First Calls That Started It For Me

[Will]

My very first call I bought at a local sporting goods store with grass cutting money when I was 14. Called my first bird in with it.


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[deathfoot]

That HS Strut Push Button tho...that was my very first call I bought. I want to say that was 1992. Then I bought the HS Strut Double Slate over glass. I still have that striker, I still use that striker. Actually, it is the only striker I use lol.

I need to go back to the Hoot Flute because to this day it is the only owl call I've been able to make work. Yea, I don't use an owl hooter because I suck at it.

Great post, loved it.

[misfire]

Just like Will posted above, a Lynch Foolproof 101, I killed my first bird with it and was my favorite call. It is also the call that got me started in making turkey calls. I showed s fellow turkey hunter my call, sat it on the top rail of the bed of my truck and forgot about it. Went to drive off, right slap over that thing. Wasnt enough superglue in the world to put it back together. But I did have a great stash of mahogany at home and proceeded to make my own based off a Neil Cost call longbox. Been uphill ever since

[ejacks10s]

I started out with an HS Strut Power Crow, Quaker Boy World Champ diaphragm, Lynch's Gobble Box, and was fortunate enough to get to hunt a little, but really spend time around some great hunters, including Mike Battey.  He gave me a prototype slate call he had that he was working to make for Primos at the time.  And a couple years later, he gave me a Primos Aluminum call (signed the back).  Those calls are still with me and have been used to call in quite a few birds (though not as many as I'd attempted to lol).  Great memories, as a teenage boy, sitting around the diner table after a morning hunt, listening to "The Ole Timers" talking about their hunts (mostly how the birds made them look like fools...again).  Man I soaked that stuff up like a sponge.  Miss them dearly...

[paboxcall]

I don't know what call it was, exactly, but I remember him holding it and taking time to show me how that slate pot call worked. I was a boy probably 10 or so, attending the local outdoor show when I heard Dick Kirby running that call from across the room. No idea what that sound was, I never heard a turkey yelp before.

Way back then, one had to travel far reaches of the big woods of northern PA to even see a wild turkey.

I met Mr. Kirby as a kid, Dad bought me a 2-reed mouth call to try. I've been fascinated with turkeys ever since.

[mlee3553]

I still have my first pot call a Primos Aluma/Slate, I had the matching box call to the Op's push button, I think I left it in the woods.

[tracker#1]

My first box call is a (1983) Lynch World Champion. I recently rebuilt and tuned it. Lynch Company was beneficial to the project. I killed many birds with it, and now it is in retirement. I am fortunate to live in Quakerboy's backyard and have many of their calls and Dick was a member and contributor to my local sportsmen club. Had many good turkey talk conversations with him. I can tell you he has not been forgotten. I have one of his "penny" calls that he made especially for one of his best hunting friends who is deceased now. I picked it up at an auction and will pass it down to my hunting daughter...

[bbcoach]

Primos Ol Betsy slate started everything for me.  I killed my first bird with this plastic mass-produced call, and it is still the first pot call I reach for every morning.  Cheap but very efficient at bringing birds to the gun barrel.  I would love to get my hands on a Mike Battey and compare the two. 

[Greg Massey]

My first turkey calls were all homemade:

Old snuff can tube calls with condom latex

Small turtle shell with a piece of roofing slate and homemade cedar striker with a corncob top

Gourd call

round piece of cut out wood with a slate glued on top with piece of cedar trimmed with a knife and corncob top.

My first 2 production calls were a Lynch box and Lohman Thunder dome pot call.

My first diaphragm call was from Primos and he came to put on a seminar at our Chapter NWTF banquet.

I still have all of these calls except the gourd call I broke it one day while hunting


Man I'm OLD.....,