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Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt Foundations podcast, your guide

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Speaker 1: to the fundamentals of better deer hunting, presented by first Light,

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Speaker 1: creating proven versatile hunting apparel for the stand, saddle or blind.

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Speaker 1: First Light, Go Farther, Stay Longer, and now your host

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Speaker 1: Tony Peterson.

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Speaker 2: Hey everyone, welcome to the Wired to Hunt Foundation's podcast,

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Speaker 2: which is brought to you by first Light. I'm your host,

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Speaker 2: Tony Peterson, and today's episode is all about becoming a

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Speaker 2: better turkey caller. Look, it's still turkey Week here at

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Speaker 2: met Eater, which is why you're getting all these bonus episodes.

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Speaker 2: If you haven't heard, we are having another turkey calling

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Speaker 2: contest and I think you guys know who should probably win.

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Speaker 2: I mean, I don't think anyone on this staff has

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Speaker 2: ever even bo killed a turkey besides me, let alone

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Speaker 2: having I don't know, three quarters of a public land

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Speaker 2: diy Jake slam with a bow. Anyway, head on over

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Speaker 2: to the media and vote for me so we can

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Speaker 2: at least prove to Mediator that some of the audience

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Speaker 2: cares about actual hunting skills and not just how many

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Speaker 2: social media posts we make a day. And while you're there,

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Speaker 2: you might want to take a look at some of

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Speaker 2: our gear, including the turkey calls that Phelps mikes. After all,

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Speaker 2: this episode is probably gonna get you to want to

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Speaker 2: try to level up your turkey calling game, so I'm

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Speaker 2: gonna talk about that right now. I definitely wouldn't say

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Speaker 2: that I'm a guitar geek because I'm not. I don't

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Speaker 2: buy new guitars very often, and when I do, I

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Speaker 2: tend to give away my old ones. It's not hard

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Speaker 2: to find someone who has an interest in playing guitar,

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Speaker 2: and I think it's the kind of gift that I

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Speaker 2: don't know, you should just give to somebody because there's

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Speaker 2: an off chance they might catch the bug and it'll

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Speaker 2: change their life for the better.

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Speaker 1: Now.

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Speaker 2: I do really like guitars, though, acoustics and electrics, and

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Speaker 2: acoustics with an electric pickup, and I've even briefly had

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Speaker 2: in my possession a few bass guitars. But playing bass

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Speaker 2: guitar to me is like, I don't know, intentionally fishing

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Speaker 2: for walleyes in a lake that is full of small

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Speaker 2: mouth bass. I'm sure people can justify that, and they

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Speaker 2: might have very good reasons, but for me, those reasons

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Speaker 2: will never quite make sense I don't have enough money, interest, or,

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Speaker 2: if I'm being brutally honest, skill to go really deep

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Speaker 2: on owning a bunch of different guitars. At most I

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Speaker 2: might have four or five total in my possession at

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Speaker 2: any time, but that's about it now. I do follow

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Speaker 2: a fair amount of guitar subs on some sites and

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Speaker 2: sort of pay attention to the people who are really

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Speaker 2: really obsessed with buying new instruments or seeking out the

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Speaker 2: right model in the right color of guitar that hasn't

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Speaker 2: been in production for a few decades because of one

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Speaker 2: reason or another. A common theme that I see from

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Speaker 2: some of those folks is that while they are all

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Speaker 2: musicians to some capacity, there is a subset of that

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Speaker 2: group that seems to think buying the right acts will

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Speaker 2: make them a much much better player. Some instruments are

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Speaker 2: a hell of a lot more forgiving, and depending on

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Speaker 2: your personal style, definitely might offer up some advantages. But

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Speaker 2: you won't be Jimmy Hendrix just because you play the

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Speaker 2: same guitar heat played. It doesn't work that way. In fact,

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Speaker 2: if you watch someone who is really good, they can

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Speaker 2: do an awful lot with a really mediocre guitar because

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Speaker 2: they have the skill. Then if you watch someone who

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Speaker 2: has that skill and they end up with a high

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Speaker 2: end instrument that gives them that tone and allows them

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Speaker 2: to play to their full potential, it's literally a thing

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Speaker 2: of beauty. It's art. Now, like so many things in life,

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Speaker 2: you can buy something that might make you slightly better,

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Speaker 2: but you have to use it correctly and really work

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Speaker 2: on understanding how to use it to make it really matter.

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Speaker 2: You can probably tell where I'm going with this. Every year,

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Speaker 2: call makers, including Jason and the whole crew at Phelps

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Speaker 2: there they come up with new turkey calls. No, maybe

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Speaker 2: it's a mouth call with some kind of different cut

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Speaker 2: on the read. Maybe it's a pot call with some

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Speaker 2: kind of special surface or holes drilled in specific spots

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Speaker 2: to really amplify the acoustics of the whole thing. All

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Speaker 2: across the turkey hunting industry, this happens every year, and

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Speaker 2: every year turkey hunters buy new calls and mostly don't

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Speaker 2: become much better at turkey calling. The issue here is

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Speaker 2: that you don't have to be very good to kill turkeys,

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Speaker 2: but you do have to be pretty good to kill

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Speaker 2: a lot of pressure turkeys. And how do you get

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Speaker 2: better at turkey calling. I'll tell you, listen to real

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Speaker 2: turkeys and then practice a lot. I know that's not revolutionary,

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Speaker 2: but so many people get this wrong. Last year, I

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Speaker 2: sat in a blind with my daughters while my buddy

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Speaker 2: sat in a blind with his daughter across the field. Now,

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Speaker 2: we were pretty far apart, but could hear each other

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Speaker 2: call because there was nothing between us but a chisel

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Speaker 2: plowed cornfield. Now, I managed to call in a couple

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Speaker 2: of jakes that I first saw like five hundred yards away,

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Speaker 2: which is something I've only watched happen a couple of times.

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Speaker 2: The other time was a jake on a ridge in

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Speaker 2: South Dakota that flew to my spread from so far

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Speaker 2: away that the tommy was with would gobble and I

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Speaker 2: could and hear it at all. I could just see

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Speaker 2: him shake his head through my binos. Anyway, after the

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Speaker 2: girls doubled up on their birds, we sat tight and

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Speaker 2: watched as my friend tried to talk in another group

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Speaker 2: of jakes. I could tell by his calling that it

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Speaker 2: might not work out, though, and it didn't. He was

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Speaker 2: yelping way too fast in a cadence that just wasn't

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Speaker 2: quite natural. It took two minutes to talking to him

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Speaker 2: after we got back to his place to get it

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Speaker 2: all sorted out. But the lesson is important. You might

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Speaker 2: be making turkey noises that you know a turkey might make,

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Speaker 2: but you might be making them in a way that

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Speaker 2: a turkey probably wouldn't. It would be like speaking I

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Speaker 2: don't know, like Yoda in a natural conversation. I suppose

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Speaker 2: while you could mix up the order of the words

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Speaker 2: in a sentence and get your point across, the people

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Speaker 2: with whom you're conversing might think you're a little bit

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Speaker 2: off your rocker. Or it might be like Toddler speak,

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Speaker 2: where you use some relative facsimile of normal words, but

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Speaker 2: they are strung together in a way that just doesn't

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Speaker 2: make much sense. I don't know. What I do know

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Speaker 2: is that wild turkeys will tell you how they speak,

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Speaker 2: and you should listen to them. This is one of

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Speaker 2: the reasons I don't think you can be the most

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Speaker 2: badass turkey hunter on the planet unless you've killed quite

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Speaker 2: a few of them with a bow. There is nothing

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Speaker 2: that requires you to talk turkey more than having to

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Speaker 2: get them into your spread at ten yards. Now, you

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Speaker 2: can talk turkey passively well and get them to come

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Speaker 2: by for a little look where they might stand in

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Speaker 2: shotgun range. But getting them right into the decoys and

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Speaker 2: relaxed and convincing them to stay there just takes a

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Speaker 2: little bit more, just takes a little bit more cohercion.

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Speaker 2: It's also true that on turkey bowhunts you just spend

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Speaker 2: more time around birds. You're far less mobile. So the

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Speaker 2: bird that's gobbling his head off down the ridge has

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Speaker 2: to make his own choices because you can't go after him.

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Speaker 2: And the hens that get in close and talk a

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Speaker 2: lot in their low chatter, they just seem to happen

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Speaker 2: more on turkey bowhunts, or at least you have them

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Speaker 2: stick around longer. Now, you don't have to chase gobblers

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Speaker 2: with a bow to learn about actual turkey speak. But

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Speaker 2: I'm telling you it's a lesson that can't be had

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Speaker 2: really any other way. That's really kind of beside the

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Speaker 2: point right now, because I know a lot of people

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Speaker 2: won't do that no matter what. Plus, you can certainly

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Speaker 2: get hens to mill around in your decoys when you

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Speaker 2: have a shotgun across your knee. What people often do

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Speaker 2: in this situation, though, whether they have a twelve gauge

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Speaker 2: or a bow with them is totally shut up. After all,

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Speaker 2: if you have living decoys in your fake decoys, why

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Speaker 2: risk scaring them off to that? I say, why not

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Speaker 2: try to get them to talk to you. They've already

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Speaker 2: bought into the ruse, and hens often don't take a

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Speaker 2: whole lot of persuasion to start chatting away. Now there's

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Speaker 2: a sexist joke in there somewhere, but I'm going to

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Speaker 2: ignore it. When I have a hen or a couple

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Speaker 2: of them in my decoys, I talk to them a lot.

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Speaker 2: Not only is it kind of fun to purr and

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Speaker 2: put and cluck and softly yelp to see if I

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Speaker 2: can get a response. But if I don't have a

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Speaker 2: Tom around, for sure, the best thing I can do

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Speaker 2: is try to piss off live hen in front of me.

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Speaker 2: The moment I get a real hen to start cutting

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Speaker 2: aggressively or yelping aggressively is the moment I believe I'll

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Speaker 2: get a nearby bird to gobble and often commit I

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Speaker 2: think that Tom's here. Hens make noise all day long,

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Speaker 2: but when there is about to be a fight between

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Speaker 2: two ladies and the rhetoric really heats up, they just

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Speaker 2: come in. This is also why I almost always use

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Speaker 2: a mouth call and a slate call to fire things

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Speaker 2: up during dead times of the day. You know, with

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Speaker 2: that slate I can cut hard and loud. In the

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Speaker 2: mouth call, I can cut and yelp and try to

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Speaker 2: drown out the slate. Now, it doesn't work every time,

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Speaker 2: but it works often enough that I use it a

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Speaker 2: lot during every season. The point is, if you have

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Speaker 2: birds around, you talk to them. You hear all of

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Speaker 2: the little sounds they make that we just don't think about,

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Speaker 2: like those content little bubble clocks that can be magic

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Speaker 2: for getting a tom to break from strut at fifty

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Speaker 2: yards and march on in. When you intentionally try to

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Speaker 2: get hens to talk, you also open up the possibility

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Speaker 2: that they'll stick around for a long time. That's always

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Speaker 2: a win, and it works really well. I see this

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Speaker 2: with hens, I see it with Jake's, and I see

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Speaker 2: it with Tom's. But sometimes you can just watch birds,

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Speaker 2: you know, try to figure out why when they want

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Speaker 2: to leave the rest of the turkey stay put. You

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Speaker 2: can sometimes call them back over and over and over again.

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Speaker 2: And the more you interact with live birds, the closer

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Speaker 2: you are to having a long beard in range. Now,

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Speaker 2: another thing I truly believe with this is that the

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Speaker 2: more you learn to make a variety of calls and

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Speaker 2: to try to cater your calls to the birds around you,

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Speaker 2: the less likely you are to believe that overcalling is

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Speaker 2: a thing. I don't think it is if you know

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Speaker 2: how to call. I don't think there is a turkey

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Speaker 2: out there that is like, hmm, that hen is talking

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Speaker 2: too much, and I'm definitely not going over there if

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Speaker 2: it sounds like calls a real hen would make. I

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Speaker 2: think it's always either a net neutral or a net positive.

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Speaker 2: Maybe if it's ninety five in the middle of the

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Speaker 2: day and dead out, or maybe you know. There are

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Speaker 2: other conditions where this is certainly not true, but generally

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Speaker 2: I believe it. I believe that with private land birds

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Speaker 2: that are sometimes dumber than rocks, and I believe it

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Speaker 2: with the most pressured public land birds in the country,

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Speaker 2: although with the latter proximity to them before you really

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Speaker 2: start chattering away seems to be a big benefit. The

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Speaker 2: key to all of this, though, is confidence in your

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Speaker 2: calls and what you're saying. If you believe that when

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Speaker 2: you pick up your slate or your mouth call or

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Speaker 2: your box call or whatever, that you're going to make

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Speaker 2: realistic turkey sounds and convey to the nearby birds that

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Speaker 2: something interesting is happening. You can't go wrong. Does it

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Speaker 2: always work? No, absolutely not, But that doesn't matter. If

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Speaker 2: it's not a net negative. You can keep trying until

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Speaker 2: a bird orbits into your world and is ready to

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Speaker 2: see what all the fuss is about. I think a

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Speaker 2: good way to get to this level is to forget

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Speaker 2: about owning a variety of calls for now, because a

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Speaker 2: lot of people think, well, I need a slate for

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Speaker 2: soft calling sessions, I need a box call to really

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Speaker 2: get those yelps to echo across the landscape when it's windy. Yet,

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Speaker 2: someone who is good with any call can pretty much

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Speaker 2: make every call with it. I think most good turkey

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Speaker 2: hunters could fill their tags with just one mouth call

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Speaker 2: all season long. Although it wouldn't be as much fun.

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Speaker 2: Getting to a point where you are extremely confident with

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Speaker 2: just one type of call is better than being marginally

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Speaker 2: confident with a whole bunch of them. I really think

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Speaker 2: the best way to do this is to find a

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Speaker 2: mouth call that you can produce a super raspy, slow

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Speaker 2: yelp with, and then try to learn how to cut

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Speaker 2: and purr and cluck and gobble and just make every

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Speaker 2: turkey sound possible. That's about as versatile as a call

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Speaker 2: can get. And once you get confident with a mouth call,

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Speaker 2: you've damn near won the game. But also, if you do,

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Speaker 2: that's a call you can eventually use while you use

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Speaker 2: a handheld call. Like I talked about earlier, I prefer

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Speaker 2: slates or at least pot calls over box calls because

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Speaker 2: I don't like carrying box calls quite as much, and

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Speaker 2: I don't feel like box calls allow me to make

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Speaker 2: vastly different sounds and a good mouth call will. But

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Speaker 2: I've also hunted with people who run box calls in

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Speaker 2: a way that I can't, so your mileage may vary.

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Speaker 2: I guess the point stands, though, that mastering one call

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Speaker 2: is better than not really mastering a whole bunch of them.

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Speaker 2: Plus the more confidence you develop, the more likely you

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Speaker 2: are to try to say different things while you're actually

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Speaker 2: turkey hunting, and I think that matters a lot. You'll

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Speaker 2: get to see this soon enough, but last year I

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Speaker 2: failed to grun in a really big North Dakota public

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Speaker 2: land buck, but I did eventually snort weeze him in

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Speaker 2: I mean that buck came in on a string after

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Speaker 2: ignoring my grunts, and it was pretty incredible. My shot wasn't, unfortunately,

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Speaker 2: but after that buck ran off. My cameraman, who is

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Speaker 2: a really good deer hunter, said he couldn't believe that

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Speaker 2: that buck came in like that for snort wheezing well

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Speaker 2: outside of the rut, but he doesn't snort wheeze to

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Speaker 2: bucks in the first half of October because he thinks

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Speaker 2: you're not supposed to, just like how you're not supposed

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Speaker 2: to call the hens that are in your decoys seven

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Speaker 2: yards away. But when you do, you learn that not

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Speaker 2: only can you, but you probably should. Confidence with a

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Speaker 2: call is the difference between defaulting to shut up and

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Speaker 2: cross your fingers or trying to actively make something happen.

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Speaker 2: The last point there is one I want you to

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Speaker 2: take away from this. We often look at turkey hunting

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Speaker 2: and really elk hunting too, since it's so call base,

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Speaker 2: and we think there are a lot of situations we

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Speaker 2: just can't overcome by our calling alone, so we don't

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Speaker 2: and then we don't kill birds bulls, and we realize

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Speaker 2: we were right all along. But if you get the

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Speaker 2: chance to hunt either species, with someone who is really,

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Speaker 2: really good at calling, you realize that there is no

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Speaker 2: such thing as a time when you absolutely can't make

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Speaker 2: something happen, or at least try to make something happen

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Speaker 2: that will eventually work. That ain't the same thing with

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Speaker 2: deer hunting. I think you could sit out there and

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Speaker 2: blind call, you know, either grunting or rattling or snort wheezing,

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Speaker 2: and no bucks will magically decide to come in or

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Speaker 2: engage with you somehow. Most of the time. With turkeys,

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Speaker 2: I don't believe that's true. I actually don't believe it's

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Speaker 2: true with turkeys all year long, but especially in April

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Speaker 2: and May, when they are truly prone to chatting away,

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Speaker 2: and that chatter is a huge complimentary component to their

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Speaker 2: evolutionary desire to pass on their genes. It's the best

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Speaker 2: time to call them, but only if you understand what

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Speaker 2: you're saying and you say it with confidence. So what

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Speaker 2: do you do about that? Well, buy some new calls

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Speaker 2: if you need to, or bust out the old ones.

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Speaker 2: But then challenge yourself, are you timid with a mouth

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Speaker 2: call because you don't really believe you can get loud

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Speaker 2: and make something happen work? On that practice. Do you

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Speaker 2: have no idea how to purr or cluck or cut

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Speaker 2: or whatever with your call? Figure it out. The more

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Speaker 2: you can mix in those sort of secondary sounds into

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Speaker 2: a setup, the more realistic your setup will appear to

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Speaker 2: real turkeys. Instead of just running through a five note

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Speaker 2: series of yelps that really have no character and don't

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Speaker 2: really mimic the way actual birds yelp. Head on over

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Speaker 2: to YouTube and listen to some actual turkeys, then try

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Speaker 2: to copy them. Try to figure out how to make

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Speaker 2: a slow, two note yelp, and then try to figure

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Speaker 2: out how to cut aggressively. Maybe you need a slay

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Speaker 2: call to do this, but it doesn't matter. Whatever you're

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Speaker 2: most comfortable with is what you should try to figure

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Speaker 2: out first and what you should practice on. But don't

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Speaker 2: just test it out for a few minutes and call

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Speaker 2: it good enough. Figure out what sounds you can't produce

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Speaker 2: but wild turkeys can, and then figure out how to

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Speaker 2: make them. Then, when you're out there this spring, call

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Speaker 2: to the birds lot, call to them and see how

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Speaker 2: they react. If you get hens in the decoys, pick

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Speaker 2: up your slate, make a bunch of soft purson clucks,

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Speaker 2: watch them listen to them. Do they call back good,

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Speaker 2: then yelp and cut. If not, keep the chatter quiet,

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Speaker 2: but keep it going. If they don't run away, you're

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Speaker 2: doing just fine. Develop some confidence in the garage or

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Speaker 2: while driving to work, and then talk to the actual

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Speaker 2: birds you see and hear while you're hunting. Figure out

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Speaker 2: how to have better conversations out there, and that will

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Speaker 2: help you figure out how to start better conversations out

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Speaker 2: there when the birds seem to be tight lipped. Not

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Speaker 2: only is this a great way to have more action

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Speaker 2: in the woods during spring hunts, but it makes the

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Speaker 2: whole thing a hell of a lot more fun. That's

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Speaker 2: it for this episode. I'm Tony Peterson. This has been

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Speaker 2: the Wired to Hunt Foundation's podcast, which is brought to

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Speaker 2: you by First Light. Thank you so much for showing

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Speaker 2: up for our Turkey week, heading over to the medeater

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Speaker 2: dot com, maybe watching some films, maybe listening to some

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Speaker 2: other podcasts on here, just consuming this content that we

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Speaker 2: drop every day. We truly appreciate it because without you, guys,

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Speaker 2: we are nothing, So thank you for that. If you

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Speaker 2: need to find some more Turkey content, head on over

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Speaker 2: to the mediator dot com check it out. Tons of

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Speaker 2: stuff there. Thank you,