Box calls are the literal worst. Yes, you can kill a turkey using one but the bona fide turkey killers I know who use box calls kill their birds by woodsmanship and moving aggressively. Setting to and calling them up, they ain't.
The main reason box calls are the worst is their common use by people who don't know that they don't sound like turkeys. Most box callers I hear in the woods don't even sound like a hen that sounds like a box call. They sound sort of like turkeys. They sound loud and disturbing, which a turkey will gobble at but a turkey has gobbled at most any loud noise at one time or another.
New turkey hunters are told to get a box call because it's the simplest. Yeah, it's the simplest way to not sound like a turkey. To begin with you have to have a box call which is capable of sounding as a turkey does. You also have to know how a turkey actually sounds and then practice to figure out how to run a box call to reproduce those sounds exactly. Few do. If you want to hear a box caller who knows how to build and run one, look up Matt van Cise. He gets it right more often than most.
The other reason box calls are the worst is also due to popularity. Jakes will come check out anything turkey-like. They tend to stop at a distance, usually above you, and watch to see the source of the noise. Or they'll walk up onto the trail or road the caller is travelling and wait to see what it coming. They see the hunter first and slip off. The result is often even a live hen which happens to sound like a box call is ignored by gobblers which learned about box calls when they were jakes. I've recorded box call hens very near gobblers who could not elicit a gobble while I could using a different sound. I've also recorded a box call hen which literally had to chase after a gobbler leaving the roost.
So being as box calls are the 6mms of turkey calls, that being the literal worst, what's better? You can, in fact, kill a turkey using a box call after all. What's better is the call with which you can kill not just a turkey sometimes, but most turkeys most of the time. That call is one which sounds exactly as a hen the target gobbler knows. Match the hatch. Sometimes that's a box call, but more often it's not.
The main reason box calls are the worst is their common use by people who don't know that they don't sound like turkeys. Most box callers I hear in the woods don't even sound like a hen that sounds like a box call. They sound sort of like turkeys. They sound loud and disturbing, which a turkey will gobble at but a turkey has gobbled at most any loud noise at one time or another.
New turkey hunters are told to get a box call because it's the simplest. Yeah, it's the simplest way to not sound like a turkey. To begin with you have to have a box call which is capable of sounding as a turkey does. You also have to know how a turkey actually sounds and then practice to figure out how to run a box call to reproduce those sounds exactly. Few do. If you want to hear a box caller who knows how to build and run one, look up Matt van Cise. He gets it right more often than most.
The other reason box calls are the worst is also due to popularity. Jakes will come check out anything turkey-like. They tend to stop at a distance, usually above you, and watch to see the source of the noise. Or they'll walk up onto the trail or road the caller is travelling and wait to see what it coming. They see the hunter first and slip off. The result is often even a live hen which happens to sound like a box call is ignored by gobblers which learned about box calls when they were jakes. I've recorded box call hens very near gobblers who could not elicit a gobble while I could using a different sound. I've also recorded a box call hen which literally had to chase after a gobbler leaving the roost.
So being as box calls are the 6mms of turkey calls, that being the literal worst, what's better? You can, in fact, kill a turkey using a box call after all. What's better is the call with which you can kill not just a turkey sometimes, but most turkeys most of the time. That call is one which sounds exactly as a hen the target gobbler knows. Match the hatch. Sometimes that's a box call, but more often it's not.
