My favorites are two- or three-reed diaphragms which -- depending on how the reeds are stretched and cut -- are either raspy or smooth in tone. Generally, I pick a call somewhere in the middle of the scale. It should also be easy to blow softly or to create a racket with.

As a matter of fact, it was just such a call that accounted for a backdoor gobbler a couple of years back.

I say "backdoor" because I wasn't actually calling to the tom. Instead, I was trying to provoke the hen he was traveling with, because she had answered my initial yelps in a very aggressive manner, yelping and cutting loudly at what she thought was a competitor.

To show the hen who was boss, I duplicated every sound she made and didn't back off an inch. I couldn't have matched her harsh calls fluidly with a box, but with the mouth call, it wasn't a problem.

My goal was to bring the hen in, spoiling for a fight with the interloper. It worked nicely. When the hen showed up, the tom was trailing her, only a few steps behind.

Needless to say, that hefty longbeard went home with me.

As you can see, there are lots of factors at work here. Although I rely on friction calls a lot, there are times when mouth calls do a better job -- and even more times when it makes sense to use both types of calls on the same bird.

When using two calls at the same time, I can sound like two different hens at once, which might help convince a stubborn gobbler to come closer for a look.

More often, however, I'll have a mouth-call ready when I'm calling with a friction call, so I can put the latter device down at the appropriate time. That way, when the tom is close, I can still make a few turkey sounds as necessary, without any hand movements at all.

For example, when a tom is intent on walking or strutting past, I can yelp or cluck at him, and he'll stop and raise his head. That will give you a much better shot.