Is it the call or the caller?

Both are equally important. A custom call can be perfect in every way but if it is not in the right hands it is worthless. When I first started turkey hunting it was trial and error and success was spotty at best. I purchased a custom friction call from Chad Helm in Kentucky and I immediately started killing birds routinely. At that point I purchased a lathe and started making my own calls and was constantly tweaking them for a better yelp or cluck or purr. I really started to kill birds, limited out early every season and started taking other people and did the calling for them. That being said the call is extremely important, but more important is how and when to use the call. I have learn that the challenge to turkey hunting is that the gobblers personality can change daily and you need to adjust your calling style to what they want on that particular day. The fastest way to learn this is turkey hunting every day you can. I hunt every day before work until I limit out. You need to pay your dues spend time in the woods watching and more importantly listening to the birds.
This happen a couple of years ago, I was hunting with one of my closest friends that has hunted turkeys for many years. His calling style is different from mine. He calls much more aggressively than I do. We set up in a pasture at the base of a small mountain and my friend started calling and he got some gobbles but I could tell the birds were moving away. My friend wanted to leave and go on the other side of the mountain to set up and start calling. I told him to go and I would stay where I was with my daughter. After he left I let things quiet down and did a assemble call a couple of times and immediately got a gobble. Did some clucks and kee kees and the next thing I know is a nice gobbler comes flying off the mountain side and lands 10 yards from us and my daughter makes a clean kill.
It is having the ability to read the birds on any given day and give them the right calls at the right time.
The most important tidbit of information to start on the road to be a successful turkey hunter is to invest in a quality custom call and spent as much time in the woods that your schedule allows.
 
Calling and woodsmanship go hand in hand. Awesome calling skills with a piss pour setup want kill many birds. Terrible calling skills with good woodsmanship will have a higher rate of kill. Add superb calling with great woodsmanship and the understanding of turkeys and you are at the pinnacle of turkey hunting. Decoys take place of woodsmanship to a degree. Guys aren't killing 10-15+ birds in multiple states every year on public land without being top notch in both categories. Put anybody in a turkey rich environment and they will be successful.
 
Stoner":2m9i3e8a said:
Both are equally important. A custom call can be perfect in every way but if it is not in the right hands it is worthless. When I first started turkey hunting it was trial and error and success was spotty at best. I purchased a custom friction call from Chad Helm in Kentucky and I immediately started killing birds routinely. At that point I purchased a lathe and started making my own calls and was constantly tweaking them for a better yelp or cluck or purr. I really started to kill birds, limited out early every season and started taking other people and did the calling for them. That being said the call is extremely important, but more important is how and when to use the call. I have learn that the challenge to turkey hunting is that the gobblers personality can change daily and you need to adjust your calling style to what they want on that particular day. The fastest way to learn this is turkey hunting every day you can. I hunt every day before work until I limit out. You need to pay your dues spend time in the woods watching and more importantly listening to the birds.
This happen a couple of years ago, I was hunting with one of my closest friends that has hunted turkeys for many years. His calling style is different from mine. He calls much more aggressively than I do. We set up in a pasture at the base of a small mountain and my friend started calling and he got some gobbles but I could tell the birds were moving away. My friend wanted to leave and go on the other side of the mountain to set up and start calling. I told him to go and I would stay where I was with my daughter. After he left I let things quiet down and did a assemble call a couple of times and immediately got a gobble. Did some clucks and kee kees and the next thing I know is a nice gobbler comes flying off the mountain side and lands 10 yards from us and my daughter makes a clean kill.
It is having the ability to read the birds on any given day and give them the right calls at the right time.
The most important tidbit of information to start on the road to be a successful turkey hunter is to invest in a quality custom call and spent as much time in the woods that your schedule allows.
Click to expand...

Great post!!!! Sadly too many today will never figure this out because they will just grab a tail fan and be on their way...
 
I am with Ren on the call shy stuff......Turkeys are not smart enough to know humans make those hen call only in April and May.

The biggest mistake that I see is using the so called "Locator Calls". I see people with a dozen locator calls making all kinds of awful sounds trying to get a bird to gobble then when he does happen to gobble, they sit down right there and start yelping, cackling, putting, and clucking. Some hunters out there sound like a one man zoo! :rotf:
 
Roost 1":3npiyh34 said:
Stoner":3npiyh34 said:
Both are equally important. A custom call can be perfect in every way but if it is not in the right hands it is worthless. When I first started turkey hunting it was trial and error and success was spotty at best. I purchased a custom friction call from Chad Helm in Kentucky and I immediately started killing birds routinely. At that point I purchased a lathe and started making my own calls and was constantly tweaking them for a better yelp or cluck or purr. I really started to kill birds, limited out early every season and started taking other people and did the calling for them. That being said the call is extremely important, but more important is how and when to use the call. I have learn that the challenge to turkey hunting is that the gobblers personality can change daily and you need to adjust your calling style to what they want on that particular day. The fastest way to learn this is turkey hunting every day you can. I hunt every day before work until I limit out. You need to pay your dues spend time in the woods watching and more importantly listening to the birds.
This happen a couple of years ago, I was hunting with one of my closest friends that has hunted turkeys for many years. His calling style is different from mine. He calls much more aggressively than I do. We set up in a pasture at the base of a small mountain and my friend started calling and he got some gobbles but I could tell the birds were moving away. My friend wanted to leave and go on the other side of the mountain to set up and start calling. I told him to go and I would stay where I was with my daughter. After he left I let things quiet down and did a assemble call a couple of times and immediately got a gobble. Did some clucks and kee kees and the next thing I know is a nice gobbler comes flying off the mountain side and lands 10 yards from us and my daughter makes a clean kill.
It is having the ability to read the birds on any given day and give them the right calls at the right time.
The most important tidbit of information to start on the road to be a successful turkey hunter is to invest in a quality custom call and spent as much time in the woods that your schedule allows.
Click to expand...

Great post!!!! Sadly too many today will never figure this out because they will just grab a tail fan and be on their way...
Click to expand...


I agree
 
An ordinary violin in the hands of a master still sounds good to an everyday person. A Stradivarius played by a novice may produce some nice sounds but a Stradivarius in the hands of a master, will make even the most discriminating take notice. A wild turkey is a master when it comes to discrimination. His life depends on it. Hunters are always looking for the magic dust that works every time including me. Scouting, woodsmanship, time in the woods and set up while talking turkey "sparingly" with a variety of quality calls, is the formula for success more times than not.
 
it's not the call... it's the caller.

Knowing the attitude of the turkey is everything. I've called up birds just using my voice without a call before. It sounded nothing like a turkey. I've watched live hens call to a gobbler and not call them in. Some birds just can't be worked at the time. Some need a LOT of coaxing. Others will fall into your lap no matter what you squawk on.
 

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