Talking Turkey: A Cluck And A Putt

Good turkey hunters will recognize most of the words in the title of this article. All of you will know what they mean if you read on.

Three toms were gobbling off their roosts well before sunrise. Even though a hundred yards of real estate separated them, it was quite obvious that they were responding to each other. Their combined gobbles rattled through the timber and allowed me to get set-up so that any or all of them could hear my calls.

As the birds began to fly down, I hammered them with a series of cutting calls from my hand-made box call. The answers were immediate and deliberate. The show was about to begin.

The first turkey to come to find me, my call and my decoys was a lonesome jake. He meandered around for a while and then exited very quickly. Having a pretty good idea of why he did that, I used my box call to make a crisp cluck. The gobble was quick and close. The tom was already inside 50 yards.

Two Perfect Putts

Even though the terrain was flat, the spring foliage prevented me from seeing the tom. He gobbled occasionally, and I could hear him drumming. I needed something to entice him into getting close enough to see the decoys. Two perfect putts from the box were the key to his demise. The 22-pound gobbler added a 10-1/2-inch beard to my collection.

But this story is not over. You see, the box call and its maker are the real stars of this show. Everett Huff is a turkey hunting legend. His name may not be as recognizable as Ray Eye or Walter Parrott. But I must say, Huff's knowledge and experience with wild turkeys is vastly superior to most modern experts.

Please understand that turkey calling and turkey hunting is not a sport in the Huff family. It is a way of life. As is the hand making of their turkey calls. The box call that Everett made for me is simply the finest I have ever used. And as you can imagine, I have used hundreds.

Huff: A Passion For Turkeys

But it is not just the sound that this call produces that makes it a jewel. It is also the hands of the man who made it, and his passion for the bird and for the hunt. This call is a jewel because our turkey-hunting heritage is fading in this fast-paced world and the mystique of the hunt is now more historical than it is current.

Men like this are few and far between. The everyday life of decades gone by cannot be lost. We can ill afford to let what is in the minds of our elder outdoorsmen vanish forever. They are an untapped wealth of information that must be recognized and cannot be wasted.

Thank you Everett Huff. Not only for the calls you have made, but for being part of the backbone of a tradition that so many of us treasure.