Turkey hunting forum for turkey hunting tips

Have you bought a call before and while playing this call or calls inside the house or sitting on a back porch come to the conclusion this call is just awesome but in reality the call was very deceiving to you ears. It's like in some ways the call has fooled your ears into thinking this call has it all with sound, tones and ease of play. Remember all of this playing time is in somewhat of a controlled environment. After getting the call outside in all kinds of terrain, humidity and sound barriers the call was very disappointing in how it overall sounded and played out in the woods. I have had this happen with pot calls and boxes especially with deceiving me into thinking this was the ultimate call and will call every gobbler and hen in a 100 miles. SO tell us if you have been deceived by calls or been fooled by their playing ability from house to woods.

Absolutely I have!. I've got a few stacks of pot calls and 4 or 5 box calls just like that. Get them in from the maker or out of the packaging and it sounds fantastic inside. Carry a few days in the woods and can't buy a bird with it, try them again next season, same thing. I've probably purchased 100+ pot calls over the years, commercial, and custom and of those there's maybe 3 that I know if I take it from the vest, a turkey will likely gobble and commit with it. As far as box calls, I've purchased around 10 or 15 over the years, commercial and custom, and the only one that I've had success with is a Ron Clough Longbox, that to me, sounds too high pitched and squeaky, but sure as s**t I've called birds in with that call that wouldn't say a peep to anything else.


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100% happened on some pot calls. Especially when it comes to the volume level of calls. Calls that sounded good inside, when brought out to the field had volume issues, mostly the inability to cast out loud calls. Like you said, inside environments are not the best places to rate calls regarding quality of sound. I guess that's why most the renowned call makers on this site do their sound reviews outdoors several feet from the camera? Great post Greg.

Been there done that! I presently have two box calls with aluminum lids that sound like a turkey suffering from chronic laryngitis when played in my garage. Before I toss them out I will take them to the woods and have a friend or two listen and give me their opinions. I have purchased mouth calls from various markers and while driving down the road play it and if it doesn't sound right to me I'll bend the frame and keep fiddling with it until I have no confidence in it or come to the conclusion it won't call a turkey. It's then I toss it out. Grant it the mouth call may entice a turkey just like my box calls with the aluminum lids could but if I loose confidence; I don't want them!
I am sure many of you are the same way.
I am still trying to determine if I spent more money chasing women over the years or more on turkey calls. Come to think of it, I had the same results on both fronts in the past. I'd spend a lot of money and always got the short end of the stick. Suffice it to say on most outings I went home empty handed!

Absolutely I have. Mostly boxes. I lost my absolute favorite box a few years back and dummy me didn't know it until I got to South Dakota. I have yet to find it after hunting the same areas over and over. Anywho, I've bought a bunch of custom boxes that sounded great out of the package but I no longer use. I'm still looking for the sound my favorite box had. Dummy me...couldn't remember the exact wood except the top was purple heart. And that box was 16 years old and travelled all over the country. That custom caller has re-made me what he thought I had but it doesn't sound quite the same.

It's strange how a box sounds inside vs outside and in different situations.

So true, I always test calls in a little hardwood bottom behind my house, they will fool you until running them in the woods. Also, never know which one the birds like, usually only takes a few trips to the turkey woods to let them tell you the truth...lol

No.  Mine seem to be always be terrible sounding indoors and out.  So I just roll with it and hope to find a hard of hearing gobbler.   Maybe one I've missed before and ruined his ear drums.

Little story about a box call i bought couple years ago right around Thanksgiving, man i played and played this box until time to go opening morning of spring turkey season, i was all setup and after taking this fine custom box out of my Glenda Green satchel and get everything ready to call to that gobbler i started playing that box call and within a few minutes i wanted to throw it out across the field. I have never been so disappointed in a call in my life as i was with this call and here i sit with this call with no confidence in it at all... So guys if you think one or 3 calls is all you need i think you may be short changing yourself with denial and deception that 2 or 3 calls is all you need. The surroundings and environment can totally change a call .. NOW if you don't care for cadence and making the proper sounds and just want to have a few calls that will squawk then i guess having the 2 - 3 calls and type really doesn't matter...  I think there's a difference between calling gobblers to you and chasing turkeys in a run and gunning chase. But either way I just enjoy turkey hunting.  IMO

Quote from: guesswho on January 28, 2023, 11:28:15 AM
No.  Mine seem to be always be terrible sounding indoors and out.  So I just roll with it and hope to find a hard of hearing gobbler.   Maybe one I've missed before and ruined his ear drums.

Ain't it a good thing that turkey HUNTERS are way more critical of a particular call's nuances than turkeys are ??   ;)

Bingo!

I have one from one of the top call builders and it sounds great to me and to everyone that has heard it. I have not gotten so much as a head turn from a turkey when I play it though.

I quit caring what I thought when I played a pot I knew sounded horrible and me and a buddy doubled on it. Thing sounded like a screech owl getting shivved in a prison shower. Gobblers was fighting to get to it. We shot the world down!


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Quote from: ChesterCopperpot on January 28, 2023, 08:17:43 PM
I quit caring what I thought when I played a pot I knew sounded horrible and me and a buddy doubled on it. Thing sounded like a screech owl getting shivved in a prison shower. Gobblers was fighting to get to it. We shot the world down!

Love it !!!

I spent a couple decades pro-staff for a small-ish call company.  The ONLY reason a call HAS to sound next to perfect is so I could call YOU from across a crowded show floor and SELL the call to you.

Wish I was bright enough to do sound files.  I'd go outside and fire up my 35mm film can and rubber surgical glove.   :TooFunny:   The biggest thing that would accomplish (because it has caused turkeys to die) is give EVERYONE a new outlook on how good or how bad they call and how little the tone matters.

Quote from: Yoder409 on January 28, 2023, 08:56:51 PM

Quote from: ChesterCopperpot on January 28, 2023, 08:17:43 PM
I quit caring what I thought when I played a pot I knew sounded horrible and me and a buddy doubled on it. Thing sounded like a screech owl getting shivved in a prison shower. Gobblers was fighting to get to it. We shot the world down!

Love it !!!

I spent a couple decades pro-staff for a small-ish call company.  The ONLY reason a call HAS to sound next to perfect is so I could call YOU from across a crowded show floor and SELL the call to you.

Wish I was bright enough to do sound files.  I'd go outside and fire up my 35mm film can and rubber surgical glove.   :TooFunny:   The biggest thing that would accomplish (because it has caused turkeys to die) is give EVERYONE a new outlook on how good or how bad they call and how little the tone matters.

I agree it not so much a matter of TONES.. It does have more to do with a consistent RHYTHM and delivering that RHYTHM in a correct manner in being able to kill turkeys on a regular basis.   SO in my opinion RHYTHM is the most important not so much sounds and tones ...

Man I got a call I had brought from Richard Hudson, a hen box, it was close to 95 degrees and call sat in mail box for a while, I brought it into the house with the air running at 69 degrees, call made no sound, I almost started to cry but I went and sanded it and re chalked it and it is a great caller..

The change in environment certainly effects the tones and how we hear the calls. Over time I've had pots change too, not just the perception of them but actually change. Fresh from the maker the call was a screamer, dead on, outside or inside. Then a few months go by and the call still sounds good but it has lost the "it" factor it once had.

Keeping tips of strikers and conditioned surfaces for your pots and the tools to do as such will help with environmental changes.

I have all this happen to me and more. What I do is leave what ever call I am trying or hunting with inside my truck so overnight it get acclimated to the conditions outside and try them that way. I bought a call one year at the NWTF call makers auction that actually won it's division (when it was really fun not this online crap) man it sounded so good so I take it hunting and start using it first thing it was so bad I thought I just ran every turkey in the country away so I put it up and later on in the day I tried it again and it sounded awesome, you couldn't use this call until around 10 o'clock after it warmed up some needless to say it sits in my collection.

We've all had calls that either excelled in the woods even though they sounded less than adequate in the house or vice versa.
The ones that surprise me are the ones that you play in or outside that you say, "that won't call a chicken, let alone a turkey." Then you find they're one of the hottest calls you own.
I've had a few surprise me like that...

several years back on a misty but not rainy day I took several longboxes out to the barn to play, they were wrapped up and under my coat. Barn was dry inside.

after 15 minutes 1 of them noticeably lost it's sound/tone, this was normally a great sounding call, had hunted it and had confidence in it to take on out of state hunts, it was the only 1 from that maker I have had, don't know if it was something lacking in his finish or what.

none of the several others that were played that time had any problems or changes in their tone or pitch.

I have heard live hens that if I had a call that sounded like them , I would throw in the trash.

Quote from: sixbird on January 29, 2023, 01:56:02 PM
We've all had calls that either excelled in the woods even though they sounded less than adequate in the house or vice versa.
The ones that surprise me are the ones that you play in or outside that you say, "that won't call a chicken, let alone a turkey." Then you find they're one of the hottest calls you own.
I've had a few surprise me like that...

A got a D Helm sycamore sawn and glued box call that's exactly like that. When I received it and played it, the sound was pretty weird/bad to me but I carried it one rainy day and to my surprise called in a very nice gobbler with it. I've called in and shot 14 more with it since that day. It's my most productive box call.

I always found voice calling to be in that category.   Inside or outside mine doesn't sound good to my ears.  But turkeys on the other seem to like it.  I use it every year and usually on every hunt at some point.

Quote from: guesswho on January 29, 2023, 05:56:54 PM
I always found voice calling to be in that category.   Inside or outside mine doesn't sound good to my ears.  But turkeys on the other seem to like it.  I use it every year and usually on every hunt at some point.

Are you talking about the little voices you hear calling to you?
I've found the voices I hear outside are more laidback than the inside voices

Inside voices tend to call to much.

 :popcorn:

Quote from: guesswho on January 29, 2023, 06:26:50 PM
Inside voices tend to call to much.

Do you use a cough drop on your tongue to get more rasp... :TooFunny:

I have bought a couple pots that are complete junk but I also hunted for years with only a $12 HS Black Magic and killed quite a few birds that way. Now I bring a bunch of custom calls and strikers and really don't have that many more responses....

Quote from: guesswho on January 28, 2023, 11:28:15 AM
No.  Mine seem to be always be terrible sounding indoors and out.  So I just roll with it and hope to find a hard of hearing gobbler.   Maybe one I've missed before and ruined his ear drums.

Ditto!

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Sounds vary indoors vs outdoors.
Pot Calls always much better indoors.

Even outdoors, different terrain, elevation,  humidity,  changes the sound. It's like the artist who sounds way better in a recording studio than outdoors in concert on a cold day

I tried a wing bone for the first time last year. It really didn't sound that good, but I turned on a recorder and walked about 50 - 70 yards away and recorded the sounds and when I played them back it sounded must better. First time into the woods used it to take a bird I had history with and ended up killing him with it.