Newbie, overwhelmed by calls!!

[Zobo]

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Turkey hunting is Extremely fun but frustrating at the same time.  Learning to call, when to call and when to be quite is just part of the Battle.  I believe SETUP is 75 to 90% of turkey hunting.  If you are hunting areas that hold birds, you are in the game.  Scouting is a very BIG part of the Setup process.  If you see birds, know their travel routes and know where they tend to go, you can plan your Setup accordingly and you will up your odds of getting birds within range.  As others have said, learn to use the calls you have WITH CONFIDENCE (Practice, Practice and Practice some more).  Get a small tape recorder and listen to yourself until you have the Confidence that you sound like a Hen.  Scout early next spring!  Know where the birds are and where their travel routes are.  Put these 2 things together and your Frustration factor will go way down and your Fun factor will climb exponentially.  Remember FUN doesn't always mean Killing a Bird, that is Icing on the Cake.  Good Luck!

    I agree 100% with this good advice. Finding good turkey habitat is the path to success. Gobblenut talks about the 4 Ws, the "where" is probably the most important. 90% of the fish hold in 10% of the water. You'll catch fish with fried chicken if you sitting right on top of them. Don't get too worried about the "bait", the calling. Turkeys can be very forgiving of bad calling, take it from someone who knows,lol!
   But calling is at the heart of the sport, and finding calls you love is an aspect we turkey hunters love, so don't deny yourself that fun.  We talk about it ad nauseum and pretend the calls matter more than they really do. It's an indulgence we allow ourselves to have particularly on this forum.
    So after all that, to answer your question, I always recommend the same call to all beginners: get an SS box call, one that looks the coolest to you, because no matter what anyone tells you, looks do matter, and every box the Shoemakers craft will definitely, without question, and with relatively little practice, call in gobblers. It'll get you right in the game while you figure out how to run a yelper over the next 30
years. 

[Sir-diealot]

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Kayl did you ever end up getting yourself a box call?

[Greg Massey]

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My suggestion, put those store bought calls in a drawer and buy you some GOOD custom build calls and become proficient on those custom calls. You will enjoy those calls a lot more and learn a lot more from these type calls. Another great aspect of getting custom calls is getting to know and talk with the builders. We all have done what you have done and that's buy those store bought calls and now most of these calls are just in a drawer, box or whatever... Pretty much everyone who has posted to your post has custom calls now ... ask them why they have custom calls , the reason why they SOUND, PLAY and have more turkeys in these custom calls...

[mountainhunter1]

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My advice, get a reasonably priced , GOOD box call.
Nathan Taylor makes a good one and you normally don’t have wait long for it. Jody Harrison “Preacherman” should be able to get you something in a reasonable amount of time. Derek Tereza makes a great one but he’s been really busy recently. There are a lot of good call makers.
Expect to pay $100-200 for one. Taken care of, it’ll last you a lifetime.
The other cal I’d get, and be proficient with is a good mouth diaphragm. Pecker Wrecker is good. Woodhaven also good. Before getting a mouth call, I’d get a diagnostic kit from Calling All Turkeys. That’ll tell you what cut suits you. You can go from there.
That’s it but practice with real turkey sounds ( you can find them on the web).
Mostly though, it’s practice and listening to real hens.
If the price of s box is a little out of your range, a Primos Box cutter is a really good sounding box.
Bottom line, listen to real hens. Do what they do.
Don’t give up. Even if you’re not a great caller, birds will come to you. The better you get, the easier it will be to fool them.

That is good all around advice. If Nathan or a Preacherman is a bit out of your price range, you can do really well with a SS Customs money box or a Spring Creek Short box. Jeff White is also a bit cheaper than Nathan and some others higher priced mentioned. Jim Shelley from South Carolina makes a handmade one piece box call in several options for even less that which will kill every bird you encounter if you do your part.

Good advice as well to master a diaphragm. You do not need twenty, just get one or two (the diagnostic kit is worth the money to know what fits your mouth) and learn the one or two you decide work for you.

A good slate pot is hard to beat, and you don't need twenty of them even though many on here fall for that call buying sickness. Again, for the money, Jim Shelley makes a good walnut slate pot for around fifty bucks. Buster can probably get you a plain quarter sawn walnut for around 65-70 dollars and it will kill every bird you meet. The cherry slate from Hollaran for around 65 dollars is good enough for everyone on here as well. Nathan Taylor is also in that same price range. And these are good guys to deal with. They will treat you right and answer your questions.

As said above, listen to hens - go on you tube if needed and listen to videos of them posted on line. And lastly, you need to exalt all the patience you have. Patience and also where you set up (as state by some of the other members on here), will kill more birds than GREAT world class calling. Some of the worst calling I ever heard was real hens, so don't be afraid to call when in the woods. If the cadence is pretty good, the sound will work itself out. The more you do it, you will find yourself pretty proficient soon enough.

[Beards and Hooks]

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Great responses given pretty much covers mine as well. Don't worry though you hang around here long enough and you'll be overwhelmed by calls in say 2-3 years for a different reason than lack of experience running em.

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[mountainhunter1]

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Great responses given pretty much covers mine as well. Don't worry though you hang around here long enough and you'll be overwhelmed by calls in say 2-3 years for a different reason than lack of experience running em.

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Hello friend - Go ahead and send him a couple dozen of your calls and his problems will be over and you won't even miss them. You probably have that many in the mail on the way to you right now anyway. LOL

[scootac]

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I'm pretty new here....but found this bit of wisdom on another thread. I think it sums things up pretty good.

"When it comes to turkey sound the only sound that matters is the sound the person standing in front of your table wants to hear, the next one that comes by may like a different sound altogether. As far as real turkeys go 99.9% of calls will work, some of the worst turkey sounds you will ever hear will come from real turkeys."

[GobbleNut]

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As far as real turkeys go 99.9% of calls will work, some of the worst turkey sounds you will ever hear will come from real turkeys."

While I agree completely with this statement, in my opinion, it also underscores the need to be as versatile as possible in one's ability to reproduce as wide an array of turkey sounds as you can with whatever tools you use.  Using a single call of any type that has a limited range of tonal qualities and pitch may not attract those birds that are looking for something else. 

Being able to make those "worst turkey sounds you have ever heard" when you encounter a gobbler that wants to hear them will, on occasion, make the difference between success and failure.  That's not to say that any of us should be satisfied with sounding like a braying donkey on our calls,...and expecting to eventually find a gobbler that will come running to that sound.  Being able to MAKE those sounds, though, when needed, is a good ability to have,..just in case they are needed.   

[Notsoyoungturk]

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Just like you, I started turkey hunting as an adult.  My dad was not a turkey hunter so I grew up hunting deer and ducks.  After a friend took me on my first turkey hunt, I fell in love.

I went out and bought vest and a bunch of production calls.  I didn't occur to me that custom calls existed or would be that different.  The good news is they gave me something with which to practice; the bad news is they are all in a drawer or have been given to new hunters. 

I learned a long time ago, you get what you pay for and nothing is more irritating that to have to buy it twice because you did not get what you wanted.  That doesn't mean the most expensive is always the best but there is usually a reason why people are willing to pay more or wait for an item (some people wait for years for calls from certain makers).  In my limited experience, most custom calls are much easier to play and sound better, even for the beginner.  New guys usually need a little bit more forgiveness with their calling than guys that have done it all their life.  It won't make you as good as them but a better call will help you sound as good as you can at your level.  Who has the best call for the money? Ask 10 different hunters for their list and you will get 10 different answers.  The good news is if several people list the same person, you probably can't go wrong with their call.  Get a few quality, reasonably priced calls and they will last you a lifetime.  Or at least until you just decide you want something else.

That is just my opinion and it along with $5 will get you a cup of coffee at Starbucks.  Best of luck and I hope you enjoy this new adventure as much as I do.

[kayl]

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Kayl did you ever end up getting yourself a box call?

Yes sir, I ended up grabbing a Primos Hook Up and a Lynch World Champion for $20 ea locally to try out. Haven't gotten anything fancier. I'm not going to lie, haven't thought about turkey hunting much since last spring with fishing, deer hunting, and then ice fishing. Just starting stuff back up!

[Sir-diealot]

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Kayl did you ever end up getting yourself a box call?

Yes sir, I ended up grabbing a Primos Hook Up and a Lynch World Champion for $20 ea locally to try out. Haven't gotten anything fancier. I'm not going to lie, haven't thought about turkey hunting much since last spring with fishing, deer hunting, and then ice fishing. Just starting stuff back up!

I liked the Primos stuff when I was more or less just getting started, (Have not had any in years, not knocking them) good stuff back then and they are who got me started in turkey hunting. I wish you the best of luck.

[Turkeybutt]

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You got some good sound advice for a lot of good and or great
turkey hunters. My only advice to you is this. Remember: Patience kills more birds than anything else!

[alex_sebh]

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For the newer hunter looking to get a relatively easy call that sounds natural, I'd go with a Primos Hookup, as seen here -> https://southeasternbowhunting.com/best-turkey-calls/. Box calls sounds great, cut through the wind, and are the easiest calls to learn on. Push button calls are the only calls that are easier to use, but they don't sound great.

[Zobo]

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[Sir-diealot]

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For the newer hunter looking to get a relatively easy call that sounds natural, I'd go with a Primos Hookup, as seen here -> https://southeasternbowhunting.com/best-turkey-calls/. Box calls sounds great, cut through the wind, and are the easiest calls to learn on. Push button calls are the only calls that are easier to use, but they don't sound great.

You need to buy better quality. I know of 3 that sound just as good as any call I have ever used including one from our fearless leader Old Gobbler. In your defense though I use to think they exact same way until I got here. There is one other member here that makes one I have heard in person but my memory will not let me recall who it was but it was two years ago at Turkey Trot Acres at the Northeast Call Makers Summit that also sounds very good.