The toms are starting to get vocal and Spring turkey season is just over a month away. Folks are digging out their gear in anticipation of May. For a turkey hunter this is a magical time of the year.

Spring turkey season is a chance to outwit a cagey old tom using nothing but calls and some camouflage. It’s a true art. Turkeys are very wary birds and not easily duped by an inexperienced person with a call that sounds more like a Sandhill crane than a hen turkey.

The first turkey that I ever called in for myself was many years ago. I’ll never forget it. I was using a triple-reed mouth call (made by Quaker Boy) and I worked for probably two hours before I could take the shot. That tom would come in and start to get close and then I would flub the call a little and he would move away from me, unsure of what was going on. But eventually I got it right and tricked him into getting in range.

Other times I’ve had birds come in at a dead run and I’ve got them five minutes after I first heard a gobble in the distance. I’m no master turkey caller (far from it). The only thing that I’ve really changed is that I now tend to use multiple calls instead of just one.

There are several different types of calls, meaning the physical items used to make turkey sounds versus the sounds that the turkeys themselves make (I’ll call the latter “vocalizations” to avoid confusion). Examples are box calls, slate calls, mouth calls, tube calls and friction calls. They all do pretty much the same sort of thing as near as I can tell. Again, I’m not a master turkey hunter but a couple of tips that I find handy are to use multiple types (if a tom hangs up, I’ve often got him to move closer with a different type of call) and to make sure you have some kind of mouth call.  I’ve had toms hang up just beyond range but within sight of me and been afraid to move to pick up a box call.

There are several different types of vocalizations that are made by the turkeys. Clucks, purrs, putts, cutts, yelps, cackles, gobbles and even something called a kee kee run, to name a few. A kee kee run is used often by young birds when lost, but also by adults as well, to gather up a flock that is scattered. It’s useful in the Fall.

The general goal in Spring turkey hunting is to make clucks and purrs and sound like a hen that is looking for romance from a tom. The good news for everyone is that there are lots of really good videos available to teach us all to be better at calling turkeys.

The key is to practice, practice and then practice some more, which is the reason why I am doing this column well in advance of the season. It’s time for me to get out one of my mouth calls and my favorite box call (handmade by my friend Herb DeWitt before he passed) and start annoying my neighbors.

Don’t forget to report your harvest when you are successful, and enjoy the outdoors!

John S. Van Etten is the current president of the Federation of Sportsmen’s Clubs of Sullivan County, Inc.