HOW TO CALL TURKEYS LIKE A CHAMPION WITH CHRIS PARRISH

My One and Only

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.

I don't believe any turkey hunter should ever go into the woods with only one type of turkey call. When I go turkey hunting in the spring of the year, I carry a wide variety of calls including friction, box, diaphragm and push buttons. However, if I only could carry one call, I'd choose a Knight and Hale Grand Slam Cutter Diaphragm Call. With this call, I can sound like a variety of turkeys, and I can give all of the calls that the wild turkey gives.

If I only could use one sound to call in a turkey, I'd use a yelp. I believe a simple yelp can bring more than 70% of the turkeys that a hunter calls to in the spring within gun range. If hunters would quit using so many loud, aggressive calls and only use the soft yelp to try and call in turkeys, they'd bag more gobblers every spring. In most areas where turkey hunters hunt, the birds will encounter several hunters each spring. The gobblers hear a lot of loud and very aggressive turkey calling.

I spend an average of 70 days during the spring of the year in the woods turkey hunting. During those 70 days, I'll probably only hear five or six hens calling aggressively. Hens usually only call aggressively for about a week during the spring when both gobblers and hens express their dominance. Turkey seasons occur in most states during the peak of the breeding season. During that time, turkeys call very little. Therefore, when you call aggressively and often, you sound more like a hunter than a turkey. If you yelp sparingly and softly like most hens do most of the time, you'll sound more like a hen, and you'll take more gobblers.

I give out my calls sparingly. If you want to call like a champion turkey caller, listen to the hens when you go into the woods and give the calls that those hens give on that day. Let the turkeys dictate how you call. If you don't hear the hens, start off calling softly, and if the turkey responds and starts coming to the call, you have no reason to call any louder or any more.

TOMORROW: THE EXCEPTION TO THE RULE