First Calls That Started It For Me

[Upfold99]

Do any of you have the calls that started your journey? When I first started as a young teenager, I remember going to Bass Pro Shops in Springfield, MO. This had to be around 1997-1998 or so, to the best of my recollection. I had grown up deer hunting but wanted to try turkey hunting.  I was amazed at the selection and had never been to a Bass Pro. I was from FL and was in Missouri a short time visiting family. I had no idea what I was looking at and didn't have much money.  Only some spending money my parents had given me while out of town with my granddad, who didn't hunt.  Anyway, I left there that day with a few calls and started my turkey obsession that spring. I had very limited turkeys to hunt and pretty much set out on my own.  I think I went 2 years before I heard a gobble.

I knew nothing about custom calls and only mass market name brands, which were similar to the names I recognized deer hunting. I was an avid Saturday morning consumer of TNN outdoors and had a lot of VHS hours under my belt when it was not deer season. Nonetheless, I left that day in the late 1990s with budget friendly calls that started my obsession and amateur call collecting years later. As I began hunting, a buddy or two would tag along, and I gifted nearly each call I had bought as I upgraded in my mind.

Now, almost 30 years later, I thought I would try to repurchase all of those calls I gifted and put the set back together for sentimental reasons only. Like I said, these were not expensive calls.

I recently received the last one in the mail to complete my set. I thought I would share on OG and see if you had any of your original calls.

Along with the calls, I had purchased a vest that I wish I had.  I do not remember the name, but it was Advantage camo and some 3.5" number 5s for my dad's 835 Moss. What a kicking mule that thing was, and oh, how things have changed.

Orginal Calls:

H.S Strurt Owl Hooter (Orginal Purchase)
Primos Power Crow (Orginal Purchase)
Quaker Boy Little One Sider (Orginal Purchase)
Lohman Turkey Tracer
H.S. Strut Push Button Yelper
Knight and Hale Ol' Yeller Black Pot
(The Ol,Yeller was in the original purchase or the following year. The date has slipped me. It was gifted, and this is a repurchase.)

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[roberthyman14]

I still carry the power crow. Havent purchased a custom yet
On top of my gun safe sits the same push button yelper.

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[Turkeybutt]

I started with a Ben Lee diaphragm mouth call where in those days the diaphragm was made of lead. I still wish I had one or two of those old lead calls. If anybody has one and they would like to part with, please let me know. Not to use and take out hunting, but to look at and bring back some memories of days gone by.
A slate call that was made out of an old barn roof shingle sanded down and shaped to fit inside a coffee jar lid.

[GobbleNut]

As I recall, the only one of those companies that even existed when I started turkey hunting back in the mid-1960's was Lohman.     I started out with a scratch box that I think was made by Lohman and then bought a Lohman "Roger Latham" box in the late 1960s (killed my first few gobblers with that call). Somewhere along the line back then I got a Lynch "Jet slate" and a Lynch "World Champion" box.

Bottom line is that there were very few call companies to choose from back in those "old days".  Most of the next generation of "mass-production" call companies after that began in the 70's and 80's, and with the current generation of custom call makers coming along quite a bit later.  Quite honestly, I am a bit shocked at how far turkey call making has come over the decades and the interest it has generated.

I have (or had, at one time) many of the "starter calls" in your collection, plus a couple of drawers-full of others...and I'm not even a call collector.  A guy can collect an awful lot of "turkey stuff" over six decades of doing it.    

[Tail Feathers]

I think I gave my Old Yeller Sla-tec to my grandson.  I still have the Lynch Foolproof that called up my first bird.  I used a Primos True Double call a lot early on but have not used one in many years. 

[Upfold99]

After leaving bass pro that day and arriving at my great uncles house, he handed me a lynch 102. I also gifted that call.  It has since been repurchased.  Lol

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[NCL]

I have the Ol Yeller somewhere in my junk, my HS strut broke. I then got into Cody calls which I still have. There may have been one or two between I just do not remember

[BMAC_Turkeys]

Wendall Lancaster box call, wasnt my first turkey call, but started my craze with custom calls which is now a disease that may kill me.

This craze has also introduced me to some great people in this sport that you dont get to know when buying some bs mass production call.

[3bailey3]

I still have my first pot call, Primos Mike Battey pot! I had a Primos spring hen that I brought when I was 18, lost it about 5 years ago, it was the best push/pull I have ever had and still hunted it 35 years after I brought it! I walked all over the woods for weeks trying to find it!

[Dtrkyman]

I still have a Knight and Hale crow call, all black but the label is worn out so I can not see the model.  I would guess I bought it in 1990.

Still have an HS lil deuce that I called in my first bird with.

[Muzzy61]

Still have and carry the first call I ever owned. The original Quaker Boy Grand Old Master box call.

[Notsoyoungturk]

My first call was a Cherry Woodhaven Box call.  It was replaced with a Bob Harwell Black Walnut on Butternut. That's the call that started the madness.   

[OJR]

I still have my K&H Old Yeller. Been using it for more years than I can count. Still in the rotation.

[Yoder409]

I still have the "junk" tube call I made 45 years ago.

Killed my first turkey using it.  Dragged it back out a couple years ago and killed another one with it.

[Lcmacd 58]

I know my 1st turkey was called up using a knight and hale tube. It was the same tube I called geese with. And the 1st tube I used in my 1st goose calling contest. I didn't do very well that day...1 of the competitors was just starting out also ... Tim Grounds