John's Journal...

Matt Morrett Explains His Secrets to Taking More Tom Turkeys

Day 5: Matt Morrett Tells How to Make Turkey Calling Easy

Editor’s Note: Matt Morrett of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, a professional hunter and a member of Hunter’s Specialties’ Pro Hunt Team, has won the World Friction Championship five times, the Grand National Championship once and the U.S. Open Turkey Calling Championship seven times. I had the privilege of interviewing Morrett for the first time immediately after he won his first World Championship at the age of 17. He’s constantly learned more about hunting turkeys and hunts them all over the United States.

Click for Larger ViewQuestion: Matt, why did you start using friction calls?

Click for Larger ViewMorrett: Turkey calling was really hot during the 1980s, when everyone believed that the only way to call-in a turkey was with a mouth diaphragm. The mouth diaphragm was a very-popular call at that time, and it took some practice to learn how to blow one. I learned when I was a child that you don’t have to do anything to a friction call to make it sound like a turkey. You don’t have to meter the air over the reed, put the call in your mouth or do anything that makes turkey calling difficult. Friction calls were an easy way for me to sound like a turkey. As a turkey hunter, I wanted the easiest way to call-in a turkey to me. With a friction call, the sound is already in the call. So, all you have to do is move the paddle of the box or the striker of a slate or a glass call to produce the sound of a wild turkey. I’ve called-in more turkeys with a friction call than I have with a diaphragm call. Hunters who don’t have a lot of time to practice calling turkeys, with 5-minutes worth of instruction, can take a Hunter’s Specialties’ box or slate call or the Ring Zone Slate Call out into the woods and sound like a turkey.

Question: If you wanted to enable a beginning turkey hunter to go out into the woods and quickly and easily call-in a turkey, what’s the first call you’d put in his hands?

Click for Larger ViewMorrett: I’d suggest the Hunter’s Specialties’ Ring Zone Slate Call, because it’s very forgiving, and even when you make a mistake, you’ll still sound like a turkey. As I’ve said, I can take anyone, and within 5 minutes of putting that Ring Zone Slate Call in their hands, have them calling-in turkeys.

Question: What’s the easiest call to use to bring-in a wild gobbler?

Click for Larger ViewMorrett: Sometimes I think we’ve over-complicated turkey calling. If a hunter learns to make a basic hen yelp, whether he uses a three-note or a 20-note yelp, he can lure-in a wild turkey gobbler. Hens yelp all the time. Once you learn the basic hen yelp, you can give a soft yelp to sound like a tree call. You can call loudly, aggressively and excitedly with a series of yelps and get an old gobbler fired-up and talking and walking. If a hunter learns how to make the yelp of the wild turkey hen, he can go anywhere in this country and call-up turkeys.

 

 

Learn more about hunting turkeys from some of the top turkey hunters in the country, including Matt Morrett. Get your copy of the Kindle eBook, “PhD Gobblers” by John E. Phillips by clicking here. Amazon Prime members can receive the book free for 5 days.

 

 

 

 


Check back each day this week for more about "Matt Morrett Explains His Secrets to Taking More Tom Turkeys "

Day 1: Matt Morrett Gives You Some of His Top Strategies to Help You Take Turkeys
Day 2: Matt Morrett Names the Toughest Turkey Hunting Problem to Solve
Day 3: Learn Matt Morrett’s Ultimate Calling Secret to Bring-In Turkeys
Day 4: Matt Morrett Tells How to Hunt High-Pressured Turkeys
Day 5: Matt Morrett Tells How to Make Turkey Calling Easy

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Entry 657, Day 5