This is advice from a self taught veteran of 31 turkey seasons that has killed 42 turkeys in two different states, that went his first 5 seasons without killing a bird and the first two without actually seeing one while hunting. I now carry the fallowing seven calls, five mouth and two friction.
I have run the gauntlet of turkey calls using pot calls made from aluminum, natural slate and synthetic, at least 10 different paddle calls, several push-button calls, and a dozen+ mouth calls. Have given away a storage bin full of different types of friction calls and have more mouth calls I've tried and failed with than I will ever consider thinking about.
Now all I carry is a HS Strut synthetic glass slate call I bought on after season close out for $13.99 at Sportmart 26 years ago with a synthetic and hickory striker along with a pad of emery cloth and scotch brite that has helped me kill 70-75% of my turkeys, a HS Strut paddle call that has the ability to lock the paddle in place and five different mouth calls.
I have never called in a turkey with a paddle call but have used it often to locate them.
I have been using Primos True Double and True Tripple aluminum framed stacked mouth calls with great success using both to locate then call in turkeys for about 10 years now and will not consider hunting without them.
My HS Strut synthetic glass slate call is my A#1 go to call to call Toms in off the roost or once I have used my mouth calls to get a distant Tom gobbling and heading my way to come in the final distance to his demise.
Last year tried a new mouth call by Pimos called Hook Hunter calls and they worked when all my other calls failed on public land Toms.
We turkey hunters today especially novice turkey hunters are far more fortunate then I was because of YouTube a beginner and expert alike can now learn for free to become a very good turkey caller.
But after 31 turkey seasons I hate to brake it to a novice turkey hunters the type of call you use isn't anywhere near as important as understanding what type of call to make given the situation. If you call correctly to roosted Tom and get him facing your way so he will fly down in your direction is MUCH more important then who made the call or what type of call you used to do it.
After YEARS of trying I still can not purr or call as softly with a mouth call as well as I can with my slate so my go to call to roosted Toms is my slate and my slate is my go to call to get a Tom who's hung up at 80 yards to my mouth call to get under 50 yards.
Lastly you will be a much more consistently successful turkey hunter if you spend your time learning turkey behavior and what they do depending on the time of day and season as well as how to set up on a Tom you have heading your way. As an example remaining set up on a roost after fly down instead of switching to sneak/peak run and gun is not a productive strategy, setting up for an incoming gobbler highlighted by the sun is a poor choice VS setting up in the shadows.
