Volume Control: The Lighter (and Deadlier) Side of Woods Calling

Loud calling generates a lot of attention and often makes turkeys gobble, but veteran hunters know that soft stuff brings birds close. That’s why top-level callers spend so much time on the difficult art of volume control.

“My opinion is that most guys just practice calling loud with their yelping and cutting to try and make a turkey gobble,” said Josh Grossenbacher, 2015 World champion and two-time Grand Nationals Calling Championships Senior Division first runner-up. “A lot of hunters think the more a turkey gobbles, the faster he is trying to get to them. In reality, he’s just letting you know where he’s at. I know I’ve been guilty of it in the past, getting hung up on just listening to him answer loud calling. Calling softly is a whole other ball game when it comes to practicing and perfecting it. It takes a lot more time to hone in and really get that finesse calling, which a lot of times will make that old gobbler close the distance.”

Steve Stoltz, 1993 World champion and WoodHaven Custom Calls pro-staffer, said learning to call softly with any type of call can be difficult.

“With friction calls, it usually just takes lighter pressure on the call with the striker or box call lid,” he said. “With a mouth call, usually soft calling can be accomplished with air control. I designed the Modified Cutter by WoodHaven for that exact thing. A lighter-stretched call on side tension and back tension can help tremendously when trying to learn and improve your soft calling. But no matter what mouth call you choose, learn to back off on your air, and just let the call do the work.”

Grossenbacher agreed. He works on soft calling with diaphragms that don’t require much air pressure to run.

“If I can make sounds on it by gently pushing air from the back of my throat instead of my diaphragm, that’s a call I’ll try and dial in on the soft stuff with,” he said. “A two-reed call is usually ideal for getting soft sounds. I’ll then get on YouTube and find soft yelping, clucks, purrs and whines and practice my calling while listening to the turkey sounds. I will then repeat this numerous times daily whenever I have time to practice.”

And the work is worthwhile, because soft calling is effective in so many situations.

“A lot of times when that gobbler is coming in, loud and aggressive calling can easily make him hang up,” Grossenbacher said. “By toning down the volume, I feel it makes him comfortable with everything and stay committed to coming to you. I’ve also had tons of success while hunting field turkeys with decoys. More times than not, those gobblers will hang up out there just out of gun range. A few soft, subtle, under-the-breath-type yelps usually loosen him right up and gives him confidence that the fake turkey is real, bringing him into range.”

Stoltz said soft calling works so well simply because it’s more realistic.

“A wild turkey has exceptionally good hearing,” he said. “Most important, they have an extremely good ability to accurately pinpoint location. So controlling your volume can play a vital role in your success with bringing him all the way into gun or bow range. And it works so well because 95% of their daily vocalizations are soft, subtle clucks, purrs, soft yelps, whines, whistles, tree calls and feed talk. Most of these vocalizations are never heard unless you are literally within a few yards of them. So by incorporating that, you have put more realism into your calling and therefore are more believable to the gobbler.”