http://www.LouisianaSportsman.com April 2015 | Louisiana Sportsman 27
field notes
I
f North Carolina’s Marshall Collette strung together all the
beards from the turkeys he’s killed or called in for other
hunters on a piece of rawhide, you could probably use it to
measure for first downs in a football game.
So when North Carolina’s season opens on April 11, Collette
will, shall we say, be looking to gain extra yardage.
Collette, a member of the Mossy Oak and Quaker Boy pro staffs
from Greensboro, spends countless days in the woods during
spring gobbler seasons in states all over the country, hunting, and
calling birds for other hunters or for hunting videos.
To say that he has a pretty good idea what it takes to kill a nice
gobbler would be an understatement.
And when it comes to calling, he believes that “less is more.”
Collette might try to get a tom to gobble on the roost by using
a locator call like an owl or crow, but that’s all until the bird hits
the ground.
Yelping at a roosted turkey, he said, often results in that gob-
bler staying on the roost an extended period of the time as it
waits for the hen to appear.
But when he hears a gobbler fly down, the first thing Collette
wants it to hear is him calling.
“When you hear him hit the ground, you want to let him know
you’re there,” he said.
Collette usually starts with some soft clucks, often from a
simple push-pin call. If the gobbler answers, he might respond
by clucking or yelping, depending on the gobbler’s mood.
He might switch over to a friction call — a slate or glass call —
and he’ll call loud enough to see if the gobbler is interested.
“It takes only one call to kill a turkey,” he said, “but you need to
be able to cluck, yelp and purr.”
If the gobbler responds, he’ll work the bird, but he’ll tone down
the volume of his calling as the bird approaches — and he shutsup completely when he thinks the bird is almost in range.
“When you’re calling a turkey, you’re reversing nature,” Collette
said. “The hen usually comes to him; you’re trying to make him
come to you. He’s going to come as far as he think he needs to
— to where he should be able to see his girlfriend — and then
he’ll stop.
“If a turkey hangs up out there, out of range, it’s often because
you called too loud. The closer he gets, the quieter you call.
Most hunters want to call until they can see him, then shut up.
I want to quit calling before I see him, and I don’t want to see
him until he’s in range.”
Why?
Collette said a turkey’s eyesight borders on incredible, espe-
cially when it comes to detecting even the tiniest bit of move-
ment anywhere out to a hundred yards or more.
“A turkey’s eyesight is so good, he can see you change your
mind,” Collette joked. ■Call less,
kill more gobblers
By Dan Kibler
Veteran turkey killer sayscalling too much is a huge mistake
If you want to kill a turkey,
the key could be toning
back your calling.