Btwn myself and my two hunting partners over the last 15 years hunting both IL and IN we have killed a combined total of way over 50+ birds. I am guessing at least 80-85% were convinced to come to their doom by the plane old synthetic slate call. We have used syn/slate calls to turn still roosted Toms that were facing away from us and gobbling, to turn around towards us and fly down to our calls, mostly to their doom. We have also used syn/slate calls to call in a dominate hen so the Tom with her would fallow and then shot the Tom, we use this tactic when we can not (as is often the case) call the Tom away from his hens. The remaing 15-20% were called in buy using a Quaker Boy push button call. Including the biggest Tom any of us has ever personally seen or killed, at 23 pounder with 1.625" spurs and three beards, one 6" long, 9" long and one alittle over 10" long. And that bird came off public land to boot. As a group we just never had much success using mouth calls, paddle calls or any other type of calls. Tride them, but for what ever reason had little success using them.
I will add have had great success usung both mouth calls and paddle calls as locator calls to get turkeys to gobble once off the roost. Also had great success using a owl hooter as a pre dawn or near dawn locator call. And I have used a mouth call to give a sharp cluck to get a tom to stop and stick his head up for the shot, so much so I hunt with one in my mouth about 95% of the time. But I dont use a mouth call to call a tom with in range all that often unless I am faced with the fallowing situation.
I hunt public land turkeys in IN almost ever year. One of my favorite spots has huge open fields that big toms often go out into the middle of and strut in the late mourning. If they are out far enough or it is windy, I found you simply can not call loudly enough with a synthetic slate call for the turkey to hear and be called into range. That is when I employ my mouth calls and have on four ocasions to date called a tom in to range using my favorite mouth call, that I first tride to but failed to call in using my synthetic slate call. I did however if nessasary, once the tom got close enough call to him using my syn/slate call, as I never could call as quietly with a mouth call as i could with a syn/slate.
I also keep a good selection of strykers with me when I hunt. I always carry one 100% synthetic stryker, one made of cherry or hickory, and one made of aluminum.
I also always carry both a patch of emmery cloth and Scotch Brite pad for ruffing up both my stryker types and the face of my synthetic slate calls.
Word of caution, dont think you need spend big $$$ on a turkey call. In my experience just about any well made slate type call will work just fine calling turkeys. It is IMHO based on what i ahve learned in my last 15 turkey seasons, much more important to know what call to use when the to be a world class caller. The best teacher of turkey calls are the turkeys them selves. I was lucky enough to once, years ago set up one pre dawn moring in the middle of 30 or more roosted turkeys, of all ages and types, Toms, Jakes, and hens. I was treated to a world class instruction on turkey calling that morning. It then dawned on me to go back to and set up in every roost I knew of for the next 6 mornings of my trip and just listion to what the turkeys had to say. I was so determined to use the roost(s) as a class room, I did not shoot a Tom out of that first roost that morning. I waited till they all walked out of sight and set up in a huge field that bordered that roost and called in and shot a nice 2yr old tom, there by not disturbing the roost.
That tought me more and helped me more in becoming a consistantly successfull turkey hunter than all the audio types, films and books I had bought in the past combined, and it did not cost me one thin dime to learn it. So keep that in mind as you try to learn all you can about hunting and calling turkeys.
I have also enjoyed great success using decoys to get a Tom to commit to my calls on both private and public land, but admittedly have never killed a Tom with spurs longer than 1.25" or was older than three years of age. But the way I look at it I would IMHO much rahter kill a nice 2-3yr old Tom turkey every year than a Boss Hoss 4-5yr old gobble every
2-3yrs, as I am certain I would kill far fewer Toms if I did not use a decoy as I feel Toms 3yrs of age and younger decoy quite easly.
