Huntinthewild - Turkey - DOBSON, NC 27017, NC

Turkey Calls

Locator calls

During the frenzied mating season, toms strut around full of sexual frustration and pent-up energy. They let off steam by "shock gobbling" at an owl's hoots, a crow's caws, a coyote's howls or other calls of the wild. You play off this by using locator calls in the spring to yank gobbles from roosted or strutting birds. Once a tom shock gobbles and reveals his location, you then move in, set up and work him with hen calls. Mimicking the 1- to 8-note hoots of a barred owl is the most popular way to make turkeys gobble. Learn to owl hoot with your voice or buy a reed-style hooter (most every turkey call company sells a model). Owl hooting is most effective when gobblers are still roosted at dawn. The best locator call going is a crow call. Simply blow it hard and loud to make turkeys shock gobble anytime of day (series of 3 or 4 caws work great). Other good locator calls include a coyote howler, a hawk whistle, a woodpecker call and even a peacock screamer. Pack at least 3 locating devices in your vest. Sometimes a tom won't gobble at hoots, but he'll roar like a banshee at caws, howls or other sounds. Box Calls Most long, rectangular boxes are built from maple, cherry, walnut, poplar and other woods. Boxes and their handles are held together with a tuning screw on one end. You chalk the handle and scrape it over the calls sounding lip or board to talk turkey. Box Calling Tips

Lay a box lightly in your palm, and keep your fingers off the calls sideboards. Hold the handle in your fingertips and scrape it lightly over the sounding board. Gradually increase handle pressure for louder calls.
Try the vertical hold (my favorite). Place a call in your palm, turn your hand sideways and work the handle up and down.
To yelp move a handle an inch off one side of a box and work it gently. Don't lift the handle off the sounding lip, just scrape it along.
To cluck, lift the handle slightly and pop it on the sounding board. String fast, irregular clucks together to cutt.
Box calls are hand-tuned by manufacturers, but you can get higher or lower pitches by adjusting the handle screw.
Use dry, wax-free chalk on a box (many call companies sell green, brown or blue chalk for the job). Chalk a box periodically during a day of hunting.

Pot Calls

These friction calls have slate, glass, aluminum or ceramic surfaces glued into wooden, plastic or graphite pots. To talk turkey you run a wooden, glass or graphite peg across the striking surface. Pot calls date back to the late 1800s, and they are more popular than ever today. I believe every hunter should carry at least 2 of them: an aluminum or glass pot for loud, high-pitched calls, and a natural slate for softer clucks and purrs. You should also carry a nice mix of wooden and synthetic pegs. Switching pegs on various striking surfaces allows you to make different turkey tones and rasp. Pot Calling Tips

Cradle a pot lightly in your palm and up on your fingertips, where notes can resonate out of the holes in the bottom of a call. Hold a peg like you would a pencil and angle it slightly on a surface to call.
To yelp make dime-size circles or little straight lines without lifting a peg from a pot. Work near a call's outer edges for high-pitched notes and in the middle for softer, raspier yelps.
To cluck pull a peg inward on a pot in short pops. To cutt do the same thing, but bear down harder on a peg and string together 8 to 10 clucks.
To purr pull a peg lightly across a surface in small lines or semicircles. Master purring on a pot and you'll close the sale with a bunch of longbeards.
To maximize friction between a peg and striking surface, roughen a slate call frequently with fine-grade sandpaper or an abrasive pad. Use heavier sandpaper or a sanding stone (sold by some call companies) on aluminum, glass and ceramic pots. Also, occasionally sand the tip of a wooden peg.

Push-Peg Calls

This type of friction call is comprised of a little wooden or plastic box with an internal spring-loaded peg that contacts a sounding surface. You push or pull a rod connected to the peg to reproduce turkey vocalizations. Push-Peg Calling Tips

For one-handed yelps, hold a box in your palm and push the rod with your forefinger. Or you can hold a box and pull the peg with the fingers of your other hand to produce louder yelps.
To cluck hold a box and tap the peg with the palm of your other hand. Speed up series of clucks to cutt.

Mouth Diaphgrams

Diaphragms have thin latex or prophylactic reeds crimped into small aluminum frames. Most calls have a single frame, but some models feature 2- or even 3-stacked frames. A tape skirt covers the frame(s) and acts as an air seal when you call. Hundreds of diaphragms are available from all the turkey call manufacturers. They typically feature 1 to 4 rubber reeds. Many diaphragms have cut, split or notched reeds. A diaphragm with fewer reeds has a higher pitch and lower volume. Calls with 3 or 4 notched reeds are generally best for loud, raspy yelping and cutting. Diaphragm Calling Tips

Slip a diaphragm into your mouth with the frame's open end pointing outward. Put the short reed of a multi-reed call down against your tongue.
Place a call halfway between your front teeth and the back of your mouth.
If a diaphragm feels too big or bulky, you can trim its tape skirt with scissors. But be careful! Too much trimming can destroy a calls air seal.
You can also bend an aluminum frame slightly to ensure a tight palate fit.
The key to using a diaphragm is jaw movement. Raise and lower your jaws while huffing air up from your chest and across a calls reed (s).
To cluck say "puck," popping a short burst of air over a diaphragm's reed(s). String some loud and excited "pucks" together to cutt/
To yelp you must tighten and loosen tongue pressure on a diaphragm to make it roll over into 2-note "kee-awks, kee-awks." It's pretty easy to do if your work those jaws!
Before calling to a gobbler for the first time, roll a diaphragm around in your mouth for 10 to 20 seconds. This lubes and loosens the reeds and allows the call to roll over into nice yelps.
Clean mouth calls with cold water every once in a while.
Store diaphragms in the fridge; they should last several seasons.

Gobble Shaker Primos, Quaker Boy and other companies make a black rubber hose (with an internal reed) that you shake to mimic a turkey's gobble. Gobbling on his type of device in the spring is a good way to make other toms shock gobble back.

Fall Turkey Hunting Playbook

Well, it's that time of year again. The leaves are beginning to turn, the air is crisp and fall turkey hunting is just around the corner. Don't wait until spring to fire up the calls and get after some fast-feathered action. Odds are, there's a fall season near you. Here's how to get in the game: Blind Bound While I rarely think to tote a compact, fence-style ground blind to stake around me in the spring, you can bet it is a part of my must-haves when hunting the fall. Less cover combined with the possibility of more eyes converging on my setup as I work a regrouping flock make the advantages of added concealment impossible to ignore. Not only does it allow you to manually work calls like boxes or slates without fear of your movement being spotted, but if you are hunting in the company of a turkey dog, it is helpful in keeping him hidden from approaching birds (and the approaching birds hidden from him!) Match Play Once you get a turkey or turkeys to respond to your calls, match them call-for-call, note-for-note. Doing this will often work young birds into a fevered pitch of calling, which not only makes the hunting more intense, but will often bring the birds right into your setup. Doggone It Of those who have tried it fall hunting with dogs where allowed, I've never met a person who preferred to go the turkey woods alone again. Just as canines add enjoyment to other types of hunting, whether it be the disciplined point of a quail dog or a Lab's determined retrieve, the excited barking of a turkey dog on the flush is enough to snap any hunters heart into overdrive. But be ready, when you hear the barking that indicates your dog is busting birds, you may be able to take one on the break. If not, determine where you first heard the barks, round up your dog and get comfortable, you have a short while before you need to start working the flock back in for a shot. I know a good number of hunters who prefer fall turkey doggin' to anything spring has to offer. Besides the company, a good turkey dog cannot only help you in spotting turkeys scooting over the next ridge ahead of you, but bar none, they offer the safest, most effective way to bust a flock. Any breed that can cover a lot of ground, bark on the flush, then sit still while a hunter works birds back in can be a turkey dog. Historically, hunters used a dog, called a fyce. But Virginian John Byrne, today's most prominent turkey dog breeder, raises a line of dogs developed from a Plott hound. Other breeds resemble setters, pointers or straight-out mutts. While a hunter or hunters walk the woods, a turkey dog will cast out like a bird dog working the surrounding area out and away from the hunter looking for the scent or sight of turkeys, occasionally checking back in with the hunter.A turkey's scent has to be less than an hour old for the dog to smell it. That is unless it is a really large flock. Naturally, the more birds, the stronger the scent. Because deer often frequent the same woods as turkeys, you'll need to break hounds quick from chasing them, or you'll waste your time on too many false breaks and looking for a dog that has run off to the next county behind your white-tailed "turkey." Scattered In the fall, the chief way to hunt is to scatter a flock, then try calling it back in. But don't assume because the birds flew or ran off, that you got a good break. If they all flew off in the same direction, you still have work to do. The goal is to scatter them to all points of the compass. These tips should be consider before making the break:

First try to call members of a flock in using lost calls. If unsuccessful, sneak, as close as possible, using whatever cover is available.
Identify what the flock is made of (i.e. hens and young birds, gobblers); this will affect the way you call and what strategy you will use.
After setting your gun safely down or unloading it first, move quickly toward the turkeys, making as much commotion as possible. Many hunters shout or fire their shotguns in the air. This is an excellent method, but only if you make sure not to shoot so closely that you accidentally cripple a turkey; nor should you ever run with a loaded firearm.
If the flock is scattered in all directions, set up at the exact point they flushed and begin calling. Groups of hens and young birds will often return to the call almost right away, unless it is late in the day, in which case they may wait until the next morning. Mature toms may take much longer to call back in, though they will occasionally come right in as well.
If the birds spooked in a single direction, don't give up. Mark their landing area and quickly move to that spot to attempt another break.

Dress for Success Want to dodge the wary eyes of a wild turkey flock? Then chunk that springtime camo - decorated with the bright greens of spring leaf out - into your closet or gang box and pick up the drabbest item you can find. While terrain will naturally differ throughout North America, in most areas once the color explosion has expired, the woods fall into dominant shades of brown and gray. Go with a darker pattern that mimics your current surroundings; something that offers a slight mix of beige or muted yellows similar to the hue of reeds or fading leaves. Also, mornings are going to start getting cold, so swap your mesh facemask and light cotton gloves for something heavier, perhaps even an insulated mask and gloves. Make sure your gloves aren't so thick, however, that it makes it impossible to pull a trigger or work a call. If you aren't wearing it out the door, at least make sure you have an insulated coat in the truck or in camp should you need it on certain mornings. It's hard to sit still when you are shivering from a combination of cold and flock-calling excitement. Regardless of the time of year, always dress in layers, so you can peel clothing off or put it on to suit the changing temps and your activity level. Step Out In Style With cooler temps comes the need to keep feet warm. The un-insulated snake boots you donned during spring may leave your toes twitching for warmth on frosty morns. Because you're still likely to do a fair amount of walking in the autumn woods (some hunts it seems that's all I do), you'll want something lightweight, comfortable, still waterproof, but with a little insulation or Thinsulate in the lining -- 400 to 800 grams of the latter should do nicely. Avoid heavy, bulky boots. Merino wool socks or foot liners made of modern synthetics will help wick sweat away from your skin adding to your comfort and warmth while reducing the chance for blisters. Stick with a camo boot when possible as it will help add to your total concealment at a time of year when vegetation to keep you hidden is on short supply. One other thing, because you are likely to do a good deal of walking, make sure new boots are broken in well before you hit the woods.. Perhaps the most challenging aspect of fall turkey hunting is finding the turkeys. Although flocks of three to 300 seem like they should be easier to spot, the focus of autumn birds often lies in finding and feeding on mast, which means they keep to the woods. Flocks can also range between 250 and 400 acres. This means where you find them one day, may not necessarily be where you find them the next or the next ... or the next. Fall birds can be elusive. Not only can they be hard to spot, but also unless scattered apart or dropping from the roost, they remain for the most part, silent. Following are some keys to finding fall flocks:

Preseason scouting is crucial. Because a turkey's focus is on food at this time of year, search for mast, such as dropping acorns in oak stands, waste grains in field, wild berries, etc. Keep an eye out for scratching?large v-shaped disruptions of leaves with turkey tracks in the soil?as evidence of where turkeys have been feeding. If the soil is still dark and damp, chances are that the birds have been there in the past few hours, something to keep in mind particularly once the season opens.
During the season, get to a good listening spot before daybreak. Young flocks often make a ruckus when descending from their roosts and looking for each other on the ground. Listen for frantic wing beats, loud yelps and cutts and the kee-keeing of young birds. Be quick to locate them though as once flocks gather, they usually go silent except for soft purring, the occasional yelp and the scratching of leaves.

One-Note Wonders When working a busted flock of mature gobblers, set up quickly and use only single-note gobbler clucks (deep and raspy sounding) mixed with the occasional keouck- keouck raspy yelp of an old tom. Gobbles can also work. The sparse calling is true to a longbeard's silent nature in fall. Keep your eyes peeled. The only heads up you'll probably get is the sound of turkey feet shuffling toward you or the cluck-like putt that lets you know he made you and the hunt is over!

Defensive Turkey Hunting Tactics

A safe turkey hunter, like a safe driver, is defensive minded. Below are tips one should consider.

Select the largest stump, blow-down, tree trunk or rock that is wider than your shoulders and higher than your head to place your back against when calling; a hunter is more likely to spot another hunter when moving to the front or side than from behind.
Eliminate the colors white, red, black and blue from your hunting outfit; this includes handkerchiefs, socks, underwear, etc. These are the colors of a turkey gobbler.
Select your calling spot in open timber rather than thick brush; eliminating movement is a key to success, not concealment.
Be discreet when imitating the sound of a gobbling turkey.
A good woodsman can always detect movement in the forest by watching other game or listening for the alarm cries of Blue jays, crows, squirrels or woodpeckers. Be alert.
When songbirds, crows or your turkey shuts up, look out. There's a good chance another hunter is moving in on your bird.
Never move, wave or make turkey sounds to alert another hunter of your presence. Remain still and speak in a loud, clear voice to announce your presence. These tactics are safer than quick movements. Use common sense.