Something new to try!

[Fan Club]

And the Elite Guard makes another appearance as they continue to patrol the forum. You snobs are unbelievable...
 
[8|]
 
The poor guy can't even be proud of his ingenuity without being chastised, even if the thread and idea aren't new.
 
Silvestris, you're always ready to pounce but now you have a partner.
TC, I appreciate your sense of humor but I believe you hunt turkeys with dogs and shoot hens and not everyone finds that acceptable. Some find it downright appalling. Please think about that next time before you criticize and join William in invalidating someone else's hunting methods or ideas.
 
 

[silvestris]

Fan Club, if you had been around thirty years ago or if you were, had you been paying attention, you would know that the wingbone/surgical tubing/cow horn caller was touted way back then, and to my knowledge, has not been touted since, usually a dead give away that it didn't work as planned.

As for me and TC, I have never met TC, although I have talked to him on the telephone a total of three times all in the last ten years.  I do know who he is; I am aware of his turkey call manufacturing abilities; I am aware of his proficiency in the turkey woods and I have a great deal of respect for him and his hunting methods.

As for fall hunting, I have never participated as the areas I hunt do not have a fall season.  I do know that there is probably more "ancient" history concerning fall hunting than spring hunting.  I remember early reading by Kit Shaffer concerning the hunting of turkeys with dogs.  I later read Henry Davis write about the same.  I found the reading fascinating.  I would love to make one fall hunt with a dog before I die.  As for the hens, I trust the game departments to protect the killing of an excessive number of hens by fall hunters and restrict or eliminate the practice as the resource dictates.

I suppose that in all endeavors there will always be people like TC and myself who have been around the horn and who strongly protest when the rules of the game are violated.  I had a high school football coach who would pick me up by the helmet and throw me to the ground when I would violate any of the football techniques he had taught me.  I loved him to the day he died and I was a better player because of his coaching methods.  I had a turkey hunter mentor who would make me feel about two inches tall when I would break a stick as we were walking through the woods, whether we had heard a turkey or not.  I learned from him and I thank him.

There are many on this forum and others who would be much better turkey hunters if their skin were not so thin.  There are those out there who can teach them if only they would listen.

Those turkey techniques that work well will never disappear;  those that work too well, such as decoys, should.

[trkyklr]

hey silvestris & TC,keep talkin fellers cuz i'm listenin'   

[greyghost]

Fan Club, I was the one that sent TC the Turkey Scent photo and asked him to post it since I cannot get pictures to post. It was met as a roost as to show the different gimics that have been around in time, i.e. dog whistle, along with the advent of not so much decoys but now mecanical decoys (we beat that dead horse enough).

No one is chastising SWPATRKHNTR. Just like you said a lot of folks are very critical of using dogs, shooting hens, etc. something that a lot of us on here have a long and deep seeded passion for. We do not get upset that others think that way when they criticize us.

Shoot, I would love to see them do away with a spring season and just make it a fall season, although I have grown to like the spring. That will never happen since the manufacturers gear all or 98% of advertizing and products towards spring hunting, thats were the money is.

Silvestris said it all very well. Although I will elaborate on one point and that is the cow horn, tubing and wingbone. No one is really sure of the origin of the call but it seems its main roots were here in Virginia somewhere. I used one up to about 4 years ago with very good success. A friend of mine broke it but as luck would have it a gentleman by the name of Silvester Kyle who made it for me in 1983 lives not far from me. After talking with him and due to age and illness he no longer makes them. (One of the few that ever did). Although he said if I could find a horn, but has got to be only the black and white one that he has surgical tubing and wing bones. Well as luck would have it again a great gentlemen near my home town in PA had 2 horns that Kyle had fasioned back in the days. After aquiring one of the horns I took it to Mr. Kyle, he got a tube and 2 bags full of hen wing bones and for the next four hours went through about 50 or so wingbones and cut the tubing to length and used a  broken glass mason jar to tune the horn.

As sivestris pointed out that it did not work as planned I believe folks like Kyle and Kit Schaffer and others back then never said much about it but was one of their favorite calls. Although when some started just throwing together cow horns, tubing and wingbone for sale and not take the time to tune the horn, tubing and wingbone such as Mr. Kyle and a couple others had, it did die off for the simple reason those produced quickly were junk. But with the right artist/callmaker making one, it can be a very effective and deadly call in the hands of a good caller.

Anyway I hope folks keep trying to invent new products and ways to fool the wily turkey, but its the turkey that usally has the last laugh.

Earl

[silvestris]

Thanks for the history, Earl.  But tell me, (excuse my ignorance) how is the broken Mason Jar used in tuning the call?

[silvestris]

Gotcha.

[greyghost]

ORIGINAL: TurkeyComander

The broken glass is used to scrape the horn down to make it thinner giving it a better tone.

 
Thats right, what TC said.[:D] 
 
Earl 

[greyghost]

Whats so hard not to believe. [;)] But thats good, maybe we should not have left the cat out of the bag or scent out of the bottle. [:D]
 
Earl

[Morgan]

Dadgum TC...[:o]....Had my heart beating fast just thinkin about it....I would hate to hear about somebody gettin mOlested by a spring turkey.....[:D]
 
Earl Thanks for the history lesson....I had seen pictures of em....Silvestris thanks for bringing up Mr. Kit...he was one of my favorites in the late 70's....

[Fan Club]

Silvestris, TurkeyCommander, GreyGhost-
 
Now we're getting somewhere. That's the longest post you've ever made on this forum Silvestris, and gives some rare glimps into your past and what you have to share. Aside from yet another dig, (>had you bothered to pay attention<) I will point out that thirty years ago turkey hunting was in it's infancy in my home state of Michigan. In 1979, less than 9,000 permits were issued statewide by lottery with only a 7% success rate. There were no turkeys in the southern half of the state where I live, The few we had were all "up north" where they were released. My father started going to Missouri to hunt turkeys in the late 1980s and I went for the first time in 1994.
 
Where those in the south have had the privilege of hunting turkeys their entire lives, the rest of the country, and most on this forum, are trying to catch up. Forgive them if they are just discovering notions that failed in your area thirty or forty years ago.
 
> There are those out there who can teach them if only they would listen. <

Of that I am certain. The exchange of old school information in this thread proves it. But one line barbs and snickers are not successful teaching methods. You southern gents have a lot to offer; the history lessons and accompanying humor are appreciated. But it has less to with listening and thin skins and is more about your tolerance for novices and willingness to share your heritage and knowledge.
 
I am a true student of the sport. I've met Col. Kelly and he was gracious enough to autograph my copy of "Tenth Legion". I have met and corresponded with Dr. Jim Casada, acknowledged to be the foremost historian on turkey hunting and it's related literature. I, and many others, are now looking forward to what you have to share sans the sarcasm.
 
regards,
 
Jeff