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Raptortrapper
Posts: 94 Member
Custom turkey call recommendation
Raptortrapper
Posts: 94 Member
I want to get a custom box call and pot call for a buddy of mine that LOVES to hunt turkey. I know NOTHING about turkey hunting. Surly some of you guys can recommend a "better than average" custom turkey call maker.
Thanks for the help!
Thanks for the help!
Some people are like a slinky-- not much fun till you push them down the stairs!
Replies
One is a Lonnie Sneed “Outlaw Hen”- a beautiful, green glass pot call. It comes with a purple heart striker, but I prefer using a Matt Van Cise orangewood striker on it for great sound and easy clucks. Here's a video of Lonnie himself using this call:
Lonnie is an older guy who works out of him home shop in West Virginia. No real internet presence. His phone number is 304-425-3021.
Speaking of Matt Van Cise, I have a custom box call from him that is flame box elder with a Dymondwood top, and it sounds magnificent. It was used in the flintlock and modern shotgun hunt reported on here:
https://forums.gunsandammo.com/discussion/36298/scored-a-smokepole-turkey-and-tagged-out-in-nebraska
Matt is out of Brookville, Pennsylvania and you can find his page on Facebook. He shows a lot of his for-sale calls on the page when they are completed. Not cheap, but well made and mine resulted in dead birds the first time out with it.
NOTE: a true custom call order can take quite a few weeks to complete. If you want him to have one in time for use this season, I would get to ordering ASAP.
I was quite impressed with the tone and realism of that call, so much so that I made one from the wing bones of the bird that I shot on Monday! Let’s see if I can dupe a lovestuck Tom into coming to this one before the season is out!
Those wing bone calls serve double duty- - - -a "kissing" suction on the small end makes a surprisingly realistic sound, and the small end can also be used as a striker on a slate call. In that method, the hollow wing bone acts as an amplifier, trumpeting the sound from the bell end. Good hunting!
Jerry
Albert stays pretty busy and has a great shop. Albert likes to do a lot of different wood combinations and his back log is usually 3 to 6 weeks. His calls are about 1/2 the price as Steve's and Lamar's and just as pretty and great sounding. He's retire and does it full time where Steve and Lamar do it part time.
Al Showmaker and his son of SS Custom calls build's Cost style calls and is usually a tad cheaper than Albert with some calls in stock. All of my SS calls are #1 as I keep coming up with different wood combinations. He calls me when he's thinking of a combination and wants to know if I want the #1...which I always do
For slate calls I love BB Custom calls. He has some of the best sounding slates I've ever heard.
Feel free to send me a PM and I'll give you my number and we can talk.
Best of luck!
Jeff
John 3: 1-21
But yeah, I'll post pictures when I get them.
Better still, once you get a bird, in adution to a great meal you can harvest and dry the fan to decoy birds in or conceal yourself with on a future hunt. You can also make a truly custom call in the form of a wingbone call like I posted above.
Our season opens the 13th, which is 10 days away. Hope I can learn how to use these sufficiently in that amount of time. Jeff (call maker) and John (striker maker) seem to think I'll get it figured out.
I could care less about the cars, bows, boots, wives, and girlfriends while I'm hunting! The "guns", I'd beg to differ. Expensive guns, 99.9999% of the time, are very good. Everyone can claim to see an expensive gun that wasn't good, but it's usually a story of, "My third cousin's best friend's adopted second step sister had a father-in-law with a Krieghoff that had a bent barrel right out of the box". Yet nobody's actually seen it happen in person. And to be fair, of course not every gun is going to fit everybody. That does not mean it's a bad gun. Just means it hasn't been adjusted to fit properly, or doesn't fit that person's style. There is a difference.
But yeah, I do get what your saying. I just have a thing for fine guns, that's all.
However, the poor lad calling was getting closer to us, so we decided to wait and personally take away and break what ever call he was using. Imagine our surprise to see a single hen coming through the woods calling with those gosh awful calls. My buddy and I just cracked up and said no wonder she was alone. We watched her move out into a field where a gobbler who wasn't gobbling came in from the other direction and join up with her!
Big lesson learned that day. Just like people, not everyone has a beautiful singing or calling voice!
John 3: 1-21
I love custom guns too- - - - -but 40 years ago, with a low-paying job as a public school teacher and a family to raise, I couldn't afford 'em! The logical approach, at least to me, was to learn to make them myself. Been doing it ever since!
Jerry
Not on this forum- - - - -the picture posting procedure is like the rest of the software- - - -it sucks like a Dyson ball vacuum cleaner! Drop me an email and I'll be glad to share a few pics!
The calls and bags are made by John Sinclair. The top one is Granadillo with titanium on slate. Middle one is cedar with slate on glass. Bottom one is Walnut with bronzed glass. The calls came with the three strikers in the middle row. Not sure what the wood is on the first one. The green one is an all weather striker, and the third is diamond wood, and is freakin loud!!!
The other set of strikers were made by Jeff Harrison, and are Katalox, cedar, and hickory, from top to bottom. So easy to use, and fit right with this set of calls.
John and Jeff are great friends who work together very well. They got me set up with my first set of turkey calls, then talked with me over the phone to get me started. This set is awesome, and SO EASY to use. I told them I wanted a set of three calls that would cover most situations, and I'm very pleased with the range of sounds these calls and strikers make. I couldn't be happier, and they look amazing as well! I've been practicing and practicing, and am pretty confident I can get a turkey called in.
Our season starts Saturday. I'll keep ya posted....