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.
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