Rick Howard

You can get a turkey to come to poor sounding calls. You can get turkey to come to great sounding calls. You can buy good calls for $20 and you can buy bad calls for $20. Most of the time a company is not going to spend the money to make a bad call but will cut corners to save cost. Your likely going to get a better call from a custom call maker that tunes it. Also... The person running the call makes a huge difference. Personal preference, the way you hold and play the call, and skill level all have a big part. Aluminum is fast becoming my favorite surface. Done right they can sound incredible and run easy. Done wrong and they will be flat sounding and slick playing. There is a fine line between right and wrong. I have a pile of calls that were just a little off.

Call is sold

The finish on this call, and most of my calls, is CA. Although the CA looks great I use it mainly for 2 reasons. One, CA repels water well. This does not make the call water proof but close to it. Two, CA stands up to bug spray better than any other finish. I would not spray it directly on the call but It would take it. Laquer, poly, spar, even oils are buggered up by bug spray. Three, It looks cool.

You can contact most custom makers and request something also. Many will try to tune a call per your request. A call with less or more rasp, higher or deeper pitch, fast or slow roll over, or any combo between.

Raw aluminum surface. Butternut pot. Maple/purpleheart striker $50 shipped Sound files:

Glad to help.

I wasn't gonna push lol.

Thank you, Paula and thank you everyone for the opportunity to help with a great event. As a youngster hunting with my father gave me some great memories (Still does). Hunting with my nephew for the last few youth seasons has been some of the best experiences for me. I applaud everyone who encourages or mentors young folks especially hunting and fishing. When Paula messaged me this morning about the contest it was a no brainier for me. Here is a Osage glass surface caller with a walnut/bamboo striker. Judges will let me know who this goes to when it's time. Good luck to all the youths and their mentors.

I would have to question my coffee...

Nicely done! Thanks for posting the finial picks. and.... if you did a little reorganizing... scooted a few closer together... I think ya got room for another

Heck, revenue from a slight increase in license fees to lease private land for public use. I am not complaining about finding places to hunt. My concern truly is for those who wish to start hunting. Maybe there is something to be said about some peoples nature and the modern (current) lifestyle. Take a look at your daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, schedule. We make time for hunting in there because we already love it. For someone new... it is easy to give up the hunting. Especially if they have to put more work into finding a place to hunt than they have anticipated. Frankly, finding land to hunt is probably one of the last things most people think consider. As their information comes from folks selling them Appareal, bows, arrows, broadheads, releases, tree stands, blinds, guns, ammo, scent stuff, knives.... you get it. ahhh maybe I am just rambling.

Sometimes it does not feel like numbers are declining. I see more hunters now that I did 20 years ago. I hunt a lot of public land for deer and turkey. If we have less hunters now than more are taking advantage of public ground. Which leads me to my theory. At least for NYS, I am of the opinion a large part of the issue for folks is having a place to hunt. With the growing trends of posted property and leasing it is getting harder and harder to gain access to hunting ground. New hunters are disappointed with the amount they share the woods. Many can not afford a lease to hunt. Asking a perfect stranger to hunt their land for free use to be a pretty common practice. Now it is an awkward experience. A good solution would be to make more public land. I for one would be willing to pay a little extra cash every year in my licensee fees if it meant a substantial gain in public hunting grounds. Here is a funny thing. Most hunters want more seclusion and less sharing of space in hunting.... So.... it is not self serving for most folks to promote it. Start making more public land and have enough space for everyone. It wont hurt private leasing. Folks will still pay for the exclusive access and rights to manage how they desire. For the record I have no issue with land leasing. I understand it completely. That is not what this is about. .

Sold

Thank you, Sir.

Both calls sold.

Turkey are just awesome. Thanks for sharing the fruits of your effort.

lol I have had owls nearly take the hat off my head when calling critters at night. I kinda favor the ecall at night now lol.

I have hunted adjacent to them but never created one. Cool idea. I would be interested to hear how it works out for ya. I hunted a farm in WNY last year where a jake religiously would come to dust himself. Looked like he was having as much fun flopping and rolling in the dirt as my yellow dog in the snow. Fun to watch.

I appreciate you waiting him out and sharing your photos. Awesome stuff.

hahahahahaah

NYS DEC would be the place to start. I am sure there are some permits and such that you will need and they probably have the answers.

There are different color phases but most are subtle but sometimes you will see something extreme. The silver fox at the contest was pretty cool to see. Out of nearly 20 years of calling fox and coyote that was the first I have ever seen.

Here is one I finished up over the holiday weekend. Madrone Burl 3.25" glass surface. Walnut and bamboo striker. She is a stunner in all categories. She looks beautiful and is sure to melt the hearts of some old toms when she sings. Just don't get caught admiring your new caller when he comes. $75 Shipped Sound File:

It looked pretty grim for awhile. Great come back. Fun to watch

No worry. I have not used that particular pot. But I have usd several two sided calls that were all nice. As far as large manufacturers in the turkey pot call category I have had good luck with primos calls and favor those. I don't recall if they have a two sided but it's probably likely.