Calling

I am a beginner at turkey hunting. I really don't know what calls to make, when, how long, and how often. I have been turkey hunting for 3 years now and haven't got anything yet. I have just been going out in the woods and doing the calls that I think sound good. Could you give me any tips or pointers to point me in the right direction. Thanks

Russell

Well Russell,

there are many others on here better qualified to answer your question, but since no one has responded as yet, I'll give you my take.

Your calling techniques should vary based on the circumstances and the time of the season. I might be real aggressive with my calling early in the season but usually this time of year I call sparingly and softer. If you have a hen answering your calling, an aggressive calling series would likely be in order.

There have been many books written about how to call turkies so I will certainly not do your question justice in this short post, however, for the remainder of this season, I would suggest using only light yelps, purrs, and clucks and do it sparingly. Let the tom dictate how you should call if at all. Towards the end of the season, if you get a tom to gobble to your calling, you might do well to shut up and let him come looking for you. Trust me, even if he heard you from a few hundred yards away, he will know where you are at and you will not need to remind him. With the hens going to nest, you stand a good chance of scoring, though the gobbling activity might not be much. Oh yeah, one more thing, "patience". I'm confident I will get an Amen from the other turkey hunters on this point at least.

Good luck young man, go kill a tom and show us the pic's.

I can't cover it all here, if you can't go hunting with a seasoned hunter go to www.amazon.com and buy Mike Hanback's book Spring gobbler fever, it will put you 10-15 years ahead in just a few nights reading.

You can compare the sounds you make to a hunting video but the manner they work birds is all but useless in the real world.

Patience

Keep it simple to start with, using a series of common hen yelps, usually in threes or four yelps. Too much calling is worse than no calling at all. Listen to the turkeys you hear in the woods, time will teach you what to do. Team up with an experienced turkey hunter. I learned in the 50's from some old timers who used a piece of slate and a cedar striker with a corncob handle. I also found out that if you lose your chalk in the woods, dry pine rosien will work for a bit. How do you spell pine tar with an "R"

What Al said

Look for some turkey sign such as leaves that have been scratched through leaving some bare spots with tracks or marks from the turkeys toenails. Look for "dusting bowls" . Turkeys use these to dust themselves to coat their skin with dust . Listen for gobbling . You need to hunt where there are turkeys to be able to take one home with you. Just do the yelp and clucks and you can kill turkeys.Good luck.

Go to the NWTF website. There they have samples of what calls should sound like. A lot of good information on that sight.

For shame...

Deerhunter, I apologize for the lack of response to your plea for help.The sad part is, although you have only had a dozen responses, "post your kills " has had hundreds. I think maybe these folks have forgotten how rough it was starting out turkey hunting. I have been turkey hunting for about 17 years now and I would love to share some tricks of the trade with you. I will pm you with my phone number so we can talk one on one.

Ross

I am by no means an expert but one of the best things to do is join the nwtf go to the banquets pick their brains they will be very helpful if you arent hunting their turkeys. This addiction is way worse than any other and a normally helpful saint will turn into a lying recluse once season rolls around. When you are in the fiels listen to the hens, if they are agressive then you be if they are passive then follow suit. the old timers hunted where turkeys wanted to be not where they were a called very little like 3 yelps every hour and they killed turkeys when there werent many. there is no set rules in calling a turkey I dont think a hen knows what call she is going to make next so go out there and by all means have fun. I hope this helps some