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John's Journal... Entry 186, Day 5

COMPETITION CALLING VERSUS CALLING DURING A HUNT

Parrish's Favorite 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: All right, Chris, you've told us about a lot of calls. What is your favorite one to use in competition?
ANSWER: My favorite call in competition is usually the call I feel I'm doing the best that day. As a general rule, I feel like my strongest competition call is clucking and purring. I usually don't make any mistakes when I'm clucking and purring and have a lot of confidence in my ability to give this call correctly. I usually score high when I cluck and purr in competition.

QUESTION: What is your favorite call to use for a day of turkey hunting with your friends?
ANSWER: When I'm hunting for turkeys the call I use the most is soft yelping. I've noticed over the years, the call I hear the most hens giving is a soft yelp. I may introduce some soft clucks into a series of soft yelps. I think, if you are going to take a turkey, you have to sound like a turkey. The number one sound that I hear in the springwoods anywhere in the country at any time during the spring is soft yelps. The real secret to successful turkey hunting in the spring is to listen to the hens in the area you are hunting. If you are in an area and hear hens calling very aggressively then you need to call aggressively. If you only hear the hens yelping softly then soft yelping is the call you need to give.

QUESTION: What is your favorite calling device?
ANSWER: My favorite diaphragm call is the Knight and Hale Grand Slam Cutter. The reeds on this call are set slightly back in the frame. The first reed is fairly close to the second reed. The cutter cut has a little pigtail on the back of it, which produces a little deeper bossier rasp than you find in most diaphragm calls. I can also control the sounds this call produces much easier than I can other diaphragm calls. This call allows me to call very soft or very loud. I can call low pitched or high pitched with this call. And with this one call I can make all of the calls that I feel like I have to make in competition or in the woods. This is primarily my competition call. Now when I go into the woods I will take this call; but I will also take a multitude of calls with me. When I go into he woods to hunt a turkey, I look like a call salesman. I carry a wide variety of types of turkey calls because some days some gobblers will respond to one specific type of call better than they will others.

QUESTION: So what particular calling devices do you take into the woods?
ANSWER: When I go into the woods I carry the Knight and Hale Ultimate Slate and the Knight and Hale Ol' Yeller, which is made of SLA-TEK. I'll have the Knight and Hale Ol' Yelper Box Call. I'll also carry four or five different types of diaphragm calls. Some will be very high pitched and clear while others will be very low pitched and raspy. I'll carry a push button box call and any other type of call that I think a gobbler may answer.

QUESTION: Why do you have to be so particular about which all or which device to use?
ANSWER: Calling to an individual gobbler is much like selling shoes. One size doesn't fit all. So not only do you have to give the turkey the call he wants to hear on the day he wants to hear it, you have got to produce a call from the type of call he wants to hear having that sound coming from the call. I've seen days when a turkey didn't want to answer to anything but a box call, other days when he would only answer a diaphragm, and some days when nothing but a push button call would work. When I go hunting for turkeys, I want to make sure I carry enough different calls so I can produce the sound for whatever the bird wants to hear on that particular day.

 

 

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