Todd1700

For a beginer a call that is very easy to use is a box call. I'd recomend a Lynch Fool Proof. Really easy to get good yelps on it. Some folks will tell you can't call birds all the way in with a box call but those folks are full of it. I've killed many with just a box call in my younger days. A slate call is probably the second easiest. There are some good instructional DVD's out there and even some on youtube.

My standard advice is as follows.

1. Start with the right attitude. You may not have a lot of sucess at first. Forget the TV shows. It ain't as easy to kill them in the real world. Just enjoy being in the woods fooling with them and learning. Look at killing one as a bonus.

2. The best virtue of a turkey hunter is patience. It's great to have one fall off the limb at day break and run straight to you like a lost dog, and that happens sometimes, but patience has killed more gobblers than anything else. I can't tell you how many times when I first started out that I messed up hunts by giving up and moving too quickly only to bump the bird or even more frustrating hear him gobble back over at the place I just left. If he gobbles at your calling. STAY PUT! Even if he initially walks away. He may be with some hens and he may go breed them first but there is a chance he will rotate back to the other hen (you) that he heard earlier. And then sometimes he will really be gone for good and leave you sitting there like a fool. LOL! That's just part of it.

3. Don't call too much. Here is another area to ignore the TV shows. Most gobblers outside the stocked high dollar dude ranches do not like a lot of aggressive calling like you always see on TV. Remember most of those shows are sponsored by companies tryng to sell turkey calls so naturally they try to feature the calls and use them a lot. Normally the hen goes to the gobbler. In turkey hunting we are trying to accomplish the opposite, getting the gobbler to come to the hen (us). If you seem too aggressive with your calling the gobbler will very often hang up expecting the hen to come to him since she seems so hot and bothered. LOL! I try to seem casually interested with my calling and keep it to a minimum.

4. Pattern your shotgun so you know exactly what it's doing. Not all shotguns throw their patterns to the center of the bore. An adjustable sight of some kind may be needed to fix that problem. It is also amazing the difference in performance you can see with your patterns from one type shell to another through a given gun and choke. That's why it's so important to do some range shooting to determine what your gun and choke likes. I always fire at a red dot in the center of a large piece of poster paper. It lets you see what the whole pattern is doing and where the exact center of your pattern is. Just tacking a turkey head target on a tree can be very misleading. The center of your pattern may not even be hitting such a small target. A good rule of thumb for a dense enough pattern is 100 pellets inside a 10 inch circle. The farthest distance your gun/choke/shell combo will give you at least 100 pellets inside 10 inches is your maximum range.

5. Good camo head to toe is a must and be very, very still.