How would you describe the turkey sound you are looking for in a turkey call?

[Brillo]

Another thread in the "box call" forum got me thinking about this:  After a couple of years of hunting I do not feel confident telling an experienced call maker what turkey sound I am looking for.  How would you even describe the categories of turkey sounds?  How do you know what is better/best?  I have seen/heard people talk about the turkey in their head.  I have always left that up to the maker.  One box call I have is a nasty old hen on the right side with very little higher pitch.  That call really pisses off older hens.  The left side is a bit higher but not "young".  I have another box call that is higher and really does not get nasty at all.  I would say the first call is bitchy and nasty, the second is sweet and cute.  Am I tracking here are you all thinking high vs. low and clear vs raspy?   

[Marc]

I lack that same confidence.

Generally, I like a moderate to high pitch call with a moderate amount of rasp.

If I am having a call made, I will talk to the maker and tell him where I am hunting, and what sub-species I target.  Let him make it.

I "feel like" higher pitched calls are more likely to stimulate a gobble or shock gobble, and that lower pitches and more raspy calls are more likely to start a fight with a hen...  I very well could be wrong.

I like box calls and scratch boxes...  I carry two of each (with a couple of strikers for the scratchers)...  I like playing them, and I like how they sound.  I love the low end sounds on the scratchers (purring, subtle clucks, quiet contented yelps, etc.)

If I could only have one type of call to kill a bird with, it would be a diaphragm though.  I carry about 6 of them in my diaphragm wallet, and you can make a multitude of sounds, pitches, rasp, etc...  Hands-free for close work.  I probably finish 99% of my birds with that final cluck from a mouth call to get his head up.

[Brillo]

Thanks Marc for your honesty in this.  I do wonder how many seasoned hunters would want to tell Matt VanCise  or another well known maker what sound to get out of a call.  Or would they?  As to types of calls, I am interested in all of them.  I do not have a scratch box so that will need to go on my list. Considering a strategy to get a spectrum of calls for different situations in as few calls as possible how do I get there from here?  Mouth calls are going to be a key for many but I am terrible with them.  I can do soft calling with them however which, I think, is the same across the board.  In other words a purr for a mature hen will sound very similar to the purr of a subordinate hen?   All the contentment calls seem to me to be very generic.  It is the louder calls where individual hens start to sound different?  Maybe?

[ChesterCopperpot]

How much front end, how much back end. Pitch or tone. Raspy or clear. I think all of those are things a good callmaker can fool around with. Another thing you could tell them is just what type of bird you're wanting to sound like: a young hen, an old hen, a jake, etc. My favorite box call is one that jake yelps and gobbles really well. That's the primary way I'll use a box. So for me I'd just tell them that. 


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[Paulmyr]

I've heard single hens go through a cut yelp series that starts high and clear and end low and raspy. In my experience individual hens can do it all depending on what they are trying to get across to the turkey/ turkeys they are saying it to. I think might be a mistake to think that a raspy call is an old hen and a high clear call is an young hen.

[Brillo]

I've heard single hens go through a cut yelp series that starts high and clear and end low and raspy. In my experience individual hens can do it all depending on what they are trying to get across to the turkey/ turkeys they are saying it to. I think might be a mistake to think that a raspy call is an old hen and a high clear call is an young hen.

Thanks Paul,
Lets assume an old hen can make a sweet come hither call to a gobbler.  Why would she?  In the real world doesn't she just march up to a gobbler and demand service?  If that is the case then wouldn't the only reason to use a come hither call be to direct or redirect a lonely two year old or a mature gobbler off the roost?  If that is the case and I am prospecting for a gobbler, the first choice would always be a bitchy hen for the purpose of ticking off a dominate hen who may be towing a gobbler?    I am just starting to see some things and wondering how to decipher and use what I think I am seeing/hearing.

[Marc]

I've heard single hens go through a cut yelp series that starts high and clear and end low and raspy. In my experience individual hens can do it all depending on what they are trying to get across to the turkey/ turkeys they are saying it to. I think might be a mistake to think that a raspy call is an old hen and a high clear call is an young hen.

To be truthful...  I don't know that I could listen to an audio of different hens and have any idea what ages they are by their yelping or cutting?

I do think you are correct that as a bird matures, they have the ability to call with many vocal ranges and pitches.

I can only go by the observation that watching dominant hens, they tend to be more raspy...  Which is likely a sign of aggression?

Maybe those "clear calls" are a sign of submission or contentment?

I generally carry 2 scratchers (with several strikers), an assortment of diaphragms, and 2 box calls...

My favorite box call is a Primos HeartBreaker...  I have other calls I feel sound better, and cannot make this call purr...  But it elicits more gobbles, and pizzes off more hens than any other call I have...  It is always in my vest.  High/medium pitch, smooth on the front end, and raspy on the back end.

[Greg Massey]

I've seen heavy raspy calls run gobblers off... I like a call with a good clear note on the front of the yelp and as it rolls over a nice rasp but not over powering ...

[worth612000]

I try to pick calls that sound like the turkeys I hear in the woods. Lucky for all of us the turkeys don't all sound the same so we get a break at times. Cadence seems to be the most important thing where I hunt.

[silvestris]

"Yalk".

[Zobo]

I think you're absolutely thinking about sound the right way and expressing yourself well. What I want to have is an arsenal of calls that run the gamut of sounds across the turkey spectrum. From super guttural, barky to raspy to mid to clear/ sweet to squeaky/kee kee to soft talking ect. So, I would look to buy calls that fill that spectrum and develop confidence in them through practice. Tell a call maker just what you told us. Maybe you need a something in between super raspy and clear, just tell him that. And remember, with practice, you can often get many different sound types even from a single box rail from a quality call.

[howl]

match the hatch

[Paulmyr]

Here's a couple good podcasts from the Pennsylvania Game Commission with Denny Gulvas as a guest. They get into hen dialogue and how changes in pitch, tone, cadence, and inflection are used when turkeys communicate.

Episodes 27 and 28.

https://calloftheoutdoorspgc.com/home-episode-slider/

[GobbleNut]

Quite honestly, there are so many variations of the hen yelp that I think a lot of hunters put too much emphasis on achieving a specific sound (usually what I call the "box call yelp").  For every hen turkey that makes that classic yelp, there are a dozen more that have some variation,...some considerable,...to that sound. 

Personally, I think being able to realistically cluck (in its variations) and possibly more importantly, cutt realistically, is more important than achieving a particular sound when yelping.  Of course, any sound made on a turkey call has to fall within some spectrum of realism to the turkey being called.  I just believe that spectrum is much broader for yelping than some of the other calls like clucking and cutting. 

Furthermore, putting together realistic combinations of yelping, clucking, and cutting at the proper times (or at least my vision of it) have always seemed to be the ticket for me.

[mspaci]

dont over think it, just hunt, one gobbler wants this on a day, another that