I didn’t get into turkey hunting until I moved from the Florida panhandle to north central Mississippi for grad school. The little place we found to live in just happened to be smack in the middle of some of the best public lands turkey hunting around. And my neighbor, as I soon found, just happened to approach turkey hunting with a fanatic religious zeal. Steve literally sets his calendar by turkey season. For him, turkeys aren’t just another opportunity to be in the woods, they are his passion.

During that first season, Steve taught me a lot about calling and setting up, but the birds taught me even more. I think I made every mistake you can about three times over before the seasons end. But, if for nothing but dogged persistence, I ended up killing a limit of those hard pressured eastern birds.
There are a lot of different turkey calls out there and you’ll find folks that’ll say one is better than another but I really think it’s up to the caller. Something that works well for me might not do it for you. But, the basics are the same. In a broad sense, you’ve got slate calls, box calls, diaphragms, and push calls, and scratch boxes. Take a look at the video for some idea of the difference and how to use them.

Diaphragms seem to give folks the most trouble, mainly because it makes them gag or tickles their mouth a little. Making a little piece of latex and aluminum sound anything like a turkey takes a bit of practice. Making it sound like a hen, and not a hunter, takes quite a bit more. There’s a subtle difference between the sound of a good caller and a not so good one. “A good yelp’s got pop” I remember Steve saying “it’s got a definite beginning and end”. One’s ability to cut and cackle on a diaphragm is a point of pride in the south. And running your yelps together, like a lot of hunters do, will get you blacklisted from many a hunting club. But, with that said, the only way to learn is to make all those same mistakes that I made when I first started out. It’s frustrating as hell but isn’t that what keeps us getting up and into the woods at the crack of dawn??

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