How to use a push-button turkey call, one finger at a time

The steps at a glance

1. Hold the call in your off hand (or clip it to the gun) with the plunger pointing toward you and your index finger resting on it.
2. Push with a short, even stroke — about an inch on a Knight & Hale HD Cutter — and let the spring return it. Do not force the return.
3. Make a yelp with 5 to 10 strokes in a row, starting slightly faster and slowing at the end, which is the cadence of a real hen yelp.
4. Make a cluck with one short, light stroke, and a purr with a very slow, soft stroke.
5. Cut by running several short strokes fast and irregularly, then stop dead.
6. Then be quiet. Put the call down in your lap and listen before you call again.

That is the entire technique. The reason this call exists is that every other friction call needs two hands and several evenings of practice first; a push-button is the call you can hand a 10-year-old or a first-timer on opening morning. H.S. Strut says its push-button yelper makes turkey sounds “without the large learning curve associated with some turkey calls,” and Knight & Hale calls its push/pull “one of the easiest calls to use” and “great for kids, beginners, and seasoned hunters.”

What is actually happening inside

A push-button call is a friction call with the geometry fixed for you. Inside the box is a wooden paddle or lid held against a sounding edge by a spring-loaded dowel. When you push the plunger, the dowel drags the paddle across that edge and the edge vibrates — the same physics as a box call, except the angle, the pressure and the travel are all set by the maker instead of by your hand.

That is why the call sounds right immediately and why it sounds the same every time. It is also why it has a limited vocabulary: you can change how far and how fast you push, but you cannot change the contact angle the way you can by tilting a box call. Quaker Boy builds its Easy Yelper from mahogany sides, a maple striker, a birch dowel and a stainless steel spring, and calls the whole thing “one handed, simple operation.”

If you want to understand what you are imitating, the NWTF's rundown of the sounds of the wild turkey is the reference, and our own turkey calls and what they mean matches each sound to what the bird is saying.

How to hold it, and where to mount it

The point of a push-button is that it takes one hand, so the other can stay on the gun. H.S. Strut says exactly that about its yelper: one-hand operation keeps the other hand on the gun as a gobbler approaches. There are three ways hunters run them.

• In the off hand, in your lap. The default. Thumb underneath, index finger on the plunger, call resting on your knee so the box is not rattling against anything.
• Mounted on the gun. Some push-button calls are sold with or designed for a gun mount, which is the setup that lets you call with the bead already on the opening where the bird will step out. If you mount one, check that it does not contact the barrel or interfere with the safety, and practice the stroke with the gun shouldered.
• Clipped to the vest strap. Fast to reach, but it puts the call where your calling hand has to move up and out, and movement is what gets you caught at 30 yards.

Whichever you choose, the rule is that your hand should already be on the call before the bird is in sight. The last 20 yards of a turkey hunt is a stillness contest, and the push-button's whole advantage is that it lets you make a sound without a second movement.

Yelp, cluck, cut and purr

Knight & Hale is the only maker in our registry that publishes stroke lengths, and they are worth borrowing whatever call you own, because they turn “push it a bit” into something you can practice.

• Yelp: 5 to 10 even strokes. A hen's yelp speeds up slightly in the middle and tails off, so put the rhythm in by shortening the gaps rather than pushing harder.
• Cluck: one short, light stroke, about half the travel of a yelp. Two or three spaced clucks is the most useful sound you can make at a bird that has gone quiet.
• Purr: the slowest, lightest stroke you can make without the paddle sticking. If it squeaks, you are pushing too slowly with too much pressure.
• Cut: a burst of short, fast, uneven strokes, then nothing. Cutting is excitement, so it has to end abruptly to sound real.

Volume comes from stroke speed, not from mashing the plunger. A push-button is a close-range call: H.S. Strut lists soft clucks, purrs and tree talk for its yelper, which tells you what it is for. To reach a bird across a hollow you want a box call or a pot call — see best box calls.

How often to push

Less than you want to. The NWTF's piece on why soft talk consistently outperforms loud yelp sequences is the single most useful thing a beginner can read about calling, and it applies double to a call this easy to run: the push-button makes calling so effortless that new hunters call constantly, and constant calling is how a gobbler learns exactly where you are and decides to wait.

A simple cadence that works: a short yelp sequence, then three to five minutes of nothing. If he gobbles, say less, not more. If he goes quiet, give him clucks and purrs rather than louder yelps. The NWTF's list of calling gaffes hunters keep repeating covers the rest; our own timing guide is how often to call turkeys.

What a push-button cannot do

Three honest limitations, because knowing them is what stops you blaming the call.

• It has one voice. Every hen it imitates sounds the same, which matters on public land where a bird may have heard that exact call already. A second, different-sounding call is worth more than a louder one.
• It is quiet. Fine for working a bird, limited for locating one. Locating is a job for a crow or owl call — see best locator calls.
• It needs a hand. A mouth call needs none at all, which is why most hunters eventually learn one. If you want that path, start with how to use a mouth call.

When it squeaks, sticks or goes silent

Push-button calls fail in a small number of predictable ways, and all of them are cheap to fix.

1. It squeaks. Usually too much pressure at too slow a speed, or chalk build-up. Try a faster, lighter stroke first before you touch the call itself.
2. It has gone quiet or slick. Wooden push-buttons that are not sealed may want chalk, in which case use the same nontoxic, oil-free chalk a box call wants — see box call chalk and care. Quaker Boy says its waterproof H2O Easy Yelper “requires no chalking” at all, so check your call before you chalk it.
3. It is wet. Wood swells and the stroke goes dead. Dry it slowly at room temperature, not on a heat vent. Rain is the one condition where this call type has a purpose-built answer: Quaker Boy says the H2O's coating lets it “work in the heaviest rain storms.”
4. It rattles in the vest. A spring-loaded wooden box bouncing against shells is the noise that empties a ridge on the walk in. Put it in a dedicated pocket; the NWTF's own call care advice includes using a koozie as a call protector that also stops rattling.

What to look for in one

Four things, in order of how much they matter for a first season.

• Published technique. A maker that prints stroke lengths has told you how to practice. Knight & Hale does; most do not.
• The sounds the maker actually names. “All turkey talk” is marketing. Yelps, clucks, cuts and purrs named individually is information.
• A weather answer. Either a sealed, waterproof call or an honest acknowledgment that there is no weather claim. Both Quaker Boy versions exist for exactly this reason.
• Hardwood and a steel spring. The parts that wear are the spring and the paddle, so a named hardwood and a stainless spring are worth more than a camo finish.

The three calls below are scored on the call rubric published with our First-Season Score, and every figure on their cards links to the maker page it came from.

Three push-button calls

The two-minute kitchen drill

One more rehearsal worth doing before the season: run the call wearing the gloves you will hunt in. A plunger that is easy to feel with a bare finger is a different object through a glove, and gloves are not optional — see what to wear turkey hunting.