Hi Folks,
My name is Scott Witter, the callmaker behind the name Whole Grain Box Calls. Some of you know me, many of you don't. I have been on this site for a good many years. Early in my call making 'career' when I began this passion way back in 2010, LOL, I built what are often referred to as "smooth-siders" and I did a lot of wood burning on them. They were box calls adorned with various images/scenes....but they were hunting calls. Mike Yingling has posted one of those such calls.
Some background, for those who may be interested. Sorry, WARNING this is a long read....you don't have to read it and many of you simply don't care, that's okay I get that too, but for me also as a hunter, I like to know, in as much as is practical, the folks I am dealing with and thought you might be interested. I am 60 yrs old and my shop is literally in my basement, much to the dismay of my wife. I have been an avid hunter, fisherman and spend most of any vacation time I get camping, kayaking, hiking and so forth. I am also a life-long custom wood worker and my skills/knowledge from that experience weighs heavily on my approach, techniques and philosophy applied to my call making. I think it's also noteworthy to state that I don't build my calls for financial gain. This journey is simply a personal one, born out of my skills previously obtained, a deep love of wood, the camaraderie I may be so fortunate to share and an inherent personal passion. I enjoy a challenge, I enjoy pushing myself to achieve goals I have set forth and given the wood and the complexity of a box call, I felt this was a perfect fit for me. So here I am...
As my skills evolved and I learned more about this craft it was obvious that the quality of sound is the over-riding objective in building a turkey call, for me the box call. Therefore, in 2016, I set forth a personal goal to focus solely on sound quality in an effort to enhance my calls for competitive reasons and to present what I believed could be a better product to customers. For those who have built them, smooth sided calls, those that are not checkered in the Neil Cost style, are very very difficult to tune to achieve great sound. So at that time I changed my approach and technique and started checkering the bodies and lids of my calls. This was a difficult decision for me, since I was focused at setting myself apart by doing the wood burning, but the ever-mounting difficulty of tuning smooth sided bodies wore me down to the bone.
Moving forward and in 2017 I competed in Ohio and again at the Grand Nationals (GN). I did well in Ohio tying for 1st in the Short box and achieving 1st place in the Long box. I rode that momentum to GN last year and was very fortunate to win the Short Box and Match Set categories. Now to present time this year, I was fortunate to win the Short and Long Box categories in Ohio and with the conclusion of the 2018 GN yesterday I won the Long box and Match Set categories and took 2nd and 3rd in Short Box. So what does this all mean to me now, same as it always has. I love to build box calls, I like to work very hard at doing so, I continue to learn something new with every call, I continue to meet many wonderful people as a result of my passion and as a bonus I make a few $ along the way to buy more wood, tools, attend the GN Convention and enjoy a few out of state turkey hunts...hard to complain IMO.
Ok Scott...shut the heck up...stop already...and just tell me how I can order a call from you, you say? Well, with respect to taking/accepting call orders it's important to note that I accept a limited number of orders for each year and that number is between 40-45, depending on many factors. I don't want any miss-understanding or to mislead anyone. This is my decision and doesn't reflect in any way any potential customer. Those factors can also ebb and flow out of my control on any given day and during the course of a year that could significantly affect my ability to fulfill those orders. As an observation and what seems to be often over looked is the fact that most of us call makers have and work day jobs that absorb most of our time. Huh, imagine that. In addition, most of us have families and like many, my family comes first ahead of my call making. Within family time is also my other personal time where I enjoy and engage in many other hobbies/activities other than call making. The point I am making is that call making is NOT my sole focus in life, thus when accepting call orders, for me anyway, there must be a balance in life within my ability to fulfill the orders, spend quality time with family, and also obtain other personal time away from call making. If anyone one of those priorities are negatively affected by call making I simply stop taking orders and inform those who have orders with me that their wait may be longer than originally anticipated.
At the moment and from those folks who saw and spoke directly with me at the GN Convention I currently have 16 new call orders, so that leaves 24-29 available. If interested my suggestion for contacting me can be either of two ways, here on OG via a PM, or through my email, which you can find through my user name of culpeper it's on my profile page. If you do have my phone # you can send me a text, but if you do be sure to include your name and not just your phone #, otherwise I will not contact you. We can then connect and exchange information.
As far as wood combinations are concerned I work with combinations that work for me. I may not use combinations that some other call makers use, for example I very rarely if ever use Walnut or Maple for lids, on occasion I use Persimmon, Cherry and American Beech. For Short Box lids I primarily use Bloodwood, Ipe, Bolivian Rosewood, Purple Heart, Massaranduba and a couple other exotic species. For Short Box bodies I use; Butternut, Green Poplar, Black Limba, Black Walnut, Mahogany, Black Cherry, Mineral Poplar, and on occasion Sassafras, Red Cedar and Soft Maple. All of these species will be used when available. For Long Box lids I use Bloodwood, Ipe, Massaranduba, Jatoba and a couple other species when they are available. For Long box bodies I use Butternut, Green Poplar, Black Limba, and occasionally Mahogany and Sassafras.
In closing, I would be happy to work with you to build a call(s), if you are so inclined to contact me, if not that is absolutely okay as well. There are many very talented call makers who build box calls and I couldn't imagine making a decision to choose one. That's how I feel when selecting another Pot Call, Wing Bone or Trumpet builder. Last, I want to thank everyone in advance for your interest in my work.
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