Sweet and I already had our turkeys on ice when we volunteered to help a lady hunter get her first gobbler. She had hunted turkeys before with her husband, an acquaintance of Sweet's. But he always got excited when a gobbler showed up, and that made her so tense that she never got off a successful shot.

This time, Sweet -- a very calm guy -- would sit with the lady while her husband and I attempted to call a wily tom into shotgun range.

As it happened, we were all together on a long, sparsely wooded ridge, when without prompting from us, a pair of toms opened up on the hillside a couple of hundred yards below. That was a good sign.

Plainly, the turkeys were looking for company, and we figured we should give it to them. We discussed the situation briefly, then went into action. Our plan -- simple, to be sure -- was for Sweet and the lady to slip downhill a hundred yards or so and set up, while her husband stayed put with me to participate in the calling process.

After 10 minutes, my companion started calling with a mouth call. The toms answered, but only once.

Several more attempts at calling got no audible reaction at all.

We let the situation rest for a few minutes, and then it was my turn. I let loose with a long string of yelps with the box call and immediately heard multiple gobbles in reply from both toms. I called again and got another strong reaction.

By then, it was obvious the birds were moving uphill. Every time I yelped, the toms answered. The best part was, they were getting closer to the hunters with every step.

When the lady's shotgun roared a few minutes later, it was high fives all around. She had her bird at last!

AIR-OPERATED CALLS
So far, I've said a lot about the use of friction calls in certain situations. However, air-operated calls definitely have their place, and plenty of hunters rely on them almost exclusively.

I can think of times when mouth diaphragms helped me turn the tables on gobblers that seemed to prefer them over friction. So it really helps to have both kinds of calls along during a hunt.