North vs South Sound

[Greg Massey]

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Tell you what , just make me one of both .. North and South .. that way i will have the best of both worlds..

[dwcim]

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Great analogy with Cost style calls, but what about Tom Turpin?  Turpin style calls have that unique deep throat tone like down in the bottom of a 55 gallon drum sound with a super raspy backend. Also, no one talked about a nasal sounding call of which I like with a quick rollover to a yalky back end. That yalky backend can be used as a fall gobbler sound or a great gobble. That’s my 2 cents and I’m sticking to it.

[GobbleNut]

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Quite the interesting discussion going on here.  Frankly, I have never noticed anything other than folks in all areas of the country gravitate towards the calls and corresponding sounds they make based on their experiences in the woods.

One thing I will state with a great deal of conviction is that a lot of what turkey hunters think a turkey call (and turkeys themselves) should sound like has been overly influenced by the competition calling circuit and the sounds human judges think sound the best. 

Here's my challenge to anybody that wants to take it:  Go into the turkey woods,...or even easier, turn on any of the zillion or so turkey hunting videos on "the tube",...and start listening intently to the sounds that hen turkeys make.  If you don't come away saying something to the affect that there is more variation in hen voices than there are exact similarities, then all I can tell you is that you have not been listening close enough.

The bottom line is that hen turkeys run a very wide spectrum of "how a hen turkey sounds".  Turkey hunters pay waayyy too much attention to making "contest circuit sounds" and way too little attention to knowing what general sounds to make and when to make them when hunting.  More often than not, the sound a particular call has is far less important than most folks think it is.

[culpeper]

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DWCIM & Gobblenut, this is good stuff.  David...never meant to exclude Turpins or otherwise various other box calls and yes sir plenty of those turpins can be nasty growlers!

Gobblenut, you are sooo correct on listening.  You have hit on a sensitive spot I suspect for some folks...the competition calling and competition calls and their understand of what REAL hens sound like.  Hunting sounds and competition sounds...the water does get muddy and here again, the actual sounds are not, I agree with you, as important than to when, how you make them, the cadence, volume, tone and so on...these are most critical.

This is what I was hoping to get...opinions and a good discussion.

[turkeyfool]

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I'm not a box call expert although I do play around with pot calls quite a bit. Starting to get into boxes now and have ordered like 10 this year. In my opinion, I think easily more than 1/2 of boxes are too raspy. There probably is a difference between the hen you'd hear in the woods and the hen most people picture in their mind when they're running a box. I can't really speak for north vs south as much (other than the fact that I think turkey hunting is easier is up here), but there's probably more of a difference between merriams and easterns

[dwcim]

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Scott,
You are a class act and a master at the art of designing and crafting musical turkey instruments from wood. You started a great thread which I think involves many variables and so very few constants. The calls are the constants that the call maker puts into the hands of the player.  The player has the variables to make it sound anyway they desire to a certain degree. A turkey call is designed by the call maker to mimic their interpretation sounds of a turkey and the hunter plays it to their personal interpretation of a turkey sounds, pitch’s and cadence. Example: electric guitar constant and amplified sound variation and players style of playing and choice of song and sound variable. There is a slight variation in sound in most calls and no two players sound the same even playing the same call. Today we may love a certain sound and tomorrow we may change our mind about that sound.  A wild turkey does the same thing. He may like a certain sound today and want something else tomorrow. Variation is what keeps us players chasing the ultimate call and adding calls to our collection.

[WildTigerTrout]

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IMO it really does not matter what I think sounds good. It matters what the turkeys think sound good.  I have boxes that are raspy and boxes that are clear and high pitched.  I try to carry both.

[Yoder409]

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The bottom line is that hen turkeys run a very wide spectrum of "how a hen turkey sounds".  Turkey hunters pay waayyy too much attention to making "contest circuit sounds" and way too little attention to knowing what general sounds to make and when to make them when hunting.  More often than not, the sound a particular call has is far less important than most folks think it is.

Sage.

Very sage.

[KYTURKEY]

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Scott,

This is a great discussion. I have thought this for several years. I noticed it several years ago.

What I found is a difference in the size of the calls between North/South. I won't go into specifics. But, I have a dear friend who was struggling with the sound of his long boxes, and couldn't figure out why. I had been telling him he was building a northern sized box, while looking for a southern sound. I eventually showed him at a show. I compared his box to another callmakers so he could see the difference.

Patrick

[AppalachianHollers]

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Scott,

This is a great discussion. I have thought this for several years. I noticed it several years ago.

What I found is a difference in the size of the calls between North/South. I won't go into specifics. But, I have a dear friend who was struggling with the sound of his long boxes, and couldn't figure out why. I had been telling him he was building a northern sized box, while looking for a southern sound. I eventually showed him at a show. I compared his box to another callmakers so he could see the difference.

Patrick

Whose long boxes are more packable?


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