Recommend a turkey choke and duck call

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dak0ta

dak0ta

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Im going to cabelas tomorrow. Can you guys recommend a x-full choke for my mossberg 500?

Also looking for a slate call and duck call.
 
I have a TruGlo Gobble Stopper, and it seems to work fine in my Remington 870. Chokes are funny... it all depends on how much you want to spend, and how many chokes you want to test for patterning. Unless you want to fork over a lot of cash initially, you just get what looks good or gets good reviews and hope it patterns well in your gun.

Make sure you test multiple turkey loads, too. You may think it's the choke that's bad, but really it just doesn't do well with that type of load. Try 4, 5, and 6 shot, as well as some of the duplex or heavy shot loads. When I went looking for loads, I found that 5's patterned pretty well in my gun. And I found that 3" shells were better than 2-3/4" shells through my choke. And lastly, for some reason, it had to be the high-velocity, harder-kicking shotshells that did the best...

I'd pick out a choke that gets positive reviews and focus more on getting a compatible load. Make sure you pattern each load and compare them at ranges you expect to shoot.
 
Duck call depends on situation. Tank, timber or open water? Price range? I have a couple, but rarely use a call, and then it is one or two notes to get their attention, then I let the decoys and jerk rig do the work.

My favorite is a banquet call, a RNT Bois D'arc Hunter, about $50 and easily tunable, easy to blow and flat works and I use it for everything. I hunt leases mainly, from 60ac down to flooded timber and I may have used a call 5 times all of last yr, I finished the yr with 177 birds. Jerk cords do more for me than a call ever could.
 
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I've got an original duck commander I've used for 20 years now in the salt marsh. It has a nice raspy tone, easily tuned single read. I don't need anything else. :D I have other calls, prefer the duck commander. Best sounding call I've owned in 40+ years of calling ducks.

This should probably be in the hunting forum.
 
I have always used Full Chock for Turkey and Duck.......Calls, I have one made by a friend who makes box call for Turkey, always seemed to work, my Duck & Goose calls are Faulk`s, I have had most of my calls for well over 20 years, they still seem to always work just fine............
 
duck calls

depends on what duck you are hunting. there are calls for mallards, pintails, scaup, woodducks, teal, etc. Most of the guys I hunt with in the midwest have half a dozen around their necks. Foiles makes a variety of really good calls.
 
Thanks guys. I hunt dunks mainly in the sea off the Pacific flyway. Mainly marshes and reedy areas. Mallards, snow geese, Canadas.

Is Primos a respectable brand for calls for turkey and duck?

I see that the Tru Glo Gobbler stopper is on sale at cabelas for $17, I think I'll get that to try out.
 
Personally for canada geese I like the Sean Mann calls. For snow geese now in Maryland we can use electronic callers (no bag limits, no 3 shell restriction)
and I like the Foiles calls for mallards. Here's a link to sean mann. They are always eager to help out on the phone. And you can send your calls back to them every year for retuning (by the time I try it sounds like a wounded crow).



http://www.seanmann.com/sales_team.asp
 
Nobody can properly recommend a choke, because depending on the gun and the ammunition used, they will perform differently on one gun to the next. I've seen more than one extra full choke pattern looser than standard full chokes, especially with 3" and up shells.
 
Hopefully, you are hunting turkeys with the extra-full choke & lead shot.

And waterfowl with Federally mandated steel shot and a much looser IC or Mod choke.

Steel shot won't work in a full or extra full choke, and most manufactures mark Full & Turkey chokes as NOT FOR STEEL SHOT.

rc
 
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depends on what duck you are hunting. there are calls for mallards, pintails, scaup, woodducks, teal, etc. Most of the guys I hunt with in the midwest have half a dozen around their necks. Foiles makes a variety of really good calls.
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Guys do that down here, whistles for teal, widgeon, and pintail, mallard call, etc. We don't have that many mallard in the marsh, only a few in one fresh water hole down there where I hunt, mostly salt marsh stuff like Widgeon, gadwall, teal, scaup, smilin' mallards (shovelers), other such. Mallard call with call ALL these ducks except one, the squealers, Mexican tree ducks. They are sometimes still here opening week and any amount of calling with a mallard call is futile with 'em. They don't much like decoys, either. :D

Anyway, I just go afield with a mallard call and a snow goose call. All geese down here, lesser canada, specks (white fronted), rosses, and snows will come to a snow goose call. We have danged few greater canadas, but I have called a few with a snow goose call. Snows are the predominant goose down here.

I used to have a whistle, never really did much with it. I'm not sure where it went, lost it in a move, probably.

And, ditto what RC says above on steel shot and chokes. ^^^^^^^
 
I went to Cabelas and it was amazing. Had an elk sandwich, it tastes like super lean tasty roast beef :)

I didn't end up getting a choke as I figured I don't need one. I'm going to use my full choke and see how that shoots first.

Got a shotgun case, gunsmithing tools, and a bore guide instead! It was an amazing experience. You Americans are so lucky!!!
 
Had an elk sandwich, it tastes like super lean tasty roast beef
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You do realize of course that was Kangaroo or horse meat (in season) with elk seasoning salt and Campbells onion soup gravy on it don't you?

PS: Read the fine print disclamer on the back of the menu next time!

Nevermind!
I was just joking! :D

Well, Maybe I was, and maybe I wasn't. :what:

rc
 
For ducks, I have had better luck with a Primos Wench than everything else combined over 50 years at it, but I am not champion caller class. The day I got my first one I was standing by the boat dock waiting on a buddy blowing it, and two mallards dropped right in there.
 
You do realize of course that was Kangaroo or horse meat (in season) with elk seasoning salt and Campbells onion soup gravy on it don't you?

PS: Read the fine print disclamer on the back of the menu next time!

Nevermind!
I was just joking!

Well, Maybe I was, and maybe I wasn't.

rc
Click to expand...

Haha you had me there for a second! It was a good experience. The trout lake was cool, so many Rainbows.

Anyways, I decided that the money that would have gone into a decent turkey choke can be better used towards buying turkey ammo and patterning it with my full choke guns. So my range has a 25 and 50 yard berm. I know that the max range with a full choke is 30-35 yards. What pellet % should I attain at 30 yards in a X diameter circle to call it good?
 
I have stopped shooting at circles to check my turkey setup. I shoot at a turkey head/neck outline and count the hits in that area. I consider ten or more hits consistently in that area to be sufficient. I'll also work the target away from me to find my maximum range as well. It doesn't take a lot to kill a turkey. Your full choked guns should be fine with a good load of plated lead shot. The biggest part of turkey hunting is preperation. Find your birds before the day you hunt, get close and be still.

If you still want to get a dedicated choke, Rhinos seem to be consistently great performers.

As for a slate call, see if you can find a Southland call to try out. To me, they sound more like a turkey than just about anything without feathers. The best way I've found to find a turkey call is to listen to the real thing for a while, then find a call that will make the same sound for you.

For waterfowl, I'm partial to Zink calls. They just seem to work for me, and they have one for just about any situation. Again, it comes down to which one you can get the right sound out of. I annoy the heck out of store staff and shoppers when I'm looking for a new call. I also try all of my buddies' calls, too.

You can never have too many choke tubes, shotgun shells, or calls. Also, finding the "perfect" combination is part of the fun!
 
i ended up getting a wood haven crystal "slate" from cabelas online when they had a sale. i think it was 45% off... sounds VERY good. i make my own strikers though. don't bother with the cheap primes slates, my buddies have them and they sound like crap. do yourself a favor and pick up a pack of mouth calls while you are at it. you may suck to begin with but keep them in your truck and use them every chance you get. they are so much nicer to deal with once you get the hang of it.
 
For turkey calls, I tried those reed mouth calls, gag, choked, spit, couldn't handle it. I bought a push button box call and it worked. Were I a big turkey hunter, I'd get one and tape it to the fore end of the gun so I wouldn't have to move to use it.

I don't think turkey would show up to a gagging, coughing human. :D I know guys that can use those things. I can't, too much gag response.
 
I know a lot of people that have troube with gagging on mouth calls. Some of them have success with calls made for smaller palates or trimming the back edge. Don't go too far trimming or you will have trouble getting the call to seal against the roof of your mouth.

Mouth calls should be slid a lot farther forward than a lot of people realize as well. They feel like they should be farther back initially to most people, but I usually have the frame against my teeth. I will also sometimes trim the front corners off of the surround if they roll too far down the backs of my teeth and feel funny. I think most people feel more in control of it farther back, but you'll find out that you don't have to move as much to get the proper tone drop while yelping with it farther forward.
 
I just made a green-winged teal whistle with 2 shotshells. It sounds pretty close to what you can buy at the stores, just need to make sure that you have high pressure when you blow so it's crisp *tweet*. Thank goodness I play the horn haha.

Set up was easy, just heat the end of a shotshell till it begins to melt (10-15 secs), pull and twist brass off. Do this with 2-4 shells as backup. You only need two. Then punch out the primers, flatten the primer cups. Once the primer cups are flattened you might have the base brass bulging out so just tap those back so they are flat again. Then cut the crimp off the plastic hull, insert one brass piece over the end. Then measure the amount of material for the second brass piece to slide over so it sits flush against the other brass piece. Cut the correct length from the hull and slide the second brass piece over. Take a screwdriver and run it through the length of the whistle to make sure that there are no obstructions in the primer pocket. All done, just suck air through and you got a whistle. :)

Now I hear that Mallards and other types of ducks respond to the teal whistle, so hopefully this helps.

You can also wrap a lanyard around the whistle and you can actually stick it in your mouth and use it without your hands.
 
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