Wood for turkey calls

[Crazyfeather]

Hey I've never made any turkey calls before but i got a buddy with a lathe and everything i need to use it i was wondering if anyone has used river birch before to make some pot calls or strikers. I just cut down 4 big river birch trees and saved the wood for em

[yelpy]

Cant hurt to try it.

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[ol bob]

Any wood will make a good turkey call but it has to be dry. air dry is better than kild dry.

[gergg]

Figure at least 1 year to air dry for every inch of thickness, and that is under ideal conditions.

[DerekDixon]

If you want something that will make a decent call to start with that is cheap, use the 1x6 red oak boards you can get from Home Depot. I have been making some with that and have made some calls that have brought some birds in. If you are interested in it i can pm you some specs to get you started.

[KentuckyHeadhunter]

Any wood will make a good turkey call but it has to be dry. air dry is better than kild dry.

Anything from Bob I have to agree with or learn from.  River birch is probably not the best wood but if properly dried it could make a hen sound I reckon.  It depends on the type of call you are making also.   Is the wood being used for a friction surface or a pot body? 

[Pooh4459]

I think if I was going to wait a year or 2 for it to dry I would spend a few bucks on some decent wood blanks. Can get pot call blanks for a few bucks I think

[ferocious calls]

Find a mill close to you. Explain what you want. More than you can use may be considered scrap or they may have air dried stacks to choose from. Also air dried Hardwood firewood can be made into calls.

[Yoder409]

Bunch of good advice already given.

I make friction calls but do not consider myself a "callmaker".  Being the back that I am, I would suggest finding an air dried walnut 1x5 or 1x6 and starting there.  The Home Depot red oak will certainly work.  But I've found good sound easier to get from walnut.  Cherry and hard maple are also good and reasonably easy to get sounding good.  The very first pot I ever made was from a pressure treated 1x6 deck board.  That call could be taken to the woods and used to kill turkeys, no problem.  But it does NOT sound like a walnut call would.

[ferocious calls]

The deals are all around us. We just need to have the word out that we are looking.

Got a call from a nieghbor last week about a walnut tree that had been cut to prevent damage. Another fella had offered 250. 00 for the tree. I went to see the tree and offered 300.00. Just had it milled yesterday into 450+ bf of mostly premium lumber. Mill man said 2k+ of value in it. Total expense was .80 a bf. That's a deal+.

I wait for the opportunity and jump when it comes. With this and what I have accumulated to date, it should last my lifetime.