i am sorry if this has been asked before. i have done several searches and cannot find anything.
i am looking for instructional bits that teach how to call. i was tought the basic yelp and purr, but that is it. that is all the teacher knew.
how do learn to better yealp and purr, but also work up to the next call, etc? hell,, i don't know for sure what you call all of the other calls!
i have been to the national show, plus many full "hunting" shows, where they have turkey calling contests. i have LESS THAN ZERO desire to call like they do. i just want to better be to work live birds. i'm bad about not shooting them when they come in. the better i can call, the more birds i can have come in and strut for me.
so any instructional material that you can steer me towards would be greatly appreciated!
Here is a couple of my favorites.
Dale Outdoors on YouTube & Scott Ellis "Mouth call Magic DVD".
Search YouTube. There are a bunch on there.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
Quote from: Marc_Stokeld on June 19, 2018, 12:32:29 PM
i have been to the national show, plus many full "hunting" shows, where they have turkey calling contests. i have LESS THAN ZERO desire to call like they do. i just want to better be to work live birds.
Not sure why you wouldn't like to listen and learn from the best. "Most" of those guys(and gals) are great turkey hunters and their desire to be better callers, understanding turkey language, putting the right feeling into their calling all came from the love of turkey hunting and their desire to call in as many birds as possible.
Keep in mind, at a contest, the callers have to show off what they "can" do. When hunting, they only do what they have to do.
These two have been very helpful to me, I intend to get the rest of the Real Turkey CD's as soon as I can.
Quote from: Marc_Stokeld on June 19, 2018, 12:32:29 PM
i am sorry if this has been asked before. i have done several searches and cannot find anything.
i am looking for instructional bits that teach how to call. i was tought the basic yelp and purr, but that is it. that is all the teacher knew.
how do learn to better yealp and purr, but also work up to the next call, etc? hell,, i don't know for sure what you call all of the other calls!
i have been to the national show, plus many full "hunting" shows, where they have turkey calling contests. i have LESS THAN ZERO desire to call like they do. i just want to better be to work live birds. i'm bad about not shooting them when they come in. the better i can call, the more birds i can have come in and strut for me.
so any instructional material that you can steer me towards would be greatly appreciated!
To start off, listen to every real turkey video or sound file you can find. I would start with the NWTF website. They have sound files of most of the sounds a turkey makes and explains what they use them for. There are a few others that do the same. Then find and watch all the real turkey sound videos you can find. One thing you have to watch out for on youtube is beware of the titles and descriptions as to what kind of calls the turkeys in the videos are making. I've seen a couple of times where the title will say it is so and so call, and it is really something different. One video I saw on there had a title that said something like "hen cutting and yelping" and the hen in the video was putting and about ready to run. When you watch these videos don't just listen to the overall sound, break each sound down. Just a few examples, listen to the pitch of the sound, how much of a note their is on the front of the sound, how long the front carries before breaking over into the raspy back end, how much rasp is in it, or how clear it is. Hens and jakes and toms make a lot of the same types of sounds, listen to the differences. Listen to the cadence or rythmn, count how many notes are called in each call etc. etc. Then, I would search for videos of how to run the calls that you plan on using. Get the basics down and then have at it. Try to match the turkey sounds you've been listening to. Practice a little everyday until you can just pick up that call or calls and sound like turkeys. Just don't stop at that point, keep doing it all year until turkey season.
Quote from: JonD. on June 19, 2018, 05:21:22 PM
Quote from: Marc_Stokeld on June 19, 2018, 12:32:29 PM
i am sorry if this has been asked before. i have done several searches and cannot find anything.
i am looking for instructional bits that teach how to call. i was tought the basic yelp and purr, but that is it. that is all the teacher knew.
how do learn to better yealp and purr, but also work up to the next call, etc? hell,, i don't know for sure what you call all of the other calls!
i have been to the national show, plus many full "hunting" shows, where they have turkey calling contests. i have LESS THAN ZERO desire to call like they do. i just want to better be to work live birds. i'm bad about not shooting them when they come in. the better i can call, the more birds i can have come in and strut for me.
so any instructional material that you can steer me towards would be greatly appreciated!
To start off, listen to every real turkey video or sound file you can find. I would start with the NWTF website. They have sound files of most of the sounds a turkey makes and explains what they use them for. There are a few others that do the same. Then find and watch all the real turkey sound videos you can find. One thing you have to watch out for on youtube is beware of the titles and descriptions as to what kind of calls the turkeys in the videos are making. I've seen a couple of times where the title will say it is so and so call, and it is really something different. One video I saw on there had a title that said something like "hen cutting and yelping" and the hen in the video was putting and about ready to run. When you watch these videos don't just listen to the overall sound, break each sound down. Just a few examples, listen to the pitch of the sound, how much of a note their is on the front of the sound, how long the front carries before breaking over into the raspy back end, how much rasp is in it, or how clear it is. Hens and jakes and toms make a lot of the same types of sounds, listen to the differences. Listen to the cadence or rythmn, count how many notes are called in each call etc. etc. Then, I would search for videos of how to run the calls that you plan on using. Get the basics down and then have at it. Try to match the turkey sounds you've been listening to. Practice a little everyday until you can just pick up that call or calls and sound like turkeys. Just don't stop at that point, keep doing it all year until turkey season.
Good advise for me as well, thanks.
If you are working on the mouth call then a program called "Conquering The Call" can be a big help. CTC is a program you load on your computer and with the help of a microphone (supplied with the program) you get feed back on your calling. CTC breaks down each call and you practice each with instantaneous feedback. If you are working other calls then I would second You Tube. Lastly, listen to real birds if you are in a place to do so. I am very fortunate that I can go on my back deck and list to real birds throughout most of the year.
I wouldn't worry about it; no one calls anymore; they just collect calls.
Get on YouTube and take a look at the dozens of "how to" videos on calling turkeys,...and the hundreds of turkey hunting videos there. What you will find is a confusing mess of information. Especially with the hunting videos, you will quickly see that the number of variations of what hunters think is the "right" way to call is practically endless. You will also see that almost anything will work under the right conditions.
The fact is that probably 95% of the turkeys that are killed each year are killed by hunters using some variation of the basic yelp,...and the yelp is also the one call turkeys make that will vary greatly depending on the turkey,...and the hunter's calling ability. The bottom line is that you don't have to be a great turkey caller,...you just have to make sounds that the turkey you are calling to is impressed enough with that he/she will come. In reality, those sounds can vary a lot.
That's not to say that you can go out in the woods sounding like a barking squirrel and call turkeys (although I have seen some turkeys killed that I believe a barking squirrel call would have made them come running). I am saying that you don't have to make things more complicated than they really need to be to fool one of them.
With the wide assortment of calling instruments available today, making realistic turkey sounds is the easy part,...again, if you don't complicate matters. First of all, stick to the easy calls to learn to use,...box calls, pot calls, push button calls...and avoid the more difficult-to-learn calls like mouth calls and suction-type calls (wing-bones and "trumpet" calls).
Learn to make basic yelps first,...soft, loud,...short, long,...subtle, aggressive. Watch those videos and try to make calls within the range of that wide spectrum of calling that you will hear, especially that which seems to fall within some range of consistency. Don't worry about trying to get "fancy" with your calling,...that is, throwing in odd-ball sounds that you might hear, especially from the upper-tier callers you will find on YouTube. Those sounds are not needed,...and not knowing how to reproduce them correctly, or more importantly, using them at the wrong time, will do more harm than good when you are trying to call turkeys.
So, for the beginners learning to call,....stick with easy calls (that you think sound like turkeys) and learn the "yelp" in its various forms and range of tones, cadence, and volume,...and when to use each of those forms (that is the real hard part). That's all you need to do,...and in the long run, you will likely kill more turkeys than you will trying to get all "fancy-dancy" with your calling.
...If you are like many of us, you will graduate to the "fancy-dancy" stuff in due time. :icon_thumright:
I'll agree w the Scott Ellis mouth call magic. If you get the Lovett real turkey CDs you can mimic some of the vocalizations there as well but for the mechanics the Ellis dvd
Quote from: Bowguy on December 09, 2018, 04:32:57 PM
I'll agree w the Scott Ellis mouth call magic. If you get the Lovett real turkey CDs you can mimic some of the vocalizations there as well but for the mechanics the Ellis dvd
Got to agree, Scott Ellis is all turkey.
The old Priomos mouth calling instructional helped me with mouth calls.
Quote from: eddie234 on June 19, 2018, 01:54:02 PM
Search YouTube. There are a bunch on there.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
Scott ellis dvds vol. 1&2
I also have a spittin feathers cd and tree top turkeys cd off amazon.
YouTubing hen talk works well too
Quote from: daddyduke on June 19, 2018, 01:16:37 PM
Here is a couple of my favorites.
Dale Outdoors on YouTube & Scott Ellis "Mouth call Magic DVD".
I like watching Dales videos.
P.S. I learned from a 33 album Leroy Braungart from Moscow mills, Missouri.
Find that one on cd/dvd
Tell ya what just listen to these call makers sound files on here, all kinds of calls from different call makers.
Search on YouTube for Kenny Morgan. He has been gone for a few yrs now, but his vids about his callers and him running them are priceless.
Quote from: owlhoot on March 07, 2020, 08:17:04 PM
P.S. I learned from a 33 album Leroy Braungart from Moscow mills, Missouri.
By the watch?
What type of call are you wanting to learn to run?
As previously stated, I feel that Scot Ellis videos (Mouth Call Magic) have been the best at discussing the use of mouth calls and creating the proper sounds.
Timing and cadence is very important... As knowing when to shut up, and when to pour it on... Cadence is something that you can learn... Timing... Can vary in every situation.
But, when I hear birds gobbling in the morning I listen very carefully... For the hens that are making them gobble. Are they cutting or yelping? What is the cadence of their calling? What sounds that they make create interest in the toms, and what sounds generate apathy?
Everyone concentrates on those gobbles in the morning, but the sound you should be concentrating on is those hens.
I was about to ask this same question. I've listened to a LOT of youtube and learned the basic techniques that way, but I want to take it to the next level. Thanks for the question and all the answers. I'll be buying those DVD/CD's tonight.
First, get some cds with live turkey recordings. Get those rhythms and inflection of the sounds of calls that they make. Then watch some of the instructional vids on how to operate the type calls you want to use. Learning the vocabulary, rhythm and inflection FROM TURKEYS FIRST will eliminate picking up repetitious, unnatural calling habits. The vids from Scott Ellis and from "Calling All Turkeys" will shorten the learning curve tremendously on using a mouth call. This is just my opinion, so take it for what it's worth. Lol. Good luck
Years ago the Late DR.Lovett Williams put out some cassettes of real wild turkeys calling. I would think that they are still around and by this time on cd's
Great informative
I would go to Youtube and watch Shane Simpson on Calling All Turkeys and find his one video on calling dynamics. Jason Cruise always had great content on his videos. Matt Dale has got some good videos, especially about woodsmanship. These 3 have helped me to cull out some bad habits that are easy to pick up. Cruise is very explanatory. Scott Ellis is hard to beat on mouth call videos
Although I've never used it Scott Ellis has an app that goes through the types of calls a turkey makes. It allows you to record your practice and compare it to his calling and the calling of a real hen. I believe it's called the Turkey Tech app.
https://www.lovettwilliams.com/
Real turkeys CD's he has made. Best you can get and learn from
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
My opinion? Learning from people, no matter their skill level will limit you (It's not a bad thing, just limiting).
I'd get natural recordings. A good one is "Tree Top Turkeys" by Brad Taylor. He records turkeys undisturbed as they go about their day. You'll hear tons of different voices and cadences and subtle nuances.
Nothing like the real thing...
I have not seen the Scott Ellis but the Lovett Williams CDs are excellent