A female turkey may be more persnickety than a Desperate Housewife. At least when it comes to sex. At least according to a bow hunter from Alabama.

"When the Tom turkey gets close enough, you've got to change your turkey call to a purr," said Steve Grace, owner of Ward, Ala.-based Bowhunter's Beards & Spurs Club.

Frank Niemeir/Staff (ENLARGE)

Lori Morgan of Buchanan holds a shotgun at the booth of the Georgia chapter of the National Wild Turkey Federation at the Georgia World Congress Center.

Frank Niemeir/AJC (ENLARGE)

Turkey calls on display at the National Wild Turkey Federation Convention and Sport Show.

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Grace imitated the purr, which sounds sort of like mouthwash being gargled on the other side a bathroom door.

"Otherwise you'll chase him off."

Of all the singles scenes in Atlanta, the one Saturday in the Georgia World Congress Center — the 32nd annual National Wild Turkey Federation Convention and Sport Show — offered the best advice and clearest evidence of how to get lucky.

As in the old Buckhead bar scene, to hunt turkey, you've got to make the right sounds and wear the right oufit.

An estimated 20,000 visitors turned out for the first three days of the four-day event, which ends Sunday night (general admission $10). And many of the more-than 500 exhibitors sold turkey calls.

"It's not so much the pitch as it is the rhythm," said Kenneth Roberts of Roberts Brothers Turkey Calls, based in Oakwood, Ga.

He demonstrated the rhythm on a $45 slate-and-striker turkey call, which requires the hunter to scratch out the sounds with a stick on a piece of glass.

"This sounds means she's saying, 'I'm right here, I'm ready,'" Roberts said. "She makes other sounds. It's all about knowing what to say at the right time."

Of the variety of turkey sound makers — the slate-and-striker, one-sided box, long box, short box, push-pull pin, scratch box and wing-bone call — none makes the noise everybody knows a turkey makes: "Gobble, gobble."

For a very good reason, Roberts said: "Female turkeys don't gobble. It's all about seducing male turkeys. You don't do that by gobbling."

It would be misleading to report the convention was entirely about men rising well before dawn to dress in shades of shrubbery so they can hide in the woods, make noises, and lure male turkeys to their unwitting deaths by bow and arrow, shotgun and rifle.

There was also female appeal here. Over at the Remington Arms Co. exhibit, a Model 597 Mossy Oak Pink Blaze .22 Long Rifle was on display.

A pink rifle?

"The ladies love it," said Remington spokesman Eddie Stevenson. "We can't make enough of them. I'm all for it."

And there were devices to make the sweet-nothings of other wild females in the woods and in the mood for a good time.

"This is the sound of a cow elk in heat," said Jerry Peterson, the Nashville, Tenn., owner of Woods Wise Products, demonstrating a call that sounded more mournful than randy.

"It works so well, it should be illegal," Peterson said, smiling.

The show had family appeal, too. Many couples were there with children of all ages.

The Fernandez family — Wayne, wife Ruby, and son Blayne, 14 — drove up Saturday from Greenville, Ga.

"This is my first turkey convention," Wayne Fernandez said, "but I'm a big hunter."

Fernandez hunts deer, turkey and coyote. He didn't know what he was shopping for. Then they stopped at the booth selling camouflage gear known as a ghillie suit.

Blayne tried one on. It fit. He looked like six feet of Spanish moss stood on end.

"We've got to keep looking," said Wayne as the family moved on to the next exhibit. For the moment, no ghillie suit for Blayne.

Hard to guess what effect that will have on the turkey population.