Advanced Turkey Diaphragm Calling: Mastering Aggressive Turkey Calling TechniquesUpdated 4 months ago
Let’s dive into some more advanced calling techniques, including aggressive yelping, cutting, fly-down cackles, and purring. These are essential calls to have in your arsenal, and with practice, they can make you a more effective turkey caller.
Clucks, Cuts, and Fly-Down Cackles
Clucks, cuts, and fly-down cackles all originate from the same basic sound—the word "puck." When cutting, you’ll notice that the rhythm varies. It speeds up, slows down, and carries a lot of emotion. Cutting is an excited, high-energy call, and putting that same emotion into your calling is crucial. It makes you sound more natural and increases your chances of getting a response.
The fly-down cackle is a sound turkeys make when they leave the roost. While not all turkeys cackle every morning, it’s a great call to have in your toolkit. A cackle is essentially a series of cuts but with a slightly different rhythm. A key thing to remember is to keep it short—turkeys aren’t flying down from the top of a 300-foot redwood, so long, drawn-out cackles aren’t realistic. Think of it as a controlled crash—a burst of excited calling as they launch from the tree, signaling to other turkeys that they’re heading to the ground.
Purring – The Soft, Subtle Call
Purring is an essential skill for close-range encounters. It’s a subtle, content call used when turkeys are relaxed. When a gobbler is nearby but not quite close enough, or if you're working a tom that has hens, aggressive calling may push them away. In those moments, soft purring can help bring them in without alarming them.
Purring is produced using the uvula in the back of your throat, much like gargling water. The trick is to create that vibration without adding too much sound, letting the air control the reed’s movement.
- More tongue pressure = louder, higher-pitched purrs.
- Less tongue pressure = softer, more natural-sounding purrs.
If you want to create an aggressive purr, like during a gobbler fight or when hens are bickering, simply increase the tongue pressure and volume. Having this variation in your calling can make you sound more realistic and give you more versatility in the field.
Practice Makes Perfect
You don’t need to be a world champion caller to be successful in the woods, but consistent practice is key.
- Find a call that fits your mouth comfortably and produces sounds you feel confident with.
- Pay attention to live hens—study their rhythm and tone.
- Don’t wait until two weeks before the season to start practicing—work on your calling year-round so that when opening day arrives, you’re comfortable, confident, and ready to bring in more birds.
By mastering these advanced techniques and practicing consistently, you’ll become a more effective turkey caller and have greater success in the field.
Again, make sure to watch the video created by Chris Parrish below. He's a top notch turkey caller, and has a stack of birds under his belt to prove it!