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There are thousands of turkey calls on the market, and just about any of them will work fine for yelping up a gobbler. Designating one call as being “better” than another is tricky. A pot call’s sound can be altered completely by switching strikers. Mouth calls are available in multiple reed cuts and stretches, and their sound varies dramatically depending on the individual caller. And even if all things were equal, some of what "sounds good" boils down to personal opinion.
Still, when you do enough turkey hunting and run enough calls, you will pick up on details that the turkeys just seem to like. That’s why many veteran hunters reach for the same tried-and-true yelpers year after year. But after getting in and testing a whole pile of new calls this year, I have found a number of favorites that I think will get gobbler's attention this spring and could well become tried-and-true classics in the springs to come. Here are my picks for the best new turkey calls of 2025.
Best Tree Yelper: Mountain Hollow Game Calls Double Reed
Best Ghost Cut: DHTC Ghost Cut
Best Mouth Cutter: Kluk Custom Calls Rasp Attack
Best Combo Cut: Wrecking Machine Crazy Cutter
Best Split-V: DHTC Black Cherry
Best Batwing: Long Branch Game Calls Batwing
Best Box Call: Kluk Custom Calls The Natural
Best All-Weather Friction Call: Woodhaven Fusion Ceramic
Best Glass Call: DHTC The Halloran Hen
Best Ceramic Call: Wild Country Customs Ceramic
Best Budget Call: Knight & Hale HD Cutter
The Best Turkey Mouth Calls of 2025
A skilled mouth caller can replicate just about any sound that a wild turkey makes. But some reed configurations are best suited to soft calling—clucks, purrs, tree yelps—while others shine for raspy cutts and loud assembly yelps. I tried around 50 mouth yelpers for this test from a variety of call companies, and I could make passable turkey music on all of them. But these were my favorites.
Best Tree Yelper: Mountain Hollow Game Calls Double Reed
I love a straight double-reed for versatility, but most hunters use them for soft, close-in calling. This one from Mountain Hollow Game Calls is one of the sharpest and clearest double reeds I’ve tried, perfect for daybreak tree-yelping, but also capable of some rasp if you give it sharper air pressure. It’s my personal overall favorite mouth call of the test this year.
Best Ghost Cut: DHTC Ghost Cut
Some hunters prefer a ghost cut over a double-reed for close-in calling, but my favorite use for one is in replicating the kee-kee run. The kee-kee is a bread-and-butter sound for fall turkey hunting, but also effective—and overlooked—in the spring. I use it frequently when I’m hunting hard-pressured eastern gobblers on public land. David Halloran’s Ghost Cut whistles high and sharp, and it finishes in a nice, clear yelp.
Best Mouth Cutter: Kluk Custom Calls Rasp Attack
A good call for aggressive yelps and locater cutts needs to be loud, but also crisp and controllable. Kluk Custom Calls sells mouth calls in packages of three, all with the same reed cuts but in different stretches. I can’t stress enough what a good idea this is because a different stretch can impact the sound of a call almost as much as the reed cut. Kluk’s “Rasp Attack” is an aggressive combo cut that’s perfect for making raspy yelps and “popping” clucks with minimal air pressure, but it can handle heavy pressure, too. I sounded decent on the mid-stretch version of the call, but the low-stretch was just about perfect for me. Your results may vary, but if you really need to make a ruckus in the turkey woods, this is a good place to start.
Best Combo Cut: Wrecking Machine Crazy Cutter
Yes, the Kluk Rasp Attack, my favorite cutter in the test, is also a combo cut. And yes, this one is called a “cutter.” It’s all a bit confusing, but here’s the difference: This triple reed combo from Wrecking Machine has a subtler cut that works as well for soft, close-in clucks and purrs as it does for moderately aggressive yelps and cuts. It’s not specialized for any one task as some of these other mouth calls are. Instead, it is a great all-around mouth call that works in a pinch for about everything.
Best Split-V: DHTC Black Cherry
A good split-V is the go-to mouth call cut for many turkey hunters. They’re relatively easy to blow, and they work for about any turkey sound you care to make. Many of them, this one included, produce a slightly higher-pitched “ringing” tone than a combo cut, and that can be magic for drawing distant gobbles in open country. This is a mouth call I’ll lean on in a few weeks while hunting Rios in Texas.
Best Batwing: Long Branch Game Calls Batwing
Many of the best turkey callers I know use a batwing cut for their most aggressive sounds. It’s a cut that’s loud, raspy, and incredibly realistic in the right hands. But personally, I often struggle to control a batwing, and my notes end up too deep and gravely. But after trying a number of batwing yelpers in this year’s mix, this one from Long Branch Game Calls was a standout. I could get those loud cutts and yelps that you expect from a batwing while (mostly) keeping control of it. If a batwing is your go-to cut, you’ll be able to talk a turkey into about anything with this one.
Best Friction Turkey Calls of 2025
Box calls and pot-and-peg calls are standard equipment for most turkey hunters. Collectively called friction calls, these are versatile instruments, with many capable of producing both soft notes for close-in calling and loud and raspy notes for more aggression. Different striker materials can really change the tone and pitch of different pot calls, essentially giving you several different sounds with one pot and a few strikers.
Friction calls are more personal, too. While I tend to toss my mouth calls into the trash at the end of turkey season, a good friction call can be both a work of art and a tool for killing turkeys that’ll last a lifetime, provided you take care of it. I tested an assortment of new friction calls for this year’s test, and these were my favorites.
Best Box Call: Kluk Custom Calls The Natural
After mouth calls, a good box call is my go-to in the turkey woods, especially when I’m hunting open-country gobblers in places like Texas and Nebraska. But a box call takes up a lot of room in the vest, and so I’m picky about what I’ll run. I tried several box calls this year, but this one from Kluk Custom Calls sounds the best. It makes perfect turkey yelps with plenty of volume and rasp, and no squeaking. The call is simple but nice looking, too, being constructed from walnut with a bloodwood lid.
Best All-Weather Friction Call: Woodhaven Fusion Ceramic
This new pot-and-peg from Woodhaven has a machined-acrylic pot that’s fused to a ceramic calling surface. It sounds great when it’s dry, particularly with a wooden striker, but the biggest benefit to this call is that it’s virtually weatherproof. Rain and even heavy dew can render many pot-and-peg calls useless until they dry out, but this one comes with a synthetic “Raincheck” striker that’s up to the task of calling in April showers. For proof, I doused the call with half a bottle of water, and it kept right on yelping with no problems whatsoever.
Best Glass Call: DHTC The Halloran Hen
I had several other glass calls that I kept picking up, hoping I could hear something that was a little better than the DHTC Halloran Hen, since that brand had already secured two spots in my favorite mouth calls category. But I just couldn’t find it. The Halloran Hen, built from poplar and cedar with a crystal surface, was easy to use, crisp, loud, and has plenty of rasp. It sounds just like a hot hen turkey, which is of course the idea. It comes with two strikers and an optional custom engraving.
Best Ceramic Call: Wild Country Customs Ceramic
Ceramic surfaces are becoming more popular among many turkey call makers, and I personally prefer the sound to them over many slate calls. Wild Country Customs, owned by Garry Greenwalt (who’s quoted often in Field & Stream turkey hunting articles), makes a variety of custom pot-and-peg calls that look and sound great, but don’t cost a fortune. This is a perfect example, and even though there's already a ceramic pot call on the list, the one gets the nod in the all-weather category.
Best Budget Call: Knight & Hale HD Cutter
I swell with a bit of Kentucky pride anytime I pick up a Knight & Hale turkey call. Harold Knight and David Hale were hugely influential on modern turkey call design, plus they’re nice guys who’ll talk turkey with anyone. The design of their classic push-button box call hasn’t changed much over the years, right to the most recent iteration, the HD Cutter. Though some scoff at push-buttons as a beginner’s calls, their sound versatility is great and few calls out there will make a better fighting purr.
How I Tested New Turkey Calls
I invited call makers large and small to submit the calls of their choice for this test. In case you haven’t strolled the aisles of the NWTF Show lately, there are lots of people making turkey calls. I invited as many as I could, but I know that I missed some. It wasn’t intentional.
Still, there were a bunch of calls submitted, and I tested them all thoroughly. I ran through the gamut of turkey sounds on every call including soft and loud yelps, clucks, cutts, purrs, and kee-kee runs. I kept notes on which calls sounded best to my ear, but I also had my wife and son—both avid turkey hunters—listen blind from the next room, and report back on which calls they thought sounded particularly good. I noted which calls were easiest to use, and which were prone to squeaks and bad notes. Then I categorized the calls according to their best application in the spring woods. My evaluations are based on almost 30 years’ worth of hunting experience in a dozen states, during which time I’ve called up a bunch of turkeys.
What To Look for in a Turkey Call
Skill level, ability, price, and personal preference all influence your decisions when shopping for a new turkey call. But so does application. The more you hunt, the more you realize that few calls are suited for everything. Although I consider myself a minimalist turkey hunter, I rarely hit the woods without at least three mouth calls, a pot-and-peg call, and a box call all at the ready.
My personal favorite style of call is the mouth diaphragm. It allows for hands-free operation, and you can replicate just about any sound that a wild turkey makes. Mouth calls are inexpensive, so you can buy several of them and then choose those that sound the best.
But mouth calls are also the most difficult to use. It took me several years to become confident with them. My advice is to master friction calls first. Once you know the proper cadence and tone for a good yelp, it’ll sound second-nature to your ear. That’s half the battle of learning to turkey call. From there, mastering a mouth call begins with simply being able to make a sound. Once you can do that, you slowly learn to control the air pressure and modify it. Then you match the proper cadence, and soon you begin to sound like a turkey.
FAQs
Q: Which is better: a glass or slate turkey call?
Glass calls generally produce more volume and rasp, while slates are softer. Both surfaces have their place in the turkey woods and increasingly, hunters are switching to ceramic surfaces, which provide some of the best of both worlds.
Q: Will a slate call work in the rain?
That depends on the surface and the striker. None of them work great in a deluge, but even a little moisture puts slate surfaces and wooden strikers out of commission quickly. Synthetic strikers with glass or ceramic surfaces seem to work best in wet weather.
Q: What is the loudest turkey call?
A box call is the go-to for maximum volume. On a calm, clear day with a good vantage, gobblers might respond to it from close to a mile away.
Q: How long do turkey mouth calls last?
One season. I run mine all spring and then throw them away. While hunting, even the best mouth calls get soft and soggy with extended use, and that can change the sound. On days when I’m doing a lot of calling, I keep a backup of my favorite cut so that I can swap them out and maintain the sound.
Q: What is the easiest turkey call type to use?
All of the friction calls are fairly easy to use, but a push-button box call has to be the easiest.
Q: What is the most difficult turkey call type to use?
A mouth call, no doubt about it. It takes time to learn the proper positioning of the call in the roof of your mouth, where to hold your tongue, and how to control the airflow. And even after that, you still need to match the cadence of a wild turkey. But learning to run a mouth call is one of the single-most important skills to master if you want to become a really good turkey hunter.
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