Question for trumpet users

[barry]

Why do you use a trumpet or what attracted you to learn how to use one?

What is it about the calls from a trumpet that get a toms interest when other calls won't?

Do you find that you make softer calls with a trumpet than you would with your other calls?

Do you ever find the need to crank down on a trumpet to fire a bird up?

Thanks in advance for your answers.
I'm just an old turkey huntin' dog trying to learn new turkey callin' tricks!

[savduck]

Barry, I hunted with some old school hunters coming up and they had them, but I don't think anything about it. I started huning with Jbrown and Nitro again both old school guys. I started to get interested again. After I bought my first one, I just loved playing them. To me, they make a style of yelp that is all turkey, but no other call can duplicate. Turkeys like them

Yes ou can play soft and you can gt own on them. I'm not sure why turkeys like them, but they do. I think sound travels further from one due to the design. I can tell you I won't to the woods without one ever again.

[paboxcall]

I heard someone run one once, and the trumpet really intrigued me.  It sounded unlike anything else I had heard.  I friend made a wingbone for me few years back, and I found it would strike turkeys when everything else in the vest wasn't.  The first time a bird gobbled at that wingbone after trying every call I had stuffed in the vest without success, that experience hooked me for good on suction yelpers.  When I run a trumpet for someone they all seem to have the same reaction to the sound.  Its unlike a box, mouth call or slate call.

What draws me to the trumpet is the precision of the internals and overall consistency in sound that the good callmakers achieve.  I also enjoy the connection to the past, the history of the call.  Look at what Ralph Permar does with his series of trumpets that were commonly used over the past century, the research and craftsmanship is stunning.

Permar and Hegler are my two go-to trumpets and like Del, I will never go into the woods without one. 

[wvcurlytop]

The first one I saw was one my uncle made and used back in the 80's.  He made me one and we practiced and I'm fairly good with it, but far from competition ready.  I wanted to use them because of my uncle.
I never gave it any thought about using something rare, but once you start talking to other turkey hunters they will give me wierd looks when I tell them I use one.  I just thought everyone used them. 

My personal opinion, I think a trumpet style call just sounds different from what the turkeys are used to hearing, and maybe this has something to do with their effectiveness.  The fact that they sound really good and like a turkey helps too, DA!!  Don't underestimate a trumpet, just because they aren't being used on the calling circuits means nothing.  I carry a couple everyday, and use them everyday.  Especially when running and gunning.  I'll do some cutting and excited yelping trying to get one to answer, and it works often enough I'm still using one. 

Softer calls, I don't but that is just me.  I do have one made of bamboo with a turkey bone mouth piece that is pretty mellow and softer calling but I can call far softer with a slate call, and even with most mouth calls.  Perhaps it is just me.  I guess a lot of it depends on what you consider soft.  To me, a slate call can call softer and still maintain that turkey sound better than a wingbone or trumpet. 

I've gotten pretty aggressive with my wingbone and had it work like a charm.  Excited cutting and yelping with it works well if the gobbler likes it too.  But it's just like any other call to an extent, it all depends on what the gobbler wants to hear.  I for the most part do not get real aggressive with gobblers unless he is some place where I cannot hunt, and he's hot, and then what do I have to lose?  Let'em rip and who knows, he may come your way.  It's worked enough for me to try..

I hope I've helped you some.  I use trumpet calls that I make myself, or my buddy makes out of turkey wingbones, or piece of the turkey bones.  I've found hen's bones give me the best sounding call, while my buddy seems to prefer jakes.  We ask the local hunters around our area during the fall turkey season and they save us their wings of any turkeys they kill.  We clean them and make our own. 
My favorite wingbone is one my uncle made from a jenny hen.  It is one sweet sounding call, but I've hung it up since my uncle died.  I'm afraid I'll fall on it or lose it.  My favorite one now is one my buddy made, and it has a turkey bone mouthpiece, a turkey bone trumpet and a 410 shotshell in the middle.  I've got a couple made from bamboo that are sweet little callers, and they are much more mellow in tone than one made out of bones.  They don't carry as well, but on a windless day I generally use them while running and gunning.  We're constantly trying different materials while making them, but the wingbone mouthpiece pretty much stays the same.  What the middle and trumpet is made out of really makes a difference in the sound quality of the call.  Maybe one day I'll build the perfect one, until then, I'll keep messing around making them.  We have a ball doing it.  Good luck if you try them..  My last piece of advice is wingbones, or trumpet calls are wonderful calls, but you shouldn't rely on them soley as sooner or later there comes a time when you have to put the call down, get the gun up and get ready.  You still need a mouth call, or your natural voice sometimes to close the deal.  Learn to use a trumpet call with a mouthcall in your mouth at the same time.  It is harder than you think to call with the trumpet while holding that mouth call in your jaw, but once you get it down you'll appreciate it when you need to seal the deal..

[TN Beard Buster]

My personal view on them is that some of the places I hunt are heavily pressured and when everyone else is blowing raspy 3 reeds and loud calling on a slate or box, I can play a trumpet or wingbone and the birds respond to it. Not everyone in my area uses them so the birds ain't used to it.

[CallDr]

I'll make this short and maybe it will help. The wing bone caller is most likely the oldest. It has worked for a 150 to 200 years? and so the "reaction" it has on turkeys is pretty much an established fact. A Trumpet is just a refined wing bone or "suction caller".

What makes the "sounds" is your lips at the tip of the mouth piece and magnified ( or modulated ) through the instrument ( be it soft or loud ) . It's not rubber or slate, wood or how other calls make noise. So...... it's different... and as noted...  a proven killer for many generations and to date.

The question is normally if they are so deadly why are there not more hunters using them. The biggest reason is mass produced call companies stopped offering them. Then we live in a time where people want calls that are easy to run or use. They either don't want to take the time or are satisfied with what they are using.

Trumpets have become "more popular" because of forums like this. People are slaying turkeys with them and are amazed that they are a deadly tool to have. I am one of the few game call companies who does offer a trumpet to the public. ( WildTalker is not a Custom Call company or business ) Since I own my own company and use one myself...... it stands to reason why I offer one.