A True Oldtimers Test

[Turkeybutt]

True Old-timers Test
Back 50/60 years ago or more there wasn't much out there in the way of learning to call turkeys. I remember going turkey hunting in the Fall with some uncles. We never got a turkey and as I look back, I believe it was more or less a way to get out of the house and away from the women.
So, years ago you had options on how you learned to call turkeys.
# 1    Back in the day you had somebody who knew how to call turkeys and would take the time to teach you on how to call turkeys properly.
# 2    You went in the woods listened to turkeys and tried to mimic their sounds. It didn't take long before you alienated yourself from every member in your household, dogs and cats included. I guess for some it was like listening to fingernails on a chalkboard!
# 3   In most cases if you were trying to use a diaphragm call you sounded like a blind bucktooth beaver with a lisp and soon gave up trying to master a mouth call.
# 4    You bought a 45 RMP instruction record and taught yourself.

Who remembers listening to a Smith's Turkey Calling 45 RPM Instruction Record?
I bet if some look hard enough you still have one packed away somewhere.

Do tell.

[guesswho]

We were in the #2 category, and am thankful I grew up in that era.  I can honestly say that anything calling wise, I learned with on the job training.   And most of the people that would call around camp back then, and there wasn't many, didn't sound like what I heard from turkeys.   Same holds true today.

[Paulmyr]

Whew, guess I escaped the Old timers classification. I learned  listening to cassette tapes and turkeys.

[RutnNStrutn]

I'm that old, but no one in my immediate family turkey hunted. So I'm a self taught turkey hunter who didn't start hunting turks until 1990. By then there were commercial calls and instructional VHS tapes.

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[Greg Massey]

I'm going to have to say a little of all 4 of them. I cut my teeth first on a couple of homemade tube calls made from stuff cans and homemade gourd call with a cane  striker. After these calls, i moved up to a homemade turtle shell with a piece of old roofing slate glued into the shell and corncob cedar striker... I still have the old stuff can's and turtle shell and i still have the homemade cane striker for the gourd.. had to carry the gourd call in a piece of PVC pipe to keep from breaking it... I listen mostly to Ben Lee records and tapes...   One of my all time favorites was Ben telling about crossing the fence and the wire made a squealing sound and the gobbler / gobbled from the wire squealing, he could tell some stories....

[Turkeybutt]

Grey I think my first slate call was a Maxwell House coffee lid. I used an old roofing slate glued to the lid which I punched holes in for better sound

[Greg Massey]

Grey I think my first slate call was a Maxwell House coffee lid. I used an old roofing slate glued to the lid which I punched holes in for better sound

Agree back in the early days we had to make most of our calls.. we didn't have these retail stores carry calls and back in those early years most small Sporting Good Stores didn't carry anything related to calls etc... You could find a few homemade duck calls ...

[Old Timer]

I started out reading everything I could find on turkeys and how to hunt them. Could not call worth a darn. Got me a Lynch box and a couple mouth calls and I believe a Dick Kirby cassette tape. I met an older fella one day ay the archery range. We hit it off and he took me under his wing. But besides that I winged it myself. I would stop in diners and coffee shop trying to meet hunters with more experience and sometimes it payed off with tidbits of info. I worked a bird one morning unable to close the deal. Back in them days if you met a turkey hunter you would recognize him again if you came across him. That`s what happened that day on my way out. I told him the story and 15 minutes later he killed that bird. Congrats to him.
Took me 5 years to kill my first gobbler. Still trying and it never gets old. Good luck and God speed to all of you.

[mspaci]

My father-in-law got me started & it took off from there, learned as I went along from the birds & a few hunters I came across along the way. Mike

[Ranman]

HS Strut VHS tapes for me, and mimicking real hens. Called in a couple birds my first season, but it took me another season to finish the job. Learned the hard way that they can see even the slightest movements.

[bobk]

Roger Latham 33 1/3  Instructional  Record. Truly a little Turkey hunting history from my teenage years.

[Turkeyman]

Well, I don't quite fit into the 50/60 year category...only 46!  Started spring 1976. But there wasn't much available back then. So I guess I'd be a modified #2 category. Bought a Lynch 101 box and a Lynch slate. Went into the woods, found some turkeys and listened and learned.

[randy6471]

 Definitely a combination of 1,2 & 4. It was the mid 70's when I was old enough to start hunting both deer and turkeys with my dad and my uncle. Unfortunately, they worked alot and we only got out a couple times for turkeys in both spring and fall seasons.

After a couple years with limited success, I bought a Roger Latham box call, a Ben Lee single reed diaphragm call and a Ben Lee 45 record to learn how to call. Plus, I was fortunate to live in an area with an abundance of turkeys and places to hunt, so I spent alot of time in the woods listening, watching and learning. Of course calling is only a small part of what it takes to be successful, but back then we fall turkey hunted alot, which I think helped speed up the learning curve for spring gobbler sucess.

[Zobo]

This is an interesting question because I can't for the life of me remember how I initially learned to run a box call. I know that was the first call I used for sure. I know I had a tape of duck call sounds that I used to get better at that. I guess someone showed me how to run the box. One thing's for sure, it wasn't from the internet 

[barry]

True Old-timers Test
# 1    Back in the day you had somebody who knew how to call turkeys and would take the time to teach you on how to call turkeys properly.
I learned on my own by listening to my pet ''wild' turkeys
# 3   In most cases if you were trying to use a diaphragm call you sounded like a blind bucktooth beaver with a lisp and soon gave up trying to master a mouth call.
I used my natural voice to imitate my pet turkeys and that was my call my first 17 years of hunting
# 4    You bought a 45 RMP instruction record and taught yourself.
I did have a 45 RPM but I thought mine was from Ben Lee