What’s your favorite??

I would love to hear what your favorite call, decoys and set ups are or combos of both. Look forward to hearing from you!

I use an ole’ yeller slate call, some mouth calls, for close up action, and never use decoys, used to use them but I always thought they looked goofy, plus I have never shot a Turkey while using decoys. Anyways good post and I too am looking foward to seeing others’ responses

I have a lot of turkey calls including box calls, diaphragm calls, slate calls and even some push pin calls and gobble calls. If I had to choose just one I would pick a slate call and my favorite is the Woodhaven Custom Calls (they make them in crystal or slate). Yes – they are a bit pricey and I probably would have never bought one in the first place but I received it as a gift. Now I think it’s worth every penny they charge for it. I’m able to achieve higher pitches, hard biting cutts and yelps, soft or raspy. And the most important thing about the call is that I can easily control the volume without sacrificing the sound. When scouting I can let loose and call out loud without distortion. And when it’s closing time, I can call very soft without losing the high pitch. However, I think the most important thing when choosing a call is your confidence within the call. If you have no confidence in your call or calling ability, odds are you will not call anything in.

I’ve also used many decoys (hens, jakes, pretty boy etc…) and I’ve not had a lot of success with them. In fact, I’ve only killed one tom with a decoy. The earlier seasons seem to be better for decoys but later on when there’s already been hunting pressure, I typically don’t use them. It will bring in the jakes, but toms tend to get hung up once they have spotted the decoy. They expect that hen to be receptive to him as they spin and strut just outside of shooting range. I’d rather not use the decoy and have that tom come and investigate who is doing that calling. The last 10 toms that I’ve killed or called in for others have been without a decoy.

I use a wide variety of slate calls – my favorite of the bunch is the Lil Deuce from Hunters Specialties – although I always have about half a dozen different models with… and I also use primos and HS diaphragms.

As far as decoys go – on the nearly 35 turkey I have shot along the way – and likely another 15 or 20 with other folks – the vast majority have been killed with my decoy. It is an old Flambeau Ready Hen. The last time I checked they were still available – it is a hard plastic body – not the easiest to move around with quietly but it always looks great. She has a few holes in her head from times when the gobblers got a little too close to her when they heard the boom. But she still goes on most every adventure… I have seen a few times where decoys have caused birds to shy away late season – but that is rare, even on the public ground I often hunt. I do mainly hunt the early seasons in more recent years so that may contribute to my positive outlook to decoys… but in the 90’s I usually hunted 3rd and 4th out of the 4 Iowa seasons. I have confidence that the birds are focused on the decoy and not me when I have it out in front of the set-up. Good luck with your choices… hunt safely, Chuckles