Turkey Final Judge

[gooseberry]

I realize the turkey is the final judge on how well you have mastered a call, but is there some way I can measure my skill before I get into the woods? I guess there's is no teacher like the turkeys themselves.

[WillowRidgeCalls]

There are a couple things you could do to help your calling. 1. Set up a recorder and move away from it about 25 yards and record your calls, then play them back while listening to recordings of real birds and see how close you are? It also helps you hear what your calls sound like, because they all sound different once you get away from them. 2. If your close to a local calling contest, get into it and let the other judges, judge you.

[Gobblerman]

I tell beginning hunters just to master the basics first,...yelps and clucks,...and worry about the rest of the calls later. There are plenty of places to hear basic yelping and clucking,...audio tapes, videos, and TV shows. A hunter that knows what basic turkey yelping sounds like,...and more importantly, knows when to use it, is going to kill more turkeys than the guy who knows all the calls but has no clue as to when to use them. Of course, as you gain more experience in turkey hunting and calling, it is certainly advantageous to learn and master more calls. For the beginner, however,.... just keep it simple.