If you could only have one turkey call?

[adkmountainken]

wingbone or trough call.

[PrimitivePete]

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.

[woodchucker]

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" 

[JakeD]

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.

[Brockett]

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.

[Stringwacker]

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.

[Mike Bolin]

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>>>---------->

[Friend]

Trumpett/Wingbone - 21 gobs successfully arrowed

Pot Call - 14 gobs successfully arrowed

Box Call - 6 gobs successfully arrowed

Diaphragm - 1 gob successfully arrowed

[Bowguy67]

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

[JW_Halverson]

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.

[Bowguy67]

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