Duane Lasley slipped the turkey call into his mouth and cut loose with several seductive yelps. He sounded very believable.

The results were impressive. Heads began appearing at various distances. These vulnerable critters couldn’t resist Lasley’s beckoning sweet-talk.

Trouble was, he was in an office building in downtown Duluth. His calls were attracting curious humans. But Lasley’s calling has been equally effective in the field.

The 44-year-old Duluth resident has been hunting turkeys for 18 years and has taken birds in Missouri, Iowa and Colorado. He also has hunted in Virginia and Minnesota.

In Colorado, he shot a turkey at 5 feet with a bow that held the Colorado bow-kill record for several years and the world record (Merriam species) for a short time. The bird weighed 19 pounds, 9 ounces; it had a beard of 958 inches and 1716-inch spurs.

But it’s talking to turkeys that appeals most to Lasley.

“It’s fine to go out and ambush a deer, but you’re actually talking to these birds,” Lasley said.

Lasley favors diaphragm-type calls rather than slate calls or box calls. Some hunters gag the first time they put a diaphragm call in their mouth, but Lasley says the hands-free calling is the ticket to getting birds close without spooking them.

To use a diaphragm call, a hunter places it against the roof of his mouth and expels air.

“I probably take 14 into the field and use about three of them,” he said.

The most common mistake most hunters including Lasley make is moving from a location, he said.

“You don’t know you’ve made the mistake until the turkey flies off,” he said.

It’s tough to keep sitting when it doesn’t seem productive, but a gobbler often will keep moving toward you silently, Lasley said.