It’s simple – the best turkey calls tag more toms than any other gear item. And it doesn’t matter how good a turkey call sounds to me or you.
What matters is how good it sounds to a turkey. And the calls you’ll see below have been proven to sing just the right notes, and they’ve laid down enough birds to set themselves apart from the rest.
Best Turkey Calls - Top Picks
- Great raspy tone
- Capable of soft clucking, as well as loud yelping
- Perfect general purpose call
- Tested and approved
- Includes gobble band for realistic gobbling
- Magnetic design keeps paddle at perfect angle
- Capable of cutting, purring, and yelping
- Crisp tone
- Perfect for windy days
- Hickory Striker
- Cherry, glass pot
- USA Made
- Lifetime Warranty
- Purr, cluck, cut, flydown cackle
Best Turkey Calls - Full List
Best Box Calls
- Includes gobble band for realistic gobbling
- Magnetic design keeps paddle at perfect angle
- Capable of cutting, purring, and yelping
- Crisp tone
- Perfect for windy days
The Hook Up has a really interesting design that makes it easy to create different calls with just the right tone.
It’s designed with a very strong magnet that keeps the paddle at just the right angle to get the perfect tone when cutting, yelping or purring.
It also includes a gobble band that allows you to create realistic gobbles as well. So, no matter if you’re trying to beat the wind and reach out with loud yelps, or trying to simulate a hen and gobbler pairing up, this call allows you to do it all.
The ease of use for beginners, as well as the call range available to advanced hunters, makes it one of the best turkey calls you’ll find anywhere.
And it’s made by arguably the best name in turkey hunting.
- USA Made
- No striker to misplace
- Made of Brazilian cherry wood
- Multiple call sounds in one box
- Easy to use for all skill levels
Make sure to have your tag ready with The Real Hen because you’ll be well on your way to filling it with the variety of calls it’s capable of. Yelping, clucking, purring – with just a little practice, you can do it all with this call.
If you’re new to turkey hunting, or to using box calls, you should know that one benefit to them is that they’re easier to use than pot and mouth calls, and they don’t require working a completely separate piece of gear with your other hand like pot calls do.
This call fits easily inside most cargo pockets or turkey vests, and complements other softer tones available from mouth calls and pot calls.
The Brazilian wood of this call elevates the volume that this call produces, making it great for calling in toms on windy days.
Though there are other styles of calls available, many feel that box calls are still the best turkey calls of all call types.
- Well-known craftsmanship
- Easy to use
- Dual Thumbholes for right- and left-handed users
- Lightweight and compact
- Laser engraved
- Hand-tuned
The Gabriel turkey call is a lightweight, hand-tuned call that outsmarts turkeys year after year.
The dual thumbholes give your hand a repeatable position for consistency when clucking and cutting, and they allow you to change from one to the other quickly.
The Gabriel, made from premium Sapele and Purple Heart Wood, doesn’t take up much space, and won’t add much to your overall pack weight, weighing in at 6.34 ounces.
In terms of craftsmanship, it’s one of Primos best turkey calls.
- Handmade in the USA
- Offset pivot top
- Automatic lid stop
- Hand-tuned
This call, handmade and hand-tuned, produces natural sounds from its mahogany base and walnut lid.
Like the Primos Gabriel, it has an offset pivoting paddle, which helps the the paddle to naturally come back to strike the base at the right angle for the best sound.
Being a box call, it’s easy for beginners to get the hang of, and it’s also a great addition for experienced hunters. It also produces enough volume to be heard on windy days.
Features are great, but the best turkey calls are handmade and hand-tuned. Both of which describe are found in the Fool Proof.
- Produces hen AND gobbler vocalizations
- Made in USA
- Hand-tuned
- Great for hunters at all levels
Lynch has created something really unique with their World Champion box call. This call not only does what you’d expect by creating natural hen vocalizations, but it also creates gobbler vocalizations as well.
Swing the paddle from left to right, and a nice crisp hen vocalization is produced.
But swing the paddle from right to left, and you get a realistic gobbler vocalization. A high quality box call that produces both hen and gobbler vocalizations is worth its weight in gold.
Having multiple calls is always a plus in the turkey woods. With the World Champion, you’ve got two with the footprint of one.
The solid mahogany base, combined with the center-pivoting walnut lid, create a beautiful, natural tone that’s loud enough to carry through the timber on high-wind days.
Given this call’s craftsmanship and versatility, it’s easily one of the best turkey calls you’ll carry into the turkey woods.
Pot Calls
- Hickory Striker
- Cherry, glass pot
- USA Made
- Lifetime Warranty
- Purr, cluck, cut, flydown cackle
This ESH Cherry Glass pot call is a class-style call made of cherry wood, and topped with glass. Its matched striker is made of hickory.
The two distinct species of wood, against the glass top, create natural sounds, from soft purrs and clucks to loud cutting and yelping.
Some of the best turkey calls ever made have been classic pot calls with a glass top, and the raving reviews of the ESH Cherry Glass have put it in that same class of calls.
- Slate top
- Designed with beginners in mind
- Removable lid for help with learning
- Made in the USA
- Durable
Every hunter has to start somewhere, and what better way to begin than with a call that tells you how to use it?
The Hunter Specialties Cookie Cutter pot call has a protective lid that doubles as a quick reference guide on how to make each of the most common turkey vocalizations.
There’s a bit of a learning curve when it comes to using a pot call, which is why the lid of this call is so helpful for those just getting into the sport.
It not only gives you instruction on how to strike, but also how much of the slate surface to use.
It’s small, lightweight, and easy to store in any pocket. The call is an injection molded pot to keep it simple and easy to use. As you learn the proper strikes to use for each sound, you can remove the reference lid and keep calling like a pro.
It’s one of the best turkey calls for a beginner looking to learn the art of the pot call.
- Glass over glass for higher pitch
- Turned mahogany pot
- Diamond wood striker
- Custom-tuned, striker-matched
- Weather-resistant
- Made in USA
Bone Collector makes a variety of hunting products, but Michael Waddell and his team are best known for tagging turkeys, so there’s an emphasis on their turkey calls.
The Sweet April was designed with wet weather in mind. You never know when a Spring shower is going to pop up. Moisture tends to sideline most pot calls.
Pot calls and strikers typically need to be completely dry to work, but the Sweet April was designed to work in conditions that would otherwise keep pot calls silent.
Its higher pitch cuts through the natural sounds of the timber and allows you to bring in toms from further away.
With Michael Waddell’s stamp of approval, you know it’s one of the best turkey calls on the market.
- Mountable to leg or gun
- One-handed use
- Allows for a variety of call sounds
- Frictionite surface
- Best for soft calling
When the moment of truth comes and you’ve got a longbeard closing in, two things are necessary – continuing to call softly if the turkey hangs up, and moving as little as possible.
Both are possible with The Freak by Primos. This call was designed for soft calling, with its frictionite surface, but its greatest feature is its ability to be strapped onto your leg or gun stock for one-handed calling when the turkey is close.
One of the best turkey calls for soft calling, and certainly for minimal movement.
Mouth Calls
- Great raspy tone
- Capable of soft AND loud calling
- Perfect general purpose call
- Successfully used many times
I first came across the Woodhaven Red Wasp after hearing The Hunting Public use it. I decided to give it a try and placed the order.
After calling in many gobblers with it over the past two years, I can honestly say it’s the most effective turkey call I own.
It’s so easy to yelp with, offering a raspy, boss hen kind of tone. You can also purr and cluck softly with it.
It’s a great multi-purpose call, and the best mouth call I’ve ever had.
- 2 different cuts
- Ghost Cut great for Kee Kee and purrs
- Handmade cuts
- Trimmable for a custom fit
- Premium reeds
When it comes to a good mouth call, you want one that fits nicely inside your mouth. The Primos Hook Hunter comes in trimmable, premium reeds, so you can ensure a comfortable fit, no matter the shape or size of your mouth.
This 2-pack includes a Batwing Cut and a Ghost Cut. Ghost cuts are great for kee kees and purrs, and require less air.
the Batwing cut requires more air and creates a more raspy tone. Options are a must when turkey hunting, and that’s what you get at a great price with the Primos Hook Hunter 2-Pak.
- 3 pack
- Hammer T, Modified Cutter, and Hammer Tooth calls
- Variety of vocalizations and tones
- Created by 3 veteran hunters
Woodhaven is known for making some of the best turkey calls known to man – or at least to the hunting world.
They went above and beyond with the Pure Turkey 3 Pack by teaming up with three veterans of the sport – Mark Scroggins, Steve Stoltz, and Terry Sullivan – to design three mouth calls that give you versatility in vocalizations and tone.
The Hammer T, Modified Cutter, and Hammer Tooth provide the variety needed for staying in the game when one call isn’t producing.
The Hammer T was designed with a Hammer Cut on each side, which allows for a clean front-end note. The center slit cut creates easy-to-blow, two tone yelps.
It also produces very clean and clear, soft tree yelps, clucks and purrs, but it’s also able to get very loud to produce great cutts, cackles, and assembly yelps.
The Modified Cutter produces excellent yelps, cutts, and cackles, as well as very soft clucks, purrs, and tree yelps.
The combo cut reed makes it easy to blow. It makes for a great general purpose call, and easier for beginners to learn with.
The Hammer Tooth call is designed with two WoodHaven Hammer Cuts. It’s like having two batwing cuts in one call.
This design allows the two bottom prophylactic reeds to be accessed with tongue pressure to one side, which also allows for a pretty, clean front-end yelp that rolls over with good rasp.
As you can see, you get a mountain of versatility, vocalizations, and tones with this three pack.
Best Value Pack
- Different calls for different sounds
- Pot call, box call, and mouth call
- Easy to use for beginners and advanced hunters
- Lifetime Warranty
Just like a fisherman can never have too many lures, a turkey hunter can never have too many calls.
The reason being is you never know which sound is going to be the one that brings in a longbeard. One day, a clean yelp from a mouth call will bring them running in.
The next day, they may not care for that sound at all. But pull out the box call, and here they come again.
The ESH Custom Calls kit gives a hunter each call type to work with when trying to sing the right tune. Having a box call, a pot call, and a mouth call gives a turkey hunter variety in their arsenal of calls.
Best Push Button
- Strapable
- One-handed use
- Yelp, cut, and purr
- Compact
- Made in the USA
The Primos Bombshell was designed with ease and concealment in mind. It takes one hand to operate this call, and it’s capable of yelping, cutting, and purring.
It’s also shaped in a way that allows it to be strapped to the riser of your bow or gun, so that you can continue purring softly with minimal movement once a longbeard is close by.
Box Call vs Pot Call vs Mouth Call
Each call type brings something different to the table. Box calls are capable of producing more volume than pot calls and mouth calls, so they’re great for windy days.
Box calls are also the easiest to use as a beginner, aside from a simple push button call.
Pot calls, while more difficult to use than box calls, are easy to finesse and produce quieter calling with a variety of vocalizations.
They’re also available with a variety of surface materials, such as slate, crystal, glass, and frictionite.
The different surfaces create different tones, as do the different woods and materials used for the pot and striker.
Mouth calls, which have the steepest learning curve, are available in a variety of “cuts,” with each one being more tailored to specific vocalizations.
For example, a mouth call with a Ghost Cut is designed for kee kees and tree yelping, while a Cutter is designed specifically for loud cutting.
There are good general purpose cuts as well, such as the standard Split-V and Bat-Wing. Mouth calls take the most practice when learning, but they require no hand movement to use and, in my opinion, they produce the most realistic sounds.
That’s why I prefer to use them as a bowhunter. I can call loudly to bring them in, then switch to soft clucks and purrs with my bow in hand when they’re close.
Like most hunting gear, the best turkey calls are the ones that are practiced with the most. If you practice with a box call and become dangerous with it, that’s the best call for you to use.
Conversely, if you become deadly with a pot or a mouth call, then that’s the best call for you to use. You don’t need to feel pressure to change call types just so you’re using the best.
If you’re tagging turkeys, you’re already using it.
What's The Easiest Turkey Call To Use?
The easiest call to use is definitely going to be a push button call, such as the Primos Bombshell listed above.
However, push button calls are not as versatile as the other main call types. Of the three other main types – box call, pot call, and mouth call – the box call is going to be the easiest to become proficient with.
Remember, the best turkey calls aren’t always the easiest to use, but they’re worth the effort required to become proficient.
The Best Turkey Calls Aren't Always Expensive
As you can see if you’ve clicked some of the links above, turkey calls can vary drastically in price, but in general, when compared to other hunting gear items, they’re not expensive.
And just because one costs $60 and another costs $15, it doesn’t mean the $60 call is better. I’ve had more success with the Woodhaven Red Wasp than with my other more expensive calls.
I believe at the time of purchase, I paid around $11 for the Red Wasp. Multiple longbeards later, I can say it’s easily one of the best turkey calls I’ve ever owned.
And it takes time to find your favorite. As you gain more experience, you’ll begin to have the ear for a good call, but the turkey has to be the one to confirm your suspicions.
I may think a certain call sounds perfect, but if gobblers don’t respond to it, it’s a paper weight.
So, don’t simply judge the value of a turkey call based on price alone. If you’re completely in the dark about one, look up videos online to hear what it sounds like, and read the reviews.
The best turkey calls have a way of leaving a trail of positive reviews and good stories.
What About Wingbone Turkey Calls?
Wingbone turkey calls are unique, being constructed of three bones out of a turkey’s wing – the ulna, radius, and humerus – and can be used to call turkeys in with proficiency if practiced.
I’ve actually written an in-depth article on how to make a wingbone turkey call for those who are interested.
Wingbone turkey calls are super cool to use and to display in the home, but I prefer a mouth call or pot call over the wingbone call because I believe they produce a more natural tone, and they’re also easier to make different turkey vocalizations with.
Wingbone calls may not be considered the best turkey calls when compared to custom pot calls, mouth calls or box calls, but it’s a super rewarding experience to tag a tom using a wingbone call that you’ve made with your own two hands.
Have questions about turkey hunting?
We’ve answered many of the most common turkey hunting questions here!