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John's Journal... Entry 186, Day 2

COMPETITION CALLING VERSUS CALLING DURING A HUNT

Clucking and Yelping

EDITOR'S NOTE: Chris Parrish of Centralia, Missouri, has entered turkey-calling contests for 19 years and has hunted wild turkeys for 24 years. The winner of five Grand National Turkey Calling Championships, four World Turkey Calling Championships, two Mid-American Turkey Calling Championships, the U.S Open, 10 Missouri State Championships, two Illinois State Championships and many regional titles, Parrish won the 2002 Mossy Oak/World Turkey Calling Championship.

QUESTION: Tell me about clucking and yelping.
ANSWER: Most callers define clucking and yelping as excited hen yelps. I'll also mix in some cutting when I'm calling to the judges because this is a very exciting, fun call. This type of calling is usually given by the dominant hen in an area, especially when another hen comes into her region.

QUESTION: How do you use this call in a contest?
ANSWER: For my contest series of calls, I'll start off with some excited yelps. Then I'll begin to cut and finish the call off with more excited yelps. During my cutting sequence, I may stutter step from cutting to yelping to break up the rhythm and make the calls sound very exciting. I'm trying to sound like a very excited hen that's aggressively trying to tell another hen not to come into her section of the woods.

QUESTION: How is this call different when you are just out in the woods?
ANSWER: I'll use this same, identical call when I'm hunting, but I'll change the tone and the pitch of the call so that I sound like more than one excited hen. One of the tactics I'll use is to cut, yelp and throw the call so that I sound like one hen coming from one direction and a second hen that's excited right where I'm sitting. I want to paint a picture in that gobbler's mind that two excited hens are coming in to the same spot, and he's going to have the opportunity to breed two hens instead of one if he comes in to where he hears all this calling. I believe that when you're in the woods, if you can sound like multiple turkeys instead of a single turkey, you can create more excitement in the mind of the gobbler. You also have a better chance of pulling him in to your gun sights.

QUESTION: How about the fly-down cackle? How do you use that in competition?
ANSWER: I'll begin my series with some real soft clucks (putts). Next I'll make putts some what louder and faster. Then I'll cause my putts to explode -- coming real fast and real loud in an attempt to sound like a hen that's waking up, putting and cackling as she flies off the limb. Finally I'll start to soften my calls, giving very soft clucks as though the hen has landed, is stretching her wings and clucking real softly.

QUESTION: What about when you are in the woods?
ANSWER: If I give this call in the woods, I'll give it much like I do in competition. However, I rarely use this call when I'm hunting in the spring because rarely do you hear hens cackling at that time. And I try and match my calling I do when I'm hunting to what I hear the hens doing when I'm in the woods with them. Since I spend about 150 hours in the fall bow hunting deer and turkey hunting, I realize I hear more hens cackle then than I do in the spring. I think one of the reasons that the hens cackle more in the fall is because they have their poults with them. When she flies down off the limb, I think the hen cackles to encourage the poults to fly-down with her. The only time I'll use a fly-down cackle in the spring of the year is when I know a gobbler is roosting with a group of hens all around him. Then I'll give the fly-down cackle early in the morning to make the gobbler think that I'm the first hen to hit the ground. If I don't hear hens close to the roosted gobbler, I won't cackle.

TOMORROW: CUTTING

 

 

Check back each day this week for more about COMPETITION CALLING VERSUS CALLING DURING A HUNT ...

Day 1 - Tree Call
Day 2 - Clucking and Yelping
Day 3 - Cutting
Day 4 - Cluck and Purr and the Assembly Call
Day 5 - Parrish's Favorite Call


John's Journal