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  • February 27, 2009

    What Are You Packing?-38

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    Likely every one of you Strut Zoners owns a pot-and-peg call, and you carry it along in your turkey vest. Many make acceptable clucks and yelps, but yeah, you favor some over others. What are yours? Let us know . . .

    Here are some new ones on the market this season:

    ZINK Calls' Power Hens
    Want good looks and versatility? I'm not sure which of the three new ZINK pot-and-peg calls I like best, but my family knows what each one sounds like (sorry girls!). Check out ZINK's Power Hen Custom Built Slate, Crystal, and Aluminum calls. Each package includes two strikers. Two contain conditioning pads (for aluminum & slate), while the other offers a conditioning stick (for crystal). A recessed conditioning area into the body of the pot affords striker-tip resurfacing while hunting (see the pic). The "Turkey Time" DVD of hunts is also included. 


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H.S. Strut's Ring Zone
Want some science in your turkey calling? I'm told the Ring Zone was developed based on the notion of cycles per second (cps). The notion, put simply? Turkeys hear best at 1700-2000 cps, the range of yelps and other vocalizations real turkeys make. Tested by an oscilloscope during production, this pot-and-peg hits that mark. A rosewood striker comes ready-to-use in the package. 

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Quaker Boy Trifecta
Want old school common sense with a modern twist? This pot-and-peg call has three surfaces and offers the versatility of sounding like multiple turkeys. The aluminum surface is loud, high-pitched, and great for windy days or reaching out to long-distance gobblers. The slate is a bit mellower. The so-called "Cordy" material is for loud raspy yelping but also quieter flock talk. 

Again, what are you Strut Zoners packin' in your vest this spring turkey season? 

Zink striker
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  • February 19, 2009

    It's Turkey Weekend!-27

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    From Feb. 19-22, Nashville, Tennessee's Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center is hosting the 33rd-annual National Wild Turkey Federation's Convention & Sport Show (www.nwtf.org/). Registration is on-site. 

    Here's what you can expect:

    Live and silent auctions, booths previewing new turkey gear, hunting seminars offered by well-known personalities in the business such as Quaker Boy's Dick Kirby and Ernie Calandrelli, among others, even Michael Waddell, NWTF Spokesman who is emceeing this year's event. 

    The always exciting Wild Turkey Bourbon/NWTF Grand National Calling Championships, with many divisions, from the best in the world to junior callers just starting to work on their clucks and yelps, will highlight the gathering of wild turkey enthusiasts.

    Any of you Strut Zoners checking it out? If so, let's us know what you find there. 

    Here at the Strut Zone, we'll keep you up-to-date on all matters turkey taking place at the NWTF Convention including photos and the results of the much-anticipated Grand National Turkey Calling Contest. Who will wear the crown as the greatest turkey caller in the country?  

    Stay tuned to the Strut Zone this weekend. 

     

    NWTF SZ
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  • February 12, 2009

    Has It Started?-42

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    You Strut Zoners in the Midwest saw it this past week during the warm spell. 

    When an Iowa turkey bud calls and leaves the message, “Huge flocks are coming out of the woods, and some of the gobblers are strutting,” you listen. And he’s not alone: other reports indicate the same thing: early gobbling and full-fan turkeys.

    Biology tells us that while male turkeys may strut early in the year during warm spells with snow on the ground, hens rely on other factors to flick the breeding switch. This early gobbling and strutting activity means less to the hens than we’d like to think. Hens mate based on increasing daylight, and won’t breed or lay eggs until real spring has arrived. That’s a fact. Though spring weather events sometimes disrupt nesting too . . .

    Of course this phase varies nationwide, from Florida, where the season begins next month, to Maine, where it lasts until June 6 this year, and all points west. 

    The winter turkeys I saw this morning in southern Maine weren’t strutting (though it's a balmy 44 degrees as I write this). They were flocked up under a stand of tall white pines, shaking off the raindrops, scratching out a living in the dirty snow beneath those trees. Survival insists on it. So does my mental health, and I was happy to see them. I think a lot of you will agree, that kind of sighting never gets old, especially in February.

    This morning, that same gobbler-crazed buddy called again. “I looked at the same fields today, after winter returned and it got cold again, and there’s no activity. None.” Just like that, the early tease posed by strutters in fields passed. Those Iowa birds he and others saw are somewhere though. You can count on it.

    What are turkeys doing in your part of the country? Gobbling? Strutting? Just trying to hang on like the rest of us until winter finally passes? Let us know here at the Strut Zone.

    Strut Zone-2/9
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  • February 6, 2009

    Are Two Heads Better Than One?-9

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    Do you Strut Zoners use turkey decoys? Do you carry just a hen? How about a hen and jake combination for your setup? Well if you like the strategy of fooling spring gobblers with fakes, listen up.

     

    One of the pleasures of hanging out at the SHOT Show every year is conversing with some of the best turkey hunters in the business. I caught up with Harold Knight and David Hale of Knight & Hale Game Calls fame, and here’s what they had to say about the new Carry-Lite Peep’n Tom & Pretty Penny Combo Pack:

     

    “We were pleasantly surprised to see on hunts last year what putting two heads on a gobbler decoy could do,” Knight said, discussing Peep’n Tom prototype field testing to get it ready for release this year. The new scaled-down version (10% smaller than the Pretty Boy) includes two interchangeable gobbler heads. One can be staked through the body of the decoy ("the looker” as Knight says), while the other goes in the usual place.

     

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    “That’s where the name ‘Peep’n Tom’ comes from,” Hale added. "It’s made to look like there are two gobblers there — one looking over the other one.” One redder head, the so-called looker, is alert, maybe ready to fight, while the other whiter one appears ready to breed. 

     

    Realistic? Heck yeah. Decoy heads were molded from real freeze-dried gobbler heads. And that’s only part of this new Carry-Lite decoying system (carrylitedecoys.com). 

     

    A photo reproduction fantail is provided in the package, though a lot of turkey hunters will want to put a real fan in the slot. The synthetic beard is adjustable if you want to shorten it up and slide a jake fan in the back. You can keep the beard long or short.  

     

    And then there’s Pretty Penny. She’s also got two heads (to be used separately), one for if you want to put her in the breeding position on the ground, and one if you want to stake her in standing form. 

     

    Bodies for both are made from soft rubberized collapsible material for easy transport. An instructional DVD (two great hunts involving the new decoys where longbeards attack the fakes), and even a carry bag round out the deal.

     

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    You’ll want to use the Carry-Lite Peep’n Tom and Pretty Penny these ways: the Peep’n Tom with two heads, the decoy gobbler body with just one head (like the Pretty Boy setup), the Peep’n Tom with Pretty Penny (standing or squatting), or just the hen decoy alone (standing or squatting). Think of another? Let us know.

     

    When would I use these dekes? On field hunts where I’ve roosted turkeys nearby, and in earshot of my calling. On bow hunts when I want to keep a strutter in place long enough to draw effectively.

     

    strut zone two heads photo 3
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