1. What is the best box call for a beginner?
I wouldn't recomend a box call for a beginner because next to a diaphragm call they are the hardest to master. But like most diaphragm calls they are your best long distance/windy day calls.
I'd suggest that one of those push button calls might be best for a beginner.
I have to agree with ol' dukkiller on this. It's hard for even a young kid to mess up with the new push-button yelpers. I've been huntin' turkeys for almost 30 years and I still carry one of 'em in my backpack. They require very little practice to master and take very little movement to operate when birds are close. Just be carefull not to bump them at the wrong time. IMHO, nuttin can beat a good slate call in good weather at short range. The realistic sound plus the wide variety of calls that one can make with them is the reason. Their limited volume plus their hatred of rain and other moisture is their only weakness.
If I were you I'd get a push button, a slate, and a diaphragm and start practicing with them all.
With this one I'll only partially agree. If you are new to game calling, master one at a time. When a tom is 60 yards out and you need to bring him 15 paces closer to get a good shot, it aint gonna matter which call you use as long as it sounds like a turkey. Being only so-so with all of the calls is not as important as being really good with any one of them. Yes, a good turkey hunter will have a whole arsenal of calls with him, because as you will find out, some days they just like one call better than the other, but once they respond and get close you better know what you're doing with whichever one you're using. I make all my own calls anymore except for the diaphragms. I find it adds to my hunt to call in birds with a call I have made with my own hands. I make box calls, scratch calls, wing bone and friction calls. I've used slate, glass, ceramic, aluminum, brass, copper, wood and stone.....and have had success with most of them. My favorite is a friction call made out of a flat stone I picked out of the Black River one day while Musky fishing with my hunting buddy. After rubbing my fingernail over the surface and hearing the sound it produced I told him "I'm gonna make a turkey call outta this!" the next spring he was with me as I took a nice tom called in with my "piece of rock" call.
2. what is your favorite locator call?
....anyone that works. I can crow call and owl hoot with my mouth and make coyote yips and howls with my turkey diaphragms. I can also do a rooster crow with the diaphragm. All have worked at one time or the other. Sometimes one will work when none of the others will. I have even used those little aerosol boat horns and referee whistles to locate turkeys at a distance. No locater call will work if the turkey can't hear it, and many commercially made owl and crow calls are not very loud....blow 'em hard and crisp, and start out with only one or two notes, Sometimes a tom will shock gobble when you're still callin' and if you're by yourself you wont hear it. This is a case where four ears are better that two. If you are hunting with a partner spead out ten or fifteen yards and listen in different directions when locating. Sometime gobbles can be very subtle. Many a time I've spent hours calling from a favorite spot and haven't heard a thing only to have a crow fly over and call or have a nearby farmer start his noisy tractor and have a tom sound off right beside me. I have heard toms shock gobble to everything from woodpeckers poundin' on a hollow tree to a loud Harley going down the highway.....in other words, any time you hear a loud noise in the woods during the spring turkey season, listen well.
