HOW TO CALL TURKEYS LIKE A CHAMPION WITH CHRIS PARRISH

He's Off The Roost, Now What?

EDITOR'S NOTE: Chris Parrish of Centralia, Missouri, a wild turkey hunter for 24 years and the winner of five Grand National Turkey Calling Championships, two Mid-American Turkey Calling Championships, the U.S. Open and numerous regional and state titles, won the 2002 Mossy Oak/World Turkey Calling Championship.

QUESTION: The turkey has flown down off the roost. Now what do I do?
ANSWER: If you didn't find the turkey until after he came off the roost, or you couldn't get close enough for him to pitch off the roost and land right in front of you, don't rush in trying to get close to the turkey when it gobbles from the ground.

I'll sit and listen to the turkey for a few minutes. Then, I'll try and make the bird gobble to a crow call, owl call or a coyote howler before I decide to go after him. I want to know if the turkey is standing in one place gobbling, or if he is moving in one direction. If that turkey is moving, I won't go straight to him. Instead, I'll get in front of the tom allowing him to walk to me. When the turkey stands in one spot and gobbles, more than likely a group of hens accompany him. In that case, I may go toward the turkey and try to get in close enough to observe him and the hens before I ever start calling.

If a gobbler holds in one place with a flock of hens, usually he'll gobble to get a hen to stop and let him breed her. After he breeds the hen, he'll gobble again to try and get another hen to stop so he can breed her.

Sometimes the turkey will gobble and move toward a strut zone where he expects to meet his hens. When you hear a turkey on the ground gobbling before you call to him, try and determine the turkey's action. Once you know the gobbler's intentions, you can set up your game plan to take him. If the turkey is traveling, get in front of him where he'll likely walk right to you whether you call or not.

Now a traveling turkey doesn't like loud or aggressive calls. Turkeys on the move know where they want to go and what they want to do when they get there. I try to call soft and subtle to him in the beginning. If the turkey comes to me when I just cluck and purr, then I won't do any other calling. If I have to get aggressive and start cutting and cackling, I can. If you start cutting, cackling and calling loudly, using soft calls afterward usually won't work. I always want to hold some calls back in case the calls I use don't work. If a gobbler responds to soft clucks and yelps, I'll only use that call. I act very stingy with my calls. I don't want to call anymore than absolutely required to get a gobbler to come to me.

If I see that a gobbler has hens, I'll call with very soft yelps and clucks to see if I can get a hen to answer me. If a hen answers aggressively with cutting or loud yelping, I'll answer her with similar calls. I'll try to get her to pull the flock with the gobbler to me. You'll read about this standard turkey-hunting procedure in all turkey magazines. However, I've observed that when I start calling aggressively to the hen, she'll take the flock away from me instead of bringing it to me. Many times I've learned that if I call softly to the flock, the hens may just cluck and purr back to me. Oftentimes, soft calling will get the flock to feed toward you.

I try and match my calling to the calling I hear the hens doing. If the hens don't get aggressive with you, instead of sounding like one hen, use different types of calls to sound like several hens clucking, purring, soft yelping and feeding in the leaves. I'll often try and sound like four or five different turkey hens all feeding just away from the main flock. Often after I've given enough different calls to sound like four or five hens feeding away from the main flock, I'll give some coarse jake yelps. I've seen those jake yelps cause an old gobbler to leave his flock of hens to come over to another flock and try and run the jake off. To sound like a flock of hens, you need to have a wide variety of calls.

I'll usually always have a Knight and Hale Grand Slam Cutter as my diaphragm call. I'll also have a Knight and Hale Ol' Yelper Box Call, and I'll have a Knight and Hale Ultimate Slate and Knight and Hale Ol' Yelper Friction Calls so that I can change calls and sound like different turkeys. When you deal with a gobbler who has hens with him, I've learned that sounding like multiple hens seems to get the gobbler's attention better than when you sound like only one hen. Then, when you throw that coarse jake yelp into the mix of calls that you give, sometimes that old gobbler will break out of the flock and come to you.

TOMORROW: YOU'RE MISSING THE BOAT