Call away! With a TURKEY BOX CALL, that is. We good folks here at Good Millwork will be taking orders for them effective immediately. Well, not really, but we do think they are kinda’ cool, and we have a soft spot in our hearts for things made of wood. Turns out you can make one from ordinary things and out of unique wood such as sinker cypress.
Making your own turkey calls is a sure way to extend the pleasure of the hunt in the off season. Just ask call maker Mike Morton of El Dorado, Arkansas. Morton, a retired school principal, hand crafts custom duck, goose, and turkey calls that are fast becoming collector’s items among knowledgeable hunters.
“Every turkey call you make puts you in the woods,” he says. “In your mind’s eye, you can see the turkey coming in while you shape the wood. You can hear him gobble and drum each time you make some trial sounds with the call. I kill a lot of turkeys in my head when I’m making calls.
Morton has been hunting with home made call most of his life. He has an old raspy cedar box call, the base of which is heavily notched to indicate the number of turkeys it has taken, and he carries a flute toned wingbone call made from the bones of a hen turkey. But what he relies on most are slate-faced friction calls.
BOX CALLS
To make box calls, Morton chooses 1/4-inch-thick stock to make the bottom and paddle and 1/8-inch-thick stock for the sides. “The best way to make a box call is to copy one,” Morton says. “Then you can experiment with different lengths and widths to suit your fancy.”
There’s not much to the construction. “You just need to recess the sides into channels you cut in the bottom,” he says, “and use blocks of various dimensions at both ends to hold the sides and bottom together.
Use tight-grained, thoroughly dry wood. Different combinations of woods produce different sounds. Experiment until you get a tone that works for you. Sinker cypress makes not only a beautiful looking call but the old-growth reclaimed wood has a great tone.
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The tonal break in a box call comes from the curved top edge of the sides of the call. Most box call sides are curved at the top from end to end so that the sides are about 1/4 inch higher in the center than they are at the ends.
Use a file to round the paddle on the bottom, then drill a small hole near the end. To attach the paddle to the block, pass a fine-threaded 1-inch-long screw through the hole and then through a 1/2-inch section of 3/8-inch-diameter coil spring, which must be inserted between the paddle and the end block. Continue to turn the screw into the end block. The spring is used to stabilize the tension on the paddle as it is scraped over the top edges of the sides of the box.
[ via "Make your own Turkey Calls" by Jerome B. Robinson, Field & Stream January 1998 ]
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
Twitter: @GrowMap
I’ll never forget the first wild turkey I ever saw. It flew across the road so close I thought it would hit my windshield! I was glad when it didn’t. You don’t see many even out in the country and none of my neighbors hunted turkey or even duck that I knew about. They all hunted deer and dove though and a few went far and wide hunting wild boar.
No turkeys where I am now that I’ve seen; just wild hogs, dove, duck and geese. Fortunately the tanks (what non-Texans call ponds) are stocked with bass and catfish. Those fish make the grocery money go further for many and especially when friends are laid off or short on cash.
Internet Strategist @GrowMap´s last blog ..Best of GrowMap: Our Pillar Foundation Content
Internet Strategist,
Sounds like you’re a prime candidate for a shiny new turkey call in your stocking this Christmas season. Obviously if you haven’t seen any lately the local Texan landscape is yearning for the sound of a custom, handmade deadhead cypress turkey call. From my experience with small musical instruments, primarily the kazoo and jaw harp, you should be proficient with your new sinker cypress turkey call to proficiently call all those bearded birds west of the Mississippi by early spring.
Again, thanks for visiting and best of luck on catching a glimpse of the ever elusive wild turkey!
Best.
If you haven’t seen any lately the local Texan landscape is yearning for the sound of a custom, handmade deadhead cypress turkey call. From my experience with small musical instruments, primarily the kazoo and jaw harp, you should be proficient with your new sinker cypress turkey call to proficiently call all those bearded birds west of the Mississippi by early spring.
Love the article. I’m gonna have to look up Mike and see about some duck calls. Thanks for the info.
Have a happy new years!
Do you know if I can also make a pigeon or dove call? Would I use the same kind of wood?
Never knew such item exists. This turkey call box really calls turkeys over? I need one to call my dog over. It never listens to me!
Twitter: @lomak1985
I didn’t know there was such a thing as turkey box call. Didn’t know turkeys respond to a very specific type of box lol.
-Kai
Kai Lo@humidifiers´s last blog ..Honeywell Warm Mist Humidifier
I must admit, I came for some keyword luv only to discover a superb blog with great information and photos. Thanks for the education and continued success.
Ha, this is great. I’ll have to show my dad this post – he’s a big time hunter and wood worker.
Twitter: @Hunting_Games
I have always preferred the sound of a box call over a slate or diaphram call. Those are some good looking box calls in the first photo!
Hunting Games´s last blog ..Hunting News: Turkey hunting success rare so far this year (Hattiesburg American)