I've always hunted with the same Lynche's box call that I bought as a kid in school in 1983, and I've learned to use my mouth and own voice to at least get them answering. I know from guiding many hunters that most people use mouth calls, sometimes several of them and they also carry slate calls and every other kind imaginable.
I figure I've been killing turkeys for this many years without a problem so why try another call.
Just wondering how many calls most people bring along on an average hunt?
I realize of course that the more tricks you have in your bag, the better chance something will work. I just have my tried and true methods and call and am too old to change. I will admit to trying other types of box calls and mouth calls with no success, I've purchased and thrown away several, and keep on going back to my favorite.
I also wonder how people learn to call? I first learned on live captive turkeys on a farm, calling from a hidden position where I could see the birds. And basically imitated the hens sounds and repeated any sounds that made the boys attack the wire. After calling and killing my first turkey, I spent many hours stalking turkeys and sitting in their roost areas watching and listening to them and imitating sounds that got the boys gobbling. I have no idea what I'm saying to them, but I know what brings them to me.
Well for the most part I just use my Knight and Hale Ol' Lady Hen Slate Call but I carry two or three mouth calls and my Lynche's box call I got in 2004 when I started turkey hunting, Also I carry a Primos owl hooter and a pea****/woodpecker call just to get em to gobble when nothing else will. I'm not really good at the mouth calls but i can cluck and cut descent enough to get em to come in.
Without typing out a long post stating every brand of call, let's just say I have a few: mouth calls, box calls, and the "pot" type of calls in my vest.
At the beginning of the season, I'll carry two box calls, a long box and a traditional, a slate, an aluminum, and a crystal pot and peg, plus different strikers for each one, and various diaphrams. As sesons progress, I tend to par down the number of calls I carry because I've found that each year, a select group of calls is more effective than all the others.
Gman
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"We, the unwilling, led by the unknowing, are doing the impossible for the ungrateful. We have done so much, for so long, with so little, we are now qualified to do anything with nothing."
I'm trying to simplify. I use a slate pot and a crystal pot, with three different pegs, and a couple of mouth calls. I can usually get a response using any of those.
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8-10 diaphrams, mostly 3-4 reeds, some custom and others commercially made. I take a variety of calls so I can make every call from Kee-kee, raspy and clear yelps and cuts, purrs, clucks, tree calls and mouth gobbles
Two custom pot calls (a)crystal over glass, osage orange. This is very high pitched and loud, good for windy days and as a locator call. (b) Lon Trice custom bocote glass pot call with custom striker. Great yelper and cutt/yelper. Not as loud but this call really pops. Best friction call these ears have ever heard.
One glass over slate Talkin Stick commercial call with a custom striker. I like to purr, cluck and tree call on this one.
I rarely use a box call.
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I usually take 5 or 6 mouth calls and 2 pot calls with me while I'm hunting. Like mouthcaller, I very rarely use a box call, if ever. I have stacks of mouth calls, but probably only use a handfull of them.
How many calls do you use?
