Your next step is to get the bird within range. During the early season, that can sometimes require aggressive calling tactics.

CALL LIKE
YOU MEAN IT
"During the early part of the season -- when the majority of the hens have not yet been bred and are still with their flocks -- I want to be more aggressive with my calling and use multiple calls," Salter said.

"I'll run a mouth call at the same time I'm running a box call or a slate. On opening day I don't think you can talk too much to a bird -- at least until you get him to talk back to you.

"Multiple calls are important now," he continued. "I wouldn't want to go bass fishing with just one lure. I want options, and that's what multiple calls give you. You want to find out what that gobbler will respond to."

A good selection includes mouth, slate and box calls. The latter can be very important in the South, where humid air can muffle calls. But box calls have the ability to reach out. Hunters should learn to use all three types and in different ways.

"Changing the volume on your calls can be very important during the first phase," Salter explained. "Before a lot of breeding has taken place, gobblers are drawn to excited hens. Changing volume from high to low mimics an excited hen. You don't want to be monotone in your calling."

Excited calling is a proven way to get a gobbler to respond on opening day. Once he responds, however, you may want to change your tune.

"When you call and get a gobbler to respond so quickly that he actually cuts your call off, you're in great shape," Salter emphasized.

"He answered you immediately, and he's telling you he's a killable bird that wants to end the day riding in your truck. That's the bird I want to stay on. But now you may have to sweet-talk him.

"I'll hit him hard a couple of times and actually cut him off," Salter went on. "But once I get him heading in my direction, I tone it down. If he's that fired up and heading to me, I don't want to do anything to stop him or slow him down. I want to talk just soft enough so he knows where I am.

"If I keep talking hard, he may decide to stop and let the 'hen' come to him. By playing hard to get, I can make him come to me."

That's the way things are supposed to go -- but sometimes they don't. Every now and then (and for some hunters, more then than now), a bird decides to hang up.

Salter has a plan for that also.