Editor’s Note: Chris Kirby, the president of Quaker Boy Calls, has won every major turkey-calling championship in the nation including the U.S. Open, the World-National and Grand National Turkey Calling Championship, and is the creator of the Mossy Oak Turkey Thugs line of calls.
Quaker Boy has two push-button calls in the Thug line, the Little Friend and the H2O Yelper that’s waterproof. Many hunters think a push-pull call is a child’s call, because it’s so simple to operate. So, they wonder why I always carry one and advise other hunters to do the same, even after they’ve mastered diaphragm calls and all the friction calls. Here’s why:
- Push-button calls make entirely-different hen sounds than diaphragm calls, slate calls or box calls do. A hunter then sounds like a hen a gobbler hasn’t talked to previously, a big advantage when hunting in areas where the turkeys have been hunted heavily.
- The Little Friend and H2O Yelper give a hunter the advantage of sounding like two hens calling at the same time. You can push the peg on one of these push-button calls and yelp with a diaphragm call at the same time.
- A turkey may gobble relatively close to you early in the season, and you may not be confident that you can make that perfect yelp, cluck and purr to answer the gobbler. But you’ll get that perfect yelp, cluck or purr immediately with the Little Friend or H20 Yelper.
- These calls allow you to purr softly when a turkey is really close, and you know you can’t make a mistake. You can give that gobbler those encouraging little sounds that will bring him within gun range.
One year while hunting in New York State, I had a gobbler I’d been working for 2 or 3 hours. I moved stand sites several times. Finally, I made one more move and got in close to the gobbler. I stopped all my other calling and just clucked and purred on the H2O Yelper. That ole gobbler came marching right into gun range. I had used every trick I knew to try and get that bird in close, but not until I started clucking and purring on the Yelper did I convince that gobbler to come in close enough for me to take.
Day 1: Chris Kirby Talks Turkey Thugs
Tomorrow: Quaker Boy Calls’ Chris Kirby and the Goat Hill Gobbler
