How do You Improve?

[bbcoach]

I've got another month of deer season left but this time of the year I have a tendency to start thinking about turkey hunting.  Foremost on my mind is practicing my calling, specifically with my mouth calls.  The question I have is, how do you practice to get better?  I've got DVD's with live turkeys on them and I've got a copy of Mouth Call Magic coming but this is all subjective.  I have local turkeys that I listen to in the fall and of course in the spring but how do you know you are practicing correctly so you don't get into bad habits?  Do any of you record yourself?  Have a buddy listen to you and get feedback?  Just curious. 

[davisd9]

I record my calling outside in the woods.  After I record it I listen to it to see if I am happy with it.  Once I am happy I send it to a couple of turkey hunting friends that I trust their opinion.  I want their honest opinion and feedback.

[Tail Feathers]

I've done all you said.  Recording, playing those CD's and listening to them and my calling outside.  Things sound different in your house.
Practice and practice more.  Try some different brand calls too.  They all can have their unique sounds.  I would definitely recommend trying Hooks calls.  They blow easy.  Try double and triple reeds.  Not much need to go more than that.

[mgm1955]

Practice, practice, practice, then practice more. When your wife threatens to have you removed from the house, then practice outside as they take you away.

[Rapscallion Vermilion]

I found some free sound analysis software that has been very helpful to me in checking pitch, cadence, and note duration.  It is called Raven Lite and is available from the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology.
http://www.birds.cornell.edu/brp/raven/RavenVersions.html#RavenLite

I got the idea from one of Lovett Williams books. I put it on my laptop and have used it to play back sounds from recorded live turkeys and compare to my own attempts with various calls. It is easy to read in sounds from a small hand held recorder if I want to record outside.  Here is what the output from a five note yelp sequence on a trumpet looks like. Amplitude is on the top and the pitch spectrogram is on the bottom.  The horizontal axis is in seconds.

[dirt road ninja]

I found some free sound analysis software that has been very helpful to me in checking pitch, cadence, and note duration.  It is called Raven Lite and is available from the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology.

You is a hi-tek redneck.

[bbcoach]

LOVE the responses!!!  Keep them coming!!!  It is my HOPE that all of us will be able to take something from this Post and become better callers.

[VA_Birdhunter]

bbcoach....like most have said the best way I've found is record myself.  Now with the technology of smart phones many have good recording apps etc.  Remember calls will sound different in doors then out...I think they sound a lot different while practicing in a vehicle which I do a lot!  So always get out in the outdoors and try them and record it.   Also remember to get a good distance away from your recording device...if your too close it will distort the sound and you won't get the true sound of your call. 

I started using a mouth call at a very young age....unlike most the first call I learned to use and used was a mouth call.  After watching my dad and some of my favorite hunting shows many years ago I knew right then it was something I had to do.  I love a mouth call and have really perfected my skills after many years of trials and errors!  I've killed more turkeys and called in more turkeys with a mouth call then any other and I've owned and used A LOT of different calls!   I really liked mouth call magic and will get the next one that's getting ready to release.  After 22 yrs of hunting I bought that dvd last year and it still helped me....most of all on my cadence and rhythm which made a HUGE difference last year.  Something that also helped me take my mouth calling up to another level was I switched from the name brand calls to custom call makers.  After going through a few I've found some that are the best I've ever used and keep a stock pile of them just in case they discontinue making them.   Keep at it and right now is the best time to start practicing!


God Bless

[perrytrails]

Mouth call magic 1, and 2 will be delivered soon

Scott Ellis does a good job explaining how to use one and sharpen your mouth call skills.  Not just for the beginner. 

I highly recommend it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[silvestris]

Recording yourself is important with a diaphragm caller.  Just think of how different your own voice sounds to you when you hear it in a recording.  I don't think recording will help you with other callers as you pretty much can hear the sounds of the callers (this applies to tubes and trumpets or wingbones as well).

I think the important thing to remember is that turkeys have a language and they understand that language.  Therefore, listening to wild turkeys or wild turkey recordings is extremely important in improving your calling.  Listen to what they say and especially how they say it.  Listen to a passage and take whatever time it takes to mimic that passage and incorporate that passage into your repertoire.  If a turkey is content you can never go wrong by adopting that call.  If a turkey is excited, then that is a call you will want to own, but realizing that excited calling may not be the call to use on a seasoned gobbler.  I try to never listen to the calling of other humans as I will be likely to pick up some bad habits.

[allaboutshooting]

I've got another month of deer season left but this time of the year I have a tendency to start thinking about turkey hunting.  Foremost on my mind is practicing my calling, specifically with my mouth calls.  The question I have is, how do you practice to get better?  I've got DVD's with live turkeys on them and I've got a copy of Mouth Call Magic coming but this is all subjective.  I have local turkeys that I listen to in the fall and of course in the spring but how do you know you are practicing correctly so you don't get into bad habits?  Do any of you record yourself?  Have a buddy listen to you and get feedback?  Just curious.

You've received some excellent advice. The one singular thing that helped my calling more than any other was when I started hunting turkeys in the fall. I was able to see large flocks of birds and listen to them as they communicated with each other. I could watch them, see reactions to calls and learn more about their "language" than I had in many springs and from all the good instructional material I'd read, listened to and watched.

If you have the opportunity to hunt in the fall, I'd certainly encourage you to do that. Not so much for taking a turkey, while that's very nice but just to learn more about how they vocalize.

Thanks,
Clark

[bamagtrdude]

What I do is round up as many YouTube videos (or old VHS/DVD videos) of real hens, doing their thing, and mimic exactly what they're doing, paying VERY CLOSE attention to rhythm, cadence, inflections, etc...  I will then try & duplicate that on all my 3 main calls - mouth, slate & box...  I'm beyond the "which brand to buy" deal & just focus mainly on imitating the real deal, as much as I can...