I've been thinking a lot about this lately as I'm running my pot calls, box calls, scratch boxes, etc. A few wood types are good options for many of these calls. As I started thinking back over the great calls I've hunted the past few years I see some definite patterns. What are the wood types that are deadliest in the calls you use?
For me the list goes like this:
(1) Walnut
(2) Mahogany
(3) Cedar
It seems like Walnut has been involved in many of my successful hunts, even if it was just a striker top on a 2 piece striker. But mahogany and cedar have been responsible for a bunch of successes too.....this past year I've acquired several calls with Limba and am thinking that will be great in the future.
THE THREE YOU HAVE LISTED
IVE HAD NICE CALLS MADE OF MINERIZED POPLAR
THATS FOR DOMESTIC
EXOTICS ARE DIFFERANT ...............
The boxcall I have used 99.9% of the time for the last 25 years is a glued call......... Cherry paddle and base, walnut end blocks and poplar soundboards.
In Cost-style boxes I am really partial to walnut over poplar, walnut over mahogany and walnut over butternut.
Lots to be said for purpleheart on mahogany as well.
So for the most part, I'm right there with that handful of classic woods.......
Walnut
Poplar
Butternut
Mahogany
Purpleheart
If I could only pick two it would be walnut and Cedar.
I've had a walnut over walnut glued box for many, many years that's truck more birds then anything else I have ever carried. I think walnut ranks way up there on this list.
Interesting topic...
Walnut pots
Hickory strikers for me
Gotta put Purple Heart way up there.
Cedar, mahogany, popular, maple
Snakewood, bloodwood, butternut, black limba, mineral poplar
As far as box calls, purpleheart on cedar and walnut. Also like walnut and cherry on poplar and butternut. I like a zebra wood pot and walnut pots. In a trumpet I like cocobolo and osage. So for domestic woods that would be cedar, poplar, butternut, osage. Exotic purpleheart, cocobolo and zebra.
I'm surprised no one mentioned chestnut
For Box calls:
Honduras Mahogany
Black Walnut
Poplar
For Pot calls:
Claro Walnut
Myrtlewood
Cherry
Just to name a few.
Bill
For long boxes, bloodwood over walnut, short boxes: walnut over walnut or walnut over Honduras mahogany, Richard Hudson's hen boxes: snakewood over teak
Pot calls: walnut
To my ears, walnut is like a fine wine, it just gets better with age.
Lids are maple, walnut, jatoba, and purple heart. Body would be cedar, mahogany, cherry, and sycamore.
I have an all Sycamore short box that does it for me. Also an all Wormy Chestnut short box that breaks a lot of hearts. Made one from all Osage that Lonnie Sneed Sr. said was the best sounding box he ever heard. Great sounding calls can be made from most hardwoods once we dial it in.
I think walnut is like a 30-06. It works on just about everything. I also like cherry and cedar.
Quote from: mossyhorn2 on February 14, 2016, 10:58:42 PM
I think walnut is like a 30-06. It works on just about everything.
Totally agree.
Walnut is my wood of choice for pot calls. Slate or copper on top. I just don't think you can go wrong with walnut.
Walnut is a great wood and a fantastic call but I'm starting to like Black Limba a lot also. For box calls I sure like Snakewood. Walnut or Limba topped with snakewood is a great choice.
I prefer Cedar for troughs, persimmon for pots and purple heart over poplar for box call. Ryan
I got two favorite pot calls. A maple slate and Osage Bronzed glass. I use wormy persimmon, Ebony and Paduck and multi wood laminate strikers I use on both of these pot callers.
As for box calls I have three favorites. The Walnut over Antigue Bald Cypress short box is my top choice. Second is my Maple over Minerial Stained Poplar Short Box. My third is my newest box call. It is a Walnut over Butternut. The Antique Bald Cypress and the Butternut boxes were made from very special wood. The Cypress is from wood from the mid 1800's. And Butternut was harvested back in 1982 in the North Carolina Mountains.
Walnut being my favorite
Walnut
poplar
cedar
purpleheart
cherry
For a scratch box, hard to beat cedar and walnut.
Quote from: mossyhorn2 on February 14, 2016, 10:58:42 PM
I think walnut is like a 30-06. It works on just about everything. I also like cherry and cedar.
X2. Well said.
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Best combo for box IMO ..I like walnut over butternut or Maple over butternut..
Purple Heart over cedar has killed a lot of gobblers for me. But I have to say I have a call that is extremely special. It's $15 hs strut natural cedar over cedar with a plastic sound board. I got it when I was 10 years old. I dropped it on concrete when I was 15 and some of the sound board chipped off on the left side of the box. The stars must have been aligned when it broke, because it has killed more turkeys than anything else I've got since it "broke".
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For the scratch boxes I make.....the black walnut imparts a beautiful, rich, hollow tone, the mahogany is a bit sharper and more rasp. I have tried some spruce for soundboards like what I build my guitars with, but it just doesn't have the right turkey sound to it.
Cedar
Black Walnut
Honduras Mahogany
Black Walnut is my 1st choice for pot calls. I like black walnut also for boxes. I have a beautiful solid red cedar box matched with a black walnut lid made by Melvin Newman.I love using that box where I hunt in New York's tough public lands.
WALNUT !! :z-flirtysmile3: :z-flirtysmile3: :z-flirtysmile3:
Lots of great input...and lots of great woods to choose from but walnut appears in almost every post so far!
I would say walnut, purpleheart, and cherry for me.