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John's Journal... Entry 186, Day 1

COMPETITION CALLING VERSUS CALLING DURING A HUNT

Tree Call

EDITOR'S NOTE: Chris Parrish of Centralia, Missouri, has entered turkey-calling contests for 19 years and has hunted wild turkeys for 24 years. The winner of five Grand National Turkey Calling Championships, four World Turkey Calling Championships, two Mid-American Turkey Calling Championships, the U.S Open, 10 Missouri State Championships, two Illinois State Championships and many regional titles, Parrish won the 2002 Mossy Oak/World Turkey Calling Championship.

QUESTION: Chris, what is the difference between competition calling and calling for a regular day of hunting?
ANSWER: When you're competition calling, you're actually calling to the judges, and they're listening for mistakes. In a contest, you can't make any mistakes in your calling, your rhythm or your cadence. However, in the woods, hen turkeys make mistakes all the time. To win a turkey-calling contest, you must have a flawless performance. But if you listen to turkeys in the woods, you know that rarely will a hen turkey deliver a flawless set of calls. When I'm hunting, I'll often put mistakes in my calling sequence to sound more like a real turkey. Here's a look at how the calls differ from when you give them in competition and how you modify them when you hunt turkeys.

THE TREE CALL

Competition Calling: When I give this call in a contest, I want to give soft, subtle, monitone yelps with some watery-sounding clucks that sound like a hen sitting on a limb talking before daylight. During a Hunt Calling: I've noticed that there are multiple variations of what a hen does when she's sitting on a limb talking before daylight. She'll ...

* give soft clucks,
* yelp as loud as she will when she's standing on the ground,
* cluck and purr,
* cut and
* give many of the same sounds that hens make after they fly down. When I give a tree call while hunting, I'll either yelp or cluck excitedly and softly. All I want to do while hunting is to let the gobbler know I'm a hen turkey and let him decide where I'm located. I may sound like two or three different hens and give a couple of various forms of tree calls when I'm hunting. I'll even change calls to sound like more than one turkey sitting on a limb.

TOMORROW: CLUCKING AND YELPING

 

 

Check back each day this week for more about COMPETITION CALLING VERSUS CALLING DURING A HUNT ...

Day 1 - Tree Call
Day 2 - Clucking and Yelping
Day 3 - Cutting
Day 4 - Cluck and Purr and the Assembly Call
Day 5 - Parrish's Favorite Call


John's Journal