I’ve been at it now for over 40 seasons. I write for the outdoors, I’ve been a pro-staffer, and I’ve made a bunch of calls.
Let me let you in on a basic truth: turkey calls are there to mostly attract hunters and not turkeys.
I’m not going to say that a top-notch turkey hunter can’t make magic out of a high-end call, but most turkey hunters aren’t in that top notch. Furthermore, you take away his $200 call and give him a $20 call and he’ll still make magic. It ain’t the call.
Let me clue you into another basic truth: The most important part of turkey hunting is what’s going on between your ears.
When I am working with a beginner, the biggest part of making a winning sound is the rhythm and the reasoning of why the hunter is making the call. The sound the call makes after a certain point is somewhat secondary. If the hunter can make the right call at the right time, he may quickly get in a shooting opportunity. If he is not able to produce the right rhythm or makes the wrong call at the wrong time, he is going to mostly get goose eggs.
That good rhythm can be accomplished with a box, a pot, a push-button, or a mouth call. However, it is driven by what’s in the hunter’s head.
I have seen some freaky, other-worldly sounding turkeys that did not sound like a turkey. I’ve seen hens that yelped like someone had kicked them in the throat. I’ve seen hens and gobblers that sounded like dogs. If I had not seen them with my own eyes, I would have not believed they were turkeys. However, they all had the rhythms. Those are hard-coded in their brains. They’re born with it. You’ve got to learn it.
The best way to get that rhythm is to get out with the birds and listen to them and get the sound in your head, and then work with a call to repeat it. Those calls need to become part of you. I produce podcasts every year for guys to listen to wild turkeys. It is an outgrowth of my yearly pre-season wanderings, going out to listen to the birds. I started making the recordings so I would have something to take home and listen to in the car.
My advice to a fellow just getting started is to buy a box, buy a slate, buy a push-pin and work with a few mouth calls. However, most importantly get out in the woods and listen. Those calls can all do a variety of turkey sounds, and they will all produce birds in trained hands, but it is what is in your head that drives that training.
Let me leave you with one other basic truth: learning to shut up and just sit there is one of the hardest lessons to learn. Most days I can go out to a spot within earshot of roosting gobblers and I can lay down a few calls and then shut up. Hours later one of those birds will remember what he heard and come around. I give him a few more calls and then shut back up. A half-hour later, I have him in my lap. Most hunters, even the more experienced ones, are already back to the truck and drinking coffee by the time I close the deal.
Category Archives: Turkey Calls
Turkey Calls — The Shamanic Brain Dump
What is the best turkey call? I am not going to be pretentious enough to tell a veteran turkey hunter what to take with him out in the field. However, if you’re still at the point where you are not sure what to use to call in a turkey, this … Continue reading →
What’s Ur Goto Call, Y’all
From KentuckyHunting.net KYBirdman said: As some of us feel the Ky. turkey population may be declining. I feel if I release my go to call the population may be in grave danger. I hear you Birdman. It’s a dark and somber time for sure. However, think of it as a … Continue reading →
Afternoon Tactics– What Blythe Taught me
Mark Hay on T&TH was asking about how I call gobblers in the afternoon, and I thought I’d start a new topic rather than go deeper in the Hunting Pressure thread. This is a description of what I do on my property when I want to entice a gobbler in … Continue reading →
The Shamanic MK I
I’m not saying it’s a work of art, but I pulled it off. Allow me to introduce you to the Shamanic MK I It is a poplar over cherry with walnut ends and a cherry bottom. The goal was just to make something that vaguely sounds turkey-like. What I got … Continue reading →
Getting Ready for Turkey Season
I have been so busy with the podcasts that I have not had a good chance to sit down and discuss all the other things going on in the Shamanic Dream Team’s run up to The Opener. Angus’ New Shotgun I was at an auction back in February and got … Continue reading →
PODCAST: Three Jakes at the Honey Hole
Just under a month separates me from The Spring Opener. This was my first trip out to the Honey Hole. It seemed like I’d just gotten up and left last week, even though it had almost been a year. I was formulating a spiel about what to do when faced … Continue reading →
Yute Hunt 2014
This is the start of Angus’ last Spring Gobbler season as a Yute. He turns 16 in a couple of weeks. I bought him all his youth licenses and tags yesterday— they’re good until the end of the year. However, after next weekend he will be hunting on his own … Continue reading →
PODCAST: Locator Calls up on Gobbler’s Knob
It was cold and snowy on Sunday– didn’t know if I would be able to make it back to town, so I stayed back and finished off a podcast from my last trip down to turkey camp. This one was neat, because it had a whole bunch of things other … Continue reading →
When to Call (And When Not to)
When to Call . . .and When Not to I have previously given y’all my basic strategy for calling. It is actually a bit more complicated. For starters, I have mostly given up on locator calling. I hunt in an area that has surrounding farms and a lot are still … Continue reading →
Turkey 2012, a Post-Mortem
I am now cleaning all the guns and putting all the clothes in a big pile to do up for fall. Season is over. This was my first really good season in several years. Last season was miserable, even though I got a bird on The Opener– something I had … Continue reading →
New Calls for Moosegirl
This has been a busy off-season for me. Moosegirl, Moose’s squeeze, has shown an interest in both Turkey and Deer Hunting. Putting together a good starter kit for her for Spring Gobbler Season has had me scouring the web for good deals, collecting up turkey porn, and rummaging through the … Continue reading →
A Turkey Hunter amid the Nazis
From T&TH Forum:Â “Calling vs Woodsmanship” Even though I am on the pro-staff here and a few other places, I don’t claim to be an expert turkey hunter. What I claim to be is expert at being a beginning turkey hunter. What I do know is how hunt conservatively and … Continue reading →