I would advise you not to try and call turkeys preseason in your hunting area. You are only going to educate and possibly spook the birds, making it that much more difficult to call them when the season opens.

For what it is worth, I use various 3 and 4 reed diaphrams along with a slate for clucking, purring, and tree calls. I have an aluminum call from MAD that I sometimes use for long-range calling on windy days. 90% of my calling is with a diaphram, but I've been using them since 1981. If you are starting out then I would strongly recommend a box or slate call and use a diaphram only when you are really good with it. I hear beginning hunters in the woods trying to use diaphram calls and they all sound like they are calling from the bottom of a toilet.

I agree with mouth caller and if you want an awesome box call do a search on the net for david hollaran. I take three calls with me in the woods, a slate by cody, david holloran box, and some knight and hale diaphrams.

I think you should go with a slate and diaphram for sure, but box calls can also be effective.

You don't want to waste money on junk.
An easy way to avoid this is to look at the results from the NWTF convention.
Look in the category of call you want and buy the winner.
You will have yourselfa quality call.

i was always told to start off with a box call but ened up starting with a slate and some diaphragms. i never did quite get the hand of my slate call but for some reason i took to the diaphragms really quickly. that's about all i use now, but i can do just about anything you ask me to short of gobbling and purring. something about purring just doesn't work for me. of course this isn't a typical thing for most people, most people don't do well with the mouth calls.