DartonJager
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Apr 1, 2016
- Messages
- 976
Although I learned to use a mouth call a long time go it has only been during the last 5 seasons I've used mouth calls at first out of desperation more or less, and now that I have enjoyed a surprising level of success with them i use them regularly.
I must stress although I can use a mouth call to make excellent sounding yelps, clucks and cuts, I buy no means would ever consider myself an accomplished mouth call user.
I actually learned to use elk mouth calls before turkey and after getting VERY good with elk calls and called in bulls for both myself and my friend I decided to try turkey calls again. My only short coming with turkey calls is I can not call as softly with them as with my slate. Prior to this turkey season I was researching turkey mouth calls looking for one advertised as being easy to call quietly with and stumbled across a review of Primos Hook Mouth turkey calls and the reviewer stressed the ease of which he could call softly with.
I saw they were in stock at my local Cabela's and with a considerable amount of points built up off I went and bought a two pack of the fallowing calls:
https://www.cabelas.com/product/hun...uth-turkey-call-two-pack/1324114.uts?slotId=5
I am happy to report I could call very well with both calls instantly after placing them in my mouth, no break in or getting use to, no having to find a sweat spot on the roof of my mouth just in and I was instantly and effortlessly making excellent sounding clucks, yelps, and cuts. Best of all I can call VERY softly, but the ultimate test is will these calls work on turkeys.
First test with these new Primos calls was during my states youth turkey season. First morning of the youth season I had my two sons and I set up within 70-75 yards of between 4-6 roosted toms, and multiple jakes and hens. The roost backed up to a flooded ditch with fields on both sides. Started out calling with my old stand by glass slate that has called over 30 turkeys to their demise in an attempt to get the toms gobbling but no response. Figured I give the new calls a try.
Gave out one cluck fallowed by 4 soft as possible yelps and instantly at least two toms fired back gobbles at my calls. My normal SOP once I have turkeys answering my calls is to shut up and wait for them to come to me. Unfortunately I saw with my binos none of the four toms and two jakes I could see were facing our way on the roost.
I began using both the slate and the new mouth calls to get at least one bird turned and facing our way to insure they would fly down to us and come into my decoys, despite getting all four toms gobbling, much to my sons heart felt disappointment all the turkeys, including all 4 toms, 2 jakes and 7 or more hens for what ever reason all flew down to the fields away from us on the other side of the flooded ditch.
I waited till I was certain all the turkeys had flown down and got us up and headed to wards a spot where we could cross the flooded ditch. My oldest had major knee surgery recently and due to increasing discomfort was unable to make the long walk needed to peruse the turkeys and elected to remain at the truck.
My youngest son and I took off after the toms. I knew the area they flew down in reasonably well and based on their gobbling once on the ground was quite confident they were in one of two fields that parallel one another separated by a hedgerow. My son and I were sneaking and peeking along the trail to the fields and i was about 75 yards from the edge of the first one when i stopped and told my son our plan and that i was 95% certain the toms were in one of the next two fields.
Those words no sooner left my lips and I spotted a big ole red head of a Tom poking out from the edge of the second field about 180 yards away from us. As my son and I were caught on the trail out in the open more or less I instantly had us drop to the ground with me laying length wise on my right side and my son sitting behind me and leaning on me using my hips as rest for his arms holding the gun.
One long beard stepped out on the trail, fallowed by a second, then third, a fourth and then a fifth tom no less!!! They were going to continue straight and disappear into the brush and I gave out a few soft yelps using the blue Primos Hook mouth call and although none of the toms gobbled they all did begin to head our way down the trail, stopping and displaying along the way. I was surprised how slowly they moved our way considering how much gobbling they did while roosted and also gobbled well once on the ground. They were feeding and displaying as they slowly worked our way. Two more separate times they again started to head into the brush, but a few more soft yelps with the new call and they once again headed our way. I'm guessing the fact we didn't have time to set out any hen decoys might have caused them to wonder with hearing a hen so close why couldn't they see one.
I waited till they were all under 40 yards and whispered to my son to pick one out and shoot it. At the shot absolutely nothing happened, as far as I can tell my son missed completely based on the turkeys complete lack of action or reaction. I instantly told him to shoot again, but my son was so completely in shock that none of the toms dropped by the time he cycled the pump on the gun the toms were in the brush. The gun he was using or he actually chose to use was my dedicated turkey gun a 12ga 3.5" 870 Super Mag shooting a 2oz load of #5 Winchester Long Beard HV that puts over 200 pellets in 10" circle at 40 yards, so no doubt in my mind he missed clean. We spent the remainder of the day sneaking and peaking and did get into multiple toms and jakes, but never got one in range before time ran out. The last day of the 2 day youth season was about the same except no shot opportunities.
The fallowing week end found my sons, my best friend and I doing stand by for a try at a second hunt on the same public land. Thankfully one of my sons got drawn and i had put a tom to roost the night before. We set up on this tom only 75 yards from the tree he roosted in. At first light multiple turkeys began to gobble but the one we were set up on remained tight lipped. My friend tried his slate, and then i tried mine with no responce from our tom.
I then tried the same blue Primos mouth call and at my 4th soft yelp he instantly fired back with a gobble. He gobbled 2 more times and shut up tight. Amazingly he didn't fly down until almost a full hour after sun up and then he ignored our calls and 3 hen decoys and promptly scooted into the hedgerow he was roosted on. He never got closer than 75 yards from us.
For the next four and half ours till end of hunting time we sneaked and peaked and were continuously into birds. Our first set up I again used the same primos mouth call to call in a tom, but it saw my son move and spooked before he could shoot. We then spotted 5 jakes set up and had them coming in slowly but surely when another hunter simply walking around the area spooked them away. Unfortunately the day ended without success.
I was back at it a few days later on my day off with the help of my friend. We spotted a big ole mature tom about 75 yards from the edge of a hedgerow in a field and set up on him, this time i can not be 100% certain if it was my friends glass slate or my new primos mouth call as we were using both but we got him headed my way. And my families luck for this season held true and instead of him walking through the field to me he went into the bush and I'm right handed and he came in on my extreme right side and I had no shot and I had a big beautiful paint brush beard of a beard tom at 10 yards and couldn't move far enough to my right and shoot him. He was basically dead in line with my right shoulder leas than 30 feet away in the brush. My calls kept him around for quite some time before he lost interest and started to leave I then made a green horn mistake and tried to smoothly swing and make the shot but he caught the movement and let out of their like his *** was on fire and his head was catching. Although we got into birds every hour that day till end of hunting time, I never connected.
So all in all i have to say I am very satisfied with the new Primos Hook Mouth calls i tried they are very easy to use, make excellent clucks, yelps and cuts, can vary the level and intencity of how raspy a yelp you wish to make, and can do so very softly or very loud and do work on toms and jakes. I also can make excellent deep sounding tom yelps with them. I can not recommend them strongly enough. Use the link I posted above to give them a look if you wish. Great call that worked very well for me and I will be using them regularly from now on.
I must stress although I can use a mouth call to make excellent sounding yelps, clucks and cuts, I buy no means would ever consider myself an accomplished mouth call user.
I actually learned to use elk mouth calls before turkey and after getting VERY good with elk calls and called in bulls for both myself and my friend I decided to try turkey calls again. My only short coming with turkey calls is I can not call as softly with them as with my slate. Prior to this turkey season I was researching turkey mouth calls looking for one advertised as being easy to call quietly with and stumbled across a review of Primos Hook Mouth turkey calls and the reviewer stressed the ease of which he could call softly with.
I saw they were in stock at my local Cabela's and with a considerable amount of points built up off I went and bought a two pack of the fallowing calls:
https://www.cabelas.com/product/hun...uth-turkey-call-two-pack/1324114.uts?slotId=5
I am happy to report I could call very well with both calls instantly after placing them in my mouth, no break in or getting use to, no having to find a sweat spot on the roof of my mouth just in and I was instantly and effortlessly making excellent sounding clucks, yelps, and cuts. Best of all I can call VERY softly, but the ultimate test is will these calls work on turkeys.
First test with these new Primos calls was during my states youth turkey season. First morning of the youth season I had my two sons and I set up within 70-75 yards of between 4-6 roosted toms, and multiple jakes and hens. The roost backed up to a flooded ditch with fields on both sides. Started out calling with my old stand by glass slate that has called over 30 turkeys to their demise in an attempt to get the toms gobbling but no response. Figured I give the new calls a try.
Gave out one cluck fallowed by 4 soft as possible yelps and instantly at least two toms fired back gobbles at my calls. My normal SOP once I have turkeys answering my calls is to shut up and wait for them to come to me. Unfortunately I saw with my binos none of the four toms and two jakes I could see were facing our way on the roost.
I began using both the slate and the new mouth calls to get at least one bird turned and facing our way to insure they would fly down to us and come into my decoys, despite getting all four toms gobbling, much to my sons heart felt disappointment all the turkeys, including all 4 toms, 2 jakes and 7 or more hens for what ever reason all flew down to the fields away from us on the other side of the flooded ditch.
I waited till I was certain all the turkeys had flown down and got us up and headed to wards a spot where we could cross the flooded ditch. My oldest had major knee surgery recently and due to increasing discomfort was unable to make the long walk needed to peruse the turkeys and elected to remain at the truck.
My youngest son and I took off after the toms. I knew the area they flew down in reasonably well and based on their gobbling once on the ground was quite confident they were in one of two fields that parallel one another separated by a hedgerow. My son and I were sneaking and peeking along the trail to the fields and i was about 75 yards from the edge of the first one when i stopped and told my son our plan and that i was 95% certain the toms were in one of the next two fields.
Those words no sooner left my lips and I spotted a big ole red head of a Tom poking out from the edge of the second field about 180 yards away from us. As my son and I were caught on the trail out in the open more or less I instantly had us drop to the ground with me laying length wise on my right side and my son sitting behind me and leaning on me using my hips as rest for his arms holding the gun.
One long beard stepped out on the trail, fallowed by a second, then third, a fourth and then a fifth tom no less!!! They were going to continue straight and disappear into the brush and I gave out a few soft yelps using the blue Primos Hook mouth call and although none of the toms gobbled they all did begin to head our way down the trail, stopping and displaying along the way. I was surprised how slowly they moved our way considering how much gobbling they did while roosted and also gobbled well once on the ground. They were feeding and displaying as they slowly worked our way. Two more separate times they again started to head into the brush, but a few more soft yelps with the new call and they once again headed our way. I'm guessing the fact we didn't have time to set out any hen decoys might have caused them to wonder with hearing a hen so close why couldn't they see one.
I waited till they were all under 40 yards and whispered to my son to pick one out and shoot it. At the shot absolutely nothing happened, as far as I can tell my son missed completely based on the turkeys complete lack of action or reaction. I instantly told him to shoot again, but my son was so completely in shock that none of the toms dropped by the time he cycled the pump on the gun the toms were in the brush. The gun he was using or he actually chose to use was my dedicated turkey gun a 12ga 3.5" 870 Super Mag shooting a 2oz load of #5 Winchester Long Beard HV that puts over 200 pellets in 10" circle at 40 yards, so no doubt in my mind he missed clean. We spent the remainder of the day sneaking and peaking and did get into multiple toms and jakes, but never got one in range before time ran out. The last day of the 2 day youth season was about the same except no shot opportunities.
The fallowing week end found my sons, my best friend and I doing stand by for a try at a second hunt on the same public land. Thankfully one of my sons got drawn and i had put a tom to roost the night before. We set up on this tom only 75 yards from the tree he roosted in. At first light multiple turkeys began to gobble but the one we were set up on remained tight lipped. My friend tried his slate, and then i tried mine with no responce from our tom.
I then tried the same blue Primos mouth call and at my 4th soft yelp he instantly fired back with a gobble. He gobbled 2 more times and shut up tight. Amazingly he didn't fly down until almost a full hour after sun up and then he ignored our calls and 3 hen decoys and promptly scooted into the hedgerow he was roosted on. He never got closer than 75 yards from us.
For the next four and half ours till end of hunting time we sneaked and peaked and were continuously into birds. Our first set up I again used the same primos mouth call to call in a tom, but it saw my son move and spooked before he could shoot. We then spotted 5 jakes set up and had them coming in slowly but surely when another hunter simply walking around the area spooked them away. Unfortunately the day ended without success.
I was back at it a few days later on my day off with the help of my friend. We spotted a big ole mature tom about 75 yards from the edge of a hedgerow in a field and set up on him, this time i can not be 100% certain if it was my friends glass slate or my new primos mouth call as we were using both but we got him headed my way. And my families luck for this season held true and instead of him walking through the field to me he went into the bush and I'm right handed and he came in on my extreme right side and I had no shot and I had a big beautiful paint brush beard of a beard tom at 10 yards and couldn't move far enough to my right and shoot him. He was basically dead in line with my right shoulder leas than 30 feet away in the brush. My calls kept him around for quite some time before he lost interest and started to leave I then made a green horn mistake and tried to smoothly swing and make the shot but he caught the movement and let out of their like his *** was on fire and his head was catching. Although we got into birds every hour that day till end of hunting time, I never connected.
So all in all i have to say I am very satisfied with the new Primos Hook Mouth calls i tried they are very easy to use, make excellent clucks, yelps and cuts, can vary the level and intencity of how raspy a yelp you wish to make, and can do so very softly or very loud and do work on toms and jakes. I also can make excellent deep sounding tom yelps with them. I can not recommend them strongly enough. Use the link I posted above to give them a look if you wish. Great call that worked very well for me and I will be using them regularly from now on.
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