confident caller both friction and mouth alike call turkeys to the gun...

molawman

Myself I use the slate calls. Now my wife uses the mouth calls. When it comes to turkey hunting I ask my wife to do my calling for me. I bought the mouth calls for myself but found out they are not as easy as it looks. My wife put it in her mouth the very first time and sounded just like an old raspy hen. Now she is the caller and I am the hunter. Sometimes she will go hunting with me and she will call for us both. She'll use her mouth calls and I will use my gobbler call. I remember when a buddy of mine and I went turkey hunting and the wife went to call for us. We { my wife and I} could not figure out why it took her almost 2 hrs to call a tom in that was only about 150 yrds or less away. He was gobbling his fool head off. I mean he was hot. Well we found out the buddy kept trying to move closer to the tom and the tom went the long way around to get the hen. He flew off when we went to find out where the tom was and where my buddy was. He was only 40 yrds. away in the tall weeds.
My wife was so d---n mad she said that if he went again she would not call for us again. It all depends on what you are comfortable with. We listen to some hunting tapes for the wife to get some hints on how some of the sounds are made and what they should sound like. Mouth calls keep your hands free for the gun. The slate calls keep your hands busy until you see the turkey. It depends on what you like. Go out and buy 1 mouth call and 1 slate call and try them both and see which one you feel most comfortable with. The mouth calls do require practice because there are so many sounds that will come out of it . Good luck. I hope you find what you are looking for.

timberlord

Since I started Turkey hunting , I picked up all the different types of calls. The mouth -call has become my overall favorite ( after a lot of practice ). A double reed raspy seems to do the trick even in the fall or winter. Listen to the different calls the turkey make and try to copy them. Don't worry about being exact with the sounds..I've heard turkey that sounded more like a newbie hunter that really surprised me. The one sound which I use the most is a cutt (with a bit of emotion ) along with a soft yelp. Mouth calls are not expensive and in the field there's little or no movement that could get ya busted.