One of the things I enjoy about turkey hunting is that there is always something new to try. This year, it's tube calls for me. A while back, into my possession came some cone-shaped black plastic thread spools. They sat on the garage shelf for a long time until one day I dawned on me that these might just make descent tube calls since they looked like miniature megaphones. A trip to the hardware store found a dowel rod that was a tight fit in the small end of the "megaphone". I cut off a portion of the dowel rod and split it in half. Using Shoo Goo (in the shoe string department of your local Walmart) followed by a couple of small wood screws, I fashioned a functional tube call by snipping up a latex rubber glove from a box full that I'd purchased to slip on before gutting a deer, etc. By stretching the latex across the open half-moon just where it would meet the dowel rod, I secured the latex with rubber bands that came with the evening newspaper. After a few trial and error attempts to tune it, I can make descent yelp as per my lessons via YouTube. With the Illinois turkey season opening on April 6th and friends telling me that the gobblers are already strutting, I'll have my tube call, mouth call, gobble tube, and decoys set up in the field they typically go to after fly down. I've hunted turkeys long enough to learn that there are some hens out there that are not very good at yelping, at least as demonstrated via YouTube; however, they are good enough to bring in a gobbler. I'm counting on being in the not-too-good category as I practice my tube calling on unsuspecting gobblers on opening day.
