![]() So, I knew I had convinced the toughest judge at the contest that I had called turkeys really well.It wouldn't be football season without a big platter full of chicken wings! But this popular game day food is delicious all year-round, too. After the Grand Nationals, I had Sadie on the stage with me, and she gave me a thumbs-up. However, if I give her a call she really likes, she’ll give me a thumbs-up. When I start practicing my turkey calls at home, she’ll get a weird look on her face if she doesn’t like the call. Sadie is probably the toughest judge I've ever had. However, she has a friction call that she practices on all the time. Sadie really wants to learn to call turkeys, but I won’t let her use a mouth diaphragm yet. Winning the 2017 NWTF’s Grand National Open Division was very special for me, because my wife, Whittney, and my daughter, 4-year-old Sadie, were with me at the event. Chad Hoggle who owns American Strutter has invited me down to hunt with him on property that he hunts.Īlthough I love to hunt turkeys, I also love turkey calling contests. This spring I’m going to Tuscaloosa, Alabama, to hunt Alabama gobblers. If I also hunt Ohio and/or Tennessee, I’ll usually take a total of eight to 10 turkeys during the season. In Kentucky where I hunt, we’re allowed to take one gobbler in the fall, three hens during the fall and two gobblers during the spring for a total of six turkeys. Over the years, I've learned that soft whines with those little breathing sounds mixed in have been responsible for me taking more gobblers than any other calls I can use. Although I mixed them in with soft clucking and purring calls, the gobbler wasn’t convinced that I was a hen, until I added in those breathing sounds. When the gobbler was at about 60 yards, I started giving him those soft whines and those little breathing sounds. That bird walked within 75 yards of me, but it took him about 4 hours to go that distance. He was out in the field, and he was the slowest walking turkey I'd ever encountered. I made cutts and yelps to the turkey, and the bird would gobble, but he’d never come in to where I was. The tom was coming to me but then, he hung up about 150 yards from me. Once I set up on a gobbler I found not far from my house. ![]() Again, because the call’s so low and so quiet, most hunters will say, “There's no way that a gobbler can hear those little sounds.” But it’s a sound I mix in with my low clucks and purrs. Unless you're paying very close attention, and you're close to that person, you'll never hear the little sound he/she makes when they exhale after they yawn. Hens make a sound like a person makes after they yawn. I add one more call that I really think does the trick but is hard to describe. I’ll add in some really soft clucks and some almost inaudible yelps. Most people probably won’t believe that a turkey that’s hung up at 75 yards can hear those low calls - generally because, the hunters can’t hear those calls if they’re that far away from the caller. Many people use a slate or a glass call to give those low whines of a hen turkey, but I give those little feeding calls on my diaphragm call. Being able to give those really low, soft whines adds a lot of realism to your calling. A hunter has to be within about 10 yards to hear that low-pitched whine that a hen turkey produces when she’s feeding. Hen turkeys have a whine that’s very low-pitched. Then I rely on my feeding calls to get that tom to walk within gun range. If I have a gobbler that’s hung-up, I try to get as close as I possibly can to him without his seeing me. ![]() Even though we all know that a turkey’s ability to hear is much greater than our own, we don’t use that fact oftentimes when we talk to gobblers. Most turkey hunters judge what a turkey can hear based on their own ability to hear. Another call that I use when I'm hunting that I think most other hunters don’t use as effectively as they can is soft purring.
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