What type of caller are you?

[trkehunr93]

Thought since we already asked what kind of hunter we are,  was wondering what kind of caller you are?  Do you keep it simple? or do you try to sound like the guys on TV or at the calling contests?  I personally would never win a calling contest, I keep it pretty simple when I'm out there.  Clucks and short two-three note yelps.  Sometimes when I'm trolling I'll throw out some cuttin' on a box call, push-pin or a slate/glass.  How about you guys?

[davisd9]

Like I said in the "What type hunter" discussion that I like to roost birds for the next morning.  When I set up on my roosted bird I wait for him to gobble, I prefer him to gobble a few times, but if he doesn't gobble more or not at all then I wait until it is close to flydown time.  I like to tree yelp to him once to let him know that I am here, hopefully he will gobble to me to let me know.  After I have done that I am quiet until I know he has hit the ground or it is close to time to fly down.  At this time I start a fly down.  I tree yelp softly a couple times and then wait a minute and then cackle and use a wing to sound like a hen flying down.  I wait a minute of two and then I yelp again to get his attention and to let him hone in on my position.  After this I get quite to see how he is acting.  I do not like to call no more than I have to and I let the bird I am working determine my next course of action.  I usually do not cutt until he has been on the ground for a bit and if it seems like it is needed.  I have called in many birds with just a yelp after flydown.

Now if I do not get my roosted bird to come in I try to keep up with him in the day to get him hot once again the hens leave him.  I just call about every 10 minutes of so with some clucks or yelps to see if I can get a birds attention.  If I can get him hot then I will start cutting and get more aggressive but still like to call as little as possible.  Some situations I pull out things that I normally do not use, gobble on the mouth call, fighting purr, or cackle like I am going over a creek not paying him any attention.  I have a ace in the hole call that I go to on a hot bird and if he is going to commit then that is usually when he does or does not. 

[dirt road ninja]

I normally start out fairly subdue and as the day wears on I get more aggressive. If I'm on a bird I tend to stay pretty quite unless he is REALLY cranked up then I'll pour it on him. It's probably better if I wouldn't do that, but I like to have them cut me off. Last year I took a friend of mine who's not a turkey hunter and we got on a bird that was red hot. I would cut, cackle, and yelp as loud as I could and he would hammer back two and three times. I looked over at my buddy more than once and told him I was calling way too much. Five minutes later we were checking out my bird. It was still early, so we tied my bird up in a tree and we went to find him one. We were walking down a logging road to a new area when I spotted a gobbler 150 yards away in a small opening on top a ridge. I softly yelp at him and he spun around and ran right to us never making a sound, my buddy smoked him. Same morning within an hour we had each killed. I must have called at least 50 times at my bird and once at his. I try and let the bird tell me what to do. If there is a loud mouth hen around I will make more noise than her. If the hens are being nice, so will I.
No matter what I try I've never had much luck with gobblers that were roosting with hens. If anyone has, please share your knowledge. I guy told me once that trying to sound like two birds fighting would bring them in, but I'm not sure how to do that and I'm always afraid to try it.

[M,Yingling]

I like to keep it fairly simple also but like stated above ,,As the day wears on i to kind of get aggressive

[JVA54]

  I use a owl to locate with, usually don't call to birds on the roost.
I use my wing and do a fly down and scratch in the leaves. like to start off calling sparingly and see how they will respond. I do like to cutt and some times call to much. Early in the season I yelp, cackle and cutt, after they called to and shot at for four weeks I just use clucks.I killed one of my best birds in Illinois 5th season, this gobbler was roosted in such a little patch of woods I was afraid of spooking him so I wait on the edge for him to fly down, it seem like he gobbled for an hour. When he got on the ground I move into the woods about 30 yd's clucked two times an in ten minutes I was packing him out.