Newbie

[sekoutdoors]

I am glad I found this! I am new to turkey hunting. This spring will be my first year. I have been going at it with my calls, and have to say with my dentures, the mini mag extra small mouth fram was a godsend. I wont even go into how many calls I meesed up trying to trim them. I do have a Pro turkey guide working with me and showing me how to call, and giving me a general turkey education. Any advice or words of wisdom would be great. I live in SE Kansas, great hunting all together.

Joe

[shaman]

You are probably in good hands already. However, I will give this advice:

1) Calling is actually the least important aspect of turkey hunting, but it's the one we concentrate on since it's the one we can practice in our armchairs. Nothing beats scouting, and learning turkey habits. If I know where they are roosting and where they are going to feed and water and loaf, it's much more valuable than my calling.

2) Patience is the greatest virtue of a turkey hunter. Not only for myself, but for some really great turkey hunters with whose company I've been blessed, the urge to give up and move on to the next setup has lost us more turkeys than anything else. Here again, scouting builds confidence and removes indecision.

3) Equipment does not make a turkey hunter. Calling does not make a turkey hunter. Camo does not make a turkey hunter. It's the stuff between your ears that makes a turkey hunter. Most men I know simply do not have what it takes to hunt turkey. You need to be dedicated to it. You have to be single-minded in your purpose. Otherwise, you will spend a pleasant day in the field and come home empty handed. For some that is enough. These beasties will test you in your entirety if you take it seriously.

4) I have spent many otherwise pleasant days working turkeys that were not going to be shot. Learn to take a turkey's temperature and if it ain't right, move on. When the temperature is right in that ol' boy's head, there will be little in this universe that will keep him from seeking you out. Trying to force the situation on an unready gobbler usually gets you nothing.


I hope that's the sort of advice you're looking for. Those are a few of the hard won lessons I wish I'd known when I first went into the woods.

[sekoutdoors]

Thanks, it does help. I have spent more time going over sat. photo's of land I can hunt, and walking around them for the winter groups right now. We can still harvest a fall turkey till the end of the month, but I am waiting till spring to hunt. Besides, after a ice storm, then the 7 or so inches of wet heavy snow last night, I am not in a hurry to go walk around anyway! But I have spent a ton of time scouting. I was told that was probably my most important part, a close second was being able to sit and wait!

Joe

[proturkeyhntr]

Joe,

This is all good advice but dont be confused. Learn to be able to produce every sound a turkey can make and do it on multiple calls. (mouth, box, slate etc.) Being a good woodsman will kill you a ton of turkeys but being a good woodsman and a good caller will make you a turkey "slayer" Practice on your calls so that you can reproduce those calls at will and dont be afraid to use them......I know for a fact I have taken birds the average joe would not have been able to take by just being totally realistic and that gobbler truly believing there was a hen behind that oak tree.....This accomplished by much better than average calling......
After its all said and done the best advice I can give that hasnt been mentioned is Do NOT overcall....Just give the gobbler enough to keep his interest piqued and keep him coming. Dont call just to hear him gobble, he will inevitably hang up on you.....hope this helps..

Scott Ellis
Quaker Boy Pro Staff FL
2005 and Current Florida State Turkey Calling Champion
Current Southern Open Turkey Calling Champion
2004 Florida State Gobbling Champion

[shaman]

Allow me to interject something here. Obviously, you guys know each other. Obviously both of you have spent a lot of time calling turkeys. This is also a site that promotes turkey calls. I know, therefore, that I'm kind of swimming upstream on this issue.

However, for a beginning turkey hunter, being an expert caller is not a requisite. Nor is being even a good caller. As long as you can make a cluck and a yelp or two, you can probably hunt turkeys. As you progress as a turkey hunter, your calling ability will grow, and become a much more important tool. A beginner is not going to be all that great, is not going to be able to master all the subtlety, and therefore needs to rely on something else besides calling to become successful early on. Learning how to roost a flock, or how to read sign, or build an ambush, can be much more important in the beginning. It's like old Red Green says: you either have to be handsome or handy.

When it does get down to calling, beginning callers should concentrate on rhythm above all other things. Y'all are right when you say that a lot of turkeys don't even sound like turkeys. I've got one old hen that's been hanging out in the oak woods just behind my place for three years now. When she yelps, it sounds like someone stepped on her throat, but the gobblers all think she's hot. I call her Blythe, after Blythe Danner, an actress from the 70's that had bad vocal nodules. After she had her cords scraped, she stopped being so sexy. As weird as Blythe sounds, her rhythm is just like other hens. She gets going in the Spring, and it's a straight "YEP. YEP. YEP. YEP . . . " for hours at a time. It sounds like rusty metal being smacked with a ball peen hammer, but that's Blythe.

Grandpa used to say it's better to be quiet and hide your ignorance than to open your mouth and prove it. That's how I look at beginning turkey hunting. It will take a few years for most people to get up to speed as a caller. However, if you can make a few calls well, you can hide the fact that you're an amateur from the gobbler. A cluck, a yelp or two, and that ol' bird may come right in. On the other hand, if you lay down a run that you picked up from a master calling tape, it may be just the wrong thing at the wrong time.

Gobbler: Hey, honey, I'm coming!

Caller: My uncle's apple is under your sister's pencil box.

Gobbler: Hey, honey! Tell your sister to stay right there, I want to talk to her too.

Caller: It is pleasant in the Spring when the rain comes down like a trombone.

Gobbler: Hey, Darlin, you're nuts, but I still like you. I can make crazy work.

Caller: Peas and Carrots! Make me do the bad thing with the rabbit!

Gobbler: Er, hey! Darlin, I've got to be somewhere. I'll catch you later.

On the other hand, the first gobbler I ever brought all the way in came about in a different way. It was a cold, wintry Opening Weekend in KY. I'd hunted turkey a total of about 7 days in my life, but it had been scattered over several seasons. I just did not get to get out much the first few years. I was all bundled up against the cold, and if I tried to move too much, I was going to overheat. It was snowing on and off. I chose a fork in a fallen log and got myself settled in. At sun-up, I had one lonesome gobbler answer, and he was way-way off, but he cut-in on my yelping. I brought out a book and read, and every half hour I would yelp a little on my box call. It took him until 10:30 that morning, but eventually he found his way to me. I ended up blowing the shot, because I was wedged in too tight, and I could not get myself turned around, but that gobbler taught me that sometimes a little was all it took.

Yep, Grandpa used to say it's better to be quiet and hide your ignorance than to open your mouth and prove it. That's how I look at beginning turkey hunting. Some might think that should be how I should look at posting on online forums, but there it is.

[sekoutdoors]

Look guys, I wasnt looking to start anything, different people have different idea's, that is why I asked.

They only call I cant make a sound on is a box call, I am disabled, and I cant afford one right now.

I have been fortunate enough to slowly build up my turkey hunting supplies. To say I have a tight budget is a understatement.

Here is a little history about me. I was not ready at the age of 30 to be labled disabled, I had been a Marine, Police Chief, Firefighter, and the security ops Manager of our countries second largest train station. I have spinal cord and nerve damage, and arthritis in every part of my body. I feel very lucky not to be in a wheelchair like some of my pals. I am just now being able to enjoy hunting again, and determined to hunt and fish for everything I can!

I actually think both of you are right, I see the benefit of being able to reproduce every sound a turkey can make, that includes flying off the roost, and scratching on the ground. I know that they dont have to be perfect all the time, lets face it, not a lot of things in this world are.

Now, I have a Quaker Boy waterproof easy yelper push/pull call, I have found it handy when my hands dont want to do what I ask them. It seems to have a coating on it, does it still need to have chalk put on it?

Joe

[shaman]

SEKOUTDOORS: Of course you started something! (Chuckle) That's what a place like this is all about. But, not to worry. I don't think there's an argument going on.

Funny you said the easy yelper. That's the one I got my kids. Then I started using it, and now I find that I can be just about as successful with it as with anything else. I can't beat it for clucks, I can purr with it as well. When I go out and hunt Blythe's admirers, I seem to match her about as close as anything by taking the easy yelper and just cranking off yelp after yelp after yelp-- sometimes a dozen or two in a row. I could never repeat that sort of mindless mechanical calling with anything else. I usually do this on an otherwise slow day to draw toms off the neighboring ridge onto my property, The only failing I have found with this strategy is that it's hard to pick up on the return gobbles. Twice now, I've had good turkeys come in on me, and I had no time to put down the call and get my gun up.

I've never heard anyone else do this sort of call, and Blythe is not always like this, but she's in the late pre-season habit of getting in the shade of one of old barns under the oak trees around midday and just cranking like that for an hour or two. Later, I see that she's left and there's one or two gobblers there struting around showing their stuff to each other. I just thought I'd pass that along.

DADDYPAUL:
Yes indeed! I can tell I'm preaching to the choir. For anyone who's just getting started, it's important to know calling isn't "IT." On the other hand, being able to sing the siren's song to Mister Gobbler is a pretty handy thing to know.

[sekoutdoors]

Thanks, and glad we are all keeping this a debate.

I am glad to hear you can bring them in with it, but do a need to chalk it? I didnt get a box with it, it was a gift.

[sekoutdoors]

Ah, I didnt know anyone had reponded to the chalk issue until I noticed I had a page 2, I am not the best at paying attention to things like that. Mostly as I dont think I have had many post's go that far!

I would like to from you guys, and if you all want to plan a trip to KS, let me know, I will try to get you the hook up!
:D
Joe

[proturkeyhntr]

This is what message boards are all about!!!! I love it, just people giving their opinion, I agree totally what you(shaman) and Paul are saying.....I m just saying spend a little time on what it is that makes the gobbler come to you...calling. Without the calling what would spring gobbler hunting be????? Again without calling what would spring turkey hunting be???? Us sitting in the woods listening to a bird gobble and trying to cut him off at the pass.....

My point is you DO NOT have to be a competition level caller kill a turkey no doubt, stage calling is just trying to be as real as possible and not make mistakes, calling perfect, we all know turkeys are not. My take on this is to learn their vocabulary and like you said shaman and Paul know when to use these calls, that will come with time and experience but at least you will have them in your arsenal.....

And last Do not listen to Paul judge his own calling.......He is really being modest, He is a heap above average on any call he runs and is excellent on his mouth calls, he could call competition if he would just work on his routine..at any rate.... He is a predator and its the combination of the of the excellent woodsmanship and calling ability..

scott

[BuckNBeard Hunter]

no never chalk a call with waterproof coating on it

[PHammond91]

Just keep practicin sometimes you don't even have to call. If your huntin in a good location they might come right to you. And don't call to much. If you want to get real into turkey huntin ask your friend to take you out and put the turkey to sleep he'll know what I'm talkin about.

What you do is go out the night before you hunt call for a bit until you here them gobble so you know where they are. Next just sit there and wait til you hear them fly up and trust me if ther within 200-300 yards you'll hear them.After that sneak out and leave quietly cause if you spook them in the middle of the night they will fly some wher else. The next morning go out about an hour before sun up and sit about 50-75 yards away from where you heard them fly up and wait but don't call until about 10-15 minutes after the sun starts to come up and not to loud either cause they'll get spooked.

Good Luck and let me know if you get one!

Patrick Hammond
Odessa,MO