Hunts On Outfitting Podcast

Ep.112 From Cabinet Shop To Field Tested Turkey Calls

• Kenneth Marr • Season 3 • Episode 112

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A gobbler can make you feel like a hero or an idiot in the same morning, and John and Taylor from Pistol Creek Outdoors have lived both sides of it. We’re talking while they’re in the field, with John hunting Florida Osceolas and Taylor grinding it out on Alabama Easterns, and that real-time context shapes everything: the birds are quiet, the conditions change, and the “perfect sequence” doesn’t exist. 

We get into the core skill that separates consistent turkey killers from hopeful callers: woodsmanship. John and Taylor lay out why calling is often the smaller slice of the pie, how to scout smarter, and how to read posture and behavior so you can take a turkey’s temperature instead of blindly cranking on a call. From there, we dig deep on practical turkey calling, including why switching between diaphragm calls, slate or glass pot calls, and box calls can be less about variety and more about finding the right frequency that a specific bird will answer. 

If you’ve ever stood at a booth staring at V-cuts, batwings, and ghost cuts wondering what actually fits your mouth, we break down the basics in plain language, including what creates the clean front end and where rasp really comes from. We also talk pot call surfaces, striker feel, and when locator calls like crow or owl sounds help or hurt, plus a few differences between Eastern, Osceola, Rio, and Merriam turkeys. 

Subscribe for more turkey hunting tactics and gear talk that stays honest, share this with a hunting buddy, and leave a review with the one lesson you learned the hard way in the spring woods.

Check us out on Facebook  Hunts On Outfitting, or myself Ken Marr. Reach out and  Tell your hunting buddies about the podcast if you like it, Thanks!

Welcome From The Turkey Woods

SPEAKER_00

I don't know. It's not recorded. The video part of it. It's not recorded. That's what's going on. So if you guys look at the podcast profile picture on the left hand side, we've got John. John is the owner and founder of Fix Cool Creek Outdoors. We learned all of that. John is on the left. And then we've got Taylor. Taylor, great guy of Aqu in uh Atlanta, Georgia. Sorry called Xbox. Key is on the right. And in the middle between them, we're going to see a box there with some calls and stuff that we're going to talk about that later on in the podcast. So Taylor's hunting in Alabama. And then John's hunting in Florida. John has just got a turkey built half an hour before we started. And Taylor is still hunting away, but later on in the week. So from humble fruits of cabinet makers now building beautifully crafted turkey calls that's what we get into with these guys. We also talk about the important skills, turkey hunting. What's the most important skill you have? Turkey hunting will give you a hint. It's not called the case. We do talk about calls. We talk about turkey behaviors. We talk about all three types of calls. We talk about the different types of diaphragm calls. So we can do it. If you go to fullarchery.com, there's some great broadcasts on there along with the flexions and arrows. If you use an all caps all 2026, you get 10% off your order. That's something to keep in mind. On Friday, I'll be giving a seminar on food hunting fair. And then Saturday, April 11th at 7 p.m., I'm going to be giving a seminar hunting with Beagles. If you guys are random areas for Great Foods Commands, and check it out, I'll be giving out some hats for milk foods, some free simple bags, dog food. And let's talk about it. Let's talk to the boys. So if you're looking to get a hold of us to come on the podcast, or if you got somebody forward or just reach out to me, you can email me. Find us on outfit at gmails.com. Or you can find us on Facebook finds on outfit. Or find myself on there at feel free to reach out at somebody. It's been great talking with you from all of them. So you're with Pistol Creek Outdoors. I came across uh your guys' booth at the Dallas Safari Club in Atlanta, Georgia. And I'm there with a buddy of mine, and I can hear these turkey calls, and it's such a big show and I'm trying to narrow it down. I'm like, where's that coming from? I said I want to I want to talk turkey with some boys here. And uh then finally we found your guys' booth and the guys that had work in there, they were great to talk to.

SPEAKER_04

And um I ended up Hey, let me ask you a question. Was was that one of them?

SPEAKER_00

Uh I think so. Were you the you were there?

SPEAKER_04

Uh yeah, I assure you. It was it was you know, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Here and there was a guy with uh I think red hair.

SPEAKER_04

Uh would it have been either Caleb or uh or Taylor? Was he tall or short?

SPEAKER_00

Uh he's tall.

SPEAKER_04

That's Taylor.

A Broken Call Starts A Business

SPEAKER_00

Okay, yep, yep, okay. That's who I got. It was great. I ended up buying some mouth calls, and those have been awesome. I really like using those, and I was like, I should have bought some more at the time. Um, but uh I'm excited to talk to you all about the calls because I mean there's a lot to it with Turkey calling, all the different kinds of calls and the configurations of them and everything. But first I want to get into John, how how did you come about starting Pistol Creek outdoors?

SPEAKER_04

Well, it's a long, long story, but um basically I was a fishing guide in North Georgia and I was taking other people's kids fishing when I had uh three daughters at home that all wanted to go hang out with their daddy, and so I hung it up. I was also the family and children's ministry leader at our church, and that position sort of got done away because of some changes that the the direction the church was going. And uh my middle daughter Emma was dying to go turkey hunting, and I went out and uh was getting ready for the season, like always, and my favorite call uh was broken. So I decided I'd try to fix it, and and in trying to get it taken apart where I could fix it, I further broke it and I wasn't gonna fix it. But I owned a cabinet shop at the time, and um I said I can make one of these and really was just making one and then got addicted to the idea of making a turkey call um that I could call a turkey in was something I've made for myself or one of my kids, one of my daughters. And um then another guy at the shop who was not a turkey hunter at all, but had worked on building some string instruments and stuff like that, uh, and he managed the cabinet shop for me. Um he was interested and he thought it was just hilarious that I would try to build something to call a turkey with. But even he got sort of addicted to the turkey calling as well, and it really provided a good um opportunity for he and I to bond as well, which helped the cabinet shop uh because now we had a mutual interest that otherwise we would not have had. I mean, he was a great guy, but our interests were different. But now we had something that we could build a friendship around, which benefited the cabinet shop as well. And um Tony Ryder, one of the guys I'm down here hunting with right now in Florida, he came by the shop and grabbed one and ended up bringing it down here to Florida where I'm sitting right now, and people down here liked them. And uh we started getting people calling us at the cabinet shop asking instead of asking us to build them cabinets, they wanted us to build them turkey calls, and and we thought it was really neat. And um then the National Wild Turkey Federation called us, and I believe that telephone call came from a client down here named Jeff Hoke. I believe he's the one that spread the word. But um, don't know that for a fact, could be wrong, but um he uh they called us and asked us, did we want to spot at the Grand National Convention that year? And I thought we're not we don't we can't do that. We're just a little pigly. And uh finally Austin said, because I told him I said we don't belong there. You know, we just don't I think Taylor's won't uh chime in there and um you there? Can you hear me? Yep, I can hear you, but I can't see you. Patchon said turn you video them.

SPEAKER_03

Let me get the high ground. Hold on. Oh, let me get the high ground. I'm trying to make it back up to the top, guys. Hold on. Yeah, no worries.

SPEAKER_04

Dude, we ain't heard a freaking gobble all morning. Me neither, but we heard one finally, and it you ought not have done that.

SPEAKER_03

Well, they're here. There's no doubt about it, they're here. I mean, there's more scratching and turkey tracks in these roads than I've seen in a long time.

SPEAKER_04

Evidently, uh it's better service. Yep. So anyway, I kept telling Austin we didn't belong in Nashville that we had just, you know, a couple calls and we could build a bunch of them, but we didn't have a lot to choose from, and they were gonna laugh us out of the building. And he said, Well, they may laugh at our turkey calls, but they won't laugh at our cabinets. So we went to with a booth that was the most probably impressive set of cabinets you've ever seen.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04

And um, we tricked people into thinking that we were something. This was 2017. Um, and uh they just were so impressed with the booth that um they didn't realize we only had two turkey calls to sell. So that's how we got started.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah. That's awesome. Yeah, the cabinetry, it it like yeah, I never thought of that, but you guys being cabinet makers really helping with the display, yeah. It does it would make you look like you know what you're doing, even if you don't, I suppose. At least with the cabinet.

SPEAKER_04

And we we've we've learned that was you know nine years ago. Next year we'll be celebrating our tenth anniversary, and now my job is to turkey hunt and build turkey calls. So there you go.

Meet Taylor And Life On Shift

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, it's really just living the dream. Um, so I want to talk to you guys. Well, Taylor, did you want to introduce yourself there?

SPEAKER_03

Most of the high ground guys. Anyways, I'm uh I'm Taylor Rample from Northwest Georgia. I've been on Pistol Creek since uh what 22, John?

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, sounds right.

SPEAKER_03

Sounds right. Something like that. Um and then uh I'm a full-time journeyman by trade, journeyman lineman. Um and the role that I'm in now, I'm actually an operation supervisor, so it gives me a lot of uh a lot of time to be able to turkey hunt. And so uh that's kind of what I'm doing. We got two kids, a beautiful wife at home, and I'm out here getting my butt whooped today in Alabama and turn on a dome.

SPEAKER_04

I was getting mine uh whooped up until 1130, and then um I whooped his.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, because you're we're at the sun.

SPEAKER_04

I'm in Florida. Taylor's in Alabama.

SPEAKER_00

Right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

So you guys the sun just peaked out, so um third is starting to fair. We got some hawks going on, so I'm thinking that that 12 to 3 window is gonna be pretty good.

SPEAKER_04

Maybe it will be. I'm done though, I gotta put my stuff up. Wait till you see the video. Patching was right with me. I shot it at about 12 steps. But of course it was behind the tree, but you see the effect.

Chasing Turkeys Across State Lines

SPEAKER_03

We'll uh we'll be here today, tomorrow, and Friday, and then the Georgia opener Saturday, so I'll be back home. That's right.

SPEAKER_00

So how many states would you guys cover in a year, in the run of a year now, like turkey hunting?

SPEAKER_04

As many as we can, right, Taylor?

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, yeah. I think last year I hit uh I think last year I hit nine. Oh wow. Um, I think you were right there with me.

SPEAKER_04

I don't think I did quite nine. I did Florida, Alabama. I did not kill a turkey in Georgia, but I called some in. I did Florida, Alabama, Missouri, Kansas, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota, Wyoming, and Oklahoma. So I got eight. I got eight. When I hunted Georgia, but I I I did not harvest a turkey. I did not pull the trigger on a turkey in my home state last year.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. So you guys are uh I mean, it's great being able to hunt turkeys as much as you do and take the calls that you make out and actually put them to the test, not just put them on a shelf.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah. And we broke one in that uh Taylor's gonna be excited to see for that we're uh we're doing releasing for next year. Uh we've all we've killed so many turkeys with it this week, we decided okay, this one's going in the lineup right here. Something golden's coming.

SPEAKER_00

Well field tested.

SPEAKER_04

Yep.

Woodsmanship Beats Perfect Calling

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. So I want to talk to you guys about uh well, about the importance of calls. So, you know, there's three different types of calls, and I'd like to talk to you guys about the importance of not just using one specific type of call. And I want to first start, I guess, with the uh with the pot or the slate calls and the difference in the glass and the aluminum on it, the strikers, like because you see all you see some guys going to their turkey vests, they've got all these different strikers in there and pots, and some people are thinking, why so many?

SPEAKER_04

Well, I'm gonna jump in here first, Taylor, and I think you'll back me up on this. Calling is important, but it's probably the least important part of the hunt. Woodsmanship 100% of the time is gonna uh be if you don't have good woodsmanship, it doesn't matter how good you can call. So now I we like to say 90% woodsmanship, 10% uh callers, and and I would say those people who regularly kill turkeys um are the ones that focus on their woodsmanship equally as much as their calls. Uh but then based on uh, and I would say, like I said, 90% woodsmanship, 10% calling. But when it comes down to calling and you got a call, you better call as good as you can. So I think there's a lot of different reasons why there's different calls. I mean, I think Taylor mostly likes to run mouth mouth calls. I'm I'm getting more into mouth calls over the last couple of years, but I'm still probably 50-50 on the well, I mean, today on that turkey we just killed, I ran a box call, a pot call, and a mouth call, all three of them. And um sometimes there's just a little bit different free uh frequency in the call. And uh what was it? It was that glass that he wanted. When I would cut on that glass, uh or excited Cluck, I would say, on that glass, he'd hammer it. But he didn't really answer much of anything else. Taylor, what's your thoughts?

SPEAKER_03

I mean, yeah, I'm right there with John. Woodsmanship is the most important thing. Um, you know, trying to figure out where turkeys want to be um is is essentially the biggest part of the game. Um, yeah, you can convince them to come to where you want to where you want them to come from time to time, but woodsmanship's first and foremost. And then secondly, it's not necessarily what type of call you're using or how I mean you you want to sound decent. I mean, I'm I'm not gonna lie about it. You want to sound decent, um, but it's not necessarily how you sound, it's what you're saying to that turkey. Um and and and taking that turkey's temperature, right? So if I've got a turkey that that I've heard gobble, you know, two or three times in an hour, well, I'm I'm assuming he's probably got hinge or he's a stubborn old gobbler that's just not gonna do his thing. So I'm not gonna sit there and crank down on him. I'm taking his temperature. But if I've got a fired up two-year-old or a group, you know, two or three two-year-olds that are just absolutely fired up, and every time I put air to the call, they're they're hammering. Well, then I may call a little bit more. Because let's be honest, we all want to call them up to the gun barrel. It's not fun sitting on a road bed or over a field, you know, and waiting for them to walk in front of you. We want to call them to us. Um, so I think it's in woodsmanship first and foremost, and then secondly, what you're saying, how you're saying it, and when you're saying it to the turkey.

SPEAKER_04

That's and you can't you can't figure either of those things out, the woodsmanship or their dialect or vernacular or whatever you want to call it, sitting at home watching YouTube videos. You've got to be in the woods doing it. Uh and you know, we talked about turkey's postures earlier today, and you could see because I I left out the part about me getting my butt whooped this morning, but one absolutely just flipped me off at a hundred yards. I yelp one time at him and he ran the other direction. You so you could uh you could you could tell his posture, he was not impressed by me at all. Uh, of course, his brother or his buddy did get shot yesterday. So, I mean, he may still be a little mental right now. But um, you've got to go out and and watch these birds to pick up their personalities, be able to tell, you know, what that hen is saying, or you know, yeah, but she may be cutting, but is she cutting because she's mad, or is she cutting because she's excited? Uh, you know, and um, and if if you watch them long enough, you'll really start to figure out that turkey's feeling like this. I need to change my calling uh to manipulate the mood that he's currently in. And you can't do that in a season. Guys, it's what'd we say, Taylor? I've been doing it 36 years.

SPEAKER_03

How long have you been hunting? Um, I'll be 40 this year. I've been doing it since I was 12, so I'm not good at math. But 28 years.

SPEAKER_04

28 years. I when I'm 52, so there we we started. I think, yeah, it ta I I think Taylor would say this. We both learn something still every time we go in the woods in the 30s. Yes. And I've been doing it 36 years, he's been doing it 28. That's uh 64 years of combined experience, and we're still learning how to do this.

SPEAKER_03

You you hear it said all the time that there are, and this is the the truest statement I've ever heard, I think uh Strickland says it, there are no absolutes in turkey hunting. Um, just because you roost a bird doesn't necessarily mean he's dead. Just because you get one to gobble and you think he's coming doesn't mean he's dead. Just because this turkey did this last year or two days ago, doesn't mean that the next turkey's gonna do the same thing. And kind of alluding to what John was saying about the turkey's posture, um, you know, getting back to uh hand cutting. Is she cutting because she's mad or curious? Is she cutting because she's excited? It's it's hard to understand which one it is or what what they're actually saying unless you're you can see them. So it's it's important to actually see what their temperament is and see what their behavior is, why they're making these vocalizations. I mean, I I know a lot of us, uh a lot of us with Pistol Creek, man, I I get out as soon as the the calendar turns, you know, first few weeks of January, I'm out and I'm listening. Um, I'm I'm looking for as many birds as I can. Doesn't necessarily mean that they're gonna be there in the spring, but you know, in the wintertime, these winter flocks, a lot of times these goblers are still together. And so if you can find an area, you know, uh maybe a drainage on the on a north-facing slope of some mature pines where they're roosted, um, and you hear one or two, well, chances are there might be three, four, five, or six. And again, they may not all be there come turkey season, but I can promise you a couple of them are gonna still be around. So you can kind of drop a pin on that.

SPEAKER_04

But you know, they're just they're so turkey's a very emotional animal. If you watch one, you're going to see its emotions. You're gonna see its contentment, it's nervousness, it's excitement, it's you know, that they they don't just ver uh vocalize it, they you know, they're um they have personalities, they have connotations, they have you can see it in their body language as well.

SPEAKER_00

Right, yeah, yeah. It's um well, I want to talk to you, John, because uh about woodsmanship and all that too. But you were saying this morning how you used all three types of calls. How did you you were taking the turkey turkey's temperature uh doing that, but why did you go to all three? And do you how do you think that made a difference? Because I mean it it worked, but it it's exciting.

SPEAKER_04

I went through all I went through the Taylor knows why I went through all three because I was trying to jerk a gobble out of one. I couldn't do it. I hadn't heard a gob. We didn't hear a uh gobble until eleven o'clock today. And uh I'd hit him with one thing and nothing. And we we had fairly we were fairly confident that there was turkeys within earshots of our calls. So I was just sort of started with the mouth calls. I'll usually start soft uh when I start doing this. I'll I'll I'll start soft and in case he's right around the corner. I don't want to you know blow his eardrums. Um and then I I go through, I mean, even pot calls. Sometimes you got three pot calls, and um there's one that they're hitting on just because it's the right frequency. You know, that glass had a little bit higher pitch, or that aluminum had a little bit more rasp, or that slate had a little bit more throat, you know, but something that, you know, sometimes I think it reminds them of a turkey they know. And or sometimes I just think, hey, that's that's that's the that's the yelp that turkey likes right there. Um but I mean I don't I don't walk around with near as much stuff as what I used to. I used to look like a Sears and Robuck catalog walking through the woods, but um I've I've got a couple of pots with me. I've got a box call, several mouth calls. Uh I know Taylor, you toast uh tube calls, trumpets, stuff like that.

SPEAKER_03

It doesn't necessarily mean that I'm gonna use them, but like John said, you you I mean, if they're not gobbling at your mouth, Yelper, they're not gobbling at your pot call. You you some of these turkeys are just picky and finicky. And if you can if you have tools in your in your vest um that you can utilize to try to draw a gobble out, I'm gonna use them. I I do carry a box call, very rarely do I use it. I carry one pot call, one striker, a wing bone or trumpet call, a tube call for like really, really windy days. Um but I'm I'm predominantly uh a diaphragm guy. I run a ghost cut. Or batwing. Um, but sometimes you know you'll find this fanicky turkey that just doesn't want to gobble. And so you gotta try some different frequencies, different, different sounds. And sometimes, you know, you switch it up. But perfect example. Last year, I was up in northwest Georgia, um, and we got after me and a buddy that's with me now, we got after a few turkeys, and they would respond to the mouth call, but they wouldn't break. Um, I don't know why. Never laid eyes on them. So I pulled out a pot call that that uh that John had made last year, part of our Trinity series. And uh man, it's probably been it's probably been 10 or 12 years since I've called up a turkey with a pot call. It's like it's it's a glass call. Um it's probably been 10 or 12 years since I've caught up a turkey with that, but I pulled that glass call out and started, you know, communicating with this gobbler, and lo and behold, man, it he ran to it. And so I've been calling to him all day with the mouth call. Now, does that mean that the pot call was a different sound and it was a different frequency and that's just what he liked? Maybe. Does that mean that the gobbler's temperature finally got to where it needed to be for me to kill him? Maybe. I don't know. Maybe his mood changed. Um, but I do like having different tools in my vest to be able to utilize when I need them. If I never have to pull another call out, that's that's great. I'll just keep my mouth help or in the whole time and and go with that. But I do like having them just in case I need them to try to throw something else at them.

SPEAKER_04

And a lot of times I'll stay in the woods longer if I got one more call to try before I say they ain't got one of nothing today. So if I got one more call in there that I can try, I may I may stay 15 minutes longer. And I mean, we were on our way back to camp today when we finally jerked a gobble out of that one that's it's actually hanging right behind the phone. I'll turn it around here in a second. So um, yeah. But that's why we carry different calls.

SPEAKER_01

Right, yes.

SPEAKER_04

Well, not not necessarily. You know, like if you know, the if you're not very good with a pot or uh a mouth call, you're not gonna have a lot of confidence when the turkeys aren't gobbling, you know. You're you're you're sitting there going, well, they're not gobbling because I sound like junk. But I sound pretty good on a pot call. So, you know, you have that to, you know, if you're better with a pot call, you're probably gonna carry more um more pot calls than you are mouth calls. And I like box calls for windy days to reach out there, and then sometimes they're just sometimes they just answer to a box call when they won't do anything else. Uh that doesn't mean they're coming to it, but box calls are good at jerking gobbles out of them.

SPEAKER_00

Right, yeah. So basically you you're just trying to find that right frequency and the variety of calls like you guys are saying could be potentially it just depending on that specific bird.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, that's right. Uh and particular time of the day.

Choosing Diaphragm Pot And Box Calls

SPEAKER_00

Right, okay, yeah. Because in where you're hunting right now, too, John, and I don't know what it's like in Alabama, but the those turkeys there, they're notoriously quiet, aren't they?

SPEAKER_03

Birds in the south can be, absolutely.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, so Taylors on Easterns, which are I would, you know, just me personally, they're the most stubborn, especially in Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, Mississippi, they're the most stubborn birds that they are, but they've got the loudest gobble. The the Hostiolas that I'm on are a very close second in stubbornness to a uh a uh Eastern, and then you get out to the Rios and the Miriams and they they gobble all day long. And um, but that doesn't mean they're easy because getting your tail whipped by Miriams hurts just as bad as getting your tail whipped by an Eastern.

SPEAKER_03

That's right.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04

They just gobble more.

SPEAKER_00

So if somebody's coming to your booth and that you guys set up at your booth and they're looking at your diaphragm calls and they're seeing all the different cuts, and they're like, which one's for me? I mean, where do you guys point people?

SPEAKER_02

I think we both did it for on that one. Do I I said I can take this one if you want me to?

SPEAKER_04

Yeah. Yeah. And then I I think we did it for all you tell them what you say, and then I'll tell them what I say.

SPEAKER_02

There is there is no um universal or one two am I universal, one call fix-all.

SPEAKER_03

There's no one mouth call that's gonna work the same, first and foremost. We could make we could make ten of our Holy Ghost ghost cut calls in our Trinity series, all ten of those are gonna be slightly different. They're all handmade, right? So um I would say for a beginner, a beginner turkey call, um, you can't go wrong with a V-cut. Um V-cuts are in my opinion, the easiest to run. Um, you know, and then you kind of you kind of go up from there. But there's there's so many different variations. You got back tension, you've got stretch, you've got uh, is it a double read, a three read, is it a two and a half, three and a half, you know, is it uh what's the thickness of the latex? It's there's so there are literally limitless options. And so my response when someone comes to our booth is hey, whether you buy our calls or someone else's, it doesn't matter to me, but you need to buy as many as you can um and and run them. Figure out which one fits you best, how your air comes across your tongue, out of your mouth, throw, you know, out of your diaphragm and across your call. Um, you know, but for a for a brand new person, beginner, I'm gonna go V-cut all day long. That's that's just me.

SPEAKER_04

I'll go V cut and set uh because you're gonna get a turkey sound out of a V cut the quickest. Uh second would be a batwing because most beginners don't know what side of the mouth they channel their air down, and a bat wing really doesn't matter. But one thing that we do in the booth is we we spend a lot of time with people explaining the anatomy of a of a got me my pouch real quick. Uh the anatomy of a um mouth call. So what a lot of people don't understand is why they struggle with um with calls, is so that top reed, that yellow reed on top is where all your rasp comes from. Uh the reed in the middle is where your clean front end comes from. So where you blow that air across that middle reed is how you get a clean front end or a key base to your yelk. Um, and then you let it break over into rasp by rattling the top reed. Um, and a lot that's just not ever said anywhere else. I mean, usually you look on the back of a mouth call pack, it says, put the call on the roof of your mouth, press your tongue against it, blow air across it, and say the word key all. And if you can do that for 36 years, I know for a fact, and you'll never make a yelp out of it. But um what I tell everybody is is is to find that clean front end. I don't know if I can do it. Um I got one sweat right here. You got it. Just go find that clean front end where you can hit it every time and hold it. That's not a turkey call. I ain't yelping at them, but it um that you know that's where you that's how you're gonna start your yelp, and then all you do is just drop your gall. Then you speak it up. When you get both parts of the call, it's just so start slow, learn how to manipulate the call. That's regardless of whatever cut you get. Um find the clean front end and get it where you can automatically hit that every time. You put it in your mouth, and just boom, you're getting clean front end, and start dropping your jaw and then speed it up and listen to real turkeys. Uh don't listen to us calling, don't listen to the competition guys calling, don't listen to people on YouTube. YouTube real turkeys, and listen to that, and it'll burn into your brain. And with a with a conditioned response, if you listen to it enough, you automatically sound more like a turkey. And the more you sound like a turkey, the more you can call.

SPEAKER_00

Right. Yeah, well that that's kind of what I did with learning the diaphragms, is I I didn't know at all, so I just bought a bunch of them and I laid them all out and I was popping them in and out like you know, like chips. And uh for me, I found I really liked the bat wing and the ghost cut. That had the most luck with the battery.

SPEAKER_04

So that means if you blow a ghost cut, you blow down the middle of your mouse.

SPEAKER_00

Yes.

SPEAKER_04

Because that's where we cut open the uh top reed to expose that that bottom uh that middle reed.

Slate Pots And Striker Preferences

SPEAKER_00

Yes. Do what I needed to do is someone too so they're looking at your uh your pot calls, and they're looking at the difference. It's glass and ceramic and all that. What are you telling them? If they're curious, but like what would what one would you recommend? I mean, would it even depend on the species of turkey that they're after or for a beginner? Yeah. Well, for a beginner? Yeah, for a beginner, yes, yep. Slate all day long.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, slate. Slate. You don't have to worry about the conditioning as much. Um it's it's gonna make a sound. I mean, uh we it sounds better if you'll keep it conditioned and keep it from slicking off, but slate's gonna be the easiest to run. And man, slate in slate in the booth and inside doesn't always sound as sexy as glass does. But man, slate in the woods is easier to run, and man, does it sound like a turkey. Very forgiving. Yeah. And and slate too, I mean, every pot call has three hens living in it, or two hens and a and a gobbler living in it. The closer to the outside edge you get, you're more end up in a genny, you know, and then get down or you sound like an old raspy hen, and then you get closer to the center, and now you start sounding like a Jake or a gobbler. So uh, but I think slate, I think slate though that there's a wider range of tones you can get out of slate than there is glass or aluminum. I just don't think there's that big of a difference. Um but yeah, 100% slate's the way to go to get started.

SPEAKER_00

Right. Yeah, that no forgiving, because I learned on glass and I I found that it wasn't that forgiving sometimes. Like if you have to condition it, get her all scratched up, and sometimes I'd have it on there, like, why can't I make it sound and then it just like it'd crack almost right down to like that? Like, oh there it is down the sweet spot. So a bit of a learning curve, yeah.

SPEAKER_02

No doubt.

SPEAKER_00

And then what about strikers too? Because you know there's different variations of strikers.

SPEAKER_03

Okay, that's another one of those that, man, the list is is unlimited.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah. I used to I used to get in and I was looking for that perfect striker to make me sound more like a turkey, and then and um and there's no doubt striker will change the sound of call. It it will at 100% of the time. I now take about five or six strikers in the woods with me. They're all identical to one another, and it's the free one that comes in the package when you buy one of our calls. Because every time I shoot a turkey using a pot call, I tend to lose three strikers. So that's why I carry so many of them, and they're all the same ones. And it's a I I like a two-piece striker, whether it's diamond wood or not. Some people like one-pieces, some people like flared tips. You know, I just uh I mean it may be a function of us, you know, demoing so many calls in the booth with that striker that comes with the call. That that's my favorite striker. It's that two-piece diamond wood that comes free with it. So I carry a pile of them with me in the woods so I can lose them. And you know, all over the southeast there are there are little pieces of wood that say pistol creek on it laying down next to trees all over the place because I've lost a pile of them.

SPEAKER_03

There they're you they've got different, you know, different types of wood, like he said. Is it a one-piece? Is it a two-piece? Because again, in my opinion, a one-piece striker is gonna make that call sound a heck of a lot different than a two-piece striker. Some folks, uh, some piece some people would rather have a a two-piece that's super heavy on the back end. Some people want a uh a two-piece that's super light. Um my preference is I I I like just you know, a super light one-piece type of wood. I don't I don't like it to be super heavy. Um I feel like I can control it more. Um, it's a little bit higher pitched, and so I you know, it's it's all again, limitless options when it comes to uh to the strikers.

SPEAKER_04

Right. And and you know, probably uh you go out and get you some some custom strikers or use the ones that come free with the calls. Whichever one you like in the beginning, I bet you is the path you're gonna take towards what kind of striker you like. And if you've got confidence in this single flared tip purple heart striker that you you spend an extra fifty dollars on, and you you're probably gonna practice with it more, and you are going to without your you realizing it, you're gonna get good with that striker. So um, but you can you definitely can change up the tones by doing the strikers. A lot of people really dive into that. I don't that much. Uh I'm about I am 100% about jerking a gobble out of him, getting in a place that he's willing to come to, and um you're probably gonna kill him. And the difference in a you know, canary wood striker and a purple heart striker and a two-piece diamond wood probably ain't the difference in what killed that turkey. You said what he wanted to hear from a place he wanted to hear it from and was willing to go, uh that's what got him in there.

Shock Gobbles And Locator Calls

SPEAKER_00

Right. Yeah. Yeah, that makes sense. Uh just to switch things up a little bit, I want to talk about shock gobble calls and how important do you guys think they are when you're heading out in the morning? You Taylor, you know?

SPEAKER_03

I don't use them. No, you don't at all. I don't I don't I I'm gonna let a turkey do what a turkey does. You know, if I can't get him to gobble with a mouth, and and I don't John may be completely different on this. I'm not big on on on the crow calls or the you know owl hoot. Um I mean every now and again, if uh if it's a place you know that I'm not familiar with and I don't necessarily know where the turkeys are, and I think, man, they should probably be gobbling by now. Every now and again I'll I'll I'll owl hoot at them, but every other time I'm gonna go. Yeah, exactly. So I I'm not a I'm not a big locator call guy. If if you know again, turkeys are gonna do what turkeys do regardless. They're gonna wake up in the morning and um they're either gonna gobble or they're not. I don't think me blowing an owl hoot or a crow call is gonna affect anything. And if I do want to get them to gobble, I'm gonna make sure that A, I can do it with one of my turkey calls, and B, that I'm in a position to where when I do call at them, if they respond, I'm in a spot where I can kill them.

SPEAKER_04

Well, I and I Taylor and I now I I go in the woods every day that and I have an owl hooter I've that was given to me by my parents, my natural voice one, and it's not that great, but they gobble at it when I use it. I've got a Harrison, uh James Harrison hoop tube in there, and I've got a Pistol Creek Crow call. Um very seldom do I use any three of them. I I will tell you, I will use the crow call more than anything else. Um, but rarely is it to try to shock. Well, I guess I am technically shocking a gobble out of one, but most of the time on the crow call, I've already been monkeying with this bird and I'm making a move on him, and I want to know where he's at um because I'm still trying to decide, but I don't want to run the risk of sounding like a turkey and him breaking and coming to me. I I'm not ready to to uh commit to calling to him because anytime you call, you've got to understand he may be coming there. So in fact, I killed a Miriam's last year in Wyoming and uh got up there and got panicked, and I was like, I've got to have this bird gobble, I gotta have him gobble. And I hit that crow call and and 15 minutes later he was flopping on the ground because he let me know where he was. But I you know, I dang sure don't walk through the woods. Usually I mean in the south down here, we got enough crows and owls to do it for us. We don't we don't need them doing it, you know, and uh cows. I mean, yesterday morning I had uh I had turkeys uh hammering the cows moving, you know, or paleated woodpeckers or whipper wheels trains. Yeah. There's something in the woods that's gonna make him gobble, and I I don't really want him to have any clue I am even in the same area code with him until I'm in his bubble and can and and can yelp at him.

SPEAKER_03

That's exactly right. I don't want to give up my position with an owl call or a crow call. Um I don't want anything to be out of the ordinary until I'm in a position where I can kill him. And when I'm in that position where I can kill him, I'm just gonna yelp to him.

SPEAKER_00

Okay. Yeah. No, that makes sense. I uh I I haven't gotten into locator calls much myself, and I wasn't sure because I mean if you roost the birds as well normally i the night before, do you need the chances are they're gonna be around there in the morning.

SPEAKER_04

That is another good are they located or are they roosted?

SPEAKER_03

It's two different things.

SPEAKER_01

I suppose.

SPEAKER_03

That that brings up a whole nother point. There is one locator call that I will utilize specifically out west. I don't do it a lot here in the southeast, but the further north and the further west you go, I will coyote Hal to them. And then go out and then snow in the evenings. Yeah. You go out and use Rios and Rios and Miriams um when you go out in the evenings. The thing with a Rio and a Miriam, um, and I think John knows this, they'll gobble at one o'clock in the morning. Oh that they will literally gobble. Oh yes. They will literally gobble anytime, day or night. Um I I've actually got video on my phone uh two years ago at midnight. Uh one of the guys I was hunting with, you know, kind of late. You were in Wyoming. Yeah, we we yeah, it did. That's right. But we got there kind of late, and I said, Hey, you know, where are the birds at? Just small talking. He said, hop in the truck. And I'm thinking, man, it's 1145. You know, we get in the truck, uh, stop at a high point, and he gets out and coyote howls and boom, you know, there they are. So um, yeah, coyote howling uh I'll definitely utilize just because um it's much now again, I won't use it in the southeast, but out west, man, it they're so prevalent, first and foremost. But two, Rios and Miriams will literally gobble at anything.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04

And and they and but he's doing it only at night to what to locate a bird. Right. So you know, not during the hunt.

New Releases And Hard Field Testing

SPEAKER_00

No, no. Well, that'd probably turn them right off from uh from that if you did it during that. Yeah, they're gonna stay clear there. Um so what's next for Pistol Creek, guys? What's uh you guys you guys have that great Trinity set and everything? I mean, what's uh what are you looking at going forward? Any new surprise well that call that you using Taylor?

SPEAKER_04

I'm coming out with a Taylor Rampley signature series.

SPEAKER_03

We we do have a pretty bad to the bone new uh modified ghost cut that I've been running all day. And it's that's the we the people call it. Yeah, it's it's my new favorite Pistol Creek call. Um it's it's a ghost cut, but it's modified and it it's it's got turkey yellow in it, no doubt. Everybody loves that call.

SPEAKER_04

Chris the Eastridge built that call. Uh everybody loves it. We that's part of the We the People box set that we're doing, similar to the Trinity, but that's to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the or the birth of America, America's 250th birthday. So you get a pot call. It's got 13 uh stripes through us, English walnut and Paducah with uh wing. Oh, yep, there's the Taylor stripes. Actually, that was the first run. That the that's the first run. You got the prototype.

SPEAKER_03

We changed the tape since then. Yeah, it's uh I got I got the the trash ones, the one the first of the few. We're trying to make it e even for with the turkey, so we give Taylor all the junk. Hey, they're whooping me today, man. I John, I'm gonna I'm gonna need you to, I might, I might need that old box call of yours today. I don't know.

SPEAKER_04

Well, my old box call didn't do me any good today. It was that Trinity pot you were talking about that found this joker. We had I was looking at a absolute hammer about 350 yards out in the potato field. I think I said this earlier to Ken. I was like, I wonder what I'd do, what he'd do if I yelped at him. You know, I mean, he's out there preening, drying out, strutting. I started, I cut once or twice on that glass call because I knew I had to carry some distance across that potato field and right behind us in the swamp. I said, he ought not have done that. So we called him and his buddy up and had about five or six jakes and one hen called him in. I killed him at about twelve steps in the middle of a what? Palm swamp cabbage Yeah, Florida flatwoods. It was beautiful coming up through that stuff. It was at Spanish malls hanging everywhere, palmettos. It couldn't have got any better than that.

SPEAKER_03

Other other than uh other than some of the new calls that are coming out, I mean I think Most of us are you know, once April gets good and going, second, third, maybe even fourth week of April, most of us are we're hitting the road. That's a new one. Something golden's coming.

SPEAKER_04

All right. We've stacked them up with this thing. So that'll we'll release that one next year. That's a cool thing we do in Pistol Creek. We all hunt, well, a lot of us do, with the stuff. We'll hunt this year with the stuff that we're trying out for next year. And I can tell you, uh what have we done? Six birds in five days? Yeah. We've killed six birds in five days in Florida. That's not counting the rest of the crowd.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04

Uh that one's that one's been involved in several of them, and it's already made the cut. It's gonna, it's gonna happen next year.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. See, I like that that you guys too. You you can tell you care. You're not just like, oh, we'll put this together, it looks like a turkey call, should be good to go. I mean, you guys are putting it out through your field testing, like said you you just said you're doing it a year in advance and then putting it out, so you want you know, you're trying to make sure that whoever's spending their hard-earned dollars on your calls, they're getting the best they can.

SPEAKER_04

Well, they are. I I you know, I'd love to think that our intention we're just trying to gain the advantage on the turkey all the time, and then we come across something where we feel like we've gained the advantage, we're like, well, that'll sell. Let's make a bunch of them.

SPEAKER_00

You know. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04

So Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

No, that's great.

SPEAKER_04

But we're being we make the calls, you know, we have the op we we we can we can sit there and monkey with them.

Bird Reveal And Closing Thoughts

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah, exactly. Um well boys, I don't want to take up too much more of your time, but I really appreciate it. John, congratulations on your bird this morning and uh take it. Hold on, let's go look at it. Good luck with your this afternoon. Yes, let's see it, John. Looks beautiful where you guys are at, both places. Yes, sir. Is that what they look like?

SPEAKER_03

Is that John? Is that what turkeys look like? I wouldn't know.

SPEAKER_04

You know, the this is I'm not sure if this is a barnyard or an Iceola. We I was inside of a feed block. That that works that counts, doesn't it? Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

It's been about uh it's been about eight or nine months since I've seen one of those. I don't I don't know what they look like. Show me one more time. I I I forgot, man.

SPEAKER_04

It's I may not get to see one with the phone where you can see them both at the same time. There you go. Yeah, and then he uh I mean yeah, it's he was a uh he's an osteola. You can see those black, those black wings. Let me get over there and show you that. Uh that bar that broken barring, and then the the black is twice the size of the white. So um it was a good morning. I thought I was gonna get my tail whooped all day long, but uh I ended up whooping tail.

SPEAKER_03

I'm gonna go uh I'm gonna go let them whoop on me a little bit more today.

SPEAKER_04

Um hey, that's what I called him through right there. Well, I mean, not that particular stuff, but that's what I was sitting in when I caught him in. It don't get no prettier than that.

SPEAKER_00

No, no, that's a beautiful spot, you there.

SPEAKER_04

John, if you don't hear from it at night because I didn't make it out alive. Well, if that's a possibility, how about dropping me your pins before you go back out there? You won't be needing them anymore.

SPEAKER_03

You won't need them anymore. You can have this place. Golly, it's eighteen hundred acres, and I bet we've touched almost every corner of it today so far.

SPEAKER_04

And that they're not that nobody's heard of goblin in Alabama much. So we didn't hear goblin here today. And they were screaming. We're gonna go get after them right now, though. I appreciate you having us on.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, well thank you. Thank you, Ken. That was a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_04

I got a bird to tend to.

SPEAKER_00

All right, thanks, boys. Good luck.

SPEAKER_02

Thank you.