So I'm coming here to the U.S to hunt turkey.
And what better place to find out how than the national wild turkey federation convention, here in Nashville, Tennessee.
Now I'm with a legendary outdoor writer, Tony Hansen.
You may have Outdoor life. He's the Whitetail editor at Realtree.com
He's young, he's handsome, he's energetic, and he's highly successful in the field.
One of the things he does outside whitetail hunting is turkey hunting.
And he's going to show me how to use this slate call.
Is that right Tony?
Yeah, I mean that's the first lesson. Everyone wants to refer to this as a slate call.
And that's technically not correct.
I got it wrong again.
But it's a style of call basically called a pot and a pig.
This is a pot. This is a pig.
Everyone wants to call it a slate call because when they first became really popular this was slate right on top.
What's it made out of now?
This particular call is a Power Hen crystal, so this is a crystal surface by Zink calls.
They also makes this with slate, glass, aluminium, you can put cooper on these, I've seen them with ceramic.
Basically all this is, is a sounding chamber and you're going to vibrate something across the surface.
- That's really what's going to make the sound. - So how do we describe this genre of call?
- This is friction calls. - Friction calls.
And it's absolutely what it means. We are going to cause friction with our striker on the surface.
It's going to hit that sounding board, come out the bottom, with all sorts of acoustics.
We may be rednecks but we are very, very high tech rednecks.
This can make every single call, every sound that a turkey makes.
Except maybe the gobble. You can gobble on it but its not going to sound like an actual gobble call,
but kee kee runs, whistles, yelps, cutts, cackles, anything like that.
There are different types of call. Can you just run through what they are? What is a kee kee call?
A kee kee is really what a young turkey is going to make, kind of in the fall, and it's a whistling with a broken yelp.
It's when they are developing their vocal cords, when they are learning how to speak.
Then from there you are going to get into your basic cluck. You know I'm here, I'm content, everything is cool.
Yelping can also mean contentment but is also really associated with the breeding season.
- Yeah my wife does that sometimes. - There you go.
I'll show you how to do just a basic yelp, this is the call if you can just do this you can go out and kill a turkey.
Very simple, hold it just like your holding a pencil, I'm left handed so this is going to be a little bit different.
And I also use my hand I use to hold the call to move the call, but you don't have to.
The angle is really the key.
If you hold it up straight, it's not going to make much sound, you've got to roll it a little bit.
Each striker is going to have its own sweet spot. Just roll it a little bit.
Little egg shaped circle.
I do it a little bit differently, just what I'm comfortable with, I'm going to move the call and hold my striker still.
Most important thing, is not really the quality, it's that rhythm.
This is going to be a yelp but this isn't what a turkey sounds like.
See sounds like a yelp, but it's not really what a turkey is, because the rhythm is wrong.
Got to get that rhythm right.
- Very simple. Give it a shot. - Cool.
Ok so what sort of turkey would that bring in?
That would would call in any turkey out there, but the point is to bring in the gobblers, because they are going to think that's a hen.
A very lusty, beautiful, gorgeous hen, which you are primed for this part. So there you go.
To all those lusty beautiful hens, I am happily married. But I do get that fan mail sometimes, I'll pass it on to you.
- So I need to angle the slate, angle the call. - Yep.
Not a slate sorry, it's a something crystal....
That's a crystal yeah.
Well. Ok you are drawing lines. My son does that, aged six.
- So now make a small oval, oval shaped. - And I hold it like a pencil.
- Is that getting closer? - Yep, that's getting closer.
Sounds like a turkey is dying.
Well eventually they will if you are doing it right.
And then you just have to keep experimenting with the speed.
I think that could probably work. Probably not going to win any awards but you'll kill a few turkeys.
Not yet but I hear these things take time.
There are people, very old people I hold in highest esteem that I've been following their turkey hunting exploits since I was a fetus,
such as the legendary Steve Hickoff, now he would be the ideal person to show me how to perfect this yeah?
- Absolutely - We'll come on to him later I'm sure.
You're getting there. Let me show you something here.
What's happening here is you're lifting
- The striker isn't going to make any noise going backwards. - No.
Only forwards. So what people are trying to do is lift it off.
Keep it in one contact with your circle going forwards.
I see.
- You can almost see lines forming in there. - I can yeah.
- Immediately it's better - It is.
And with a little practice you'll start to feel where the angle is that is the sweet spot of the call.
I see on the back here it has an area with a rough edge and every now and again you just...
You want to rough up the end of your striker and also rough up your call with a bit of sand paper.
- And that's this patch here? - Absolutely.
Hey I think you could kill them. Hitting them I'm not too sure but you can call them in.
Yeah you've seen my shooting haven't you.
Well I haven't but I've heard, I've heard.
Well Tony thank you very much indeed. Carry on entertaining us, it's been an absolute pleasure.
And I'll dedicate my first bird I call in with this call to you.
I appreciate that very much.
Now we're doing a box call right now and you can hold a box call in a variety of different ways.