Sport friction

Joey Rose made this cedar slate call and used it to harvest numerous gobblers.

“Friction calls is a sport to me,” said Meek. “I make mouth calls and use them some too, but I don’t depend on them in public areas because they get burned up by calling. A lot of beginning hunters think they’ve got to use the mouth calls because they think they’re better in some way.

“You can sometimes take a turkey away from a mouth call with a soft hen scratch box yelping. That old gobbler knows he’s got the excited hen over there and then he hears the new lady and he’s going to come over to see the new girl in town, because she’s new and different. Give me something soft and sweet and I’ll call him up most of the time.”

Gobblers will tell you what they want, Meek said, and that might be different from day to day, or in different areas.

“Sometimes you may have to swap calls to find something the gobbler likes, but when you do find the right call you can really burn them up,” Meek said. “They’ll let you know real quick what they prefer, and some things turn them on better than other things.”

A turkey’s preference for different tones or calls is what keeps Meek at the drawing board making new innovative calls. The talented craftsman makes a wide range of calls including his unique rock pots, and engraved box calls with anything from a duck to a gymnast carved into it by his daughter Tamara.

About Michael O. Giles 411 Articles
Mike Giles of Meridian has been hunting and fishing Mississippi since 1965. He is an award-winning wildlife photographer, writer, seminar speaker and guide.

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