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Main Boards => PowWow => Topic started by: Mike Bolin on February 22, 2024, 07:33:16 PM
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With the turkey season(s) fast approaching, I think it would be interesting to hear what call is your favorite, and why.
I have practiced with the mouth calls, but never really mastered them. Maybe there are some that are easier to use? I do pretty well with a friction call...at least in comparison to the mouth calls!
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For me and my style, hands down a tube call. From the softest tree yelp to purrs and up to Jake kee kee then gobbler yelps and gobbles. Sharp triple loud Cuts is my favorite locator also.
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I like different types of calls depending on the situation, but if I could only have one, it would be a good slate call. I think it is the most versatile.
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Definitely a pot call. I prefer the sound of a crystal surface as opposed to a slate, but they both work just fine. I'd like to get better with a diaphragm call, but just haven't quite got it down yet.
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Mouth calls for me, 2 free hands when bowhunting and they get close is important. The one call that I have called the most toms in with is the Hooks Executioner 2, usually all I need.
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Slate, wingbone, box are favorites and are easier to use. IMO
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[ Invalid Attachment ] I use all calls. Got way too many but I’m gonna offer considerations. One a mouth call is good. I used one exclusively over 30 years but they wear out, get you sore throat if not put away properly and some guys don’t practice with em, . They’re usable for all guys. Pots are good but surfaces need to stay dry for the most part. Yea weatherproof strikers could be used but the sound is never perfect.
Suction calls imo are too fragile unless trumpets. Just not my thing. Ill not go into strictly specialized calls but what’s left imo is either a longbox or scratcher. A short box is limited compared to longbox. We said one. Think I’d still pick scratchers. They fit in a pocket. Can be kept dry pretty easy and make about every sound save a gobble. Least I can’t. They also fire up birds often when other stuff doesn’t. A longbox has the advantage of reaching out. Btw you can tone one (longbox) down by holding the soundboards on side as you play to lessen volume. I’d still go scratch box.
Pic is of one of past spring birds showing scratcher for size. Def a convenient call can be put in shirt pocket and def my most commonly used call anymore.
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Idk why it’s not attaching but they’re small if you’re not familiar
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Definitely a pot call. I prefer the sound of a crystal surface as opposed to a slate, but they both work just fine. I'd like to get better with a diaphragm call, but just haven't quite got it down yet.
Have you ever used green glass? Has the snap like crystal but way less to maintain.
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A Turkey Trumpet call for all conditions...have even harvested a gob with a straw...
A Pot call if strictly hunting from a blind.
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If I had to pick just one call, it would be the one that has always produced and brought in even the most hung up bird's I have encountered. It would be a "Tom Gaskin" call. I do not even know if they are still made. It is a scratch box call, I do not know what it is about this call, but even the times, after using all the call's in the best, pull this out and get result's. It will produce sound farther than think, and with playing with it can be so soft and sweet.
Next, to this call, I would say a mouth diaphram. The only reason is only call that I can be ready to draw and get the bird to move, same time.
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I use a box call, diaphram and slate, but if I could only use one, it would be slate.
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I use them all but if only one I agree with Orion a slate.
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I'll cast another vote for mouth calls if I had to pick just one. Second to that would be a good box call.
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My custom made Trough Call.
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If I was limited to just one…..it would be my trumpet.
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Mouth call, then silence. I think shutting up and letting them come find the hen that “left” kills a lot of older birds. For me anyways
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Definitely a pot call. I prefer the sound of a crystal surface as opposed to a slate, but they both work just fine. I'd like to get better with a diaphragm call, but just haven't quite got it down yet.
Have you ever used green glass? Has the snap like crystal but way less to maintain.
No, I have never used green glass. I'll have to look into it though!
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I cast my vote for a hands free mouth call
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When I am loaded for bear, and I always am, I carry two pots (one slate, one green glass), five different strikers, one short box, one long box, and a wingbone call I made from a roadkilled hen about 15 years ago to replace the lovely walnut Tom Turpin suction call my dog chewed up.
I use them all in-turn during locating and scouting. But when I get them located, I drop everything and stay strictly on the wingbone until I get them to about a hundred yards. Then I pull out my all-time favorite, the one I practice year-round with and always have with me....my own voice. I do purrs, soft yelps, chirps and whines, the stuff you can only generally hear when you are within 10-15 yards of the flock. There is no movement, nothing to drop or accidentally knock against the stock of my gun, never gets misplaced if I gotta pick up and run to another spot of concealment. Over the years of watching and hanging out with birds in the woods, I noticed they often get quieter when another hen or a gobbler joins into the flock. Kinda like how after you hollered at your buddy across six backyards and a vacant lot as a kid, but you stop shouting when you get face to face. I think I used to talk too loud too often and the birds thought me rude and boorish. I try to be more polite and genteel nowadays...until the Pedersoli 10 ga side by side percussion black powder gun I call The Fat Lady cuts loose with one of her patented hellfire sulphureous farts. Nothing genteel 'bout that!
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wingbone or trough call.
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I like to use a box call for the versatility and a slate call. I use both when I'm calling in a bird to give the turkey the impression of more than one hen. I sometimes gobble with the box call as well to try and get a bit more action.
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Well, Well!!?? Look who popped out of the woods!! Old "wingbone" himself..... How ya been brother??
Somewhere around?? I still have a beautiful wingbone call that Kenny sent me. Never mastered it though?
Box calls were my go to calls for years, but these days, with the progressing effects of my brain injury many years ago. My hands don't play well together anymore.... Mouth calls for me!! Quaker Boy "Old Boss Hen" :thumbsup:
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Slate call. If I need hands free I just use my mouth. I practiced enough and got pretty decent just using my mouth since I used to struggle with mouth calls.
But overall I love my slate call that a friend made for me. It was the first slate call he ever made. And now all he does is make calls for a living.
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It would be a toss-up between a box call and a mouth call. But I think the diaphragm call has to be the one I would pick.
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This one is easy for me. Though I carry Primos triple reed mouth calls, slates, Tom Gaskin's etc, if I only had one that I could choose from it would be.... the "Lynch Fool Proof" one sided box call.
Why? The name says it all:) Seriously, This call has worked for generations of hunters. I've killed quite a few with it myself.
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Thanks to all for all of the replies. I CAN use a diaphragm call, but when a bird hangs up within eyesight, I tend to lose control of it...gobbler fever I'd reckon! I will look into the trumpet type call, and I already have a good glass pot call and a couple of slates. Thanks again>>>---------->
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Trumpett/Wingbone - 21 gobs successfully arrowed
Pot Call - 14 gobs successfully arrowed
Box Call - 6 gobs successfully arrowed
Diaphragm - 1 gob successfully arrowed
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Thanks to all for all of the replies. I CAN use a diaphragm call, but when a bird hangs up within eyesight, I tend to lose control of it...gobbler fever I'd reckon! I will look into the trumpet type call, and I already have a good glass pot call and a couple of slates. Thanks again>>>---------->
Than stop calling and scratch the leaves. Remember to sound like a turkey. Scratch-scratch,scratch . Best finisher you ever used
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Thanks to all for all of the replies. I CAN use a diaphragm call, but when a bird hangs up within eyesight, I tend to lose control of it...gobbler fever I'd reckon! I will look into the trumpet type call, and I already have a good glass pot call and a couple of slates. Thanks again>>>---------->
Early on I worked hard in the off season to master the diaphragm calls. I thought I was getting the basics down and opening morning I found myself set up about 60 yards from a roost. At flydown I gave a couple soft yelps, got an immediate gobble, tried to answer, gagged, and projectile vomited my breakfast, my coffee, and my diaphragm call all over the forest floor. I can't remember whether or not the gobbler answered my retch. Maybe he thought it was a particularly sick jake, I will never know for sure.
About once a season I would hunt that spot and spend a minute looking for the call. That was over 20 years ago. Around 5 years ago I nailed it to the tree where I was sitting.
It's still there to this day.
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Tell ya a funny story bout finishing w scratching leaves. Hope op doesn’t mind. I went into a spot in NY. Long skinny piece. Was 1.3 miles legitimate in by gps. I couldn’t roost the night before. Too far to walk but in the morning my buddy Don n I had birds gobbling down below but further in. We packed up camera, deke and started down mountain further. This bird suddenly gobbled right close. We squat real quick. We’re on the ridge watching the bird strut back n forth one ridge down. Now I can’t tell direction being deaf in one ear but this rock out cropping went down to his level but full of snags and dead ash trees. Don starts down when he moved past rocks. I watch Don and see him looking like it was coming back. Deke and camera on ground. I went to far side of rocks and down.
I hear bird coming back. I get him almost there but he starts going away from us both so I scratch. He hammers. This goes on a bit. Was prob 40-1 hour since we started. As I scratch he comes closer and seems to gobble harder. Pretty soon I can feel him gobble, hear his wings drag and drum. I can’t typically hear drumming w my ears now. And now I’m squatting at an angle under this dead ash trunk propped onto a rock. My left foot keeping me from pitching down onto his ridge. Kinda steep where I’m at. Sitting on my right foot. I see his tail feathers at about 8 yards as he turns. Suddenly I get this ham string cramp. Straightens me out and flips me. Ugh the joys of getting older. The bird steps clear, one eye watching me squirm from behind a tree before he runs off